New Apps Enable Social Network Snubbing

beafpeat writes "Both The Boston Globe and NPR are reporting on new apps such as Enemybook and Snubster that parody the social networking phenomenon. 'Tired of bogus online friendships... [the creators] hope to encourage people to undermine, or at least mock, the online social communities sites such as Facebook were designed to create.'" Relatedly News.com wonders, with the opening of the Facebook API and the ensuing app frenzy, how much is too much of a good thing?

Comments

Bad Idea

[TechForensics]

I have never seen what could turn out to be a better lawsuit incubator.

Re:Bad Idea

[therufus]

And that will be because society in general has lost its sense of humour.

(Yes, I'm Australian, we spell it humour.)

Re:Bad Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats because it's spelt humour, it's just the Americans that decided to change it.

Re:Bad Idea

[15Bit]

I think its less a sense of humour loss and more an overdeveloped sense of political correctness. It just seems that half the western world wakes up in a morning looking for ways to be offended. And if they can't take offence directly they do it by proxy, taking offence for some random social demographic who they feel *would* be offended if they knew about it.

Re:Bad Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh sure. Let's bash Americans on a Saturday before they roll out of the sack. In the spirit of the topic, y'all can set up your own snubbing social network and not let us in. Gosh, wouldn't that make us feel bad?

Yeah, we changed humor, color, program, ton, and others because the King's English is fraught with frippery.

Re:Bad Idea

[Aladrin]

Indeed it is. I work with a guy who made something like this in another city. It was basically a site where you talk bad about other people you know 'anonymously'. Everyone was from the same little area that knew about the site, so it quickly grew out of hand and I believe he said he had to take it down 2 days later because of all the threats.

Re:Bad Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

The -or ending was the original form from Latin, and quite popular with our ancestral brethren, too. Much like the change of hw- to wh-, you can thank the French for numerous boggling aspects to the English language.

Re:Bad Idea

[Zero__Kelvin]

"I have never seen what could turn out to be a better lawsuit incubator."

Actually, parody is a protected right under U.S. Law. Now if they didn't make fun of sites specifically there might be a lawsuit for IP infringement. As long as they are making fun of myspace and facebook, they have nothing to fear ...

Re:Bad Idea

[jamesh]

I've never heard it put so elegantly before!

Re:Bad Idea

[Jarik_Tentsu]

...we slashdot parody sites now...?

Re:Bad Idea

[SigmundFloyd]

I think you're missing the point: the site is not going to get sued for being a parody. Its own users are the ones at risk of lawsuit for publicly defaming people.

Re:Bad Idea

[radiotyler]

I have never seen what could turn out to be a better lawsuit incubator.

Then you have obviously not seen the patent for my chainsaw powered mucus removal system.

Re:Bad Idea

[Zero__Kelvin]

"I think you're missing the point: the site is not going to get sued for being a parody. Its own users are the ones at risk of lawsuit for publicly defaming people."

That makes sense, because I couldn't possibly defame you on, say for example, Slashdot, right moron?

* No offense intended. This was not an actual insult, but rather one included for rhetorical effect ... If this had been an actual insult, you would feel MUCH more insulted :-)

Peace ...

Re:Bad Idea

[Scrameustache]

you can thank the French for numerous boggling aspects to the English language. And about 60% of its vocabulary.

number totally made up

Re:Bad Idea

[SigmundFloyd]

> That makes sense, because I couldn't possibly defame you on, say for example, Slashdot, right moron?

Yes, you could and you would get your ass sued.

The difference is that those sites are there for the exact purpose of letting their users spoil other people's reputations. So, of course, the users there will do just that.

That's why those sites are much more likely to turn into "lawsuit incubators" than most other sites. Do you get it now?

Re:Bad Idea

[Zero__Kelvin]

"That's why those sites are much more likely to turn into "lawsuit incubators" than most other sites. Do you get it now?"

Your new here on Slashdot, aren't you.

Re:Bad Idea

[SigmundFloyd]

No, but I probably look like new because I avoid using silly /. memes.

Re:Bad Idea

[Zero__Kelvin]

"No, but I probably look like new because I avoid using silly /. memes."

Well, that is pretty sad then. Since you are not new here, you have been around quite a while, but still haven't accumulated enough Karma to post above a ranking of 1. You may want to take a look at why that might be :-)

Problem is the way it's used

[sqrt(2)]

There really is no problem with the way Facebook is setup (apps are, overwhelmingly, useless and stupid but maybe there are some useful ones, I don't know). The problem is how people use the system. But you don't have to use it like that. Just a few days ago someone from my high school tried to add my as a friend on Facebook. I had never heard of this person before, couldn't remember speaking to or seeing them even once. She did go to the same high school as me, but we weren't friends. Ignore request.

Don't add people that you aren't/weren't actually friends with, and ignore requests from people who are just trying to increase their friends count and e-penis size. These websites are as useful as you make them.

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[rtyhurst]

I was a pathetic loser of 42, still living in my Mom's basement and writing software for DOS before Facebook.

I had like zero friends.

Now with Facebook, I have 1723 "friends"!

Of course I'm still a pathetic loser living in my Mom's basement, but I bet have more "friends" than you!

So, it's all good, eh?

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[Glowing Fish]

Ah, come on, scrabulous is the best app ever.
Especially, if you have an old "friend" you can't think to have an actual conversation with...you can have a scrabble game with them.

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[therufus]

I have 27 friends on my Facebook and 46 friends on my Myspace (many of whom are on Facebook too).

Considering I have 0 friends in real life and I live with my parents (all because of a bitter divorce - yes, friends and living with parents), FB and MS give me false hope that there are people who may actually wish to communicate with me. Yes that is sad, but it's the truth. I believe to some extent, this is the reason why these sites are so popular. It's got nothing to do with the fancy applets, not even the interface. It's the sheer fact that people can communicate with others they wouldn't usually.

I'm off to bed to sleep... alone.

Wait, gotta check my FB first... (for the non-existent glimmer of hope that someone of the opposite sex may talk to me).

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[mightyQuin]

I notice that you don't have any slashdot friends though:

therufus(677843) is all alone in the world.

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[Rude Turnip]

Awwww...I felt sorry and added him as a friend. Not that Slashdot friends count for anything. Slashdot fans, however, that's a different story!

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[Rolgar]

Online
Brad Paisley (video starring Jason Alexander, Estelle Harris (George and Estelle Constansa of Seinfeld) and William Shatner)

I work down at the Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I'm 5 foot 3 and overweight
I'm a scifi fanatic
A mild asthmatic
And I've never been to second base
But there's whole 'nother me
That you need to see
Go checkout MySpace

'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood
I'm 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati
I'm a black-belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I'm so much cooler online
So much cooler online

When I get home I kiss my mom
And she fixes me a snack
And I head down to my basement bedroom
And fire up my Mac
In real life the only time I've ever even been to L.A
Is when I got the chance with the marching band
To play tuba in the Rose Parade

Online I live in Malibu
I pose for Calvin Klein, I've been in GQ
I'm single and I'm rich
And I've got a set of six pack abs that would blow your mind
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I'm so much cooler online
So much cooler online

When you got my kind of stats
It's hard to get a date
Let alone a real girlfriend
But I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight
Every time I login

Online
I'm out in Hollywood
I'm 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
Even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I'm so much cooler online
Yeah, I'm cooler online
I'm so much cooler online
Yeah, I'm cooler online

Yeah, I'm cooler online

Yeah, I'll see ya online

Re:Problem is the way it's used

[Scrameustache]

Don't add people that you aren't/weren't actually friends with, and ignore requests from people who are just trying to increase their friends count I call them friend whores.

But I have a little more than just actual "friends" as friends, I also have a few friendly acquaintances, and I also accept friend requests from DJs of places where I hang out, even if I don't actually like them, because I want them to think good thoughts about me should I ever wish to request a song.
Also, cuteness is a factor for the ladies : )

But basically, Facebook is more about 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon than about genuine friendship.

How Pathetic

[RAMMS EIN]

How pathetic. "Hey, these guys are succesful and these people are having fun! Let's spoil it!"

I don't have a high opinion of the facebooks and myspaces of the world, and i'll admit to occasional episodes of resentment (usually when there is superior technology or skills, but the guy who shouts loudest gets the cake), but I would stop short of actually undermining, disrupting, and destroying their products.

Re:How Pathetic

[Scrameustache]

How pathetic. "Hey, these guys are succesful and these people are having fun! Let's spoil it!" Trolls: They've upped the ante from posting trolls to making troll applications :-|

Betcha they'll start a "first to tag the person with an enemy" race instead of first posts.

I'd write a very different app

[Opportunist]

One that lets you "friend" random other people, create fake facebook pages for you (complete with history and the odd entry) and so on. Just to spit in the soup of various data miners.

The only thing that's worse to a data miner than giving him no data is to poison the data he has.

Re:I'd write a very different app

[4D6963]

Just to spit in the soup of various data miners.

Wow, way to stick it to the man, dude!

Re:I'd write a very different app

[Opportunist]

That's got nothing to do with "sticking it to the man". It's simply a trivial way to keep data miners from getting useful data.

Sometimes you can't avoid handing out data. The only thing to do then is to make the data meaningless if you don't want it to be useful.

Re:I'd write a very different app

[4D6963]

It's simply a trivial way to keep data miners from getting useful data.

That sounds fine and dandy, but what's the use of ruining it for data miners?

Re:I'd write a very different app

[aleander]

1) The kind who wants to sell you shit you don't need, by filling your inbox and snail-mail box with junk mail for crap you don't need, and call you during dinner time to hawk crap you don't need. Right, because everyboty puts their email in their public profiles. And the spam in my inbox is just sooooo targeted...

Re:I'd write a very different app

[4D6963]

1) The kind who wants to sell you shit you don't need, by filling your inbox and snail-mail box with junk mail for crap you don't need, and call you during dinner time to hawk crap you don't need.

Ditto what the other poster said, "And the spam in my inbox is just sooooo targeted"

2) The kind who wants to put you in jail (if you're lucky) for being within 6 degress of separation from the wrong people.

Riiight, and the last time that happened was?

Re:I'd write a very different app

[Opportunist]

Targeted? No. But personalized. I just checked my spamfilter, the subject lines along the lines of "Hello $fakename" get more and more.

It's quite handy to forge some name and add that name to your spamlist. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Re:I'd write a very different app

[aleander]

Yes. That's because most of the time the email is scavenged from some compromised Outlook, or some web forum, or a newsgroup, or whatever. Especially web forum software usually asks for both your email and realname and is/was notoriously buggy.

Most social networking sites don't present others with your email unless you tell them to. This leaves only one way they could lead spam to you: by selling the userlists. And it's actually quite easy to verify such a theory, so judging by the lack of "OMG Orkut/Linked In/whatever spams people" news, they don't.

Facebook

[deniable]

All I've had so far is people throwing stuff at me. I might as well be back in high school. And the apps are over the top. Install one and the first thing it does is get in your face to spam it to all of your friends. The main problem is having the sort of friends who also forward chain letters. It sure feels the same.

Another feature stolen from Slashdot

[TheRaven64]

How long have we had foes/freaks here? Since before I signed up, which was before any social networking sites even existed.

Re:Another feature stolen from Slashdot

[Scrameustache]

How long have we had foes/freaks here? Long enough for me to find out that the list tops off at 200 relationships.
That sure is not a feature Facebook stole!

Re:Another feature stolen from Slashdot

[mdwh2]

Agreed - there's nothing strange about making an online "connection" whether or not your know them in real life (Slashdot has friends/fans, and no one seems to complain about them), and as you say, adding negative connections isn't anything new.

Sounds like a latecomer trying to make a quick buck, by riding off the trendiness of taking the piss out of Facebook (even though, as another social networking site, all the criticisms of social networking sites will apply to them also).

The title is wrong

[davmoo]

The title for the lead-in on this story shouldn't have been "New Apps Enable Social Network Snubbing". It should have been "Here's Some Idiots Who Need To Get A Life".

If you don't like Facebook or Myspace, etc, don't use them. Its that simple.

Re:The title is wrong

[tehcyder]

The title for the lead-in on this story shouldn't have been "New Apps Enable Social Network Snubbing". It should have been "Here's Some Idiots Who Need To Get A Life".

Yes, but that title would then have offended most slashdotters...

along the same lines...

[bryz]

If you don't like Snubster or Enemybook, etc, don't use them. Its that simple.

Re:along the same lines...

[mdwh2]

He doesn't use them.

What he isn't doing, however, is setting up some brand new site to try to make some kind of point against them, and trying to get publicity for it.

Prior art

[HangingChad]

[the creators] hope to encourage people to undermine, or at least mock, the online social communities...

Before Snubster there was /.

Don't forget my personal favorite...

[Fnkmaster]

Facebookake.

Re:Don't forget my personal favorite...

[noidentity]

Whenever anyone tries to get me to join their social networking site, I just point them to the only one I'll ever need: isolatr.

They should change the name to "Death Note"

[tlevine]

A crude virtual Death Note exists, but it would be cooler to have a Facebook application for it.

For a good laugh...

[popo]

Look at the inane formulas on the whiteboard behind him. So hilariously "made for press".

Apps suck

[crossmr]

I don't think I've seen a good app, and really I'm sick of not logging in for a couple days and seeing like 40 requests for various apps. They also make people's profiles look like crap once you get more than one or two. They really need to include a feature "ignore all app requests".

Why is this a problem?

[RealityThreek]

It's the sheer fact that people can communicate with others they wouldn't usually.

That... seems like a benefit rather than a problem? It's helped me catch up with alot of friends from high school/college.

Progress all around us ...

[foobsr]

From TFA: "Over the summer, Kevin Matulef, who is doing a doctoral thesis on algorithms at MIT, designed Enemybook, a software application that lets people list enemies below friends on their personal Facebook page. He describes the program as "an antisocial utility that disconnects you to the so-called friends around you."

How creative. At least, one can infer that he is able to relate 'freak' (or 'foe') to 'enemy'. A true candidate to successfully 'do a hardware application' by 2050.

CC.

LinkedIn needs something like this

[Animats]

LinkedIn is supposed to be about linking up people you already know. But it has spammers, called "open networkers", who will link to anybody. They're just trolling for big link counts. Some way to give those guys negative points when they spam would be useful. Right now, there's no penalty for asking.

The meaning of life/universe/everything

[Scrameustache]

I was a pathetic loser of 42 There's no such thing! That's the one year in your life where you're automatically cool :-)