I thought I’d take some time to write something unrelated to the Virtual Roadside for a minute. Most of the people I know (in college at least) have a facebook account, and most of them are probably aware of the new changes there. I guess theres a few thoughts about that I’d like to share.
a) If I had created one of those massive groups to protest it, I definitely would have tried to cash in on it. I know, its pitiful. But 500,000 people in under two days? I’d love that kind of traffic. It’s been amusing to watch the traffic numbers go way up on those groups and the amount of people just flocking to it..
b) More serious note — On these groups there, it seems like a lot of people keep saying the same thing: Why can’t we come together for important issues, like AIDS or starving children or “The Virtual Roadside” :-p or something that actually matters? Its amazing how much people talk about it (hey look, I’m doing it too!), but really there aren’t any serious efforts to resolve that problem.
Actually, I’ve been trying to think of an effective way to solve that problem, and I’ve got a few interesting ideas I might play with in the future…
c) All of the information people are complaining about is already available publicly, and I think this should serve as a huge warning to people about websites — everyone has access to them, and if you put something stupid there, be prepared for everyone to see it!
Of course, at the same time, I have mixed feelings about this. I understand point C above, but at the same time I recognize that a lot of people are complaining about the loss of their perceived privacy — personally, I think the posting of certain types of information should be opt-in (like whether you added a friend, or wrote on someone’s wall) and other should be opt-out (like if you updated your status, or wrote a new ‘note’, or some other ‘sensible’ public information). I dunno… lots of mixed feelings here about that. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Oh by the way, continue letting your friends know about ‘The Virtual Roadside!’. Been getting lots of traffic, thanks for that! 🙂