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[Japo]

Social networks are for making yourself available to people. A lot of people are OK with the idea of having a public image, it's what they want, and know the consequences of their actions, or even that they can choose what is available to whom. The people that post their photos on Facebook publicly, so that one friend can watch them, and then bitch about their appearing on Google... Well there's Darwin Award for them.

[Eagle of Fire]

I completely agree about that Darwin Award thing. Where our opinion diverge is that I am sure the vast, vast majority of those users fall under this description. Kind of similar to the vast amount of people who purchase a computer and play around with it without really knowing what they are doing in the first place. That's how Microsoft earned the majority of their billions...

[RRS]

Originally Posted by arete

maybe we should close this silly, silly thread

Why? I'd like to discuss this Facebook phenomenon. Really, it's not just about the script on Abandonia. Social networks are the subject of many serious studies. And I do have serious questions that go beyond security settings. Maybe I have studied promotion/PR and want to understand it better?

I understand that if a person stumbles upon a thing on their friend's profile they may be inclined to investigate it (e.g.: my buddy likes Abandonia, so I want to check it out, because we have similar tastes). This is done via the "what I like" mechanism on Facebook.
But what benefits are from the script we're talking on Abandonia (listing people) ? I'm already visiting Abandonia when I see it, so... ? Am I to discover some famous people among site's fans (say, Peter Molyneux)? Wouldn't simple "like" button suffice?

As I understand, Facebook gives the benefit of not having to register on yet another forum to talk with the followers of a given website/franchise/rock band/celebrity/whatever. Instead of going through the boring registration procedure, you simply "like" or "follow" (Twitter) a thing, because you already have an account.
Does Facebook offer proper discussion tools, like topical threads etc.? So far I've only seen its comments feature, which works more like blog than proper form of communication.

You say that if I don't like (pun intended) Facebook, I don't need to use it. True, that's what I did so far. The problem is with it becoming a fad, sucking away people from other forms of communication. My buddies stop using instant messengers saying "find me @ Facebook & Twitter". Well established forums get closed because companies think "we've got that new thing, so let's skip that old forum altogether". If Facebook was just another form of communication I can opt out, I wouldn't have complained so much. The thing is that it starts replacing things it was not meant to replace, as it was designed as a tool for people to discover each other for dating/hanging out.

[Lulu_Jane]

I've no problem with this thread becoming a place to discuss the social media phenomenon, go for gold guys

RSS, I'd like to be very clear on one point though - The AB network (in particular facebook and twitter) are by no means meant to replace the forums, it's a means of communicating with people, who for whatever reason, have no urge to register on site, or who have but don't visit regularly. It's an extension of of what we do, and it's probably better to think of it in terms of site advertising.

For every "hardcore" dos fan that joins and is active on our site, there are hundreds more who visit now and then just to pick up games etc. They are more likely to check their social networks daily than they are our front page.

I am very interested in any ideas you guys have for implementing this better

[Tracker]

...who for whatever reason, have no urge to register on site, or who have but don't visit regularly.

Recently I have just became one of those people, yet I never thought I should register on Facebook (let me tell you I have no accounts on FB or Twitter either), just because I'm not here every night. Of course it would be boring to log in whenever I'd like to access the forums, but then I ask, what are the cookies for? In this case surely not for happy munching, so if you just save your password (not that anyone would like to steal your AB account to post bulls__t, right?), it'll automatically log you in whenever you visit the site (Theoretically. Practically, if you use Firefox, or the site has a bad day, you might be f___d, as there have been cookie issues in the not distant enough past). I can't see that as a reason to have a too close relation with FB, and that script the debate is about, is a sign of a relation not enough remote. We're just reinventing the wheel here I believe, as one of us did with a retrogaming oriented "social networking site" - why would we need a new place for sharing our experiences in this subculture?

I must admit that those SNS sites are a paradise for PR folks and advertisers, and we might want to share what we have with the world through them, but I believe that those who are interested in oldschool gaming actually find us on their own, and the casual FBers are in no way interested in tweaking DOSBox to be able to run ancient games or play ancient games at all, and such.

[RRS]

Originally Posted by Tracker

one of us did with a retrogaming oriented "social networking site" - why would we need a new place for sharing our experiences in this subculture?

I've voiced similar opinion back then. I simply couldn't see what new that site can give to us.

Originally Posted by Tracker

those SNS sites are a paradise for PR folks and advertisers

Exactly. That's why the social networks gained social acceptance and multiplatform support (those built-in FB buttons in newest handhelds!) all of the sudden, because they've realized this.

Originally Posted by Lulu_Jane

I am very interested in any ideas you guys have for implementing this better

I guess the common Facebook crowd is too dumb to use RSS (to aggregate headlines/news from dozens of websites at once).

[Eagle of Fire]

That's also why they try to claim that it is safe and morally acceptable to join those sites: that's where the money's at.

What? Don't tell me you didn't see this coming. Everything can be justified if money is hanging at the end of the road.

[RRS]

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

and morally acceptable

Few years back, in myspace days, my American buddies were saying employers shun people with social network accounts.
Today not only we have widely accepted Facebook, but also social networks specifically created for recruiting/HR. So it looks the other way now - don't have an account? nobody knows you, you're out of work. I admit, I haven't penetrated these new networks yet, maybe if the people are on a professional level there they may be actually useful... on the other hand - look at the model profiles on agencies' websites - when unmoderated it always turns into stupid comment flood.

[Lulu_Jane]

Originally Posted by RRS

I guess the common Facebook crowd is too dumb to use RSS (to aggregate headlines/news from dozens of websites at once).

Well, we do have an RSS feed, although admittedly it's not very visible at the moment.

[DarthHelmet86]

I know a lot of people who use Dosbox and play games all of the time with it who have never thought about joining the forum. However they are interested in following us on social network sites they use to see when new games and updates happen and to see any news we like.

Maybe we can get the RSS feed some more attention as well now Lulu?