Social Networking and it's upcoming twist

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » June 29, 2011, 6:49 pm

News Corp. sold off MySpace $35 Million after buying it for $580 million six years ago... Google launches Google+ to compete with Facebook... Things are about to get really interesting for social networking over the next year imo.

Thoughts?

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » June 29, 2011, 8:05 pm

None of my male friends ever post on Facebook and my female friends never shut the fuck up. Therefore, I conclude that future social networking needs to appeal primarily to females in order to dominate the market.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » June 29, 2011, 9:09 pm

I like Facebook for the most part. I am not good at calling people, so it makes it easy to let folks know what's what. I also like to post pictures of my fat cock.

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Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » June 30, 2011, 1:53 am

FB is good for events and messages. I don't let anybody look at my pictures or post on my wall, though. The internet never forgets.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 30, 2011, 10:27 am

Canelek wrote:I like Facebook for the most part. I am not good at calling people, so it makes it easy to let folks know what's what. I also like to post pictures of my fat cock.

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What a coincidence! I post pics of my sister's fat pussy!

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I mostly use Facebook for communicating with old friends and family that don't live nearby. I felt that MySpace failed when it became nothing but a jukebox.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » June 30, 2011, 11:18 am

I use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends where I grew up, but that's about it.

In my opinion the true social network phenomenon is Twitter. I could see Facebook phasing out if Google+ does things right and keeps it simple. The opportunity to delete your Facebook account and start over with something new in Google+ will appeal to a lot of people. They won't make the same mistakes they made on their Facebook page. Twitter won't be going anywhere though for a long time. It's become a standard at which people get their news and information.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 30, 2011, 11:24 am

Twitter is for people with ADD

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » June 30, 2011, 12:03 pm

Boogahz wrote:Twitter is for people with ADD

That is why NFL playahs heart it so much. #retards

I've actually never used it. Seems...excessive.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » June 30, 2011, 12:31 pm

I like Facebook, I wouldn't be against trying something similar with Google, but I haven't done anything on Facebook I need to escape, mainly because I don't give a shit.

Twitter seems stupid to me, it's like Facebook minus all the worthwhile parts (not that I can say that confidently, I've never used it or even seen what the site looks like). People post too much shit on Facebook as it is, but at least there are pictures/events and that sort of shit to balance it out (for me anyhow).

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » June 30, 2011, 12:44 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Twitter seems stupid to me, it's like Facebook minus all the worthwhile parts (not that I can say that confidently, I've never used it or even seen what the site looks like). People post too much shit on Facebook as it is, but at least there are pictures/events and that sort of shit to balance it out (for me anyhow).

This is the common misconception. I used to believe that same thing until, of all people, my mother showed it to me and how she used it. She only followed news, politics, and music artists really. There is nothing quite like being anywhere and checking your twitter feed, via android or iOS through amazing apps, to see what is happening right now in the world. I spent one night one just following tweets under #yemen and #libya because I couldn't look away. They were tweeting where guard stations were, where Gaddafi was, and who has been injured while informing where they should be taken. The other day I was following tweets from someone inside the Hotel bombing in Kabul.

My personal belief is that if you use Twitter as a source for news and information, then you are using it correctly. Facebook is more for the socializing aspect and keeping up with friends in my opinion, while Twitter is the biggest news network on Earth.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » June 30, 2011, 2:03 pm

See, that doesn't interest me. I am very selective about when/what I want to read about pertaining to any form of news, and would really not use it for that. The idea of seeing what some musicians I like were saying on theirs seemed cool until I saw some of the shit re-posted in other places and I realized it was just more facebook with bigger egos. Just not for me.

And to clarify, I still maintain that (for me) it's Facebook without the good parts. The little blurps of crap about whatever (news, someone, whatever) interest me the least out of any of it, cause it's usually bullshit. The interesting stuff for me is pictures/keeping in touch with people I care about. I'll cherry pick the rest of what I want elsewhere.

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » June 30, 2011, 2:15 pm

My wife started a FB account for me, mostly as a means of keeping in touch with family, posting pics of our little guy, etc. I use it to keep track of some old friends too, but as mentioned earlier, more women than guys seem to use it. Twitter, I just don't get the need: I don't care that NFLer_X had to go to the john while at a UFC fight or some shit.

Now in terms of Google getting into it, you knew it had to be coming: the advertising dollars are huge so if they can cash in they will.

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » June 30, 2011, 2:31 pm

I have a Facebook account that I created not long after our daughter was born just to share pics and information with family and friends. Since then, I've reconnected with some old friends with whom I'd lost contact over the years, which was kind of cool. Otherwise, I'm kind of meh about FB. I use Twitter in the same manner described by Gonzoie. I hardly tweet or retweet anything at all - less than 30 in 4 years. To me, it's like an RSS feed that aggregates news/info links from the sources I follow. When the Alabama got hit with tornadoes in April, Twitter via my phone was my primary source of news & info while our power and Internet service was disrupted for several days. Following the relevant #hashtags provided some really unique and compelling views inside the uprisings in the middle east this spring, the coup in Honduras in 2009 or the protests earlier this year in Wisconsin.

I'm becoming rather fond of tumblr lately.

miir · Post by **miir** » June 30, 2011, 2:35 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Twitter seems stupid to me, it's like Facebook minus all the worthwhile parts (not that I can say that confidently, I've never used it or even seen what the site looks like).

I follow mostly producers, artists and DJs on Twitter.
It's a great way to keep up to date on who is working on what, where they are performing, and what releases are coming up.

A few months back an artist I follow released a track that I thought was excellent but the vocals on it were pretty awful. I tweeted the artist and the label about releasing a instrumental or dub. They tweeted me back 6 days later to let me know an instrumental version was now available on Beatport.

I used to think that Twitter was completely pointless until I started using it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2011, 2:47 pm

hate myspace, facebook and twitter. Always have. I called out mySpace as being retarded on this forum early on.

twitter seems the most retarded of the bunch, followed by mySpace and then facebook. They all seem like a colossal waste of time and inefficient. Who the fuck cares about 99% of the shit people tweet about in their daily lives? The important shit can be had via rss feeds without stupid crap about someone taking their dog to the vet or having a tummy ache after lunch.

Keeping in contact with friends and family works best on SMS or using an IM app like Yahoo, AIM, MSN, Google chat, etc. I don't want to hear about your grandmother who doesn't know how to use those.

If you want news, get a good rss reader for your iphone. I recommend Newsrack $4.99 for the iPhone and Zite (free) for the iPad. Both have the twitter gayness integrated if you must have that but the area they shine in is proving news in an easy to access/update format.

Newsrack is the less special of the two. It's an excellent rss reader but you can find others for your iPhone cheaper or even free. I've tried all the most popular and chose this one though. Zite gets my official bad-ass recommendation. There are a lot of apps that try to create a newspaper for you on the iPad using rss feeds...some popular ones being Flipboard, Pulse, and Pulp. Zite integrates everything so smoothly and updates in the background so well. It is the only app that doesn't make me feel like the images and layout where thrown together just for the sake of making it look like a newspaper.

Zite is free and definitely worth trying out. I skipped over the twitter and google reader login options at the start (but those might be good for others) and just picked a few topics and let Zite create the paper for me. You can also search for additional topics that interest you. It's all on the Fly, updating quickly and even if you leave the app open. It aggregates all of your topics into the headlines section and also allows you to choose sections to read specifically for easy filtering. Zite allows you to select "give me more about..." which lists the main topics for the story you're reading, allowing Zite to bring up more articles and fine tune your future experience with the app. You can also thumb up or down an article for fine tuning, and of course email instapaper, facebook, tweet, whatever, each article you read. I tend not to touch any of the shit as Zite does a very good job of creating your personalized eNewspaper from the feeds you choose.

Also, for pc based browsing, Firefox's Livefeeds are great. Drag a feed to your toolbar and you can get your news headlines without having to open another tab.

miir · Post by **miir** » June 30, 2011, 3:05 pm

Who the fuck cares about 99% of the shit people tweet about in their daily lives? The important shit can be had via rss feeds without stupid crap about someone taking their dog to the vet or having a tummy ache after lunch.

Nobody follows people who tweet waste-of-time shit like that.
You should actually try Twitter before making idiotic statements like this.

If you want news, get a good rss reader for your iphone

A lot of people prefer to get their news from sources other than commercial news outlets.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » June 30, 2011, 3:06 pm

I AM VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO READ THEREFORE TWITTER IS BAD

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » June 30, 2011, 3:14 pm

This perception that twitter is nothing but "hey look what I'm doing right now" tweets from randomites is misplaced and outdated. That perception simply doesn't reflect the way that twitter is actually used today. Certainly, that was the original thought behind the service, but the way it's used quickly evolved away from that because - as its detractors are fond of pointing out - that's just a dumb thing to do. The organic manner in which hashtags for events and issues spring up cannot be replaced by RSS feeds, google searches or news aggregators. Actual "man on the street" commentary, images, video, etc. - in real time - from civil uprisings, protests, disasters or other significant events (e.g. #egypt #wisconsin #tuscaloosa, #japan) are truly extraordinary. Add to this the feeds of journalists, videographers, news services, bloggers and I just don't think it compares with some of the options championed by Winnow.

All of this is not to say that there's no useless drivel from random tweeters out there, but you really only are exposed to it if you choose to be by following spewers of inane trivia.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » June 30, 2011, 3:21 pm

Aardor wrote:I AM VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO READ THEREFORE TWITTER IS BAD

Didn't say it's bad, just said it's useless for me, and I don't believe I'm alone there.

A lot of the stuff folks have mentioned here might be useful if that's what you're looking for, but I just don't care for it.

miir · Post by **miir** » June 30, 2011, 3:24 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:A lot of the stuff folks have mentioned here might be useful if that's what you're looking for, but I just don't care for it.

Have you even used Twitter or are you basing your opinions on what other people who have never used Twitter say about it?

I really don't care if you use it or not but judging from your comments you really seem to have no idea about how Twitter is used.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » June 30, 2011, 3:28 pm

miir wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:A lot of the stuff folks have mentioned here might be useful if that's what you're looking for, but I just don't care for it.
Have you even used Twitter or are you basing your opinions on what other people who have never used Twitter say about it?

Never used it.. Like I said, I don't have any interest in reading any form of news about anything on a regular basis, there are no agencies/groups/causes that I care to hear info from, there are no people I care to hear any more from than I already do on Facebook, and I certainly don't care to hear more from musicians/etc than I already do. I mainly use Facebook to look at pictures of people/their vacations, to trash talk back and forth with a few of my buddies, and the uncommon interaction with other people.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » June 30, 2011, 4:03 pm

Using my super-sleuth powers of observation, I have surmised that some people like Facebook. Some people like Twitter. Some even like both.

Other people do not like Twitter while enjoying Facebook. Few other hate them all and prefer social commentary via Archie comics.

There are even some who care not, whether they have posted here or opted out of this whole "posting shit in forums" thing.

I WIN INTERNETS!

Actually, I may check out Twitter to see if it has anything interesting for me. I can't imagine it would be difficult to set up.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2011, 4:21 pm

Twitter is just a re-tweet fest. There's like one bit of news retweeted a thousand times in a format that sucks to read with an outdated 255 character limitation that only people in Australia with their ass backward internet would appreciate. Tweet streams/pages look like crap and typically filled with symbols and abbreviates of people trying to limit something to 255 characters.

I'll take the option of having someone else deal with all the bullshit and then put it in a nice rss feed for me.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 30, 2011, 4:25 pm

psst 140 characters

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2011, 4:29 pm

Boogahz wrote:psst 140 characters

even worse!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2011, 8:48 pm

Google + looks interesting.

I've decided to champion this on VV for at least two years without having used it yet.

I'm not even sure that the fuck it is. The circles thing sounds cool though so you don't have to share all your info with everyone of your groups of friends.

http://www.google.com/+/demo/

Still pretty lame, but potentially less lame than Facebook, Twitter or the PS3 network.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » June 30, 2011, 9:04 pm

I haven't logged into Facebook in over a year. I really dislike how they do their privacy settings .. Like when then add a new feature and turn it on by default for everyone.. Have you fuckers ever heard of the "Opt In" option? Didn't think so! I wouldn't be adverse to trying the Google route if it seems to take off.

As for Twitter.. No thanks. I really don't get the appeal but to each their own.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 1, 2011, 5:14 pm

Google+ looks interesting, bunch of folks from work are on it already. Given it's Google I'll be pretty strict on what I post there. We'll see how it pans out.

I'd call FB a bust for me, too open in some respects and too limited in others.

Circles seem to be a good concept fo controlling access, I'm pretty strict on "who sees what" between work, home, family and (actual) friends. So on FB I really didn't post much. A big downside of FB - beside the fact I'm not an attention whore is it's quite binary as to who sees what.

I never used any FB apps, so couldn't give a crap about them or equivalents.

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » July 1, 2011, 7:51 pm

If anyone has a google+ invite to spare, I'd be grateful to get my hands on one.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 1, 2011, 8:37 pm

Xatrei wrote:If anyone has a google+ invite to spare, I'd be grateful to get my hands on one.

I should be able to, send me a PM with your email address.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » July 1, 2011, 9:02 pm

Interested in seeing what google can do as well...if anyone has invite of course

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 1, 2011, 9:40 pm

I think it's just a matter of being added to a circle or sharing a picture. Someone sent me a picture to get in, added X to a circle by email, we'll see if it works.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » July 4, 2011, 3:43 pm

If it works and you can invite me, let me know and I'll toss you my email address.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 4, 2011, 5:05 pm

Thanks Aabidano for trying the invite.

The backdoor invites have been closed by google for now.

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » July 4, 2011, 6:48 pm

Ditto. Unfortunately, the rest of us just have to be patient.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 7, 2011, 8:59 am

Appears they opened G+ up to anyone this AM, all you have to do is sign up.

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » July 7, 2011, 11:02 am

A few days of G+ experience and I'm think it's less a facebook killer and more a twitterkiller. As far as functionality goes, it's got facebook beaten by miles.

Regarding invites etc, this is what Dave Bresbis wrote last night:

Hey Google+ folks!

As I bet you've noticed, we are facing pretty incredible demand for Google+ invites.

As Engineering Director of Google+, I wanted to take a moment to explain why we're growing the system slowly. First, we want to make sure our infrastructure scales so the service remains fast and reliable. Second, we want to ensure that bugs are fixed while there are still a relatively few people in the field trial.

Things are going well with the systems right now so we feel comfortable enough to open up invites for a brief period. Our goal is to double the user base in the field trial. (Sorry, we're not giving details about how many folks are in the field trial yet).

So, in a few minutes, we'll open up invites again.

We continue to throttle invites, so please don't mass invite folks as it won't work. If you invite a handful of your most important friends and family you're much more likely to get these folks into our system.

Thanks again for providing so much wonderful feedback!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 7, 2011, 1:43 pm

Aabidano wrote:Appears they opened G+ up to anyone this AM, all you have to do is sign up.

I'm having zero luck with this.

I'm going to

https://plus.google.com/up/?type=st

Which I got off your picture share but it's always

Google+ is in limited Field Trial
Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people.

Is that the right link to sign up?

I even get the ( You+ ) on my Google Toolbar when I do that but it won't let me sign up

https://plus.google.com/?tab=XX

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » July 7, 2011, 3:38 pm

Love Twitter. It's all about who you follow I think. sample of my list:

NicK Dipaolo, andylevy, normmacdonald, marcmaron, iamcolinquinn, louisck, anthonycumia, opieradio, jimnorton, jimjefferies, billburr, fakejeter etc.

funny stuff pours into my feed all of the time.

As far as facebook goes, I use it but i've recently locked down who can see what even more tightly than I had, which was tight to begin with. Can't imagine what privacies are going to be treaded upon when google+ hits everywhere

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » July 7, 2011, 3:48 pm

Yeah because Facebook is such a paragon of privacy protection... No privacies were ever treaded upon there!

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » July 7, 2011, 3:52 pm

Not exactly my point, I guess the statement should be "which additional privacies facebook hasn't marched over will googleplus tread upon"

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » July 7, 2011, 4:42 pm

I don't think there is any. Facebook has covered that ground pretty well. But yeah I'm not jumping onto the G+ bandwagon. I'll let everyone else run into all those issues for me.