Where is everybody?

[funky_house]

Was just looking at the "most popular forum members" on the "Homepage". I can only think of one that is on here regularly.

Same with the most popular bloggers / posters. Never see half of them anymore.

Is everyone now on that "Facebook" thingy? :-)

[Bill Rini]

Many are on FB. Though, I would say, on average, most aren't very active there either. It's especially true of the bloggers. They're not writing blog posts over there. Mostly one or two sentence status updates every now and again. The only real exception on the blogger list is Bruce who still copies and pastes anything doing with green energy or warning of a global warming meltdown every day :-)

I'm somewhat guilty of that as well. I rarely post anything of length or substance on Facebook. I "check-in" at the Bellagio in Vegas or at a concert so I can rub it in Rob's face. I might post a quick sentence or two on there a couple of times a week.

But it's too much for me. Rob just announced he was taking a month off of Facebook because it was eating too much of his time. IMO, part of the problem is that you think you're engaging but you're really not. People just post tons of crap. Links to this. People asking you to copy and paste some message as a status update so you can save all the starving people on earth. Blah, blah, blah.

Many of the people you see missing are thrilling Facebook with status updates like:

I'm hungry
I'm tired.
I want to party

In fact, here's a random sample of the first ten status messages of people I know from Thailand:

Having fun with simsimi hahaha. Am I an idiot?

Too all the nice well wishes, thank you. It was a nice birthday this year and I appreciate the many kind words.

Last Tuesday of January... Last chance for half-priced margaritas and sangrias. We make all our drinks from fresh ingredients and original recipes. They're strong and delicious... And tonight you can try them from 75 baht a glass, all night!

I just realize that I will be on vacation in 2 weeks. where do you think I will be going ?

Hahaha.... Oh, so busted! :-)

00.10 am, driving home after work, gym and aroma massage. Been a long stressful day as usual. Time for me to pass out

It's snowing in London now!!! Grrrr <-- This person is not in London

Very interesting and well-presented. He got some attacks from atheists, but a lot more from churchies. Nearly 18m viewers in 3 weeks...! I like it!

Get it purchased!

Victoria Jackson ...I'm inlove with it:

That's not counting all of the updates in Thai or updates that consist of nothing but a picture of food. Similar length so between what I can read in Thai and just guessing, they're pretty much of similar caliber as the updates above.

Not that the quality of TF conversations rises much above that but you have a choice. You can debate how many drug safe houses you have or just post something short and nonsensical if you want.

That's the part I've always said is missing with Facebook. On TF, someone like Bruce might get grief from people who disagreed with his views or would poke holes in the stories that he was copying and pasting. On FB, you can mold your list of "friends" to only people who agree with you (I'm not suggesting he does that, just an example).

In fact, I think subconsciously people feel a little more free on TF. They can hide behind a screen name. FB is open and public. FB uses people's real names. There is a very different vibe disagreeing with someone on FB than there is on TF. On FB people tend to take it more personal. They don't like being called out and I've been "warned" a few times that if I disagree with someone I risk being unfriended so they don't lose face in front of their other friends.

On FB, people on my "friends" list include TF'ers, my family, friends I've accumulated over the years, business contacts, etc, etc. There's so much focus on projecting a correct image there. On TF I feel I can be a little more free in expressing my thoughts because I don't have to worry that just because I mention something that it might cause me to lose a job opportunity or that my family might find out what a degenerate I am :-)

Sorry if it seems like I'm ranting but I have a love-hate relationship with FB. Even in my other business I often write about the fact that FB seems like such a waste of effort so it's not like my feeling have anything to do with my business interests in TF.

Here's something I wrote to the poker community that I'm involved with:

Facebook is a window into the parts of my friends’ lives that I don’t want to know about. I remember when I first began using MySpace, my first impression was that I had no idea how many of my friends had absolutely zero aesthetic taste whatsoever. When MySpace allowed people to customize their profile pages it really became a peek into people’s psyche. Flashing backgrounds, blinking this, flashing that, five different song tracks all set to auto-play on load, etc. Half of the MySpace profile pages should have come with a warning that they may cause epileptic seizures. Yet, my friends, business contacts, and people I knew went out of their way to create this abomination.

Facebook doesn’t allow you to express yourself like this but it does encourage you to post your thoughts. And quite often those thoughts are even more disturbing than any MySpace page. See, the thing is, I would rather not know if you’re a racist, bigot, monumentally ignorant, narcissistic, lacking of original thoughts, a religious zealot, lazy, or psychotic.

Most of that stuff are things you want to keep private. It’s great that we met at a conference and exchanged Facebook info so we could keep in touch. However, that doesn’t mean that I want to hear your daily updates on religion and minorities. I would prefer to think of you as that cool guy I met in London who I might be able to do a business deal with. I don’t want to know you as the guy who thinks fags and Mexicans will burn in hell.

I call it the Mel Gibson Syndrome. I love the Braveheart, Mad Max, and Lethal Weapon Mel Gibson. I don’t want to know about the Jew-hating, alcoholic, and violent Mel Gibson.

This sums up Facebook to me:

[Japamerican]

I've got to say that I'm so happy I'm off of facebook. I had to login a couple of days ago to remind a couple of friends who the late Peder was. Just opening up and seeing those red notification numbers made me feel gross.

Then reading what Bill just quoted made me feel gross. A lot of it is that just don't have self control when it comes to things like that. I can sit and play on FB for hours and get literally nothing accomplished. I just read a story of a guy around my age who cut himself off completely from FB, email, Twitter, mobile phone, etc. for 3 months, and he said that every minute of his life felt like it had more value/purpose. I've felt a bit of that, but certainly not to the extent that he felt it.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to use it as a more positive tool when I do get back on.

[Stramash]

I'm usually online and have the occasional eye on FB but mainly doing music things

[funky_house]

I'm usually online and have the occasional eye on FB but mainly doing music things

Never been on Facebook, and have no interest either.

As for your music things Iain, here is something for when your eyes start to go.

http://www.smithsonmartin.com/emulator-dvs/

42 inches big enough? :-)

[Bill Rini]

Then reading what Bill just quoted made me feel gross.

But don't you miss all of the attention seeking? You know, the people who go on and constantly whine about how bad their life is. The people who always complain about how bored they are. The pissing and moaning about what they don't have (boo hoo, I don't have an iPhone). The people who complain about not having any free time but post 20 Farmville updates per day. The folks who think that they should share in anything good that happens to you (You: I'm off to NYC tomorrow on biz. Them: Buy me a ticket too?). The people who shout randomly into the wind (I hate you. You know who you are!). The person who pines all day for love and affection (Love is like a unicorn, a delicate flower, and magic pixie dust, all rolled up into a kiss from an angel).

Don't you miss that? LOL

[Teddy]

hahaha....I agree with Bill on that last post. The ever cryptic messages is what gets me "I will no longer waste time on YOU!" Which translates to "I want some attention and need to make up a drama to see if anyone is reading this" It's ridiculous that people actually think that we can't see through this.

I've always preferred TF to FB and still do. When there is a good argument going on it is very entertaining to read, but it does have its quiet moment and even its dull moments (Kauntiz springs to mind). But we can only hope that this is a phase.