
Don’t be a Facebook whore - astrec
http://www.cringely.com/2008/12/dont-be-a-facebook-whore/
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gaius
One of the best features FB ever added was "block all invites from this
person". Problem solved with minimal drama.

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diN0bot
while i applaud the general spirit of the blog post, cringely's examples don't
exactly make sense.

on the one hand he is admits to signing up for 'spam' newsletters to keep a
pulse (is this because it's useful or more obsessiveness?). but he also says
that too much spam makes email not useful.

then he says that he will never sign up for third party apps on facebook. what
about the pulse? what if they're useful?

i don't get what his personal experience is trying to say, but i do think
clogging is an interesting phenomena. companies make a lot of crap and are
often motivated by getting user attention and thus the bottom line, rather
than truly helping users. then again, different users want different things.
one man's newsletter is another man's spam.

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cliffy
I thought he was saying the lesson he learned from signing up for all those
email newsletters was that it was a waste of time and ended up clogging his
inbox. He won't make the same mistake when using social networks like
Facebook.

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fallentimes
I use HN and twitter a lot more than facebook. Facebook's best use for me
personally has been sharing links with friends, and when I go to X city I can
click on it to see if I have any friends there.

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jmtame
I paid someone in India to delete all Facebook wall posts for about $40, and
then I removed all of the people I don't talk to anymore. It feels pretty good
--gets rid of a lot of crap I wouldn't have been interested in seeing or
reading anyway.

Aside from that, my Facebook usage has declined quite a bit and I don't really
feel like I'm missing anything. I do hang out on HN a lot though ;)

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danw
You realise there's an option to disable your wall without spending $40?

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Jebdm
"...NEVER accept an invitation (even if I actually end-up attending the
event)"

Strange, considering that the events feature is one of the most useful on
Facebook, and because he has obviously used it (albeit inefficiently) since
he's noticed events this way. Really, Facebook events are great for parties
and things when you can't get everyone together at once to
plan/discuss/whatever, (or when you're antisocial like me and you don't want
to). A lot less phone calls and such to mess with, and a built-in discussion
board and RSVP system to boot.

