Slashdot Mirror
Who Says Money Can't Buy Friends?
Courtney5000 writes "It looks like some users of popular networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have stooped so low as to actually pay real money for friends. These friends aren't even real believe it or not. You can apparently choose from a selection of 'models' to leave you customized comments to look like you have friends and are popular online. This is unbelievable!"
...But I really need good slashdot karma ;)
-- Rastignac was here.
How is it different from the "real life"? You are what you dress. You are what you consume. You are what you friends are. Unfortunatly in these days for many people you exist only in the eyes of the others. When other people stop looking and "admiring" you, you don't exist anymore.
So you are buying a new car today yop say? Do you **really** need it?
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
All kinds of fake friend services are common. Nothing special there.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
I though it was another article on the MS/Novell 'agreement.'
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
For the low price of just 5 USD, you can chose from our selection of highly praised slashdot users (some with only 3-digit UIDs) to friend you, please send payments to Ihavenofriends@slashdot.org
You really think that someone who is suicidal will have their mood bettered when they realize someone had to pay for them to have friends?
:(){
...America's fraternities and sororities were unavailable for comment.
This is unbelievable!
On the contrary, I'd say it was inevitable.
Teh weB2.0 is teh rox0r. It just goes to show the power of Web2.0 and it's ability to democratize formerly abstract concepts like friendship, then monetize them. What more can you ask for, you can already buy love in several US states and countries around the world.
/. strips sarcasm tags. For the terminally holier-than-thou set, the above was indeed sarcasm.
-Charlie
P.S.
Fake your Space says (and I quote): "We understand that you want your friends to look as normal as possible and as far from fake as possible. I looked around in the Women and Men section, and I didn't see one normal looking person. Check out Molly for instance.
This website is a nice prank.
-- Cheers!
has anybody actually said that money can't buy you friends? I thought we all agreed that it can't buy you love, or happiness, but friends was still wide open. There was always one little rich kid at school who proved that you could, in fact, buy friends.
I guess I wasn't clear enough. Since we're talking about MySpace users, I meant "I wonder if 'gifting' a friendship in this way could help push over the edge someone who is suicidal."
People have paid for sex for thousands of years. Pathetic as it may seem, why is it surprising that they'd pay for cyber-friends as well?
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
/. represents a relatively small, select group of people ... not at all indicative of the masses. MySpace and Facebook are hugely popular with the general population, and in particular with high schoolers and college kids. Most adults would consider this large segment of the population "superficial", so it stands to reason that a good social networking site would mirror its userbase's traits.
But what social networks do folks here use? Is there a good one that offers the benefits of a Facebook or Myspace, while being less superficial and spammy?
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
Yes. Please buy me a hooker so I don't kill myself.
This
"Fake Your Space -- A Place For Posers"
Seriously, how is this different than gamers buying virtual goods with real-life money?
Huh? Why not just create a new user and befriend that person ... even if you had to pretend to be someone else it would be far better than paying for it. Heck, you could go on MySpace and just roam around for users with very few friends and befriend them to lift their spirits. Again, far more noble than paying for friends.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
He had a pimped out myspace because he was white and nerdy though.
"This is one reason why many people don't use Myspace. Many of the people on it are pathetic and superficial.
And I will give you may absolute full and undying support....for $19.95.
~X~
~X~
A Fictional Situation.
Location a 8th Grade class in a computer room.
Dude B: Dude, you have no friends you are a complete loser!
Dude A: No way I have ton a friends let me show you.
(Dude A opens his MySpace Page)
Dude A: See all the friends I have!
Dude B: Oh I See I guess you are cool after All.
In real life there Dude B wouldn't care. In all this effort to make yourself seem cool the best you can do is make yourself as part of the crowd. So stop trying to be cool it takes to much effort just try to blend in and you are all set.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
So you mean all those myspace friends requests I keep getting from scantily clad women are really my friends taking sympathy on me and trying to buy me friends? :(
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
This is our social network. Most of us, I would say, also use this old technology called IRC. To tell the truth. I'd rather talk to an eggdrop bot with a megahal script on IRC than to most of the real people on myspace.
Beer! It's what's for breakfast!
Benefits of Myspace without being superficial and spammy? You mean about:blank?
This is a sig. It is appended to the end of comments I post.
Mod parent up. Only $5.
It's like buying a prostitute that won't put out...
/. represents a relatively small, select group of peopleTell that to all who have ever been slashdotted.. ;P
All 10 seasons are on DVD.
Summation 2
But what social networks do folks here use? Is there a good one that offers the benefits of a Facebook or Myspace, while being less superficial and spammy?
Yeah: Facebook or Myspace.
Translation: DON'T ASSOCIATE WITH SUPERFICIAL PEOPLE AND YOUR MYSPACE EXPERIENCE WILL REFLECT THAT
I don't know why this is such a difficult concept for people on Slashdot to grasp. It is barely any different from real life. Every day, at the grocery store, at your job, at school, at church, there are people all around you who are superficial or otherwise undesirable to you. The entire world we live in is like that. The trick is that you don't fucking hang out with people like that. Problem solved.
If you don't like 'emo' kids, don't add any to your friends list. If you don't like 'whores', don't add any to your friends list. If you don't like teen-agers in general, don't add any to your friends list. Your experience on MySpace will be interesting and constructive if you surround yourself with interesting and constructive people.
In the end you may have some other reason for disliking MySpace, of course, but the Slashdot line that MySpace is populated solely by angst-ridden uneducated children is bull shit. You would have the same impression of Earth if you were looking at it from the outside. But if you actually use the superior intelligence that you imply you possess, you will discover that there are many people on MySpace who do not fit your caricature.
Or, you know, you could just use it to communicate with people from real life, the way i and everybody else i know do, and not even worry about how the rest of the world behaves on MySpace.
Cash for peerage sounds like something Tony Blair would be intrested in.
If you are over thirty and have a My Space account you are probably a pedophile. .... Oh wait....
Yeah right! After looking with my daughter on MySpace, you are telling me that Tony Hawk is a pedophile, Wierd Al Yankovic is a Pedophile and Michael Jackson is a
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is the real Bots Detection Bot, which has user ID 1033846.
Your account has been suspended.
This thread will be deleted.
Oh my god, that can't possibly be true! People who pretend to be friends? That's unbelievable! In the real world, nobody would ever pretend to be friends with someone, unless they were real true friends for life, who were willing to die for you!
The internet is just evil. Imagine, people basing popularity just on how attractive someone is? It's not normal.
... and then they built the supercollider.
So how long before having good looking friends is perceived as fake, and people start buying ugly friends? Slashdot. I just made you a fortune.
Next up. Slashdot sells Mod points.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
In the spirit of the story, how much does ./ charge for a front page post these days?
this.showSig(false)
when the money stops flowing...those "friends" go away.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Seems to me there's a business model in there somewhere. All you need is a Step 2).
"No. Popular with angsty kids who still consider their favorite band-of-the-week as a defining characteristic of their very existence."
You can choose to believe that or not. The choice is largely one of ignorance or not.
There are a huge number of people on MySpace, and pigeonholing them in the way you have is akin to a MySpacer saying "Slashdot? That's popular with pale-skinned computer geeks that have no friends, no life, and no social skills. They live in their moms basement at age 35 and consider their computer operating system a defining characteristic of their very existence"
The point I'm trying to make is that if you think that MySpace is full of superficial, ignorant people who accept stereotypes at face value, then you, sir, based on your comments, would fit right in.
Sadly, I agree. And I'm not kidding.
Looks like slashdot has been duped for free advertising again. The submitter's domain (sandiegointeractive.com) and the fakeyourspace.com domain are registered to the same person.
This is a joke site put out by Brant Walker . He's a photographer, video artist, and web designer from San Diego. Check out who owns the domain name.
Either that, or Brant is getting a bit hard up for money.
I'm with you. Most of my non-geek friends are on MySpace so I created an account to keep up with them. My 10 year reunion was organized through MySpace. But every time I pull up a profile my inner web designer dies a little. I use Flashblock to prevent the music from assaulting the ears but these fonts set to 50% opacity over a background of similar color make me want to stab out my own eyes. I have to select the text just to read it and that makes me hurt on so many levels. Why, ye internet Gods, why? Next they will be setting their font to 3px, opacity to 25, with color at #010101 using a background color of #000000. That is when I start hunting Tom with an elephant gun for allowing this.
No animals were harmed in the making of this sig.
Well, there was that one puppy, but he is all better now.
What is this "social network" you speak of?
Do I have to own a Zune to use it?
If you're a musician or band trying to build a grassroots audience, Myspace has become almost indespensible. Thank god the bass-player actually likes myspace, and is willing to maintain the band's account. Thanks to him, we actually managed to attract an audience the first time we played in towns like Boston or NYC, away from our own turf. I'm guessing that FakeSpace is actually geared towards spammy-marketers, not insecure teenagers. If you were marketing to superficial people, the appearance of popularity would make a big difference.
This is just buying the illusion that you have them.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
I can't speak for the GP, but I am fine with people being free to set up their page however they like. What better "bozo filter" could there possibly be than the aforementioned webcrimes? If someone wants to put white text on a yellow background in 4pt type while attempting to blast some shitty MIDI file at me, I don't need to ever see or hear anything from that person again. If I met that person face to face, it would probably take much longer to determine that they are a complete dumbass.