"Can I say you're my girlfriend on Facebook?"

Registered for Facebook last Friday, immediately re-established contact with people I hadn't seen for 5-6 years. And that's without just randomly typing names of old friends in the search box (which I obviously intend to do next). So it's done its job for old geezers like me, I suppose.

the take-up in the last, like, month of two seems to be huge, based on total lack of statistics.

FR was oddly therapeutic for me since it first came up just after Laura died, so it was quite reassuring when people I hadn't seen for 20+ years got in touch and I had to tell them what had happened and they were all very nice and understanding about it though I haven't really kept in touch with any of them since because, well if you know "Do You Remember Walter?" by the Kinks that sums it up pretty acutely.

If my emailer "CW" was in fact CJ then fair do's and thanks, but being added as a "friend" by people I don't know is pretty creepy, like people coming up to me in the street wanting to hug me or something (not that that ever happens) - you just want to run as far away from it/them as possible.

it's probably an ilxor, MC. this is kind of what you sign up for with facebook!!

fair do's, Marcello Carlin

like people coming up to me in the street wanting to hug me or something (not that that ever happens)

I'm reasonably happy with it, but I see it more as a random person coming up to me and starting a conversation in a pub, which happens quite a lot! So i guess a person's reaction to being friended by someone who is not in fact their friend is largely governed by which real life situation they think it is most like....

the whole point of facebook is a bunch of randoms calling each other friends.

i think for most people i know, it's limited to actual friends. for me at the very least people i've met a few times and like (as opposed to "people i see every weekend"). i've had a few friend requests which i didn't recognise but it was usually because i'd forgotten them rather than didn't know them in the first place.

it does seem to have exploded in the last few months rather and is the first of this type of site that i could actually see being a part of everyday life for normal people in the same way that, i dunno, a mobile phone is - the events thing is really such a handy way of keeping upt-o-date w/ your diary.

pseudonyms on facebook = lame.

what is dud is PRs friending you and then HASSLING YOU VIA THE MEDIUM OF FACEBOOK

I don't mind people getting in touch with me via the blog or ILx or wherever - after all, that's how I met my fiancee! - but the whole MySpace/Facebook "friend" business doesn't really gel; for me the randomness of "friending" in that context is just one step up from URGENT RESPONSE REQUIRED TO NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT CRISIS-type spam.

pseudonyms on facebook = lame.

tell it to little terry lennox

i don't mean "random" in a bad way entirely -- but i wouldn't call someone i'd met a few times a friend (or not 'actual friend'), necessarily. i guess it depends. i only just put my real email addy up, not really sure if i want in.

fear of random weirdos friending you seems to take up about 50% of the chat around facebook, compared to about 1% of actual stuff which happens on facebook. and if you don't like it just deny them!

tell it to little terry lennox

i have done, repeatedly

i don't mean "random" in a bad way entirely -- but i wouldn't call someone i'd met a few times a friend (or not 'actual friend')

well no, neither would i, but facebook friend != actual friend. it's a useful way to keep in contact w/ people who'd otherwise be relegated to "i remember a nice conversation with this person at this party that time" and, you know, make more actual friends

i gave in to the peer pressure and registered a few weeks ago. Haven't met any random weirdos or creeps from the past yet.

myspace>>>>facebook

facebook is basically oldschooltie shit. though, the explosion on facebook has suddenly made myspace look dated and even empty. myspace feels a tiny bit like makeoutclub or lipstickandcigarettes now

facebook is better designed than clunky myspace, if only because it's newer, and despite lacking the 'pizazz' of the latter.

it's the third time i've gone through the process of 'adding friends' after friendster and then these two. progress eh.

with Friends Re-united I could pretty much tell before looking which people in my year at school were going to be on there and which ones would never be on there.

696 otm. but myspace looked horrible and was shitty to use.

it's the third time i've gone through the process of 'adding friends' after friendster and then these two. progress eh.

not including flickr or last.fm

i could live with bad design but the worst thing about myspace was music exploding on you when you didn't want it.

oh yeah, bands embedding their videos in windows media somewhere down the page which then played automatically at the same time you're trying to listen to the tracks in the audio player. stupid.

i.e. bad design

yeah i really meant bad design as in horizontally-scrolling pages, unreadable fonts, shitty backgrounds etc but that works too.

^ agree with all the above. i ended up kind of liking the bad design (again kind of reminded me of makeoutclub) though, all the same, it feels like it should have bad design

i already have a myspazz and i was avoiding facebook, but i got conned into joining by the lure of being able to see photos of a certain friend. but that's the whole problem with it - you can't go perving at anyone's profile unless you're their friend. and apart from my best friend who lives in the states, and an old and vague acquaintance in the uk, my only other facebook buddies are my freakin' workmates (which is pretty lame).

i like myspace. mostly because of a conversation i had on another book forum about a crazy white supremacist who stalked me there, which then led to becoming myspazz friends with someone from that forum, which then led to bestfriendship and possible true love. and another good friend of mine is someone i met on myspazz, and he lives in my city.

and the myspazz crazies who send creepy messages make for good stories at the pub. i had one guy ask me to be his mistress, because he wanted to perform errands and bring gifts to a superior woman.

i dunno what makeoutclub is.

making out is great though.

in terms of how i use it, myspace is barely any different from facebook, except a) more people on facebook b) facebook LOOKS BETTER and also WORKS most of the time - to defend myspazz on these grounds is ridiculous c) less as in no lame bands/whores trying to friend you, i don't understand what ways myspazz could possibly be considered superior except through force of habit

facebook reminds me of school and it has my workmates on it

i don't really have massive issues with either of those

i like that you can make myspace pages look all fucked up and shit with pictures.

when i'm bored at work i jazz up my 'spazz page... i mean, it's hardly brain surgery, it's just a bit of a piss. one of the best things about it is how many great artists i've discovered. because my profile is quite arts-centred, and i have a ton of pictures up, it seems to attract a lot of people with similar tastes, which then leads to discovering new artists who have profiles. i avoiding putting any personal pics, or pics of myself, up for a long time, but then they got the new photo album set-up, which allows you to block anyone but friends from viewing them.

myspace and facebook seem to have very different motives - fb is more for connecting with people you actually know (or used to know) while the 'spazz is more for meeting new people.

i already have a myspazz and i was avoiding facebook, but i got conned into joining by the lure of being able to see photos of a certain friend. but that's the whole problem with it - you can't go perving at anyone's profile unless you're their friend.

Facebook is much better than MySpace for all of the design reasons just mentioned, but unless you're a student, there are still way more people on MySpace. When I joined a year ago, I had to add my 23-year-old gf's roommates just to look like I knew people. This does seem to be slowly changing, though.

Fuck'em both. Maybe FB because I'm a university dropout so i can't get in. Myspace is just. Urrgh (and not only designwise, also the way you have to interact).

I'm a bit worried that FB is going to become more and more like myspace -- but even if it does at least it (probably) won't have the disgusting level of customization that leads people to overlay translucent graphics and paste in lots of oversized pictures/text and render their profile completely unreadable

I think anyone can join FB, nath. Not just uni kids. It's my first day there .... would you like to be my friend??

pseudonyms on facebook = lame.

Lex, I don't like the ideas of strangers or near-strangers knowing too many personal details about me. With a real name, a school, etc. it could be too easy to track me down IRL. The world's a strange place these days.

myspace feels a tiny bit like makeoutclub or lipstickandcigarettes now

You mean it feels like Friendster did when MySpace exploded?

CJ, sorry, I am not that interested in FB. Just doesn't seem to appeal to me. Another social circle. Nah. I liked Friendster, that was okay,but the rest can go eat dick shit.

Dick shit? STRIKE THROUGH, you moron.

dick shit sounds unbelievably foul

OMG the synchronicity: someone just invited me on FB. I'll probably give in. I'm a total wimp. ;-)

Yes, Sam, I know. I tried to avoid that fuck or suck thread as well but to no avail. :-)

Lex, I don't like the ideas of strangers or near-strangers knowing too many personal details about me. With a real name, a school, etc. it could be too easy to track me down IRL. The world's a strange place these days.

i understand this but you don't have to put your school in, i haven't (though i have joined my school's group), and if you're rigorous with the privacy settings all that strangers can actually see is your name and your picture (and there are lots of profile pictures which don't give any clues as to what the person actually looks like...)

What have I done. I already regret it.

At this point the school association is the only benefit I see! I mean I can associate with ILX0Rs here and on Flickr so it's not like I need another place to link up with you weirdos. ;)

You mean it feels like Friendster did when MySpace exploded?

not really, friendsters design was kind of sober, myspace more like moc etc

I meant more in terms of use. I remember it took MySpace a while to get going but when it did Friendster was abandoned. Obv. that's not happened to MySpace yet but it could be coming.

Myspace does lose what remains of its appeal pretty fast once you've got a few friends on Fcbk.

I'm mostly just glad to not be bombarded with terrible bands and Cool Videos uploaded by mongs.

you can block all requests from bands etc. and you can also disable the automatic music player.

I have done this before but for someone reason this often doesn't stick.

Whatever, I've finally ditched MySpace. It all became too junior high. lame.