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MySpace, ByeSpace?
Wall Street Journal ^ | 26 October 2006 | VAUHINI VARA

Posted on 10/28/2006 2:22:39 PM PDT by shrinkermd

...Ms. Thompson belongs to a fringe of Internet users now renouncing MySpace and other social-networking sites -- not in spite of their popularity, but because of it.

That highlights a dilemma facing News Corp.'s MySpace and Facebook Inc.: While it takes a critical mass of users to make these sites work, having too many users alienates some, especially when they attract an ever-growing cacophony of advertising and in some cases, spam.

...advertisers take advantage of the "friend request" function and send out requests that are really just advertisements. And programs have cropped up that can automatically send mass friend requests to MySpace users -- in short, a new generation of email spam. Sites with names like FriendBot.com and FriendAdder.com sell the programs starting at $19.95...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: facebook; myspace; problems
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fyi and in the meantime:

..."Advertisers and big Web players seem as enthusiastic as ever about social-networking sites. Google Inc. in August agreed to deliver at least $900 million in ad revenue over 3½ years to News Corp. for the right to broker advertising that appears on MySpace and some other sites. Microsoft Corp. also recently struck a deal to be the exclusive provider of advertising to Facebook, under terms that weren't disclosed.

1 posted on 10/28/2006 2:22:40 PM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd
>Advertisers and big Web players

A number of sites
(like Forbes and TheStreet) have switched
to such heavy ads

I've stopped using them.
When sites get too popular
I guess temptation

can be seductive
to sell out to marketeers.
It's almost always

easy to find new
sites with the ad garbage,
so I shrug it off.

2 posted on 10/28/2006 2:29:46 PM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: shrinkermd

Myspace is forbidden on my computers(4)I have 5 teenagers and this site is garbage.


3 posted on 10/28/2006 2:56:15 PM PDT by liberty or death
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To: liberty or death

I have teenagers, too. You are correct, myspace is total garbage. It's a hangout for young deviants looking for trouble. I've read some of the stuff my kids' friends have posted (mostly girls in the 14-15-16 age range), it's heartbreaking.


4 posted on 10/28/2006 3:30:25 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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To: liberty or death
We had a problem with it at my place of employment. Some loser/wanker put up an anti-company site at MySpace in which he posted a lot of stupid ramblings about all of us in management (we're all capitalist pigs, we're gay, etc). I had the IT guys block MySpace from work so the blogger's adoring fans could no longer get a daily dose of his BS at work.

I also wrote to MySpace to complain about their hosting such libelous ravings. The guy's MySpace disappeared, though last time I looked, it was accessible to other MySpacers who were in his network.

I think the world could live without MySpace.

5 posted on 10/28/2006 3:57:41 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte ("Thanks, Tom DeLay, for practically giving me your seat"-Nick Lampson)
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To: shrinkermd

I use Facebook, it is nice for keeping track of university buddies -- but your "network" loses value as you friend list increases. You do become alienated at 150+ buddies, at which point it is adding people for the sake of having a large network. (Then again, I am an introvert type who prefers 1-2 close friends.)


6 posted on 10/28/2006 4:04:03 PM PDT by Mischi3vo
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To: tuffydoodle

Like what? The usual stuff? Boys and clothes?


7 posted on 10/28/2006 4:04:09 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: theFIRMbss

What are you doing? Posting in prose?


8 posted on 10/28/2006 4:05:31 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: shrinkermd

To add to the humor of the topic:

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17076


9 posted on 10/28/2006 4:10:08 PM PDT by Mischi3vo
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To: liberty or death

"Myspace is forbidden on my computers"

MySpace and FaceBook are forbidden on "my" computers as well...

At last count all 1,438 of them... :)

Actually they are just two of a rather long list of sites that are forbidden on our company's computers. Default website is http://www.ceoexpress.com good general business site.


10 posted on 10/28/2006 5:08:20 PM PDT by Syntyr (Food for the NSA Line Eater -> "terrorist" "bomb" "plot" "kill" "overthrow" "coup de tas")
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To: Syntyr

You do realize "coup de tas" means "blow of cup," I suppose?


11 posted on 10/28/2006 5:14:41 PM PDT by prion (Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM the spelling police)
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To: mamelukesabre

These girls talk like they've been watching porno movies. It's stuff I wouldn't post here, don't want to be banned.


12 posted on 10/28/2006 5:18:56 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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To: tuffydoodle
I have teenagers, too. You are correct, myspace is total garbage. It's a hangout for young deviants looking for trouble. I've read some of the stuff my kids' friends have posted (mostly girls in the 14-15-16 age range), it's heartbreaking.

Interesting... my kids' use it to talk with classmates and their church friends. I guess like any tool, the use depends on the user.

13 posted on 10/28/2006 5:22:34 PM PDT by TN4Liberty (Sixty percent of all people understand statistics. The other half are clueless.)
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To: TN4Liberty

You need to monitor what your kids and the people on their "friends list" are saying. Some of the stuff I've read came from kids that have wonderful, church going families. There is a subculture on myspace that drags the good kids down.

If your kids are on myspace, monitor them. Don't take their word for it. I've run into too many parents that say, "oh, my kid would never do that." But I've been able to back it up with written proof that, yes, they will. Trust, but verify.


14 posted on 10/28/2006 5:32:06 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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To: prion

Sure?

I would expect it to mean cup of tea.

By the spelling I mean. I don't know french.


15 posted on 10/28/2006 5:33:33 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: tuffydoodle

I am faily new here and spend a lot of time lurking different threads but I just have to tell you, I love your tagline.


16 posted on 10/28/2006 5:36:43 PM PDT by BLS (You'll never know why you're alive until you know what you would die for.)
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To: BLS

Well, thank you! I'm blushing....


17 posted on 10/28/2006 5:42:34 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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To: tuffydoodle

Interesting. I've been told that the old stereo type of teenage boys getting into trouble with fighting and smoking and drinking and vandalism and bragging about sexual conquests isn't the case anymore. Parents used to warn their girls about getting mixed up with boys like that.

Now it's the opposite. It's the girls that get into that trouble with fighting and sexual conquests and such and parents have to warn their boys about getting mixed up with that type of girl.

I've never had kids, so I don't know. Would you say this is true? That the boys and girls bad behaviors have reversed?


18 posted on 10/28/2006 5:43:05 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: tuffydoodle

I agree. I insist on being on my son's "friends" list. I think that helps.


19 posted on 10/28/2006 5:55:34 PM PDT by TN4Liberty (Sixty percent of all people understand statistics. The other half are clueless.)
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To: mamelukesabre

I'm not so sure they're reversed, but that is food for thought. Alot of it is just the culture we live in today. The kids are bombarded with sex every time they pick up a book or magazine, watch tv, listen to the radio, etc. They look up to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Deviancy is normalized with gay marriage, Bill Clinton fooling around on his wife and she stays with him, that type of thing. Plus, the parents don't seem to care much anymore, either. They have all been divorced and remarried a dozen times, the mothers work, no one is at home to watch them, etc. And of course you have lots of parents in denial, the "my kids would never do that" parents. Also, today's culture seems to be telling girls that the only way to get ahead is to use their sexuality, not their brains. More of these teen girls look up to paris hilton than Condi Rice.

But the more I think about it, you may be right. The roles seem to be reversed.

I'll get off my soapbox now.


20 posted on 10/28/2006 6:02:11 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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