After reading this interestingly argued position IN FAVOR sending friend requests on myspace as a legitimate form of marketing, I ranted the following (below):
I'm happy to be the first to disagree, but only in part.
TACTICS
Here's my personal angle on it --> Perhaps the concept of 'friend' is morphing b/c of myspace friends (or whatever virtual community network) as target market potential.
Whatever TOM's original idea, the issue is more HOW do I (the user) want myspace to work for me?
I use myspace to keep in touch w/friends, meet new people (occasionally), and look at billions of faces & trip out. I do NOT use it to shop or anything like that.
I think that anything that helps marketing/advertising for the little person vs the big megacorps is great. REALLY. I also like Yahoo 360, except I've only met prostitutes on there -- and I've got nothing against them either, esp since they're just doing the marketing thing as well -- but I'm not doing the marketing thing there just yet. But the question is -- are you HASSLING me?
I'd be more comfortable if you made your profile = your book, and just go market the 'book entity' to others not w/friend requests but w/messages/email to sci-fi fans. By sending me a PERSONAL friend request, and not a message from the book entity saying "Hey check me out!", I feel it IS misleading and it IS spam.
I'm wondering why no-one defines spam here?
What is spam? --> unsolicited email. PERIOD
I wish you great luck w/your book and hope you exploit this obviously busted myspace network.
And you ARE clearly spamming. If someone says you're not spamming, perhaps they don't know what spam really is? I don't recall asking for your marketing of your product, did I?
My fav part of your writeup was you using the software to spam the myspace network -- did you REALLY care that it was an exploit? That it was violating terms of use?
There are articles now about people who have gotten 10k+ friends on myspace who are being paid to market things and do commercials. So bulking up your fake-friend lists is going to pay, i guess.
I think what's most disappointing is that 'market driven capitalism' in the USA invades all spaces and takes over everything, including the culture itself. (Just look at your t-shirt, your computer, your music, even your porn!) Everything, even the music that rose from counter-capitalism, counter-white aryan nation, and counter-culture (ie Reggae/Rap/Punk/Electronic/Metal/Grunge), gets absorbed so fast and productized/commoditized that people barely have a chance to absorb it.
If Public Enemy records can go PLATINUM ... and not ever get put up on the radio, there is clearly a power in the non-radio non-TV word-of-mouth world.
Which brings me back to SPAM --> yet another way to inject a viral marketing scheme into the social fabric. I hope people remember that too many viruses can weaken and eventually KILL the infected host...
I suggest everyone begin virally marketing earth-positive and life-positive concepts, such as:
Triple Green Bottom Line in Business = People, Planet, and then Profits
Your Dollar is stronger than your Vote.
American Capitalism 2006: Afer years of giving our financial power to a wealthy class because we were supposedly not intelligent enough to determine our nation's ideal course, we are just starting to feel the impact of their poor decision making and an unstoppable selfishness unfettered by morality.
The Corporate Wars have begun. Are you in one, or are you no one?
Slavery hasn't ended, and the much needed reparations haven't started.
PEACE is not optional.
and with that, I'm out. -- threewaysmedia.com in effect!
Firefox -- how I use it
If you use Firefox, I can recommend these extensions:
All in one Sidebar (gives a functional sidebar)
GooglePreview (puts preview pics into Google searches)
ScrapBook (allows Notes & complete ripping/archiving of websites for offline viewing)
FireFTP (FTP manager integrated)
Session Manager (save multiple tabs of webpages into 'sessions' <-- core Opera technology)
TabBrowser Preferences (modify tab functionality)
MouseGestures (mouse moves alone can control browsing)
TabMixPlus (makes tab browsing better)
KeyConfig (to remap KB shortcuts)
And I'm adding more daily, like today -- just while writing this, I added TabSwitcher (simpler keyboard control of tab movement), Advanced Dork (Adds in some easy Google adv'd searching), Clippings (stores commonly used text) and KeyConfig extensions.
I finally moved to Firefox w/reluctance after upgrading to Opera 9 from Opera v8.5. I've been a contented Opera user (I really dislike Microsoft IE, which I fondly call Macrosoft Internet Exposer) for years now, and I paid to register Opera a long time ago, but v9, for me, sucked.
Problem --> Opera kicks ass with a lot of beautiful integrated features, like:
So my mission has been to get some of Opera's functionality into Firefox, which I do like, but it's not like Opera in many of Opera's more graceful ways.
So far, I'm getting closer -- but not there yet. :)
All in one Sidebar (gives a functional sidebar)
GooglePreview (puts preview pics into Google searches)
ScrapBook (allows Notes & complete ripping/archiving of websites for offline viewing)
FireFTP (FTP manager integrated)
Session Manager (save multiple tabs of webpages into 'sessions' <-- core Opera technology)
TabBrowser Preferences (modify tab functionality)
MouseGestures (mouse moves alone can control browsing)
TabMixPlus (makes tab browsing better)
KeyConfig (to remap KB shortcuts)
And I'm adding more daily, like today -- just while writing this, I added TabSwitcher (simpler keyboard control of tab movement), Advanced Dork (Adds in some easy Google adv'd searching), Clippings (stores commonly used text) and KeyConfig extensions.
I finally moved to Firefox w/reluctance after upgrading to Opera 9 from Opera v8.5. I've been a contented Opera user (I really dislike Microsoft IE, which I fondly call Macrosoft Internet Exposer) for years now, and I paid to register Opera a long time ago, but v9, for me, sucked.
Problem --> Opera kicks ass with a lot of beautiful integrated features, like:
- Awesome bookmarks w/metatags
- Great download tool which starts downloading IMMEDIATELY
- Sidebar with bookmarks & useability
- Tabbed browsing -- on steroids
- Integrated search engines
- Zoom controls, style controls, 'fit to page' button, and picture on/off controls
- Remembers 'sessions' so I can start w/a bunch of page tabs loaded
- I never get a virus
So my mission has been to get some of Opera's functionality into Firefox, which I do like, but it's not like Opera in many of Opera's more graceful ways.
So far, I'm getting closer -- but not there yet. :)
OREGON roadtrippin' - Portland & Florence Aug 4-13th
This post is more of a journal entry than anything. If anyone reads this, I hope they get something out of it! :)
It's 12:20am on 8/12 (Fri/Sat 13th?) and I'm blogging. I'd rather be at a party I was invited to, but had to skip it b/c my friend had a well-timed headache (he's shy) and wanted to go home. After getting annoyed, I drove us both back to another friend's pad 15 miles outside of town -- and then his headache amazingly cleared up (after he surfed the net for awhile). Oh well. Somewhat frustrating.
I wanted to go to this party, but I didn't. Sometimes, it seems like FATE steers me around this life.
I had a printout of housing listings in Portland that I wanted to investigate. I'm on the way to check 'em out, but stop to grab some food. We pull over at Cricket Cafe, and across the street is Portland's Alternative Realtors! So we grub, I pop in, and for that day & Fri I'm driving around with a great realtor looking at places in my price range -- but not within my taste. I'm really ready to buy something, but nothing looked do-able. DAMNIT!
I'm so tempted to force it, but that's just foolish. The right thing will come if I wait ... and keep looking, keep putting out energy. And now I know the neigbhorhoods and the housing market here better. I just don't want to see everything zip by like Astoria did -- but apparently the housing market's about to dive so it doesn't matter anyway!!
On Monday, I found out that our local director was fired. I'm a bit sad at the firing, but I'm not sad that he's gone. He did me very little kindness while he was around, and I'm happy that the end of an era has come. He was ineffective, insulting, and a poor leader, but he was relatively benign as far as corp managers go. Where I work, I've seen some AMAZING jokes in management positions, so it pays to keep my eyes open!
An old friend & former coworker suggested I take this time to move my desk to the hidden areas of the company & quietly 'fall off' the list of visible employees on the payroll. I laughed about it w/him, but can't do it. I mean, it's a funny idea in theory, but in practice easily 1/2 of my actual job at this point is just showing up, so I want to do that part. Damn this work ethic!!!
This last week of seeing a bunch of friends, their children, and reuniting with old friends has been a great emotional boost for me. I have really done well in my life, picking great people to walk with ... for periods. I hope at some point, things will stay more consistent with SOMEONE, but I am the wanderer, in general, and I blame no one.
2 big lessons of the week:
1 - Glad I have no kids right now, it's so much work & commitment. CLEARLY the relationship must be stable & supportive for a good environment to raise a good healthy child.
2 - It's OK to be single for a period of time, and allow my energy to re-center in myself. While I might date soon, I will not 'hook up' too soon in an LTR. It'd be too easy to fall off balance. The balance fulcrum needs to return to my core center for my life to move. It hasn't been there for awhile now... EXCITING!
Last comment re: war in Israel/Lebannon and war in Iraq. A friend 'challenged' me and said, "Are all your shirts anti-war? We're in there now, do you think it's so smart just to stop fighting and leave?" I was glad he asked the question, bc I had to think about it.
And I still like my response, which was (paraphrased) "I'm opposed to this war, as I'm opposed to all wars. War is not an intelligent way to deal with disagreements anymore and it's unacceptible to me. It runs counter to my 'religion' which is basically to worship the sanctity and beauty of life."
I don't believe 2 wrongs can make a right, and war is a thousand wrongs making more bad karma. The USA is unfortunately now just starting to reap what it has sewn with slavery, extermination of native peoples, disrespect for plants and animals and environment, and world domination/exploitation. While the winners do write the history books -- and tend to suppress the truth, their biggest weakness is the truth of the past. And truth does reveal itself in big ways at crucial times.
I oppose all aggression against life, and that does include oppression and exploitation along with warfare and general one-on-one violence. I believe the beauty of the human challenge is we have potential for both, and we have to decide our actions based on logic, intuition, and faith.
What will we choose for our tomorrow? What will we choose for our today? What have we chosen for our past? The future can and will change the past and present, and our choices today shape everything. NOW is the most important of all moments. And NOW is the time for PEACE.
It's 12:20am on 8/12 (Fri/Sat 13th?) and I'm blogging. I'd rather be at a party I was invited to, but had to skip it b/c my friend had a well-timed headache (he's shy) and wanted to go home. After getting annoyed, I drove us both back to another friend's pad 15 miles outside of town -- and then his headache amazingly cleared up (after he surfed the net for awhile). Oh well. Somewhat frustrating.
I wanted to go to this party, but I didn't. Sometimes, it seems like FATE steers me around this life.
I had a printout of housing listings in Portland that I wanted to investigate. I'm on the way to check 'em out, but stop to grab some food. We pull over at Cricket Cafe, and across the street is Portland's Alternative Realtors! So we grub, I pop in, and for that day & Fri I'm driving around with a great realtor looking at places in my price range -- but not within my taste. I'm really ready to buy something, but nothing looked do-able. DAMNIT!
I'm so tempted to force it, but that's just foolish. The right thing will come if I wait ... and keep looking, keep putting out energy. And now I know the neigbhorhoods and the housing market here better. I just don't want to see everything zip by like Astoria did -- but apparently the housing market's about to dive so it doesn't matter anyway!!
On Monday, I found out that our local director was fired. I'm a bit sad at the firing, but I'm not sad that he's gone. He did me very little kindness while he was around, and I'm happy that the end of an era has come. He was ineffective, insulting, and a poor leader, but he was relatively benign as far as corp managers go. Where I work, I've seen some AMAZING jokes in management positions, so it pays to keep my eyes open!
An old friend & former coworker suggested I take this time to move my desk to the hidden areas of the company & quietly 'fall off' the list of visible employees on the payroll. I laughed about it w/him, but can't do it. I mean, it's a funny idea in theory, but in practice easily 1/2 of my actual job at this point is just showing up, so I want to do that part. Damn this work ethic!!!
This last week of seeing a bunch of friends, their children, and reuniting with old friends has been a great emotional boost for me. I have really done well in my life, picking great people to walk with ... for periods. I hope at some point, things will stay more consistent with SOMEONE, but I am the wanderer, in general, and I blame no one.
2 big lessons of the week:
1 - Glad I have no kids right now, it's so much work & commitment. CLEARLY the relationship must be stable & supportive for a good environment to raise a good healthy child.
2 - It's OK to be single for a period of time, and allow my energy to re-center in myself. While I might date soon, I will not 'hook up' too soon in an LTR. It'd be too easy to fall off balance. The balance fulcrum needs to return to my core center for my life to move. It hasn't been there for awhile now... EXCITING!
Last comment re: war in Israel/Lebannon and war in Iraq. A friend 'challenged' me and said, "Are all your shirts anti-war? We're in there now, do you think it's so smart just to stop fighting and leave?" I was glad he asked the question, bc I had to think about it.
And I still like my response, which was (paraphrased) "I'm opposed to this war, as I'm opposed to all wars. War is not an intelligent way to deal with disagreements anymore and it's unacceptible to me. It runs counter to my 'religion' which is basically to worship the sanctity and beauty of life."
I don't believe 2 wrongs can make a right, and war is a thousand wrongs making more bad karma. The USA is unfortunately now just starting to reap what it has sewn with slavery, extermination of native peoples, disrespect for plants and animals and environment, and world domination/exploitation. While the winners do write the history books -- and tend to suppress the truth, their biggest weakness is the truth of the past. And truth does reveal itself in big ways at crucial times.
I oppose all aggression against life, and that does include oppression and exploitation along with warfare and general one-on-one violence. I believe the beauty of the human challenge is we have potential for both, and we have to decide our actions based on logic, intuition, and faith.
What will we choose for our tomorrow? What will we choose for our today? What have we chosen for our past? The future can and will change the past and present, and our choices today shape everything. NOW is the most important of all moments. And NOW is the time for PEACE.
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