I cower away from the horror that is MySpace, and I scarcely know what to do with facebook; I'm all at sea on this social networking buzz. Now I've gone and signed up for another one, the Nature Network, a social networking site for scientists. I'm still lost. Maybe if I encourage a bunch of you other scientists out there to sign up, some comprehension will begin to gel for me.
Attila Csordas has a nice writeup of the whole magilla which helps. I'm giving it a shot, anyway.
I already notice it lacks those bosomy young ladies in skimpy clothing that always greet me on MySpace, and the contributors all seem to know how to write plain English, so it's different on those scores.
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Much like AOL, facebook and myspace have the benefit of keeping the riff raff out of the rest of the intertubes.
We should be grateful to them for providing that service.
So ... if I drank beer I could have more friends? If only I had known that sooner!
Do I actually have to drink it, or would it suffice to keep buying rounds for people?
Sigh. PZ honey? I have a confession to make. I joined Mensa to meet men and it was the stupidest thing I ever did.
"Much like AOL, facebook and myspace have the benefit of keeping the riff raff out of the rest of the intertubes."
So now we up-and-coming college facebookers are lumped with the rest of the internet "riff raff"? Perhaps if you searched for "Intelligent Design" groups on FBook you'd be pleased to find that most of them are a backlash against the ID ignorance and dogma. We are putting up a fight on our own front, not just smashing beer cans against our foreheads...
Those myspace kids, however... lol
These two items in the TOS just irk me:
- "We may change our privacy policy at any time without giving you notice, so please check it each time you visit this website." [Oh now COME ON!]
- "not to use any oversized fonts, images or JavaScript; use only the facilities provided for content creation, as documented on the website, which for reference are: bold, italic, headings and lists;" [sheesh]
(but of course I am signing up)
Media alert:
BBC Panorama program on Scientology is available for the next few days at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/default.stm
(I'm sure that a site like Youtube would never air a copyrighted program (search string 'Panorama Scientology), so you'll have to settle for the BBC version in Realplayer format.)
It actually looks like it might work. With something like Nature behind it, you want to be hoping the spammers, camwhores and 419ers will be calmly kept at bay.
(Though I might think Invitrogen and other biotech shrills might become an issue)
I dont think you'd like it, PZ. From the terms and conditions (3.2.iii):
"[you are] not to submit or create any link to, any defamatory, obscene, indecent, lewd, pornographic, violent, abusive, offensive, insulting, threatening, menacing, unlawful or blasphemous material" (my emphasis)
Don't see you lasting long there. ;-)
Ha! No beer? You should come to our monthly Nature Network meet-ups.
http://network.nature.com/london/forums/londonevents/88
Only you have to be in London or Boston, which are the first two local 'hubs' for Nature Network.
Anyhow, thanks for the mention. We're still really new and aware that the Network ain't yet perfect, but it's growing steadily.
Matt Brown
Editor of Nature Network London
PZ, you will want to change your Facebook profile link above in the profile container from this:
http://minnesota.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13937490
To this:
http://minnesota.facebook.com/p/PZ_Myers/13937490
The latter is a public viewing profile, so that the person doesn't have to log in to Facebook, or even belong to it, to see a snapshot of your profile. It makes it much easier to share with others, without giving away any personal info.
Trust me on this.
Even fat guys with beards can meet girls this way.
But blue gal, I agree...there aren't a lot of "men" to be found here.
Hey, maybe we need to make Morris one of your hubs! I can imagine tabs across your banners for "London", "Boston", and ... "Morris". Population 5000. 150 miles away from anything.
That is so funny. The other night a member of a social group I sometimes hang out with casually mentioned that he and several of the others were also members of Mensa.
I told him politely that almost everyone I knew could get into Mensa but that we had better things to do with our time. He was at a loss for words. I suppose I should have smiled and acted blond. "Mensa? Isn't that in Arizona?"
But you can do beer on facebook! Ok, it's only a picture of a beer. And it costs a real dollar. Never mind.
Either you or an imposter is "my friend" on MySpace. I'm glad an occasional scientist gets past the gangsta rappers. At lest a fan site if nothing else. Boobs are extra...
And I joined Womensa to meet girls.
"Mensa? Isn't that in Arizona?"
Having lived there (or at least in the city I think you're referencing), that made me laugh.
Uh... you can have beer beside the computer, can't U? Just don't spit it on the keyboard.
When I found how low the quals were for Mensa, I kind of lost interest.