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Teen Cancels Party After 200,000 RSVP On Facebook

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-hors-d'oeuvre-tray dept.

autospa writes "An Australian teen who had to shut down an event page on Facebook after more than 200,000 people RSVP'd for her sweet 16 party now has more than 70,000 people signed up to attend her new party. The girl named Jess called police Monday to say her Facebook account had been hijacked after thousands said they'd attend her birthday party in Chatswood March 26."

45 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. News For Nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What the fuck has happened to this site? Yet another inane story that happens on Facebook is "stuff that matters"???

    This place has really gone the tubes. It was once sort of cutting edge and look how far it has fallen.

    1. Re:News For Nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You missed the point. The 'news for nerds' isn't the Facebook hijinks, it's the party at a 16 year-old girls house.

      C'mon, ya neckbeards! JB ahoy!

    2. Re:News For Nerds by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

      This place has really gone the tubes.

      Has it gone a series of tubes, perhaps?

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    3. Re:News For Nerds by religious+freak · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it's not the most interesting story, but I do find it vaguely interesting that anonymous (i.e. a random group of dudes not getting laid) would do this. Was this just a prank or perhaps trying to prove some kind of point. I think this would actually be a pretty interesting study of how the event would propagate to so many people.

      At what point did this party reach the threshold between "why would I want to RSVP to this stupid thing" to "haha - it'll be funny if I say I'm going".

      I would imagine the first five to ten thousand would be difficult. Even stupid groups like "I think this pickle is better than Nickleback" group had some unifying message/intention. I think pulling this off was something a bit different.

      --
      If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
    4. Re:News For Nerds by sarysa · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a nerd I think there's plenty of angles to this story...4chan's alleged "hijacking" of the event, the way the internet changes the dynamics of an open invitation event, but most importantly the way that the Aussie government is handling what most of us would consider a prank. It's also amusing to see how misinterpreted the notion of one's account h(ij)acked is by less seasoned users.

      Also, it's very, very funny.

      --
      Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
    5. Re:News For Nerds by MachDelta · · Score: 4, Funny

      16? Eh, that's really more of a 4chan thing.

      Now if it was a LAN party... well! This is the perfect place to come for ideas on setting up a 100,000 client network!

    6. Re:News For Nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is the perfect place to come for ideas on setting up a 100,000 client network!

      two words.....token ring

    7. Re:News For Nerds by Americium · · Score: 2

      It's more so that we all missed the invitation, because of the lack of a Facebook presence we have. Missing parties is what nerds are very good at, and this time a quarter million people knew about it before the nerds at slashdot did. At least now we can all complain about it and feel important once again.

    8. Re:News For Nerds by ynp7 · · Score: 2

      It accidentally the whole tubes!

    9. Re:News For Nerds by grim4593 · · Score: 2

      The quote at the bottom of this site:
      Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

    10. Re:News For Nerds by ncgnu08 · · Score: 2

      The story should be more about how these people have no idea when it comes to technology. I mean, what did she expect to happen? More likely, she never even thought about the obvious outcome, then goes crying when the obvious happens. If one wants to control how many people get invited to your party, maybe try sending paper invitations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_invitation . I reference this link as proof they exist, which some might need to believe me. If ever there was a story for my "society" (see sig), this is it....

      --
      Member of American Sarcasm Society - Motto: "Like we need your help!"
    11. Re:News For Nerds by Ant+P. · · Score: 2

      This is just the latest in a series of tubes.

    12. Re:News For Nerds by dragonhunter21 · · Score: 2

      Tubular, man.

      --
      Sent from my CR-48
    13. Re:News For Nerds by crovira · · Score: 2

      She had a golden opportunity to hold it at an outdoor arena, charge $20 a head, control, (viz: soak the idiots who'd show up,) the flow of liquor and beer (after all this IS Australia,) and she DIDN'T BLOODY DO IT?

      I'd call the mental ward and tell them to make a pickup.

      --
      MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
    14. Re:News For Nerds by vlueboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Aah, thought experiments: How deep would the router tree be? Let's raffle it so "every nth guest brings a 4 port router". For a base four tree we have about 8.30 levels of depth, so 4 ^8.30 approaches 100,000. (4 port routers, mean binary-like trees but with branches of four at each node)

      If using 16-port routers, the tree would be slightly over 4.15 levels . Those routers are expensive, but we'll save on cabling, admin time and power costs. This way we can get to the actual gameplay quickly... instead of troubleshooting what slightly drunk slashdotter inevitably misrouted a few of the runs at the last minute)

      I'm leaving to someone else the hard work of figuring out what is the number of routers to be purchased. I, um, forgot how to work that out. It goes without saying that in the real world the routers would need to be switches, and DHCP overheads, collisions, broadcasts, factoring in wireless routers, bridges and whether we'll allow them and their own interference/collisions ... and all that jazz would make this current topology prohibitive, but it's still fun to think about. After all, we always talk about infinite monkeys writing Shakespeare or valid OSs randomly. But SOMEONE has practice designing their LAN unless you'd rather "sneakernet" to each screen and find who's actually got the winning file!

      Oh, and... parent poster told me he's bringing all the cat 5 and power strips, even if it's just monkeys there ;)

    15. Re:News For Nerds by Totenglocke · · Score: 2

      16? Eh, that's really more of a 4chan thing.

      No, 12 is more 4chan's preferred age group.

      --
      "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
    16. Re:News For Nerds by syousef · · Score: 3, Funny

      You missed the point. The 'news for nerds' isn't the Facebook hijinks, it's the party at a 16 year-old girls house.

      It's not the party at all. The news is there's a girl.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    17. Re:News For Nerds by N1AK · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Calling the police was easily the smartest thing she did. 99.9% of Facebook events work perfectly well, it's the rare exceptions that some group of 'tards decide to crash. Given the number of people who said they were coming, even if she 'cancels' the event there's a good chance a lot of univited people are going to turn up at her door. Making the police aware in advance makes it easier for them to respond should anything happen, and ensures she isn't suspected of encouraging it if it does.

    18. Re:News For Nerds by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

      Poorly. You'd need the APs distributed sufficiently to prevent overlap. You'd be better having everybody paying $15 to join and buying managed switches and hiring cable monkeys to wire it all up.

      $60 routers between 4 will be horrible, but $1.5m of enterprise networking gear?

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    19. Re:News For Nerds by gravis777 · · Score: 2

      Wait, did you just post Bing search results on a Microsoft-bashing site? If I had mod points....

  2. Who's responsible... by Tigger's+Pet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It says, in TFA, that "A 17-year-old boy was charged today for hijacking the invitation". I wonder what he has actually been charged with? Hijacking of an on-line invite seems a little over-exuberant by the Aussie police.

    1. Re:Who's responsible... by ron_ivi · · Score: 2

      If you read TFA, they also suggest that the hacker group anonymous is behind it.

      Perhaps they hired HB Gary to do their research for them.

    2. Re:Who's responsible... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ah, Anonymous. Self-righteous destructive fucktards of the world unite! "We'll piss in your pool to save you!"

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Who's responsible... by JimboG · · Score: 2

      He was charged with using a carriage service to harass - same as if he had called her up and abuse her. Fair enough I think.

    4. Re:Who's responsible... by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 2

      Yeah. A weak-minded person's feelings might get hurt. Can't have that!

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    5. Re:Who's responsible... by MooseMuffin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Good to see that after all the high profile stuff Anonymous has been linked to lately, they haven't forgotten to continue doing petty, immature stuff for the lulz.

    6. Re:Who's responsible... by visualight · · Score: 2

      WTF. Now whenever anyone signs off with 'anonymous' it means they're part of some mythical group invented by the media.

      --
      Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
    7. Re:Who's responsible... by Hecatonchires · · Score: 3, Informative

      He cloned the invite page and reupped it after she closed hers. Along with home address, phone etc.

      From The Australian Newspaper

      A police statement released to Associated Press today said a 17-year-old boy had been charged with using a telecommunications carrier to harass or offend someone.

      He is due in court in April.

      --

      Yay me!

    8. Re:Who's responsible... by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Thankyou for your insightful comment. But not every country is the USA. Australia does NOT have freedom of speech, only protected speech such as the right to criticize the government, anti discrimination laws, and similar things. On the flip side we also have laws covering harassment which are so dearly lacking in the USA, and a sentence like "fuck those pussies" can actually land you in court here if someone is backwards enough to be offended by it.

      Also note that this is only what the police have charged him with. What the courts decide may be completely different, in the same way I could sue you for hurting my feelings, and I'm sure I'd get absolutely nowhere with that claim.

    9. Re:Who's responsible... by JimboG · · Score: 2

      Yes, she should have made the event private. But 16 year olds do stupid things. I really don't think the NSW police will take the 17 year old to court over this. He'll get a slap on the wrist. The cops in NSW are the 'look like they are doing something without actually doing anything' type. As long as people can read the papers and see there is something being done it all seems to be good enough. Nothing will come from this, except a chuckle.

    10. Re:Who's responsible... by mjwx · · Score: 3, Informative

      "or offend"... wow.

      You see, unlike the US our judges are meant to be able to think for themselves and decide what is and isn't harassment.

      This law is targeting prank callers (which is what the youth in question did, albeit in a different way). Our judges simply dont do whatever the previous judge before them did (precedent based). They are expected to be able to understand a case and make judgements based on that situation instead.

      Secondly, it takes a lot more to offend an Aussie. We dont run screaming from the room when some middle aged washed up pop star accidentally shows a naked breast.

      There, do you think they'll try to extradite me?

      Also, unlike the US we realise and understand that our laws stop at our borders.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  3. Doesn't anyone remember Kate's party? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It was less than spectacular.

  4. Re:Hm by mangu · · Score: 2

    Slow news day, uh?

    I bet SHE is quite busy today!

  5. Oblig. XKCD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/242/

    I'm glad she can, indeed.

  6. SlashFACEBOOKdot, the new look by Nyder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do we really need news about facebook every day?

    I took a break from slashdot for a few years, came back a year ago, and seriously, this site is sucking even more now.

    facebook is anything but nerd like. It's way too fucking popular. it's programed in a style most of us would never do, and honestly, the site probably offends most of us.

    Unless the story is facebook crashes and burns and someone forgot to make backups, please spare us.

    Seriously, fuck facebook and it's stupid news stories that shouldn't be on this site.

    No, Fuck YOU SLASHDOT for being a lame fucking site these days.

    News for nerds? You even know what a fucking nerd is?

    Do you even know what NEWS is?

    --
    Be seeing you...
    1. Re:SlashFACEBOOKdot, the new look by dhall · · Score: 2

      This is the second ispyce article I've seen show up on Slashdot in the last few days.
      I didn't think it was possible for an editor to be worse than kdawson...
      The site is a known link spammer and the editors here should known better than to send them any traffic.

    2. Re:SlashFACEBOOKdot, the new look by Tim+C · · Score: 2

      It's simple - the slashdot hive mind* hates Facebook.

      This story is evidence of Facebook being bad.

      Therefore, it gets posted, in the hopes of lots of "zomg lol Facebook is teh l4m3!!!" comments. Simple.

      (* Oh yes there is one, in so far as certain opinions are in the overwhelming majority here amongst posters and moderators alike; yes, there are always dissenting opinions, but they are in the minority)

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
  7. I know! by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's slashdot it!

  8. Some actual news stories about this by thehossman · · Score: 3, Informative

    If a random blogger is going to submission spam slashdot with all of his two paragraph blogs plagiarizing news articles, the least he could do is actually LINK to some genuinely useful coverage of the story on a reputable sites...

    --
    -- The Hoss Man
    1. Re:Some actual news stories about this by Chuq · · Score: 2

      What? Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph are reputable sites now? :-O

      --
      - Chuq
  9. Re:Who cares? by Pharmboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    To be fair, you really should have a few years experience handling a weapon before you try to do it drunk.

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  10. FB Event Invite Security? by beerdini · · Score: 2

    I quit Facebook a few months ago so don't really know if it is still the case, but back then I noticed that if someone you were friends with responded to an invite, even if that invite wasn't originally to "me" I could everyone who was invited and their comments to the event. It happened to be one of those "I forgot my phone number" events and I couldn't believe how many people just posted their phone numbers for anyone in the world to see. Let the friends that I actually knew know that their info was publicly viewable and they immediately removed it. Yet another case of people not knowing how little FB cares about your personal information.

  11. Re:Hm by Miseph · · Score: 2

    Perhaps acting as though news happens in Australia is considered charitable?

    --
    Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  12. Re:News For Anons - Stuff that's Random by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

    16? Eh, that's really more of a 4chan thing.

    Actually, you're very correct.

    It was on 4chan... I saw this thread float to the top a few times (I'm testing out my "mAny-Feed" project that gives you an RSS feed for any site even if they don't have one; 4chan == good stress test for article deduplication code). That's in-part how she got so many followers. I'm sure it wasn't "just" 4chan, but probably threads posted on multiple online forums specifically to troll the Facebook event -- although, I wouldn't underestimate the number of trolls 4chan can generate.

    IIRC, the OP(s) said: "My friend is having a 16th birthday party, says I can invite some friends. Does /b/ want to come?" followed by the event subscribe URL & including a (possibly unrelated) pic of a 15ish girl.

    The thread ended when the Facebook event was over-flooded and taken down.

    All that is missing is the "We are Anannymoose, we are leejun!" manifesto.

  13. Re:Aussie Aussie Aussie by aiht · · Score: 2

    That word has GOT to be the world's most versatile fucking adjective!

    Surely you mean "most fucking versatile adjective"?