Social networks as “friend” Nazi (design flaws in Facebook, Jaiku, Twitter)

Oh, how I hate when social networking software tries to be my parent.

Jon Udell touches on this in his post about Facebook
: “how do I know this person?”

See, the developers who make this software really want to make it hard for you to add more friends. And what the hell is up with calling everyone a “friend” anyway.

Let’s say I want to add Fred Wilson to my social networking software. He’s NOT my “friend.” At least not how normal people define friends. He’s never been over to my house. We’ve never had a beer or coffee together. In fact I am not sure that I’ve ever met Brad face-to-face. Yet I know quite a bit about Fred from his blog. I know more about Fred than most of my neighbors. Which, admittedly, is weird. But back to the point.

I, like Jon, hate that I have to enter in Facebook how I know Fred. I don’t remember how I met Fred. It was a link from some blogger. I don’t remember who. So, I just put down “met randomly.”

How I met someone is really not the important thing, anyway. It’s what COULD Fred do for me in the future? He’s a VC. So, if my son ever starts a company (I’m too old, remember) then I might want to drop Fred a line and hook them up. But Facebook doesn’t ask me that. It just wants to know how I know Fred. I want to tell Facebook “I don’t really know Fred, but I want to.” It’s enough to make you scream if you really look at this rationally.

While I’m complaining about Facebook let me complain about Facebook’s mobile app. It’s quite sweet, actually, but only when you’re signed on. Now, unlike every other app that’s on my phone it automatically signs you off after a few hours and forces you to sign back in. What’s the problem with that? Well, the mobile app doesn’t save my password so I have to refill in my password. I hate keying passwords on my mobile phone. Dave Winer says that Facebook hasn’t been designed with adults in mind. That certainly is true. How many adults do you know who have learned to type on a phone keyboard (ie, not a Blackberry style thumb keyboard but the regular old style of 1-9, etc.) It’s a major pain in the behind.

Oh, and let’s not just pick on Facebook, shall we?

Jaiku is going to be the hot thing this week. They are shipping a new version and are throwing a big party tomorrow night and all that. I’m sure by Wednesday you’ll see Jaiku on TechMeme.

But, let’s say you add me to your contact list on Jaiku. It sends me an email. I know, for instance, that Leo Laporte has friended me there. But, now, can I see everyone who has added me to their contact list? No. Can I add everyone who has added me to my contact list? No. At least not that I’ve been able to figure out. It’s like they are saying to me “Scoble’s not wanted here because he adds “non friends” to his contact list.” Damn it, stop trying to be my freaking parent. If I want to add 1,000 people into my friends list, please let me! But no these social networks have to control my behavior.

And forget trying to import all your friends from some other social network. No, no, can’t do that! Gotta make it difficult for you to add contacts/friends or whatever you call these.

Twitter doesn’t escape here. With Twitter you have a binary choice. Are you a friend or not? Well, I have different types of friends. Don’t you? There’s my “beer buddies.” “School buddies.” “Business associates.” “People I want to meet for coffee.” “People I’ve had coffee with.” “People I’ve been to an Amsterdam coffee shop with.” Etc. etc. But, no, I can’t tell Twitter anything other than you’re my friend or not. And, since I add everyone who has marked me as a friend in Twitter as a friend too I can’t really block anyone.

So, what do I want? I want a social network that just lets me add contacts. Lets me add them for any reason. Lets me add them wholesale from other social networks. Lets me import them from Outlook. Or Facebook. Or LinkedIn. Or Twitter. Or Jaiku. Or Orkut. Or Gmail. Or wherever. And then lets me manage them on a granular level. Why can’t I add tags to each contact? Tags I pick. Not that are forced on me by some 22-year-old developer who has no idea about what a 42-year-old’s social network looks like.

Let me define different behaviors for each tag. “LOVER” tag might go into one page with a password, for instance, that isn’t publicly available. That way Maryam and I could use a social network to send sweet nothings back and forth (I can’t use any of these networks for THAT kind of social networking). “BUSINESS ASSOCIATE” could have a form that includes why I care about that person, business wise. So I could put Fred Wilson there, add that he’s a VC, add his blog, add his Twitter account, etc.

Anyway, I want to spend more time thinking this through, but I gotta go add a bunch of new Facebook contacts to my profile. Sigh.

Or am I just nuts and these social networks are all properly designed? What do you think?

UPDATE: Dave Winer wants to reboot the social network.

166 thoughts on “Social networks as “friend” Nazi (design flaws in Facebook, Jaiku, Twitter)

  1. Robert: It seems that “Spock” may have some of the extensibility of contact tagging you are looking for, by treating the “how are you related to this person/how do you know them” as a tag, rather than a pre-defined set of choices. I haven’t played with it enough to be sure yet.

    Like

  2. Robert: It seems that “Spock” may have some of the extensibility of contact tagging you are looking for, by treating the “how are you related to this person/how do you know them” as a tag, rather than a pre-defined set of choices. I haven’t played with it enough to be sure yet.

    Like

  3. Facebook intentionally makes it hard to browse people and add contacts. They wanted to keep the site free from robots and fake profiles like MySpace. That’s why so much data is not viewable from the web.
    Spidering Facebook can be a real pain.

    As for adding people without their approval, it would destroy the hierarchy of the FOAF concept as described in the friendster patent.
    http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,069,308.PN.&OS=PN/7,069,308&RS=PN/7,069,308

    If that were allowed it would be a public contact manager and not a social network.
    Most social networking sites will allow you to add people who did not approve you in favorites list.

    Like

  4. Facebook intentionally makes it hard to browse people and add contacts. They wanted to keep the site free from robots and fake profiles like MySpace. That’s why so much data is not viewable from the web.
    Spidering Facebook can be a real pain.

    As for adding people without their approval, it would destroy the hierarchy of the FOAF concept as described in the friendster patent.
    http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,069,308.PN.&OS=PN/7,069,308&RS=PN/7,069,308

    If that were allowed it would be a public contact manager and not a social network.
    Most social networking sites will allow you to add people who did not approve you in favorites list.

    Like

  5. Chris: I know some of the reasons they do it, but it still adds up to bad behavior on their part. The fact it works is a pretty cool hack of human behavior (I’m sure that the person who ends up with 700 contacts in Facebook feels pretty proud of herself cause it took so much work).

    If you could see my Outlook contacts you’d understand that THOSE are far tighter ties than any online social network.

    The fact that you see them as different somehow explains just how bad these networks are. Now we’re justifying THEIR bad designs to ourselves as “FEATURES.” And we don’t even realize it!

    Human beings are funny animals, that’s for sure!

    Like

  6. Chris: I know some of the reasons they do it, but it still adds up to bad behavior on their part. The fact it works is a pretty cool hack of human behavior (I’m sure that the person who ends up with 700 contacts in Facebook feels pretty proud of herself cause it took so much work).

    If you could see my Outlook contacts you’d understand that THOSE are far tighter ties than any online social network.

    The fact that you see them as different somehow explains just how bad these networks are. Now we’re justifying THEIR bad designs to ourselves as “FEATURES.” And we don’t even realize it!

    Human beings are funny animals, that’s for sure!

    Like

  7. GJD: I have 6,000 business cards I’ve collected over the past six years too. And THOSE are really the best social contacts I have. I wish I could scan those into Facebook!

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  8. GJD: I have 6,000 business cards I’ve collected over the past six years too. And THOSE are really the best social contacts I have. I wish I could scan those into Facebook!

    Like

  9. It’s even worse on myspace. At least on Facebook there are categories for what school/company/area a person is affiliated with.
    With myspace the only distinction is whether someone is your friend or not (though everyone is a part of your “extended network”…still haven’t figured out what that’s all about), and you can’t even say how you know a particular person.

    Like

  10. It’s even worse on myspace. At least on Facebook there are categories for what school/company/area a person is affiliated with.
    With myspace the only distinction is whether someone is your friend or not (though everyone is a part of your “extended network”…still haven’t figured out what that’s all about), and you can’t even say how you know a particular person.

    Like

  11. “Now weā€™re justifying THEIR bad designs to ourselves as ā€œFEATURES.ā€”

    Facebook was originally only for students. And to separate themselves from MySpace, they created super tight security in regards to keeping profiles private. To keep the .edu’s not from community college feel like they were joining a respectful webstablishment.

    When they went public, they simply kept the same format regardless of their new audience. It’s not like they’re going to code a whole new framework just for the new people.

    The whole outlook integration you’re looking for wreaks of Microsoft. You should check out spaces.msn.com if you want something that integrates into your MS products suite instead of Facebook, “a 3rd party Windows app”. Kidding, but I’m sure Gates would describe it exactly that way.

    Like

  12. “Now weā€™re justifying THEIR bad designs to ourselves as ā€œFEATURES.ā€”

    Facebook was originally only for students. And to separate themselves from MySpace, they created super tight security in regards to keeping profiles private. To keep the .edu’s not from community college feel like they were joining a respectful webstablishment.

    When they went public, they simply kept the same format regardless of their new audience. It’s not like they’re going to code a whole new framework just for the new people.

    The whole outlook integration you’re looking for wreaks of Microsoft. You should check out spaces.msn.com if you want something that integrates into your MS products suite instead of Facebook, “a 3rd party Windows app”. Kidding, but I’m sure Gates would describe it exactly that way.

    Like

  13. Facebook is already worth a fortune. They don’t have to do anything. They already have the user data and traffic that makes a social networking site worth something.

    If you read Digg recently you would have seen an article on the front page about Micheal Moore supporting the piracy of his own movie(which is already on newsgroups). Why would he do that? He’s already rich and doesn’t worry about it. Facebook could make a windows tray monitor/importer/thingy to work with the Outlook API, but there is no reason for them to do so.

    Like

  14. Facebook is already worth a fortune. They don’t have to do anything. They already have the user data and traffic that makes a social networking site worth something.

    If you read Digg recently you would have seen an article on the front page about Micheal Moore supporting the piracy of his own movie(which is already on newsgroups). Why would he do that? He’s already rich and doesn’t worry about it. Facebook could make a windows tray monitor/importer/thingy to work with the Outlook API, but there is no reason for them to do so.

    Like

  15. Robert, quite correct, and for the record you should remember me from Twitter in those days before Leo Leapt and Left ! No we havent met for a beer, and I havent swapped a corporate lunch with you ( unless you hit Gatwick that is ) but the occasional @scobleizer/@loudmouthman chat on twitter in my mind defines some level of connection.

    Its topical that just last week I had a friend request from person on Facebook whom I had never met, talked to or even shared a dialog of any sort with. They just were a friend of a friend. When I explained my choice for turning him down he was very very cool about it.

    It did lead me to wonder though If I could not somehow segregate those networks into close, distant , work and internet contacts.

    The net is making celebrities without the usual grooming and profiling of the traditional media. Social networks are going to go a long way to help those advertisers find new models on which to define who best represents them.

    The first online social network to integrate friend connections with credibility and value will have the next adwords like product and revenue generator on their hands for sure.

    Like

  16. Robert, quite correct, and for the record you should remember me from Twitter in those days before Leo Leapt and Left ! No we havent met for a beer, and I havent swapped a corporate lunch with you ( unless you hit Gatwick that is ) but the occasional @scobleizer/@loudmouthman chat on twitter in my mind defines some level of connection.

    Its topical that just last week I had a friend request from person on Facebook whom I had never met, talked to or even shared a dialog of any sort with. They just were a friend of a friend. When I explained my choice for turning him down he was very very cool about it.

    It did lead me to wonder though If I could not somehow segregate those networks into close, distant , work and internet contacts.

    The net is making celebrities without the usual grooming and profiling of the traditional media. Social networks are going to go a long way to help those advertisers find new models on which to define who best represents them.

    The first online social network to integrate friend connections with credibility and value will have the next adwords like product and revenue generator on their hands for sure.

    Like

  17. It’s been a while since I added a friend on Facebook, but I don’t remember *having* to enter how I knew them. Could’ve sworn there was a “skip this question” button or similar.

    Like

  18. It’s been a while since I added a friend on Facebook, but I don’t remember *having* to enter how I knew them. Could’ve sworn there was a “skip this question” button or similar.

    Like

  19. “I, like Jon, hate that I have to enter in Facebook how I know Fred. I donā€™t remember how I met Fred. It was a link from some blogger. I donā€™t remember who. So, I just put down ā€œmet randomly.ā€”

    But… you don’t have to fill that info out at all. I rarely do. Look at the buttons at the bottom – I think one is called “Skip this step”. I could be wrong about the text on the button, but there’s definitely an easy way of not filling out that information.

    Like

  20. “I, like Jon, hate that I have to enter in Facebook how I know Fred. I donā€™t remember how I met Fred. It was a link from some blogger. I donā€™t remember who. So, I just put down ā€œmet randomly.ā€”

    But… you don’t have to fill that info out at all. I rarely do. Look at the buttons at the bottom – I think one is called “Skip this step”. I could be wrong about the text on the button, but there’s definitely an easy way of not filling out that information.

    Like

  21. Its really a simple answer, these services are not for you. why should any of them have to ā€œembrace and extendā€ to old people šŸ™‚

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  22. Its really a simple answer, these services are not for you. why should any of them have to ā€œembrace and extendā€ to old people šŸ™‚

    Like

  23. As its been said above, you dont have to add anything.

    But doing so adds another level of intricacy to your network. Click on Friends > Social Timeline to see an example of this.

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  24. They’re clearly privileging a specific kind of relationship – relationships of a social nature between friends and acquaintances. Other relationships don’t really fit, and I doubt they will ever fit. I think one of the things we’ve learned about such social networks is that there is no “one network to rule them all.” Features that are important – critical – for one kind of network would be damaging to others.

    I think it’s clearly a feature, not a bug, that Facebook makes it very difficult – compared to Orkut and some of the older ones as well as LinkedIn – to “find” new friends. I like that. I quit using those other systems because people’s Friends’ lists were worthless – I had NO confidence that person X actually has (or had) a relationship with person Y. They were more like contests to collect people than true reflections of people’s social networks.

    LinkedIn, on the other hand, would be worthless if you couldn’t easily make new connections – but that only works if each person’s contact list is free of chaff. Consequently, they have built a whole system around introductions and finding distant contacts while maintaining the integrity of the network and investing every user in that as well.

    Like

  25. As its been said above, you dont have to add anything.

    But doing so adds another level of intricacy to your network. Click on Friends > Social Timeline to see an example of this.

    Like

  26. They’re clearly privileging a specific kind of relationship – relationships of a social nature between friends and acquaintances. Other relationships don’t really fit, and I doubt they will ever fit. I think one of the things we’ve learned about such social networks is that there is no “one network to rule them all.” Features that are important – critical – for one kind of network would be damaging to others.

    I think it’s clearly a feature, not a bug, that Facebook makes it very difficult – compared to Orkut and some of the older ones as well as LinkedIn – to “find” new friends. I like that. I quit using those other systems because people’s Friends’ lists were worthless – I had NO confidence that person X actually has (or had) a relationship with person Y. They were more like contests to collect people than true reflections of people’s social networks.

    LinkedIn, on the other hand, would be worthless if you couldn’t easily make new connections – but that only works if each person’s contact list is free of chaff. Consequently, they have built a whole system around introductions and finding distant contacts while maintaining the integrity of the network and investing every user in that as well.

    Like

  27. You don’t have to put down how you know/met the person – in fact 90% of people just click skip. Should look into that.

    Like

  28. You don’t have to put down how you know/met the person – in fact 90% of people just click skip. Should look into that.

    Like

  29. d2: if you look at my Facebook contacts (several hundred) you’ll see that almost all of them are “old folks.” In fact my 13-year-old son tried to sign up for Facebook and it wouldn’t let him.

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  30. d2: if you look at my Facebook contacts (several hundred) you’ll see that almost all of them are “old folks.” In fact my 13-year-old son tried to sign up for Facebook and it wouldn’t let him.

    Like

  31. Haha,
    Robert Scoble You crack me up. I love how you openly confess feelings for your wife, rock on. I’m going to start a social network for couples just so I can send sweet nothings to my wife. Nah that’s too much work, I’ll just use email.

    Like

  32. Haha,
    Robert Scoble You crack me up. I love how you openly confess feelings for your wife, rock on. I’m going to start a social network for couples just so I can send sweet nothings to my wife. Nah that’s too much work, I’ll just use email.

    Like

  33. I agree — the how do you know this person clearly reflects FB’s origins. How many business folks do you know who will indicate “We hooked up?” Assuming they actually understand what that means šŸ™‚ The other drawback for business use is that it is difficult to find people if you don’t know their email address. LinkedIn on the other hand, has that down cold, but lacks the social side of things. I wrote about this last week. Like one of your commenters above says, it’s an oppty for a developer, either through FB’s API or from learning from the conversation and developing a new aggregator that does what we want.

    Like

  34. I agree — the how do you know this person clearly reflects FB’s origins. How many business folks do you know who will indicate “We hooked up?” Assuming they actually understand what that means šŸ™‚ The other drawback for business use is that it is difficult to find people if you don’t know their email address. LinkedIn on the other hand, has that down cold, but lacks the social side of things. I wrote about this last week. Like one of your commenters above says, it’s an oppty for a developer, either through FB’s API or from learning from the conversation and developing a new aggregator that does what we want.

    Like

  35. Robert,

    I agree – which is one reason why with my social app, NELA (Never Eat Lunch Alone) we are deliberately not focusing on building yet-another-social-network. Instead we are focusing on tools to help you manage and use your contacts in a richer manner (and not just for individuals – for companies as well).

    Oh and we are working on putting together a solution for that pile of 6000 business cards as well (a for fee service to scan, enter, and even research those contacts resulting in a portable contact list importable into tools such as NELA, but also Outlook or gmail).

    I think it is also really important for social network designers to think about context – and making it visible (and also not making it either/or) – i.e. I have one set of friends to whom I turn to for restaurant recommendations – with some exceptions they are not who I ask for an introduction to a VC or potential client. I know 1000’s of people, the set of people who I would invite to my home for brunch while large, is not at all everyone I know.

    And the set, as Nick Douglas amusing twittered from brunch at my place yesterday, with whom I might be interested romantically is smaller still.

    From an application designer perspective, however, there are some serious complications in tying behaviors to arbitrary tags. I suspect the best case is some checklist of possible actions/access levels – and a mapping of them to your tags. But with some reasonably smart defaults which the majority of people would use (i.e. something like “intimate friends”, “family”, “social friends”, “business contacts”, “public” might be sufficient, perhaps even too many).

    Shannon

    Like

  36. Robert,

    I agree – which is one reason why with my social app, NELA (Never Eat Lunch Alone) we are deliberately not focusing on building yet-another-social-network. Instead we are focusing on tools to help you manage and use your contacts in a richer manner (and not just for individuals – for companies as well).

    Oh and we are working on putting together a solution for that pile of 6000 business cards as well (a for fee service to scan, enter, and even research those contacts resulting in a portable contact list importable into tools such as NELA, but also Outlook or gmail).

    I think it is also really important for social network designers to think about context – and making it visible (and also not making it either/or) – i.e. I have one set of friends to whom I turn to for restaurant recommendations – with some exceptions they are not who I ask for an introduction to a VC or potential client. I know 1000’s of people, the set of people who I would invite to my home for brunch while large, is not at all everyone I know.

    And the set, as Nick Douglas amusing twittered from brunch at my place yesterday, with whom I might be interested romantically is smaller still.

    From an application designer perspective, however, there are some serious complications in tying behaviors to arbitrary tags. I suspect the best case is some checklist of possible actions/access levels – and a mapping of them to your tags. But with some reasonably smart defaults which the majority of people would use (i.e. something like “intimate friends”, “family”, “social friends”, “business contacts”, “public” might be sufficient, perhaps even too many).

    Shannon

    Like

  37. Hi Robert,

    I agree with your comments on Facebook, having gone through this frustrating problem a number of times now when trying to add contacts. It seems that it would not be too difficult for them to tweak it just a little and add one or two questions:

    – Is this person a business contact? (And then just let you add instead of asking where you met them)

    – Did you “meet” this person online? (For Facebook’s marketing info, they might ask where, but I would rather not have to answer that question.)

    I think it’s likely they’ll make these changes eventually, hopefully sooner. BTW, I hope you’ll add me as a “friend” on Facebook, since we have actually met in person now. šŸ™‚

    On Ning, you have the option of creating a private group and having the separate option of adding friends who are not in that specific group (or not). You can create private groups on Facebook, but the whole contact thing needs to be easier, like Ning’s is now.

    Thanks for bringing this to Facebook’s attention.

    Cathryn Hrudicka, Chief Imagination Officer
    Creative Sage

    Like

  38. Hi Robert,

    I agree with your comments on Facebook, having gone through this frustrating problem a number of times now when trying to add contacts. It seems that it would not be too difficult for them to tweak it just a little and add one or two questions:

    – Is this person a business contact? (And then just let you add instead of asking where you met them)

    – Did you “meet” this person online? (For Facebook’s marketing info, they might ask where, but I would rather not have to answer that question.)

    I think it’s likely they’ll make these changes eventually, hopefully sooner. BTW, I hope you’ll add me as a “friend” on Facebook, since we have actually met in person now. šŸ™‚

    On Ning, you have the option of creating a private group and having the separate option of adding friends who are not in that specific group (or not). You can create private groups on Facebook, but the whole contact thing needs to be easier, like Ning’s is now.

    Thanks for bringing this to Facebook’s attention.

    Cathryn Hrudicka, Chief Imagination Officer
    Creative Sage

    Like

  39. “I, like Jon, hate that I have to enter in Facebook how I know Fred.”

    You “have to”?

    How is that? Aren’t you allowed to skip the step where that is asked? I’ve never been forced to define a relationship on Facebook. Is that a difference between the “college” accounts and the other “networks”?

    Like

  40. “I, like Jon, hate that I have to enter in Facebook how I know Fred.”

    You “have to”?

    How is that? Aren’t you allowed to skip the step where that is asked? I’ve never been forced to define a relationship on Facebook. Is that a difference between the “college” accounts and the other “networks”?

    Like

  41. Pete: I was scared of hitting “skip this step.” I thought it might do something nasty like relegate your contact into some sort of limbo or some sort of second-rate status. Or, even worse, I thought it might email you to tell you that I didn’t even think enough of you to tell Facebook how we met.

    Funny that on the mobile app it doesn’t even have this choice. It just asks you to “confirm” when people ask you to add them to your Facebook.

    Like

  42. Pete: I was scared of hitting “skip this step.” I thought it might do something nasty like relegate your contact into some sort of limbo or some sort of second-rate status. Or, even worse, I thought it might email you to tell you that I didn’t even think enough of you to tell Facebook how we met.

    Funny that on the mobile app it doesn’t even have this choice. It just asks you to “confirm” when people ask you to add them to your Facebook.

    Like

  43. I love the tags idea… it has special merit when you have multiple networks of people which overlap like Venn diagrams. It would be ideal to have social networks map more closely to reality…people can and do fit into multiple groups in your life.

    If the feature isn’t there to help you communicate with and build your networks, then what is it really there for?

    Like

  44. I love the tags idea… it has special merit when you have multiple networks of people which overlap like Venn diagrams. It would be ideal to have social networks map more closely to reality…people can and do fit into multiple groups in your life.

    If the feature isn’t there to help you communicate with and build your networks, then what is it really there for?

    Like

  45. Shannon: I hate checklists. They force me to choose something right away which is why Facebook tricked me into thinking something bad would happen by choosing “skip this step.”

    I’d rather just “confirm” or “deny” and then later add tags about each person that I make up. You have no idea what I want to put into my social network about you. For you, for instance, I’d want to use these tags:

    NICE
    PROGRAMMER
    SMART
    RELIABLE
    CONNECTOR
    ENTREPRENEUR
    PHOTOWALKER
    SAN FRANCISCO
    NELA.COM
    THAI
    COMPUTER HISTORY

    Now, how many of those tags mean what you think they mean?

    Like

  46. Shannon: I hate checklists. They force me to choose something right away which is why Facebook tricked me into thinking something bad would happen by choosing “skip this step.”

    I’d rather just “confirm” or “deny” and then later add tags about each person that I make up. You have no idea what I want to put into my social network about you. For you, for instance, I’d want to use these tags:

    NICE
    PROGRAMMER
    SMART
    RELIABLE
    CONNECTOR
    ENTREPRENEUR
    PHOTOWALKER
    SAN FRANCISCO
    NELA.COM
    THAI
    COMPUTER HISTORY

    Now, how many of those tags mean what you think they mean?

    Like

  47. Robert,

    What’s important is that the tags mean what you thing they should mean….

    Presumably, anyone networking through you should either understand enough about you to appreciate the context for your tags, or they should be willing to spend the time to investigate the connection.

    Duncan

    Like

  48. Robert,

    What’s important is that the tags mean what you thing they should mean….

    Presumably, anyone networking through you should either understand enough about you to appreciate the context for your tags, or they should be willing to spend the time to investigate the connection.

    Duncan

    Like

  49. It’s funny: Facebook is spreading in Italy and into the italian blogsphere there is a similar conversation: ie. someone wonders how is it possibile that there is not “we met online” option…
    Managing social networks (i partecipate to Linkedin, Facebook, Ning, Flickr, Neurona, Twitter and others I do not even remember) means two thing: managing your identity and managing your contacts… These are very interesting topics šŸ™‚
    Ciao… Nicola

    Like

  50. It’s funny: Facebook is spreading in Italy and into the italian blogsphere there is a similar conversation: ie. someone wonders how is it possibile that there is not “we met online” option…
    Managing social networks (i partecipate to Linkedin, Facebook, Ning, Flickr, Neurona, Twitter and others I do not even remember) means two thing: managing your identity and managing your contacts… These are very interesting topics šŸ™‚
    Ciao… Nicola

    Like

  51. There used to be Tag clouds all over tagworld in 2005(just like the old Digg). They must have been so unpopular that they took them down. At any rate, that’s why the site WAS called tagworld. Because it was a bunch of tag clouds to view profiles.

    Like

  52. There used to be Tag clouds all over tagworld in 2005(just like the old Digg). They must have been so unpopular that they took them down. At any rate, that’s why the site WAS called tagworld. Because it was a bunch of tag clouds to view profiles.

    Like

  53. IDK, Chris.

    TagWorld is just like every other social network… I think Robert is referring to something more along the lines of “add-and-run”, where people can be within the network without even visiting it.

    In other words, Geni, but for everyone you know.

    Like

  54. IDK, Chris.

    TagWorld is just like every other social network… I think Robert is referring to something more along the lines of “add-and-run”, where people can be within the network without even visiting it.

    In other words, Geni, but for everyone you know.

    Like

  55. As for tags… simply attaching a tag to your contact is pretty useful. TagWorld used tags in a completely different way (I was a member there) that made tagging actually difficult.

    I wanna input my friends e-mail address (or some point of contact) and tag him as “lawyer”. If he doesn’t visit the “service”, no harm done – he’s still “in the grid” šŸ™‚

    Like

  56. As for tags… simply attaching a tag to your contact is pretty useful. TagWorld used tags in a completely different way (I was a member there) that made tagging actually difficult.

    I wanna input my friends e-mail address (or some point of contact) and tag him as “lawyer”. If he doesn’t visit the “service”, no harm done – he’s still “in the grid” šŸ™‚

    Like

  57. Well. I am going to put this idea to the test. I am going to put up an install of FOSS mediawiki where users can create their own wiki, then link them all together as a social network. Using our SiteSpaces code base which is also PHP.

    It should only take a day or so to modify the media wiki code and wire it into a fresh sitespaces install.

    I think it’s a dumb idea, but I’m always willing to make money off of anything.

    What you’re talking about is essentially a personal wiki.

    Like

  58. Well. I am going to put this idea to the test. I am going to put up an install of FOSS mediawiki where users can create their own wiki, then link them all together as a social network. Using our SiteSpaces code base which is also PHP.

    It should only take a day or so to modify the media wiki code and wire it into a fresh sitespaces install.

    I think it’s a dumb idea, but I’m always willing to make money off of anything.

    What you’re talking about is essentially a personal wiki.

    Like

  59. Robert – good post, but I find your use of the term ‘Nazi’ here distressing. It massively diminishes the term from what it is, aka “brutal murderers”, into something else, like “strict people”.

    I know lots of people do this, and yes, I counter as many as I can. The softer the term gets, the easier it gets to forget the atrocities.

    Like

  60. Robert – good post, but I find your use of the term ‘Nazi’ here distressing. It massively diminishes the term from what it is, aka “brutal murderers”, into something else, like “strict people”.

    I know lots of people do this, and yes, I counter as many as I can. The softer the term gets, the easier it gets to forget the atrocities.

    Like

  61. “Dave Winer says that Facebook hasnā€™t been designed with adults in mind. That certainly is true.”

    It certainly hasn’t been designed with college students in mind either. I totally dislike it when that annoying window opens where I need to not only enter how I know that person, but also from where, when etc etc etc…hmmppff! Yes, there is a button that says “Skip This Step”, but I don’t want to click on it either. I am a lazy internet surfer! Zuckerburg, are you reading this?

    There is this new “application” called “Top Friends” or “star friends”..something like that. I got a request today to add that application which enables me to quantify my friendship with someone. 4 stars, 3 stars etc. What if I don’t know what star it is?! Why not be a little innovative and choose planets?

    Another one- Fortune Cookie, Horoscope sharing etc. I think this application sharing madness will drive me insane. In fact, I log in much lesser now because I know that every time I log in, I’ll have to deal with those “add this application” screens.

    Like

  62. “Dave Winer says that Facebook hasnā€™t been designed with adults in mind. That certainly is true.”

    It certainly hasn’t been designed with college students in mind either. I totally dislike it when that annoying window opens where I need to not only enter how I know that person, but also from where, when etc etc etc…hmmppff! Yes, there is a button that says “Skip This Step”, but I don’t want to click on it either. I am a lazy internet surfer! Zuckerburg, are you reading this?

    There is this new “application” called “Top Friends” or “star friends”..something like that. I got a request today to add that application which enables me to quantify my friendship with someone. 4 stars, 3 stars etc. What if I don’t know what star it is?! Why not be a little innovative and choose planets?

    Another one- Fortune Cookie, Horoscope sharing etc. I think this application sharing madness will drive me insane. In fact, I log in much lesser now because I know that every time I log in, I’ll have to deal with those “add this application” screens.

    Like

  63. I’d like to add that one of my biggest frustrations with MySpace is that it fails at its basic communications function. If you have more than a few hundred friends, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find them and send them a message. I recently asked one of my friends (in real life) how he would send me a message through myspace. his response:

    “well, i’d go to a friend’s page i knew we had in common and see if you commented on their page, then message you that way.”

    how ass backwards IS that? Stop trying to cram Fox TV shows down my throat and focus on the basics of what social networking actually is. LET ME NETWORK, SOCIALLY, and chill a bit on trying to be a “media” company

    back to you Scoble, i LOVE your idea of tagging contacts within a social network, not just because it’s distinct from the “how do you know this person” question but because those tags can change and grow over time as your life changes and grows.

    I would tag some people SXSW for the past two years, but this year need to add a Gnomedex tag.

    You should send your complaints to the facebook folken. they’ve listened in the past.

    Like

  64. I’d like to add that one of my biggest frustrations with MySpace is that it fails at its basic communications function. If you have more than a few hundred friends, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find them and send them a message. I recently asked one of my friends (in real life) how he would send me a message through myspace. his response:

    “well, i’d go to a friend’s page i knew we had in common and see if you commented on their page, then message you that way.”

    how ass backwards IS that? Stop trying to cram Fox TV shows down my throat and focus on the basics of what social networking actually is. LET ME NETWORK, SOCIALLY, and chill a bit on trying to be a “media” company

    back to you Scoble, i LOVE your idea of tagging contacts within a social network, not just because it’s distinct from the “how do you know this person” question but because those tags can change and grow over time as your life changes and grows.

    I would tag some people SXSW for the past two years, but this year need to add a Gnomedex tag.

    You should send your complaints to the facebook folken. they’ve listened in the past.

    Like

  65. My idea for the last few months has been that exactly this does happen. Here’s how I see [hope] it happens…

    Facebook acquires LinkedIn and Geni. You now can set whether someone is your family (Geni), a friend (Facebook), or a business associate (LinkedIn). Just now all the options would be via one platform (Facebook, which would integrate the other networking sites). You still have one contact list, but with different contact types. Plus, you get the best features of the other networks (the Flash chart showing your family tree at Geni and the business savvy/networking of LinkedIn) and the social networking superiority of Facebook.

    When you meet Mark, Robert, can you ask him if it’s a possibility?

    Like

  66. My idea for the last few months has been that exactly this does happen. Here’s how I see [hope] it happens…

    Facebook acquires LinkedIn and Geni. You now can set whether someone is your family (Geni), a friend (Facebook), or a business associate (LinkedIn). Just now all the options would be via one platform (Facebook, which would integrate the other networking sites). You still have one contact list, but with different contact types. Plus, you get the best features of the other networks (the Flash chart showing your family tree at Geni and the business savvy/networking of LinkedIn) and the social networking superiority of Facebook.

    When you meet Mark, Robert, can you ask him if it’s a possibility?

    Like

  67. > So, what do I want? I want a social network that just
    > lets me add contacts. Lets me add them for any reason.

    What I would like is a way of defining contacts in my addressbook and then sharing that with the various sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) rather than importing / export N times and trying to keep it all in sync.

    But it seems like Identity is like the Higgs boson of the internet – something we keep searching for but never quite finding.

    Like

  68. > So, what do I want? I want a social network that just
    > lets me add contacts. Lets me add them for any reason.

    What I would like is a way of defining contacts in my addressbook and then sharing that with the various sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) rather than importing / export N times and trying to keep it all in sync.

    But it seems like Identity is like the Higgs boson of the internet – something we keep searching for but never quite finding.

    Like

  69. The problem here is that everyone has different ways of defining their ‘friends’ online. You have 4,000 ‘friends’ here and want to ‘tag’ everyone there? That’s very different behaviour. Your 6,000 business cards? Those are friends? Man, I have bags full that I finally tossed. Anyone worth following up with, we usually followed up with immediately one way or another. That was probably about 1/10th of the cards. The number of people who shove their card under my nose with no follow up is astounding.

    The problem with ‘fixing’ this issue is that it will ‘fix’ it for a handful, but break it for others.

    I agree that Facebook has no options that ever work for me, so I generally choose the random option and type in a story. I find that useful to a degree (I am now at the point that I forget who is who…beyond about 150, I can’t possibly keep track), but, you are right, it doesn’t encompass adult relationships.

    Have you ever seen the Microformat XFN? http://gmpg.org/xfn/

    WordPress uses this for links – and you can use combinations of types of relationships. For instance, Chris (factoryjoe) is:

    friend, met, coworker, co-resident, sweetheart

    It doesn’t say how I met Chris, but it defines my current relationship with him.

    How I met someone is very anecdotal and personal and has endless possibilities…and, you are right, this is where tagging can be very helpful.

    So, if I link to Chris, I can say:

    “a href=”http://www.factoryjoe.com/blog” rel=”friend, met, coworker, co-resident, sweetheart” tag=”designer, citizenagency, factoryjoe, sanfrancisco, talented, barcamp, coworking, microformats, openid, opensource””

    But our actual story is much more complex than that and can never be boiled down to a tag or a drop down. However, for someone I met at a conference, I can tag that person with that conference. If the relationship gets more complex, I may have to remove the conference reference as it becomes meaningless.

    Personally, I agree with Jeremy Toeman regarding the misuse of the Nazi term (remember Godwin’s Law: http://tinyurl.com/6h49c). Perhaps social networks haven’t solved the issue very well. I agree. Personally, I like some of the boundaries these SNs set. I use them for what I use them. LinkedIn does my professional network stuff. Facebook helps me keep in contact with old friends. Twitter is my microblogging tool. I have slightly different networks for all of them and my relationships aren’t all transferable.

    Okay…so what I’ve said in a very long-winded comment is that the solution isn’t simple. There are both positive and negative results from closed social networks. And there are ways in which people have already been discussing these issues for many years that are out there.

    Like

  70. The problem here is that everyone has different ways of defining their ‘friends’ online. You have 4,000 ‘friends’ here and want to ‘tag’ everyone there? That’s very different behaviour. Your 6,000 business cards? Those are friends? Man, I have bags full that I finally tossed. Anyone worth following up with, we usually followed up with immediately one way or another. That was probably about 1/10th of the cards. The number of people who shove their card under my nose with no follow up is astounding.

    The problem with ‘fixing’ this issue is that it will ‘fix’ it for a handful, but break it for others.

    I agree that Facebook has no options that ever work for me, so I generally choose the random option and type in a story. I find that useful to a degree (I am now at the point that I forget who is who…beyond about 150, I can’t possibly keep track), but, you are right, it doesn’t encompass adult relationships.

    Have you ever seen the Microformat XFN? http://gmpg.org/xfn/

    WordPress uses this for links – and you can use combinations of types of relationships. For instance, Chris (factoryjoe) is:

    friend, met, coworker, co-resident, sweetheart

    It doesn’t say how I met Chris, but it defines my current relationship with him.

    How I met someone is very anecdotal and personal and has endless possibilities…and, you are right, this is where tagging can be very helpful.

    So, if I link to Chris, I can say:

    “a href=”http://www.factoryjoe.com/blog” rel=”friend, met, coworker, co-resident, sweetheart” tag=”designer, citizenagency, factoryjoe, sanfrancisco, talented, barcamp, coworking, microformats, openid, opensource””

    But our actual story is much more complex than that and can never be boiled down to a tag or a drop down. However, for someone I met at a conference, I can tag that person with that conference. If the relationship gets more complex, I may have to remove the conference reference as it becomes meaningless.

    Personally, I agree with Jeremy Toeman regarding the misuse of the Nazi term (remember Godwin’s Law: http://tinyurl.com/6h49c). Perhaps social networks haven’t solved the issue very well. I agree. Personally, I like some of the boundaries these SNs set. I use them for what I use them. LinkedIn does my professional network stuff. Facebook helps me keep in contact with old friends. Twitter is my microblogging tool. I have slightly different networks for all of them and my relationships aren’t all transferable.

    Okay…so what I’ve said in a very long-winded comment is that the solution isn’t simple. There are both positive and negative results from closed social networks. And there are ways in which people have already been discussing these issues for many years that are out there.

    Like

  71. I’m a joiner. It’s part of what I do. But I’m getting to the point where it truly is fatigue, filling out yet another profile. Can’t we just agree? This feels like multiple railroad gauges. Doesn’t it? If this were locomotion, which it is not, but it still is the transport of goods and services, we’d have those crazy old railroad days, where everything was screwed by way of multiple gauges.

    BTW, LinkedIN just got made because I tried to blanket invite all the folks from all the other various social networks. They’re the only ones who ‘penalize’ me for trying to load up a bunch of friends.

    Ah, social networks.

    Like

  72. I’m a joiner. It’s part of what I do. But I’m getting to the point where it truly is fatigue, filling out yet another profile. Can’t we just agree? This feels like multiple railroad gauges. Doesn’t it? If this were locomotion, which it is not, but it still is the transport of goods and services, we’d have those crazy old railroad days, where everything was screwed by way of multiple gauges.

    BTW, LinkedIN just got made because I tried to blanket invite all the folks from all the other various social networks. They’re the only ones who ‘penalize’ me for trying to load up a bunch of friends.

    Ah, social networks.

    Like

  73. Yeah I think as several people have mentioned, tagging to me is a very passable and usable solution to the ‘friend for a reason’ dillema. When I make plans on Planypus I have friends who are tagged as “fnd” (friday night dinner) and friends tagged as “sports” or friends tagged as “bloggers” so that when I have events pertaining to any of those subsets, I can simply share my plans with them with one click. Pretty useful.

    I don’t know why twitter hasn’t done this, and in fact this is the limiting factor that prevents me from using twitter as it is intended. Instead I’ve created a private twitter account for my Planypus coworkers so we can twitter in the office, and then I have another public twitter account. If twitter supported tags it would give me a quick and dirty way to twitter to a particular group of people (it could still default to public giving me the same functionality)

    Like

  74. Yeah I think as several people have mentioned, tagging to me is a very passable and usable solution to the ‘friend for a reason’ dillema. When I make plans on Planypus I have friends who are tagged as “fnd” (friday night dinner) and friends tagged as “sports” or friends tagged as “bloggers” so that when I have events pertaining to any of those subsets, I can simply share my plans with them with one click. Pretty useful.

    I don’t know why twitter hasn’t done this, and in fact this is the limiting factor that prevents me from using twitter as it is intended. Instead I’ve created a private twitter account for my Planypus coworkers so we can twitter in the office, and then I have another public twitter account. If twitter supported tags it would give me a quick and dirty way to twitter to a particular group of people (it could still default to public giving me the same functionality)

    Like

  75. The “how you know someone” feature of Facebook is highly optional – you can easily skip it and I think that at least half of Facebook’s user base does.

    Like

  76. The “how you know someone” feature of Facebook is highly optional – you can easily skip it and I think that at least half of Facebook’s user base does.

    Like

  77. Pingback: Gary J Day
  78. I could add simple tagging to our social networking software and it wouldn’t change anything. It would be like TagWorld. People don’t visit social networks for features.
    I took out a domain, malliki.com. As soon as the rest of our server gets here and I put it in the datacenter I’ll make it live. But even with a cross between wikipedia and friendster, something that’s new and pointless. I don’t see people going to it.

    If Scoble gave me either the best social networking software on earth or 5 real well known celebrity profiles including Paris Hilton. As somebody who wants to make money off of it, I would take the celebrities in a second. Ordinary people do not give a crap about the software.

    Like

  79. I could add simple tagging to our social networking software and it wouldn’t change anything. It would be like TagWorld. People don’t visit social networks for features.
    I took out a domain, malliki.com. As soon as the rest of our server gets here and I put it in the datacenter I’ll make it live. But even with a cross between wikipedia and friendster, something that’s new and pointless. I don’t see people going to it.

    If Scoble gave me either the best social networking software on earth or 5 real well known celebrity profiles including Paris Hilton. As somebody who wants to make money off of it, I would take the celebrities in a second. Ordinary people do not give a crap about the software.

    Like

  80. While everybody is moaning that e-mail is dying, social network messaging is thriving, yet it’s nearly identical to e-mail. Why is it doing so well, but e-mail isn’t?

    Because social network messaging is a multi-degreed form of communication and it’s easy to access contacts (most of the time). The problem is that social network messaging can’t scale because it’s a closed network. How useful would Gmail be if you could only communicate with people on the Gmail domain?

    Chris is right – people don’t visit for features, they visit for communication. Why not take the Google approach of less is more? Stick to communication. Kill the profiles, use open protocols, make it easy to find needed contacts, and make the system opt-out versus opt-in.

    Like

  81. While everybody is moaning that e-mail is dying, social network messaging is thriving, yet it’s nearly identical to e-mail. Why is it doing so well, but e-mail isn’t?

    Because social network messaging is a multi-degreed form of communication and it’s easy to access contacts (most of the time). The problem is that social network messaging can’t scale because it’s a closed network. How useful would Gmail be if you could only communicate with people on the Gmail domain?

    Chris is right – people don’t visit for features, they visit for communication. Why not take the Google approach of less is more? Stick to communication. Kill the profiles, use open protocols, make it easy to find needed contacts, and make the system opt-out versus opt-in.

    Like

  82. Chris, why wouldn’t people go for it? First, if their friends use it, then they use it. Period. Doesn’t matter. That’s like me putting you in my address book – there isn’t anything you can do about it.

    I would say Plaxo is pretty successful with over 18 million users. Who would have thought that keeping your contact information up-to-date was so “sexy”. As far as I’m concerned, Plaxo is “address book 1.0”. We need “address book 2.0” that takes e-mail past the first-degree medium that it is.

    Like

  83. Chris, why wouldn’t people go for it? First, if their friends use it, then they use it. Period. Doesn’t matter. That’s like me putting you in my address book – there isn’t anything you can do about it.

    I would say Plaxo is pretty successful with over 18 million users. Who would have thought that keeping your contact information up-to-date was so “sexy”. As far as I’m concerned, Plaxo is “address book 1.0”. We need “address book 2.0” that takes e-mail past the first-degree medium that it is.

    Like

  84. Amyloo: a lot of it is, yes. You should look at LinkedIn. It’s the ultimate of this kind of behavior. “How do I use XXX to get my resume in front of YYY.”

    Like

  85. Amyloo: a lot of it is, yes. You should look at LinkedIn. It’s the ultimate of this kind of behavior. “How do I use XXX to get my resume in front of YYY.”

    Like

  86. Scott: want to go to Amsterdam? Then you’ll be able to see just what happens. Some things will never get discussed online and are meant just for Face-to-Face meetings. šŸ™‚

    Like

  87. Scott: want to go to Amsterdam? Then you’ll be able to see just what happens. Some things will never get discussed online and are meant just for Face-to-Face meetings. šŸ™‚

    Like

  88. “Kill the profiles, use open protocols, make it easy to find needed contacts, and make the system opt-out versus opt-in.”

    I’m reposting this link so you can read it well.
    http://freemyspace.com/history.htm

    I’ve met some of the people behind these sites. They are not interested in rfc standards ect… They are not interested in the same goals as google.
    http://collect.myspace.com/misc/news.html

    MySpace built up their membership not only by getting celebs, copying friendster ect.. But they had parties, physical parties in LA, and other places. Then they went and advertised on comcast channels.

    Most of the people involved in Social networking are not interested in the technical details. Their programmers are not the best programmers because it’s not something that you can say is an accomplishment really. No offense to Duc, he did a great job with the ugly mess that is cold fusion.

    To understand why the sites are the way they are, you kind of have to have met some of the people or at least talked to them. They’re not the Kevin Rose type for the most part. They’re the Kevin Pereira type.

    Like

  89. “Kill the profiles, use open protocols, make it easy to find needed contacts, and make the system opt-out versus opt-in.”

    I’m reposting this link so you can read it well.
    http://freemyspace.com/history.htm

    I’ve met some of the people behind these sites. They are not interested in rfc standards ect… They are not interested in the same goals as google.
    http://collect.myspace.com/misc/news.html

    MySpace built up their membership not only by getting celebs, copying friendster ect.. But they had parties, physical parties in LA, and other places. Then they went and advertised on comcast channels.

    Most of the people involved in Social networking are not interested in the technical details. Their programmers are not the best programmers because it’s not something that you can say is an accomplishment really. No offense to Duc, he did a great job with the ugly mess that is cold fusion.

    To understand why the sites are the way they are, you kind of have to have met some of the people or at least talked to them. They’re not the Kevin Rose type for the most part. They’re the Kevin Pereira type.

    Like

  90. It’s all about situational relevance — you need to manage a large pool of professional contacts. I just want to keep in touch with my high school friends. Facebook doesn’t need to support both of us, it’s probably better that they don’t. At the same time, if there isn’t a site out there that meets your needs then there’s a business opportunity.

    Of course, there’s the problem that my high school friends keep hopping networks, and I keep having to add them again and again. That’s a real problem, and while I appreciate the ability to import my Gmail contacts into Facebook it isn’t quite the same thing as importing my MySpace contacts.

    Anyways, my point is that every SNS site has to choose: How will they model relationships? Will they try to support small networks or large networks? Will they encourage people to meet strangers or help people track down people they already know? Each of those decisions has implications in how the system can be used. Facebook made their decisions — of course they might change their mind someday — and those decisions lead to a system which might not work the way you want.

    Honestly, it would suck if every SNS site worked the same way.

    Like

  91. It’s all about situational relevance — you need to manage a large pool of professional contacts. I just want to keep in touch with my high school friends. Facebook doesn’t need to support both of us, it’s probably better that they don’t. At the same time, if there isn’t a site out there that meets your needs then there’s a business opportunity.

    Of course, there’s the problem that my high school friends keep hopping networks, and I keep having to add them again and again. That’s a real problem, and while I appreciate the ability to import my Gmail contacts into Facebook it isn’t quite the same thing as importing my MySpace contacts.

    Anyways, my point is that every SNS site has to choose: How will they model relationships? Will they try to support small networks or large networks? Will they encourage people to meet strangers or help people track down people they already know? Each of those decisions has implications in how the system can be used. Facebook made their decisions — of course they might change their mind someday — and those decisions lead to a system which might not work the way you want.

    Honestly, it would suck if every SNS site worked the same way.

    Like

  92. No arguments here on your desires and issues with the friends bit. A search would be great that worked on all the networks as well.

    On the N95, you can actually save login details. I’ve found it always works for username – though not always for password. If you’ve saved the info, the way to call back your entry is by entering the first character and then pressing down, which will show your name. You can select it and then your form info will fill.

    Like

  93. No arguments here on your desires and issues with the friends bit. A search would be great that worked on all the networks as well.

    On the N95, you can actually save login details. I’ve found it always works for username – though not always for password. If you’ve saved the info, the way to call back your entry is by entering the first character and then pressing down, which will show your name. You can select it and then your form info will fill.

    Like

  94. You know, I’ve been writing to Facebook support regarding the constant signing in, and they suggested I “…try clearing your mobileā€™s cache and cookies,
    then try logging into m.facebook.com.”

    It did help. Once. It’s most frustrating.

    Like

  95. You know, I’ve been writing to Facebook support regarding the constant signing in, and they suggested I “…try clearing your mobileā€™s cache and cookies,
    then try logging into m.facebook.com.”

    It did help. Once. It’s most frustrating.

    Like

  96. People go apeshit about the feds being able to find out what book they checked out from the library but they’ll freely populate a database with who all their friends are.

    The line in the silicon stops a little short of that for me.

    Like

  97. People go apeshit about the feds being able to find out what book they checked out from the library but they’ll freely populate a database with who all their friends are.

    The line in the silicon stops a little short of that for me.

    Like

  98. hi scoble,

    never thought a phone call to u will lead to such a post

    i really like you a lot

    site name -RajaRishi.com where you the user rules us

    gender-Anonymous,Man,Woman,gal,boy,couple,friends,group,gay,bi,lesbian,money lender,money seeker,govt official,any of above,dont wish to say

    minimum age needed -1

    registration starts at -1900

    extensions currently allowed as pics -gif,jpg,jpeg,png,flv,fla,mpg,mp3

    the only restriction that i have used is that u have to verify your email address at registration login_this is to ensure the safety of the site and to protect users and me>the owner and the website host

    Like

  99. hi scoble,

    never thought a phone call to u will lead to such a post

    i really like you a lot

    site name -RajaRishi.com where you the user rules us

    gender-Anonymous,Man,Woman,gal,boy,couple,friends,group,gay,bi,lesbian,money lender,money seeker,govt official,any of above,dont wish to say

    minimum age needed -1

    registration starts at -1900

    extensions currently allowed as pics -gif,jpg,jpeg,png,flv,fla,mpg,mp3

    the only restriction that i have used is that u have to verify your email address at registration login_this is to ensure the safety of the site and to protect users and me>the owner and the website host

    Like

  100. contd
    ————–
    this uses -php izabi – a open source social networking using php mysql script and runs on linux and any Linux apache php mysql(lamp) and any server using php mysql like iis etc -users of my site can contribute code by sending code to me _raja_at_rajarishi.com or by contributing to the code base at http://www.phpizabi.net

    it has been downloaded
    ———
    90,802 downloads totally that is
    133.7 downloads per day

    features that this script and which my website currently has

    New Features
    * Random members gender selection
    * Saved searches
    Generic Features
    * Smileys support
    * Multilanguage support
    * Registration captcha
    * Mass mail support
    * Pictures cropping / proportions
    * Tell a friend
    * Invite a friend
    * Search and advanced search
    * Search by geographic distance
    * Contact us system
    * Bookmark link
    * Privacy and terms of use
    * Match search based on profile
    * Online / Offline status
    * Activity notification
    * Customizable genders
    Users and Profiles
    * Customizable profile data
    * Customizable questionnaires
    * Email address confirmation
    * Automatic / Manual approval
    * Unique address check
    * Online status
    * Personal Gallery
    * Personal Blog
    * User settings panel
    * Ignore / Block users
    * New contacts notification
    * New mails notification
    * Favorite blogs
    * Recent profile views
    * Contacts list
    * Contacts categorization
    * Contacts management
    * Newsletter
    * Horoscope
    * Last login
    * Profile / pictures rating
    * Profile views
    * Private photo gallery
    * Nudges (kisses, slaps, …)
    * Users comments
    * Events calendar
    * Personal events
    * Saved searches
    Communication
    * Blogs
    * Internal messages system
    * Pages (notifications)
    * Forums (inkspot)
    * Chatrooms
    * Files sharing

    script recommended by jessu@mail2.

    so heres to anonymity

    3 cheers to the new way to socialize -dont wish to say my name

    Like

  101. contd
    ————–
    this uses -php izabi – a open source social networking using php mysql script and runs on linux and any Linux apache php mysql(lamp) and any server using php mysql like iis etc -users of my site can contribute code by sending code to me _raja_at_rajarishi.com or by contributing to the code base at http://www.phpizabi.net

    it has been downloaded
    ———
    90,802 downloads totally that is
    133.7 downloads per day

    features that this script and which my website currently has

    New Features
    * Random members gender selection
    * Saved searches
    Generic Features
    * Smileys support
    * Multilanguage support
    * Registration captcha
    * Mass mail support
    * Pictures cropping / proportions
    * Tell a friend
    * Invite a friend
    * Search and advanced search
    * Search by geographic distance
    * Contact us system
    * Bookmark link
    * Privacy and terms of use
    * Match search based on profile
    * Online / Offline status
    * Activity notification
    * Customizable genders
    Users and Profiles
    * Customizable profile data
    * Customizable questionnaires
    * Email address confirmation
    * Automatic / Manual approval
    * Unique address check
    * Online status
    * Personal Gallery
    * Personal Blog
    * User settings panel
    * Ignore / Block users
    * New contacts notification
    * New mails notification
    * Favorite blogs
    * Recent profile views
    * Contacts list
    * Contacts categorization
    * Contacts management
    * Newsletter
    * Horoscope
    * Last login
    * Profile / pictures rating
    * Profile views
    * Private photo gallery
    * Nudges (kisses, slaps, …)
    * Users comments
    * Events calendar
    * Personal events
    * Saved searches
    Communication
    * Blogs
    * Internal messages system
    * Pages (notifications)
    * Forums (inkspot)
    * Chatrooms
    * Files sharing

    script recommended by jessu@mail2.

    so heres to anonymity

    3 cheers to the new way to socialize -dont wish to say my name

    Like

  102. Robert,

    Exactly. By checklist I meant in terms of defining the actions related to a tag – that’s the biggest piece from a programming perspective – but you are right, the specific tags will be unique to each person (but I would still suggest that rather than a blank slate the network suggest a few standard types for people to start with if they don’t want to go through the effort of customizing – i.e. you might then “clone” the privacy rules for “family” for the tag “cafesinAmsterdam”

    Shannon

    Like

  103. Robert,

    Exactly. By checklist I meant in terms of defining the actions related to a tag – that’s the biggest piece from a programming perspective – but you are right, the specific tags will be unique to each person (but I would still suggest that rather than a blank slate the network suggest a few standard types for people to start with if they don’t want to go through the effort of customizing – i.e. you might then “clone” the privacy rules for “family” for the tag “cafesinAmsterdam”

    Shannon

    Like

  104. Robert, thanks for picking on Jaiku as well šŸ™‚

    Your comment on not being able to see the people who have friended with you is a valid one and the feature is already on our roadmap. If you want to invite your existing contacts, check out http://jaiku.com/contacts/invite. It is still limited in terms of services you can import from, but getting more complete.

    Regarding the ability to make a difference between types of friends (“school buddies”, “colleagues”, …), we’ll soon introduce new channel functionality, which should take away part of the pain here. In addition, I’ve been selling the idea of people tagging for our team for some time, but let’s see what happens there. I’d love to hear about your ideas of how the tags could be leveraged?

    See you later today!

    Like

  105. Robert, thanks for picking on Jaiku as well šŸ™‚

    Your comment on not being able to see the people who have friended with you is a valid one and the feature is already on our roadmap. If you want to invite your existing contacts, check out http://jaiku.com/contacts/invite. It is still limited in terms of services you can import from, but getting more complete.

    Regarding the ability to make a difference between types of friends (“school buddies”, “colleagues”, …), we’ll soon introduce new channel functionality, which should take away part of the pain here. In addition, I’ve been selling the idea of people tagging for our team for some time, but let’s see what happens there. I’d love to hear about your ideas of how the tags could be leveraged?

    See you later today!

    Like

  106. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120131288334
    Well, in retrospect I guess social networking isn’t so bad. šŸ™‚
    You gotta love the internet!

    BTW, My PSP also sold for 1/3 more than what the Microplay here wanted to give me for it.
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120130279585

    Maybe the Scoble Wiki/Friendster Frankenstein will work after all. The new server should be here in a couple days so I can drive it down to the DC and find the hell out.

    Like

  107. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120131288334
    Well, in retrospect I guess social networking isn’t so bad. šŸ™‚
    You gotta love the internet!

    BTW, My PSP also sold for 1/3 more than what the Microplay here wanted to give me for it.
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120130279585

    Maybe the Scoble Wiki/Friendster Frankenstein will work after all. The new server should be here in a couple days so I can drive it down to the DC and find the hell out.

    Like

  108. Even worse in most online apps/Web 2.0 products I have worked with (and I’ve tried dozens, especially in the video hosting arena) is that they pay no attention to critical details like the login.

    I am now forced to abandon Twitter because I tried to reset the password Monday (couldn’t remember it, and needed it to try their Facebook widget), tried the reset function several times, and it just plain doesn’t work. The form doesn’t even align properly on the page when reloaded after a failure.

    Emails to Twitter support, both via the form and direct email, have gone unanswered. Pity. I really liked Twitter, and have a lot of friends there. Now I’ll have to see whether their competition does any better at handling the basics.

    Like

  109. Even worse in most online apps/Web 2.0 products I have worked with (and I’ve tried dozens, especially in the video hosting arena) is that they pay no attention to critical details like the login.

    I am now forced to abandon Twitter because I tried to reset the password Monday (couldn’t remember it, and needed it to try their Facebook widget), tried the reset function several times, and it just plain doesn’t work. The form doesn’t even align properly on the page when reloaded after a failure.

    Emails to Twitter support, both via the form and direct email, have gone unanswered. Pity. I really liked Twitter, and have a lot of friends there. Now I’ll have to see whether their competition does any better at handling the basics.

    Like

  110. I think OpenID could be a technology that would ease your woes regarding not having a portable identity / address book […] The momentum of OpenID and fact that Facebook is working with Open Source companies like Six Apart certainly makes it plausible we could see Facebook support OpenID in the future. […]

    Like

  111. I think OpenID could be a technology that would ease your woes regarding not having a portable identity / address book […] The momentum of OpenID and fact that Facebook is working with Open Source companies like Six Apart certainly makes it plausible we could see Facebook support OpenID in the future. […]

    Like

  112. You have it right on with this post.

    The “Network NAzi” syndrome is alive and well

    oh dan I will end up on the twitter blacklist for that one

    Like

  113. You have it right on with this post.

    The “Network NAzi” syndrome is alive and well

    oh dan I will end up on the twitter blacklist for that one

    Like

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