POLL: Facebook Is Mandatory

Speaking as somebody with a disability I find ridiculous Political Correctness to be a damn sight more offensive than the word retard. Which I use frequently.

I like Facebook because it can actually make stuff happen in real life. Mostly just parties, but still.

Actually, I consider Facebook to be Brilliant Design, mostly because I joined it when I was in college and thus followed the Ideal Usage Path. I started just using it as a directory/phonebook for people I kinda-sorta knew, then started getting all these peripheral benefits without doing anything myself, which reinforced my usage pattern and kept me around long enough to make learning things like photo groups and event posting worthwhile.

But if you're using it as a publicity hub, it probably looks pretty crap. Myspace is cool for that because it's designed to simply keep people thinking about you as much as possible; Facebook's sweet spot hits when you restrict your "friends" list to people you regularly get shitfaced with.

-NF

I really wanted to vote for "Yes, It Is Retarded," but it wouldn't let me combine choices.

Hrmph.

Another convert to the school of "Why choose one?"...

Facebook is pretty cool, but MySpace is like pure, distilled crappiness, but in web site form.

Don't know why I'm using this topic to break my Goats Forum silence after such a long hiatus.

As far as I can tell, Facebook won't let me see any of its functionality, at all, without first creating an account. Whereas on LJ, I can see how everything works first without creating an account, and once I do have an account, I can make public posts, as well as securing posts with complete control on a per-user basis.

What, pray tell, does Facebook have that LJ doesn't? It's entirely possible there is something, but since its implementors in their infinite *cough*stupidity*cough* wisdom, have not offered free samples, I'm not going to give them my contact information just to see whether their site sucks or not.

Facebook won't let you do anything without signing up for one reason: It was originally intended for college students only. That means that you needed a .edu email address, so that they could keep out the riff-raff. (Ya know, like parents, employers, people that generally look down on having pictures of you, your best friend, and a gravity bong between you that's obviously in use)

Facebook has since gone to allowing anyone to sign up, but still makes it so that you need to sign up to get access to it, and still limits it so that unless you're part of a group, such as a specific university, you can't see others that are part of that group other than to say "Yeah, they're here." If you add them as a friend, you can view their info, but not otherwise.

It's a security measure they kind of tried to implement to tone down stalking. Then they went and added the live feed, which makes on campus stalking so much easier.

At least with Facebook the interface is fixed - users don't have the opportunity as with MySpace to use bright colours and flashing .GIFs that look like deliberate attempts to trigger epileptic fits.

I've never known whether it's acceptable or just incredibly sad to sign up famous (OK, 'internet famous') people who you've never spoken to when they appear on these social networking sites. Is it cool? Can I, Jon? Huh? Can I?

Sure, go for it! I am a pretty friendly guy, I require a lot of friendship.

You don't know Jon very well.

It's Phillip that's motivated by beer...