DescentBB

Let the flaming begin.

I never liked \"social networking\" sites for all sorts of reasons. Although there's a bit of tinfoil hat conspiracy to that video, it does raise real issues. I absolutely HATE myspace, facebook etc- not only for the internet-clogging gunk they have, but for the information whoring they do with data they gather.

Not to mention- all sorts of government sites are hacked all the time. If thieves can get to your vital info like social security numbers and account numbers...why give them more info like what you look like and what your family's schedules are?

You only put as much information on your Facebook profile as you want to. I think that half of the stuff on my profile could be surmised from someone just googling my name.

ThunderBunny wrote:I never liked "social networking" sites for all sorts of reasons. Although there's a bit of tinfoil hat conspiracy to that video, it does raise real issues. I absolutely HATE myspace, facebook etc- not only for the internet-clogging gunk they have, but for the information whoring they do with data they gather.

Not to mention- all sorts of government sites are hacked all the time. If thieves can get to your vital info like social security numbers and account numbers...why give them more info like what you look like and what your family's schedules are?

If only people cared about me that much. Maybe one day I'll be important enough for someone to hack into my stuff.

Well, it could go like this:

A child predator rolls slowly through the neighborhood and sees a playset or a pair of tricycles in your yard...he takes down the address of your home and goes home.

He looks up the addresses on google and sees it matches a facebook/myspace/etc link. Up pops the page with the family's photos, activities, etc. He finds out Timmy lives there and goes walking to play soccer with the church group two blocks away every Saturday at 2pm.

Facebook profiles aren't indexable by search engines, since, at a bare minimum, you need to sign in to see profiles. I believe that the default privacy settings are that only people in your network can see your profile too. My network is just my university, which, if you go to Bar University, you need a foo@bar.edu email address to join. You can further restrict it so that only your friends can see your profile, and so on.

Facebook does have directory pages that are indexable by search engines that have your name and profile image, which you can opt out of, but I think few people do this. Still, there's a good chance that if someone knows your full name, there will be other Google results with your picture.

The real lesson is don't post information like your home address anywhere, not on Facebook, not on your personal Website, not on the DBB. You could probably find some set of privacy configurations on Facebook that would make posting your address not too bad of an idea, but it's not just worth it. There's no reason why someone viewing your profile/site/DBB-post would need to know your address and couldn't just ask for it.

Just because TB is paranoid, doesn’t mean someone isn’t following him…

I was watching a PBS story the other night that pointed out the “fact” that these social group meeting places are a wealth of information to child molesters, but being fair, so was joining the local church group.

And I guess Jeff’s reasoning is similar to…If TV corrupts children, then it’s the parents fault for letting them watch TV?

I'm mostly talking about informed adults (i.e. us) using Facebook. How to handle people's stupid children is an entirely different can of worms.

Nice point Jeff.

Let me crack the lid on that can if I may for a sec with my own \"experience\". As a foot note, Vulcan knows my daughter and can probably validate this.

Way back when my kid was about 12, she found the internet. She got into myspace (new at the time) and a gaming community with flash games on Yahoo. (pool I think)

I was dead set against this, but as I was not home all the time I could not govern this like I wanted to. I locked the computer. But I have a wife that has trouble with the word \"No\" and a daughter she adores. (or did) Also, she was very unaware of the danger on the net. She knows better know, but too late after she's seen the affects it's had.
A long ugly story short, she went from being a nice kid to a tramp that's into Henti and goth and other things I won't post here. Is it all the internet's fault? no. but it was a major contributor. That and those she met on-line. People who say ANYTHING because they can and care less to whom they say it. .. after all, \"freedom of speech\".
Ultimately, it was who she \"hangs\" with that does the most damage. Parents have little recourse these days in this area. Everything is \"OK\" and if measures are taken to curb this, CSD could be called in. and depending who it is that reviews your case and their take on morals, you're screwed.

So, socialnet? bleh. It's nothing worth having. We have e-mail to stay connected and cells with texting and images and movies. We don't really need a socialnet. bulletin boards are everywhere now too. so meh. It's an advertising venue; nothing, nothing less.
*my 2 bits*

Did you happen to read the TOS in the video, or even watch the video?

(new link, old one is dead.)



They can do ANYTHING they want with ANY info you post ANYWHERE on the site. Give it away, sell it, whatever.

I've read the real TOS. The part the video left off is \"...in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings.\" IANAL, but that seems reasonable sounding to me.

Heh, what do you get when you click on the \"privacy settings\" link? You have to be a member of FB to see the that. I Don't like the language of that TOS. Period.

Basically, for each item in your profile, there is an option to limit it to:

* People in your network + friends
* Friends + friends of friends
* Only friends
* Custom

There are other pages in the privacy section too, but they're not as interesting.

I use the MySpace 'cuz it makes it way easier to get ahold of people.

only because the people you know, Use it. any communitcation application works only if it's used. If you work, you'll know that.

I use facebook to keep in touch with people too. I have gotten in touch with a lot of people that I've known over the years and it's been great. I have a single profile picture of me so that people will know its me if they are looking for my profile, my email address which is hidden, and a fake birthday (also hidden) because you have to give one when you sign up. I'm also listed as married for obvious reasons on a social networking site. That's it. None of these things are hard to find about me anywhere on the internet..... Just don't give out the information there, and the government won't be able to make their file on you any larger!!!!

Hostile wrote:...and a fake birthday (also hidden)...

I do that too...by any chance is you fake birthday 5/20?

Good news: It looks like they reverted their TOS to those of September 23.

Quoted out of the new TOS.

(sorry this is so clunky)

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\"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.\"

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Well, I'm no lawyer but it looks like this part has not changed any. I would have to have a legal opinion on this language before I would be confident your user submitted content would be secure. It appears to me that the above document is in conflict with itself.

Here, \"to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.\"

Seems to conflict with this,

\"If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.\"

Again, I'm no lawyer but I don't like this language.

You read the agreement.
You don’t like the agreement.
You don’t join the site.

No worries there, I had no intention of joining, just offering some things to think about.

I don't really use Myspace anymore since I keep getting random friend requests message and it just sucks.
On the other hand, I have been using Facebook and I really like this social network. I am really bad at making phone calls and sending e-mails to keep in touch, and Facebook makes this keeping touch process so much easier.

I do have photos of my family on there, but only under the privacy setting set to \"friends only\". I also like the fact that Facebook allows the option for me to block anyone from seeing my profile. I don't have a ton of pictures of my daily life on my profile, but I do add occasional pictures and I also like to post random photos. When there is a friend request, I usually check out their profiles and make sure I know them in person before I accept them. Unlike a lot of other people who just accepts requests at random, I choose, for as much protection as I can possibly get, to not accept any strangers.

There is also this social network for gamers called Gamernook. My brother got me to join it and i keep getting random requests but I tend to just ignore them all. I'm considering just deactivating my account since I am really there just to see how many others would put \"descent\" in their collection. It's really not very interesting to me. Anyone else heard of Gamernook?

I would have Descent in my About section except I haven't even played it in like 5 years. I come here to post because of the good conversation.