Social networking sites and profile sites

Tsunami · 22 Aug 2009, 02:38 AM

So what are your opinions about social networking sites or specific profile sites now that they have been around long enough probably for anyone to have tried or experimented with at least one or a few of them.

Personally I have had an account with MySpace and Facebook for a long while now. I decided however to make my MySpace account dormant since the service was purchased by people tied to the ultraconservative wing of American politics, even using MySpace as a tool for advertising their prefered party.
I still use Facebook but the frequency has dropped drastically. Some applications are fun, but then in the end there are some things I dislike about the concept as well. The lack to personalise a page with HTML content, the fact that other people can upload your pictures, tag you and thus add pictures to your profile that you cannot even remove from your own profile yourself, ... That is not very user friendly IMO and in a way the difference with MySpace, except in terms of lay out and a very few applications, is minimal. Facebook also seems to get in trouble now that their lack of privacy protection measurements is leaking.

In a general way I would consider the profile pages and social networking sites as a wasted potential. Business cards and such have been around for ages and a profile page introducing yourself to the world is a good online variant of that. If you would have discussion forums on a wide variety of subjects attached to that one profile with one single login for all those separate forums (all under one umbrella) and maybe a blog or something similar ... it would be a very powerful tool to really network on a serious level.

The problem is that this potential is not used to its full extent basically because I see too many people don´t use it in a serious way. They use it to post all sorts of nonsensical content making it a real search for the needle in a haystick to find that useful content. Some people fill their profile with fake info or info that has no relevance at all. Especially amongst young users, quantity takes over from quality with the number of friends being a sort of contest even when a lot of people are in their friend list whom they never really knew in the first place (I personally, the limited number of times I do sign in to Facebook, per definition reject friendship requests from people I never knew or at least never had lengthy discussions with before). Recently a Facebook magazine even had an article with hints how to double your friend list ; that it really not what networking should be about, it shouldn´t be a race.

The way people use these sites in a way takes away their real power. Which means the potential of these sites is actually being lost.

A few sites still are useful though. Sites such as HospitalityClub who organise face-to-face meetings and activities for travellers and organise free accomodation through people offering a bed or couch to travellers ... Somes business-orientated networking sites still are very useful because people only use it for business networking, which means a lot of young users stray away from it (as it isn´t what they are looking for), this results in only those that use the site in a serious way are left and that makes the site still very useful to exchange information.

I still like the idea of having a profile online, a self introduction to the outside world. I just don´t like the way the most popular profile sites have become victim to people using them in a way that actually harms the potential of these sites as serious networking tools. If someone knows some good networking sites where people don´t hide behind nicknames, post only serious profile info and have only serious in-depth debates .... then do let me know. Because my MySpace is dormant as it is, and the times that I frequented Facebook are over as well (an occasional login is what´s left although I hope to replace those by keeping in touch via email with those real friends that are in my facebook list - the problem being that they check their Facebook account more often than their email account

)

David · 22 Aug 2009, 04:34 AM

I have tried most of these but have canceled on most as I consider them to be too intrusive. The only 'what might be considered as social' account I make use of these days is delicious (a social bookmarking site)

Malc 44 · 22 Aug 2009, 06:23 AM

In the good old days, people used to have their photos developed and take the prints to show their friends and family when visiting. In this digital age, very few of us have photos printed anymore, we take so many that it would just use up too much storage space.

So we have to decide which is the best way of sharing our photos, and at the moment I think that Facebook is the best way, purely because it appears to be the most popular site. How much we use the other applications in Facebook is down to the individual. I try to keep this to a minimum as I do not want my addictive personality to become obsessed with it.

Berenburger · 22 Aug 2009, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

In a general way I would consider the profile pages and social networking sites as a wasted potential. Business cards and such have been around for ages and a profile page introducing yourself to the world is a good online variant of that. If you would have discussion forums on a wide variety of subjects attached to that one profile with one single login for all those separate forums (all under one umbrella) and maybe a blog or something similar ... it would be a very powerful tool to really network on a serious level.

<snip>

I still like the idea of having a profile online, a self introduction to the outside world. I just don´t like the way the most popular profile sites have become victim to people using them in a way that actually harms the potential of these sites as serious networking tools. If someone knows some good networking sites where people don´t hide behind nicknames, post only serious profile info and have only serious in-depth debates .... then do let me know. Because my MySpace is dormant as it is, and the times that I frequented Facebook are over as well (an occasional login is what´s left although I hope to replace those by keeping in touch via email with those real friends that are in my facebook list - the problem being that they check their Facebook account more often than their email account

)

Maybe .tel is something for you.

Tsunami · 24 Aug 2009, 04:02 AM

I will check that site tomorrow during the break at work

I thought however .tel was just a domain suffix pretty much like .com, .co.uk and the hundreds of others available?

Well, I signed into MySpace for the first time in more than half a year today. I still dislike the backing of the site by conservative politicians, and when it comes to Facebook their lack of clear privacy rules is bothering. So in a way I´d rather refrain from using these alltogether and just put online a profile of myself on my own webpage. But then some nice people I met last week were not even giving their email addresses, saying instead "add me on Facebook or MySpace, I check my mails not often anyway" ... and that way you´re almost like forced to maintain a profile yourself

If it would be just a one or two people that were like that it´d be OK, but amongst the folks I know about half of them checks their Facebook more frequently than their email. That sorta forces one into keeping a profile alive himself ...

I would still say the travel exchange orientated networking sites and LinkedIn remain the only ones that are actually serving their purpose well without having become victim of their own success by people using it for all the wrong purposes.

**ReuvenNY** · 24 Aug 2009, 06:34 AM

Tsunami, please refrain from making political comment in your postings. The reference to various political views of site owners is against the forum rules, as it may open political discussions.

**Shelded** · 24 Aug 2009, 01:20 PM

The ability to relate information which exists in various internet locations and create information I did not realize I had given -- this is something I guard against. I cannot allow many sites I do not control to be collecting my data for public use. I think my perspective is something which >30yr old people have and the young generally do not. I am not getting the point across successfully to my college kid, she just does not get it.

The value proposition of social networking seems to be that it will let you communicate to multiple people simultaneously, and get info back from any of them who wish to reply. The ability to share photos as well as words is a plus.

Email is seen as deficient in doing this so the social network sites were developed. I think because most people have had such crummy email they think there is this need. Fortunately, my email has not been a stumbling block such as this.

I see a similar cause for the popularity of IM -- people cannot manage their email due to spam and poor work practices, so they allow immediate interruption to replace valuable interaction. Again, that's not my problem so I don't like the IM solution.

I don't mean to let email off the hook, either. We can too easily be held hostage to checking it often. But at least it *can* be ignored because the other person does not expect immediate reply, and things will wait. I probably am preaching to the choir here, but I do believe in email.

I think the saddest thing is that these popular technologies are making a generation of people who are developing really poor work practices but because they have not yet paid the penalties (years later they will) they do not believe a bit of this is problematic. If you want to excel at something in your career you have to focus on it and pay your dues. Because there is someone else who *is* doing that and who ignores all the internet distractions while they work -- and they will steal your lunch.

Tsunami · 30 Aug 2009, 06:57 AM

And on and on it goes ... www.gothers.com , the latest new such site. Other than the fact that the goth community already had vampirefreaks.com for years, the site seems to be an exact replica of MySpace, with the sole difference that it orientates solely to goths.

How many such sites are we going to have within a while? And how long will this one survive, along with all those other attempts to launch such sites?

I am into goth music (I wish to disassociate myself from the present day goth community though, especially youngsters in the gothic venues have lost all connection to what postpunk originally used to stand for) but no way I´ll be registering on that new site.

I just wonder how many other such networking sites we´re going to face before that hype dies out really. Twitter is apparently taking over from the social networking sites, but I´m sure this is also one of those hypes that will last only as long as it takes before someone comes up with something new that gets hyped.

SusanUKF · 6 Sep 2009, 09:52 PM

I don't personally use any of those networking sites, but three of my kids have facebook. I have lectured them repeatedly on making sure they know the people they add, be cautious how much information they include, and so forth. As a parent, I am concerned about internet security with the children (even our eldest that is almost 18..once a mom, always a mom ofcourse).

I think (and hope) that they are aware of the need for protecting certain locational information, private data so that we never have to worry about these things. My 15-year-old daughter has had some issues of undesirable individuals attempting to add her; but has easily been able to block them and report them to Facebook, so I think she is actively watching for the dangers.

I have friends that love using these sites to post their blogs, and to keep in touch with friends all over the world, and so forth, and I think that can be a wonderful thing, as long as one is aware of who they are adding. Alternately, if you are posting a general, public type of site, I think the key thing is just not to give out too much personal/identifying information, so that you don't run into any situations that may endanger you or your family members.

This forum is the most personal I have ever been on the internet, actually, and I still feel it is the nicest and safest forum on the world wide web. Even though family life doesn't allow me the time to be on here as much, I still love this forum very much.

It is nice that people are able to keep in touch, and share their activities with people, and photos, but I guess it is just important to keep in mind that sometimes people might not always be who they say they are online, etc. and we just need to keep our guards up as well. I hope I don't sound over-paranoid, being the mom of five great kids has a lot to do with my attitude towards all of this I think. Take care all, and happy surfing.

Susan.

David · 6 Sep 2009, 11:15 PM

We have all been here, so very, very, long, of course we trust each other! : we are growing old together methinks

nooby · 7 Sep 2009, 02:05 AM

I am too lazy to keep me up to date about the rules and habits of these sites.

But don't they own all our photos? That is kind of bad. They could do anything with them. Use them in commercial ads or whatever. Sell them to databases of categories.

Even if they don't use them for purposes we are against it is kind of bad that if one have taken a photo that others also like and if a New Paper want to buy it from you then you can't sell it to them cause Facebook owns it?

Am I wrong?

apart from that I see the need for social networks and wish I was better at using such.

I guess that if Internet would have been around when I was young then I would have sent receiving reports to N5BB on how we receive his HAM Radio transmissions on Shortwave. Between me was 10 to say 20 I did listen to American and Canadians on 20 meters shortwave all day. I loved to try out different american dialects so Texas accent would have been cool to try. Internet is a bit like HAN radio in that one use net etiquette for how to behave on shortwave or on the internet. Internet has spammers and crackers and shortwave had Black Peters sending without license pretending to be legal operators.

social networks now a bit like the HAM Radio Clubs we had where one could get to know people regardless of social status. The King or Jordan being one such VIP that one could come in contact with.

I guess I am just nostalgic. The good old days of Morse code and SSB.

sorry huge derail.

n5bb · 7 Sep 2009, 03:20 PM

Here I am responding to another of your posts tonight, nooby! Unfortunately, the Internet has drawn people (especially kids) away from Amateur Radio.

Yes, I have been a ham radio operator for 40 years, and have used CW (Morse code), AM, SSB, FM, teletype, and various other digital data transmission modes (PSK31, etc.). I'm not very active right now, except that I have a VHF/UHF mobile radio in my minivan which I often use. I do operate our Field Day contest every June from a park. I still like CW / Morse Code better than other modes.

On October 17, 2009, the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters (a few miles or kilometers from my house) is having a special JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) ham radio event at the BSA Museum. If anyone is involved with a Boy Scout group in their area (anywhere in the world) who wants to contact us, we will have Internet connections as well as HF (shortwave) and satellite and ISS (International Space Station) communication.

Bill

nooby · 7 Sep 2009, 05:53 PM

When you and I grew up we could listen to 80Meters and the only disturbances was crackling noise from distant Lightnings from thunderstorms and the neighbors TV but they shut it down when the programs ended for the day. And these where some 15 KHz apart so plenty of room for CW and SSB to come through even from all of europe and when lucky from Canada and USA too. But 20 meters was better for such and less strong disturbances too.

Then the Dimmers came and made weak signals hard to get and the Over the Distance RADAR was like a Woodpecker on the bands. Then computers sent out spikes all over the spectrum.

But the good thing with internet is that one can listen in on each others radios without it cost a fortune via Voip phone or Skype or similar if the conditions are too poor due to Sunspots.

I loved all the texts about building small QRPP under 100 MilliWatt transceivers and how to use Xtals on 3.5 or similar surplus build extremely good CW or SSB filters with high dynamics. Such was exciting.

But I was a poor builder. But I enjoyed planning and having the high expectations on how good it would work if ever being finally built.

Bill, one big issue was to find a place to live where they allowed Antennas big enough to be effective. Building restrictions and neighbors had their say in how big antennas allowed. You have a lot of trees outside your house.

Google maps nowadays allow us to spy on each others houses. I've looked at my Condo three store house and one see the cars on/in/at their parking lots but antennas are too thin to get revealed.

Internet is both good and bad. You most likely are right about it makes HAM radio less appealing. Easier to reach the whole world using internet.

And one can share music and pictures more easy over the internet too.
When we where young we where not allowed to play music over the radio now everybody can set up an internet radio station I guess. Only copyrights to consider.

good talking to you

Tsunami · 16 Nov 2009, 09:47 PM

Can anyone tell me, if one closes his Facebook account, do people in the friend list get some notification on that or do you just vanish without many spotlights on your disappearance?

The reason for considering this are multiple:
a) you cannot stop anyone from sending messages so in fact the privacy level isn´t that much different from MySpace and then MySpace is at least useful by adding your favourite bands and get news on tourdates and releases all in 1 place. If only people in your friends list could message you, it´d be different. In the end the number of messages or friend requests from total strangers is not much different from what I experience on MySpace (which by the way I also don´t check that much neither)
2) the fact that people can just put photos of yours online and tag you, photo showing in your own profile without you even wanting it ... no option to remove it.
3) seems that more and more people use it for silly comments and silly games rather than for real useful networking

In the end, apart from travel and business related networking sites (those seem to attract a really serious crowd who use it for what it was intended for...), I am a bit tired of those networking sites and since I have hardly checked my account at all in half a year I begin to wonder what the use is in keeping the account alive. They have very little added value compared to email. MySpace may be the one exception but only for adding my favourite bands and check all tourdates and new releases in one account, it is slightly easier than signing up for multiple email lists seperately.

**Shelded** · 16 Nov 2009, 10:28 PM

If you really want an answer to that question I suggest you start another thread, and possibly post it another forum than EMD, because we're email people by our interest here

As to whether we need Myspace or Facebook at all, that's probably because we're email users.

The other day I saw something which said Facebook wishes to take the micropayments role PayPal has. That concerned me a bit because it has potential to do that; my "just say no" to Facebook may have to cave in if it becomes the default micropayment provider. That's the only reason my family has an ancient PayPal account, used perhaps 1x/year. However, Amazon to the rescue, I read after that Amazon has an idea coming which would allow you to use them instead. At least I have an account at Amazon, but I really don't want to use it for paying all over the internet, either.

22 Aug 2009, 02:38 AM	#1
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Social networking sites and profile sites So what are your opinions about social networking sites or specific profile sites now that they have been around long enough probably for anyone to have tried or experimented with at least one or a few of them. Personally I have had an account with MySpace and Facebook for a long while now. I decided however to make my MySpace account dormant since the service was purchased by people tied to the ultraconservative wing of American politics, even using MySpace as a tool for advertising their prefered party. I still use Facebook but the frequency has dropped drastically. Some applications are fun, but then in the end there are some things I dislike about the concept as well. The lack to personalise a page with HTML content, the fact that other people can upload your pictures, tag you and thus add pictures to your profile that you cannot even remove from your own profile yourself, ... That is not very user friendly IMO and in a way the difference with MySpace, except in terms of lay out and a very few applications, is minimal. Facebook also seems to get in trouble now that their lack of privacy protection measurements is leaking. In a general way I would consider the profile pages and social networking sites as a wasted potential. Business cards and such have been around for ages and a profile page introducing yourself to the world is a good online variant of that. If you would have discussion forums on a wide variety of subjects attached to that one profile with one single login for all those separate forums (all under one umbrella) and maybe a blog or something similar ... it would be a very powerful tool to really network on a serious level. The problem is that this potential is not used to its full extent basically because I see too many people don´t use it in a serious way. They use it to post all sorts of nonsensical content making it a real search for the needle in a haystick to find that useful content. Some people fill their profile with fake info or info that has no relevance at all. Especially amongst young users, quantity takes over from quality with the number of friends being a sort of contest even when a lot of people are in their friend list whom they never really knew in the first place (I personally, the limited number of times I do sign in to Facebook, per definition reject friendship requests from people I never knew or at least never had lengthy discussions with before). Recently a Facebook magazine even had an article with hints how to double your friend list ; that it really not what networking should be about, it shouldn´t be a race. The way people use these sites in a way takes away their real power. Which means the potential of these sites is actually being lost. A few sites still are useful though. Sites such as HospitalityClub who organise face-to-face meetings and activities for travellers and organise free accomodation through people offering a bed or couch to travellers ... Somes business-orientated networking sites still are very useful because people only use it for business networking, which means a lot of young users stray away from it (as it isn´t what they are looking for), this results in only those that use the site in a serious way are left and that makes the site still very useful to exchange information. I still like the idea of having a profile online, a self introduction to the outside world. I just don´t like the way the most popular profile sites have become victim to people using them in a way that actually harms the potential of these sites as serious networking tools. If someone knows some good networking sites where people don´t hide behind nicknames, post only serious profile info and have only serious in-depth debates .... then do let me know. Because my MySpace is dormant as it is, and the times that I frequented Facebook are over as well (an occasional login is what´s left although I hope to replace those by keeping in touch via email with those real friends that are in my facebook list - the problem being that they check their Facebook account more often than their email account )

24 Aug 2009, 06:34 AM	#6
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	Moderator's comment Tsunami, please refrain from making political comment in your postings. The reference to various political views of site owners is against the forum rules, as it may open political discussions.

16 Nov 2009, 09:47 PM	#14
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Can anyone tell me, if one closes his Facebook account, do people in the friend list get some notification on that or do you just vanish without many spotlights on your disappearance? The reason for considering this are multiple: a) you cannot stop anyone from sending messages so in fact the privacy level isn´t that much different from MySpace and then MySpace is at least useful by adding your favourite bands and get news on tourdates and releases all in 1 place. If only people in your friends list could message you, it´d be different. In the end the number of messages or friend requests from total strangers is not much different from what I experience on MySpace (which by the way I also don´t check that much neither) 2) the fact that people can just put photos of yours online and tag you, photo showing in your own profile without you even wanting it ... no option to remove it. 3) seems that more and more people use it for silly comments and silly games rather than for real useful networking In the end, apart from travel and business related networking sites (those seem to attract a really serious crowd who use it for what it was intended for...), I am a bit tired of those networking sites and since I have hardly checked my account at all in half a year I begin to wonder what the use is in keeping the account alive. They have very little added value compared to email. MySpace may be the one exception but only for adding my favourite bands and check all tourdates and new releases in one account, it is slightly easier than signing up for multiple email lists seperately. Last edited by Tsunami : 16 Nov 2009 at 09:53 PM.

22 Aug 2009, 04:34 AM	#2
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	I have tried most of these but have canceled on most as I consider them to be too intrusive. The only 'what might be considered as social' account I make use of these days is delicious (a social bookmarking site)

22 Aug 2009, 06:23 AM	#3
Malc 44 Essential Contributor Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 365	In the good old days, people used to have their photos developed and take the prints to show their friends and family when visiting. In this digital age, very few of us have photos printed anymore, we take so many that it would just use up too much storage space. So we have to decide which is the best way of sharing our photos, and at the moment I think that Facebook is the best way, purely because it appears to be the most popular site. How much we use the other applications in Facebook is down to the individual. I try to keep this to a minimum as I do not want my addictive personality to become obsessed with it.

24 Aug 2009, 04:02 AM	#5
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	I will check that site tomorrow during the break at work I thought however .tel was just a domain suffix pretty much like .com, .co.uk and the hundreds of others available? Well, I signed into MySpace for the first time in more than half a year today. I still dislike the backing of the site by conservative politicians, and when it comes to Facebook their lack of clear privacy rules is bothering. So in a way I´d rather refrain from using these alltogether and just put online a profile of myself on my own webpage. But then some nice people I met last week were not even giving their email addresses, saying instead "add me on Facebook or MySpace, I check my mails not often anyway" ... and that way you´re almost like forced to maintain a profile yourself If it would be just a one or two people that were like that it´d be OK, but amongst the folks I know about half of them checks their Facebook more frequently than their email. That sorta forces one into keeping a profile alive himself ... I would still say the travel exchange orientated networking sites and LinkedIn remain the only ones that are actually serving their purpose well without having become victim of their own success by people using it for all the wrong purposes.

24 Aug 2009, 01:20 PM	#7
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	The ability to relate information which exists in various internet locations and create information I did not realize I had given -- this is something I guard against. I cannot allow many sites I do not control to be collecting my data for public use. I think my perspective is something which >30yr old people have and the young generally do not. I am not getting the point across successfully to my college kid, she just does not get it. The value proposition of social networking seems to be that it will let you communicate to multiple people simultaneously, and get info back from any of them who wish to reply. The ability to share photos as well as words is a plus. Email is seen as deficient in doing this so the social network sites were developed. I think because most people have had such crummy email they think there is this need. Fortunately, my email has not been a stumbling block such as this. I see a similar cause for the popularity of IM -- people cannot manage their email due to spam and poor work practices, so they allow immediate interruption to replace valuable interaction. Again, that's not my problem so I don't like the IM solution. I don't mean to let email off the hook, either. We can too easily be held hostage to checking it often. But at least it can be ignored because the other person does not expect immediate reply, and things will wait. I probably am preaching to the choir here, but I do believe in email. I think the saddest thing is that these popular technologies are making a generation of people who are developing really poor work practices but because they have not yet paid the penalties (years later they will) they do not believe a bit of this is problematic. If you want to excel at something in your career you have to focus on it and pay your dues. Because there is someone else who is doing that and who ignores all the internet distractions while they work -- and they will steal your lunch.

30 Aug 2009, 06:57 AM	#8
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	And on and on it goes ... www.gothers.com , the latest new such site. Other than the fact that the goth community already had vampirefreaks.com for years, the site seems to be an exact replica of MySpace, with the sole difference that it orientates solely to goths. How many such sites are we going to have within a while? And how long will this one survive, along with all those other attempts to launch such sites? I am into goth music (I wish to disassociate myself from the present day goth community though, especially youngsters in the gothic venues have lost all connection to what postpunk originally used to stand for) but no way I´ll be registering on that new site. I just wonder how many other such networking sites we´re going to face before that hype dies out really. Twitter is apparently taking over from the social networking sites, but I´m sure this is also one of those hypes that will last only as long as it takes before someone comes up with something new that gets hyped.

6 Sep 2009, 09:52 PM	#9
SusanUKF Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 5,428	I don't personally use any of those networking sites, but three of my kids have facebook. I have lectured them repeatedly on making sure they know the people they add, be cautious how much information they include, and so forth. As a parent, I am concerned about internet security with the children (even our eldest that is almost 18..once a mom, always a mom ofcourse). I think (and hope) that they are aware of the need for protecting certain locational information, private data so that we never have to worry about these things. My 15-year-old daughter has had some issues of undesirable individuals attempting to add her; but has easily been able to block them and report them to Facebook, so I think she is actively watching for the dangers. I have friends that love using these sites to post their blogs, and to keep in touch with friends all over the world, and so forth, and I think that can be a wonderful thing, as long as one is aware of who they are adding. Alternately, if you are posting a general, public type of site, I think the key thing is just not to give out too much personal/identifying information, so that you don't run into any situations that may endanger you or your family members. This forum is the most personal I have ever been on the internet, actually, and I still feel it is the nicest and safest forum on the world wide web. Even though family life doesn't allow me the time to be on here as much, I still love this forum very much. It is nice that people are able to keep in touch, and share their activities with people, and photos, but I guess it is just important to keep in mind that sometimes people might not always be who they say they are online, etc. and we just need to keep our guards up as well. I hope I don't sound over-paranoid, being the mom of five great kids has a lot to do with my attitude towards all of this I think. Take care all, and happy surfing. Susan.

6 Sep 2009, 11:15 PM	#10
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	We have all been here, so very, very, long, of course we trust each other! : we are growing old together methinks

7 Sep 2009, 02:05 AM	#11
nooby Essential Contributor Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Europe Posts: 474	I am too lazy to keep me up to date about the rules and habits of these sites. But don't they own all our photos? That is kind of bad. They could do anything with them. Use them in commercial ads or whatever. Sell them to databases of categories. Even if they don't use them for purposes we are against it is kind of bad that if one have taken a photo that others also like and if a New Paper want to buy it from you then you can't sell it to them cause Facebook owns it? Am I wrong? apart from that I see the need for social networks and wish I was better at using such. I guess that if Internet would have been around when I was young then I would have sent receiving reports to N5BB on how we receive his HAM Radio transmissions on Shortwave. Between me was 10 to say 20 I did listen to American and Canadians on 20 meters shortwave all day. I loved to try out different american dialects so Texas accent would have been cool to try. Internet is a bit like HAN radio in that one use net etiquette for how to behave on shortwave or on the internet. Internet has spammers and crackers and shortwave had Black Peters sending without license pretending to be legal operators. social networks now a bit like the HAM Radio Clubs we had where one could get to know people regardless of social status. The King or Jordan being one such VIP that one could come in contact with. I guess I am just nostalgic. The good old days of Morse code and SSB. sorry huge derail.

7 Sep 2009, 03:20 PM	#12
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,927	Here I am responding to another of your posts tonight, nooby! Unfortunately, the Internet has drawn people (especially kids) away from Amateur Radio. Yes, I have been a ham radio operator for 40 years, and have used CW (Morse code), AM, SSB, FM, teletype, and various other digital data transmission modes (PSK31, etc.). I'm not very active right now, except that I have a VHF/UHF mobile radio in my minivan which I often use. I do operate our Field Day contest every June from a park. I still like CW / Morse Code better than other modes. On October 17, 2009, the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters (a few miles or kilometers from my house) is having a special JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) ham radio event at the BSA Museum. If anyone is involved with a Boy Scout group in their area (anywhere in the world) who wants to contact us, we will have Internet connections as well as HF (shortwave) and satellite and ISS (International Space Station) communication. Bill

7 Sep 2009, 05:53 PM	#13
nooby Essential Contributor Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Europe Posts: 474	When you and I grew up we could listen to 80Meters and the only disturbances was crackling noise from distant Lightnings from thunderstorms and the neighbors TV but they shut it down when the programs ended for the day. And these where some 15 KHz apart so plenty of room for CW and SSB to come through even from all of europe and when lucky from Canada and USA too. But 20 meters was better for such and less strong disturbances too. Then the Dimmers came and made weak signals hard to get and the Over the Distance RADAR was like a Woodpecker on the bands. Then computers sent out spikes all over the spectrum. But the good thing with internet is that one can listen in on each others radios without it cost a fortune via Voip phone or Skype or similar if the conditions are too poor due to Sunspots. I loved all the texts about building small QRPP under 100 MilliWatt transceivers and how to use Xtals on 3.5 or similar surplus build extremely good CW or SSB filters with high dynamics. Such was exciting. But I was a poor builder. But I enjoyed planning and having the high expectations on how good it would work if ever being finally built. Bill, one big issue was to find a place to live where they allowed Antennas big enough to be effective. Building restrictions and neighbors had their say in how big antennas allowed. You have a lot of trees outside your house. Google maps nowadays allow us to spy on each others houses. I've looked at my Condo three store house and one see the cars on/in/at their parking lots but antennas are too thin to get revealed. Internet is both good and bad. You most likely are right about it makes HAM radio less appealing. Easier to reach the whole world using internet. And one can share music and pictures more easy over the internet too. When we where young we where not allowed to play music over the radio now everybody can set up an internet radio station I guess. Only copyrights to consider. good talking to you

16 Nov 2009, 10:28 PM	#15
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	If you really want an answer to that question I suggest you start another thread, and possibly post it another forum than EMD, because we're email people by our interest here As to whether we need Myspace or Facebook at all, that's probably because we're email users. The other day I saw something which said Facebook wishes to take the micropayments role PayPal has. That concerned me a bit because it has potential to do that; my "just say no" to Facebook may have to cave in if it becomes the default micropayment provider. That's the only reason my family has an ancient PayPal account, used perhaps 1x/year. However, Amazon to the rescue, I read after that Amazon has an idea coming which would allow you to use them instead. At least I have an account at Amazon, but I really don't want to use it for paying all over the internet, either.