

Retweeting links and replying “cool stuff ” is not a discussion - hme
http://aworldforus.tumblr.com/post/612855285/sorry-web-2-0-guys-but-retweeting-links-and-replying
A blog post on how immersive web and VOIP can make better discussions happen online
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mcantor
I have to call shenanigans on this. My social circle regularly has huge
debates via Facebook links and wall posts; off the top of my head, I can
recall discussions about birth control, existentialism, web frameworks and the
impact of video games on our culture. Social networks are tools; there is no
prescribed way to use them beyond the actual codebase they run on. Yes...
Facebook's design _affords_ phatic throwaway talk more easily than it does
discussion, but that doesn't mean you can't use it any other way.

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MartinCron
Exactly, I had one of the best discussions about race, class, and privilege
I've ever had on Facebook.

But not all conversations need hardcore gravitas to be valuable. There's
actually a lot of information in a "cool stuff" RT. It says that the person
read your status, and liked it enough to share, that tells you a lot about
where your tastes align, which has been a facet of friendship as long as
humans have been making friends.

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Xixi
"really realtime": it's sad to have to use such an expression when it ought to
simply be realtime.

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robotron
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Voice is better than chat. Why is this here?

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Xixi
I guess we've got a very nice case of irony : an article on how cool voice is
and how uncool chat is, on a text only internet forum...

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MartinCron
It's either irony or sarcasm. Your pick.

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dan00
Cool stuff!

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dnsworks
Social networking isn't about a conversation, that was 2007's cute mantra.
Social networking has devolved into a self-promotion platform whose only
existence is to advertise. The conversation ended years ago. Don't worry,
though, the bubble is popping. Soon we'll have some new ridiculous hype so
that silly people can make lots of money being doofuses online by calling
themselves "web 3.0" evangelists or whatever.

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daten
I disagree. There may be plenty of things to complain about with facebook, but
I still find it plenty useful to stay in touch with friends, family and
acquaintances. We plan events, share photos, keep current with what's
happening in each others lives and occasionally have long discussions on
specific topics. For me it works exactly the way it's supposed to and it's
easy to ignore the ads on the side of the page.

I worry that the real "hype" right now is buying into the recent anti-facebook
trend.

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dnsworks
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-facebook. I think it's just as much of a case
of silicon snake oil as the rest of the silly social networking sites out
there. Facebook hasn't made my life better, it basically became a place where
my annoying extended family started spamming me once I had finally blocked all
of their email addresses, so that I wouldn't receive their mass forwarded
emails about jesus sitting on your shoulder while speeding. Yay.

