fonzo.biz

So I finally did it, I facebooked. I signed up for an account at thefacebook.com.
At first I wasn’t going to, as I have a myspace account which keeps me
from doing plenty of homework on its own. I figured there was no need
to add to my internet collection of things to do, but, in the end I
did. So what made me sign up? Well, it was actually the fact that you
have to have a valid college e-mail that made me do it. I figured since
I hopefully plan on graduating in the near future, I might as well sign
up while I’m allowed too.

So what is my opinion of
thefacebook.com after a little over a weeks worth of use . . . . .
blah. It has some good features, and it has some bad features (like
every other website), and in the end the good and bad seem to make the
website not that attractive (to me). I’ll give you a rundown of what
I’m talking about:

[GOOD]

Members : This is
definitely thefacebook.com’s strongest attribute. The website has just
a ton of people signed up. I think for Western Washington University
alone they must have a few thousand members. I did a search for WWU,
and there is no way I am going to look through all of those folks
anytime soon, there is just too many.

Class Schedule : Another
great feature is the ability to add your classes (which, thefacebook
already knows by the course number) to your profile. This makes it easy
to search for folks who are in the same class as you. I like this
feature, and while I have not yet done this, I could see this making it
extremely easy to get in touch with and meet folks in your class. Not
to mention, it is always fun to see who else in your class is just as
much of a internet junky as yourself.

Restricted Access : I
could see some folks not liking this feature, but this is one that I
like. While I’m sure it actually doesn’t do much, forcing people to
have a valid school e-mail address gives off the sense of security. It
makes you feel like you’re not going to get bombarded with SPAM
advertisements telling you how to increase your breast size and
maintain an erection for 4hrs  (who would want to anyway?) at any
given time. Plus, I’m sure it helps keep those 999 year old internet
stalkers who pretend to be 22 at bay. I’m sure it doesn’t stop all of
them (more about this later in the BAD section), but it does give off
the impression to help eliminate them.

[BAD]

Blogging
: There is none. Well, at least I couldn’t find it. And since I like
writing pointless blurbs and blobs for my friends (which on facebook at
the time of this writing is a grand total of 0) to read over in their
spare time, I was disappointed that there was no blogging capability
within thefacebook. You can post announcements (similar to bulletins on
myspace), and join groups, but there is no way to just post a blog that
people can read over at their whim when they stumble upon your page. To
me, this makes it so that I have to join another site (such as
myspace), or create my own to get my blogging needs satisfied. Not
good, not good at all.

Privacy : This is a big one for me, and
thefacebook fails terribly at it. First off, thefacebook asks you for
things that many people are very skeptical about handing over such as
your telephone number and your address (not your zipcode, but you
address, complete with apt. .. and all that good stuff). This wouldn’t
be so bad except that once you enter the information, it becomes
available to anyone, let me repeat that, ANYONE on thefacebook.com
website. I think what surprised me the most was that folks actually put
this information in. You will find folk’s dorm rooms, cell phones,
mailing addresses, AIM screen names, alternate e-mail address, etc, etc
on this site. Nope, I just can’t do it. I don’t mind giving out my info
to people I meet (in person or over the net), but to just have it
dangling around the internet like that…no thanks. I simply refuse. To
give some slight credit to thefacebook, there is way to restrict access
to this information to certain people (same interests, same school,
etc). However, upon signing up it is set for anyone within thefacebook
to see the information, and, at the time of this writing there is no
apparent way to completely hid the information either. I am simply not
a fan.

Privacy v2 : Yup, that’s right. I felt that they failed
at privacy so badly I decided to write a part 2 about it. I won’t go
over what I just said, but after writing the above I thought of a very
big potential problem with giving away all that information. One, is
SPAM and other wack ass marketing BS. With a website such as
thefacebook where personal information such as address, telephone, and
multiple e-mails is so easily given away, it is a SPAM’rs dream. The
second is stalkers. While I would say most people on the internet are
nice, warm fuzzy fuckin’ creatures, there are those few who just don’t
have it all upstairs. And giving away such personal information to me
is just asking (asking) for some strange ass old white man to show up
at your door with a trench-coat with his balls hanging out. Gross huh?
I know it doesn’t seem like getting this information is possible since
access is restricted, but it is, and it is easy to get to.

One
way to get to the information is to simply purchase a students e-mail
address. And don’t think for one minute that a student wouldn’t quickly
sell theirs for the right price. I sure know I would. Hell, I don’t use
the thing other than to sign into thefacebook.com anyways. Also, given
that a user can post a direct link to their profile (and anyone else’s
if you take the time to figure out the way they create the link…which,
is not all that complicated) as I did below, information that was once
held within the website now becomes public information for the entire
internet. Don’t believe me that it is that easy? Take some time and
change a few of the numbers in my link and see how easy it is to find
another persons profile. (I apologize to in advance to anyone who may
be stalked due to their profile being found by crazy internet people
because of said comments)

[OVERALL]

While it is
nice to see folks who are in your class, the lack of a way to
communicate to people other than through groups & messages makes
thefacebook not worthy of much attention. No games, no blogging, no
unique profiles, no multiple pictures, no no no. Given that, and the
apparent safety risks one assumes when becoming a member (and entering
all the asked for information), I would say that thefacebook is just
not as polished of website as it could be. All website should take care
when dealing with their members private information, and, thefacebook
simply does not. And this, is the glaring reason why thefacebook will
not be taking over my myspace time anytime soon.

To see my thefacebook profile (as well as my privacy concerns), click here (how much SPAM am I going to get in my school e-mail after posting this?).