Re:Al Queda, witches, devil worshippers, and gangs
on
Gangs on the Internet
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· Score: 1
Not all Christians are Catholics, just as not all witches are Wiccan
Currently. But once upon a time (pre-Reformation for the Christians, earlier in the 20th Century for Witches) they were.
The apostles "invented" Christianity/The Catholic Church, if you will, and then various Methodist, Baptist, Adventists, Mormons, etc. splintered off. Buckland and Gardner and their peers invented modern witchcraft/Wicca, and all the Norse, Faerie, Seax, Egyptian, Native American, Urban Solitary, and other sects followed, distinguishing themselves from Wicca like a Methodist might distinguish himself from a Catholic.
Of course, the law enforcement official in the article should have said "neo-pagan," but that doesn't sound so nearly as sinister as "witch."
Which is the point I'm trying to make.
Re:Al Queda, witches, devil worshippers, and gangs
on
Gangs on the Internet
·
· Score: 1
And if the article said "Christians" instead of specifying "Catholics," would that be fine by you?
What?!
Where are "Christians" or "Catholics" mentioned anywhere in the article?
Re:Al Queda, witches, devil worshippers, and gangs
on
Gangs on the Internet
·
· Score: 1
You would not, I believe, be talking this way if the author had mentioned Jews or Hindus in the same light
I would if, as a Jew, he referred to himself as a "Goblin," or as a Hindu, referred to himself as an "Ogre." I'm not disparaging the religions, I'm mocking the pagans' predilection for describing themselves with the same term as a fairytale boogeyman and then moaning about how they're so misunderstood. Words have meaning.
I wish people would try to feel a little more empathy once and a while.
I'd say I'm about as empathetic as one can be on the topic. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've forogotten more about Wicca and "neo-paganism" than you'll ever know. The truth is that so much of the angst and anxiety and "Help! Help! I'm being Oppressed!" -edness that the movement feels is self-inflicted. Wiccans are not going to let anyone pry the "witch" moniker from them anytime soon because it is their link to their own "holocaust" of the Salem Witch Trials etc. "Never More The Burning Times!" and all that rot. Of course, there is nothing but the most tenuous, spurious of connections between the craft as concocted by Buckland and Gardner and Starhawk et. al. and whatever it was that "witches" were burned for hundreds of years ago, but, hey, it's Christians oppressing women, so let's milk it, kk?
well-established religions with long histories
Again, I got nothing against Wicca. But long-established? Compared to Judaism? Islam? It's as modern as Mormonism and Scientology. Not that being a "new" religion is a bad thing, but let's call a spade a spade.
Re:Al Queda, witches, devil worshippers, and gangs
on
Gangs on the Internet
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Oh, Please. The article did not say "Wicca." It said "witches." Give it up.
The "Witches are Happy Peaceful People" diatribe is even slighthly more annoying then the "Hackers are Happy Curious People" screed. Both words mean something else in popular parlance, and that's all there is to it. I have more sympathy for the "hackers-are-good" crowd, because they legitimately lost their word to a media gone suddenly cyber-melodramtic, but the Buckland and Gardner crew deliberately took an already negatively charged word, stuck it up there with all the other chips on their shoulders, and tried to win it back -- in the most irritating and condescending way possible -- from all us ignorant "mundanes." Sure, good luck with that...
Oh, yeah, about those Crusades: many, many, centuries ago, my li'l crystal polisher. Better analogy would have been, "Hello... peaceful earth-based religion here. We don't crash airplanes into someone else's building in the name of our goddess..."
oooooh, i'm gonna get modded down so-o-o-o-o fast.....!
Anybody else remember the days when Science Fiction writers actually sat down and wrote some friggin' Science Fiction, instead of travelling around to pretentiously acronymed multi-disciplinary conferences foisting their ridiculously named neologism-wannabe terms around like they thought they were the 21st Century's version of Arthur C. Clarke, sans boys?
Anybody...?
Christ, I want four-armed Martians and time anomalies and big honkin' mechs and sexy androids and crew-cut space marines, and your giving me SPIMES? Hey, if I see Sterling "in concert," will I have to sit through some smug intro where the moderator (from the cable TV industry or NASDAQ, I'll bet) tells us how, despite how "hi-tek" the author is, he still writes all his manuscripts on parchment using the juice of mashed berries and JuJubes? Cuz that's the part I always look forward to...
WRITE!! Jeezus, God, Mary, and all the goddamn archangels in Heaven, WRITE! A Story! With characters!! and an ending that makes me happy, or leaves me wondering and wanting more, but please, just lock your fuckin' luggage in the attic, lose the key, and WRITE A STORY!
There is also the "mob mentality", whereby if enough people have the same views on a certain issue, then it has the potential to sway political thought
Sure. That's what I want, too. Mobs, ruling. Just give me the chance to buy up stock in some torch and pitchfork manufacturers first.
I think that every vote on every matter in every legislative body in every nation in the world should be slapped up on a wiki someplace so that everyone can weigh in, and I think that our elected reps should allow for extensive debate on the wikis until a clear consensus is reached prior to passing any new legislation.
See, this way, government world-wide will grind to a halt and then maybe we can all get some work done...
The EFF is pretty ineffective in moving change, no? Why include them?
If by "moving change," you mean finding a way of getting all the loose coins out of your piggy bank and into theirs, I'd say, no, they've proven pretty darned effective at that.
If you meant "actually making a difference," then I'd say your analysis is spot on.
I still have not forgiven them for installing rootkits on all of my boxen, thus 0wning my boxen. It just goes to show: "0wn me and I won't 0wn your stuff."
Happily for Sony's Investors, the PS3's pricing indicates it is being aimed at a demographic higher than the 12-18 year-old market, so I'm guessing that what you "think" does not matter.
Too many people where? On Slashdot? Get around a bit more and you'll find Google holds no special place in the hearts and minds of those the slashdot elite would derisively term "Joe Sixpacks." And -- Gosh, I hope this is not a NewsFlash -- it's Joe and his friends, not the Digerati (and underage Digerati wannabes) who actually make things "go," including the justice system.
Of course, by the time that they "become more hated than AOL," they will have amassed a database of all the names, addresses, credit card numbers, purchases, online searches, library check-outs, pizza topping preferences, mistresses, school grades, medical records, phone calls, ATM withdrawls, instant messages, investments, e-mails, mattress firmness, and masturbatory fantasies of every man, woman and child in the Free World. Oh, yeah, and in China too. Then they just change their motto from "Do No Evil" to "Psyche!!" and sell it to the highest corporate bidder and/or government for 987 Gazillion Billion dollars.
Keep telling yourself it could never happen: "Not Our Google! Not our Beloved Google!"
...that neither the Sheriff's Office nor the local journalists who cover this will use the ridiculous and completely counter-intuitive phrase "wardriving" to describe what's going on.
Sure I did, Pal: "Bush is stupid." And to illustrate that, you use a Phonetic Texan Accent.
That's bigoted. Kind of like the way animators use a German accent when they want to quickly and cheaply establish that a character is a megalomaniac.
calling me Fritz is also racist
You got my point. I see there's still hope for you.
lastly: who ever rates this - "dummkopf" is a german insult - since when are offensive posts rated higher than 0?
Ooooh! "Mommy, Mommy, Punish the Bad Man! He won't let me mock Texans and the President of the US without making fun of me back! Waah!" But to answer your question, offensive posts get rated higher than 0 when they're *funny*. If your original post had been *funny*, not only would it be rated higher, I might have even left you alone. Next time, try *funny*.
I don't think that such a perspective is possible. First of all, I've never seen a theory or technique enumerated or even hinted at for achieving a biasless perspective
I won't disagree with you.
Of course, the logical follow-through to the argument is that all journalists are frauds at worst, and merely "pundits-in-training" at best.
As it stands, the only thing these leaks are doing is proving to your average American that, hey, Bush really is the bastard the ultra-liberals decried him as in the first place.
Except that the "average American" is not quite as "average" as the classist ultra-liberals envision him. What it really does is cause the "NASCAR Dads" and "Soccer Moms" to get even more disgusted with the mainstream news spigots and start seeking less-biased and more representative sources. That, of course, can only hurt the bottom lines of the Old Guard.
To successfully compete with an Internet across which one can aggregate news (and opinions) from all over the political spectrum, a traditional mainstream outlet will have to either clearly claim allegiance to one pole (e.g., Fox News) or genuinely have no political leanings or agenda (e.g., nobody right now). The days in which an outlet can pose as unbiased while actually trying to manipulate opinion with stories slanted either left or right are dwindling, or so say the accountants...
No reasonable person would argue that the hoods of all cars should be welded shut and only openable by the manufacturer, so why is it extreme for Stallman to make the same argument about software?
Uh, because I can't digitally copy my car's engine and then sell six million copies at a fraction of the cost to people around the world in virtually no time and at virtually no cost to myself? Because to compare the distribution issues surrounding software or music or a novel or anything else which can be electronically cloned to a physical object which must be assembled from physical parts is ridiculous?
Here is the thing about moral codes: individuals subscribe to them according to their own beliefs. The government has no business legislating them. If christians of various flavors have a problem with stem cell research, they are free to refuse treatments based on it.
Here is the thing about governments: it serves the people. More than that, it represents the people (ideally), and it makes laws in a way that reflect the constituency.
If the US was a representative democracy with a majority composition of pagan Inuit hunter/gatherers, there would probably be no laws on the books protecting the elderly and disabled, and government-sponsored science would be culling their organs because, let's face it, they've stopped contributing to society.
But, no, the US is a representative democracy with a majority composition of Judeao-Christian manufacturers and industrialists, so we not only have laws protecting the very old, but also the very young, as well.
It's religious, it's cultural, it's who we are. Most of us, anyway. When it ceases to be "most of us," or when the majority voice gets lazy (or the minority voice gets sufficiently energized and organized), things may change. Who knows, maybe in a few decades, when you're ready for your rocking chair, society will have hardened to the point where we once again cast the useless among us out onto the ice floes.
You needn't have spelled that out for us. The Wikipedia citation was enough.
BBS?! You're comparing the prevalence, pervasiveness, and concerns of the Web in 2006 with Bulletin Board Systems? You might as well compare the freedoms, responsibilities, and pressures of modern urban newspapermen with their Dark Age Irish Monk forebears.
And why does Myspace have any more responsibility than ANY other community-based website or bulletin board?
Right. Beacause community-based websites and bulletin boards have been around for such a long time, and there are so-o-o-o-o many legal challenges and precedents in that space.
Face it: The MySpace cesspool is in danger of leaking out and poisoning the well of community-based boards everywhere; the pure, crystal clear waters of SlashDot and its ilk are not going to have a cleansing effect, legal or otherwise, on MySpace.
I am seeing activism on the grass roots level against MySpace like I haven't seen since the early 90's (the kind of awareness that laid the groundwork for all the online child protection legislation). If the "good" community spaces are smart, they will toss MySpace out into the snow with extreme prejudice then circle the wagons before the Clintons and the Liebermans and all the other politicos up for re-election start painting them with the same brush they are currently tarring-up for MySpace.
Right or Wrong, there is a BIG RECKONING coming, and it WILL be impacting business models throughout the 'Net.
My Prediction, based on historical precedent? MySpace goes the way of GeoCities (socially un-cool and retro), and the kids all start gravitating to their own (and de-centralized) unique TLDs, just like their neo-adult blogging counterparts.
Although there are millions of active users on Myspace, most are teenagers with little buying power, that are therefore less likely to click on the adverts that gain the search engines revenue
Teens, schmeens. Fox is going after the fat-walleted 40ish pedophiles who are using MySpace like it was their own web-based rolodex. I was recently part of a tech-and-law-enforcement seminar, and was blown away by how easy it was to (a) locate your underage victim of choice, and (b) find out exactly where s/he would be when (softball/cheerleading practice at Acme Field, Tues and Thu from 3:30 to 4:45, etc.) If you're a perv, than MySpace is a virtual, virtual smorgasbord.
Fortunately, from what I have recently learned, the Good Guys are stepping up to the plate and starting to educate kids about exactly how NOT to fill out their online profiles and other narcissistic blog droolings. The aim is to make it tougher to find people.
Now, Fox is going out of its way to create search mechanisms to counter such obfuscations, presumably. Fascinating.
Gee, I wonder what Fox Interactive's Sister Company Pundit Bill "Who's Looking Out For Your Kids?" O'Reilly what have to say on this topic...?
Uhhhhh, I was referring to Woodstock, the town in Ulster County, New York. It's known as a beacon for the counter-culture. Sure, there was a music festival or two there, I suppose.
Here's a tip: Don't just plug words and phrases into Wikipedia and regurgitate them back onto major websites as if The Lord Has Spoken. There is so much wrong with that, on so many levels...
The Internet already is available to too many. It has become so affordable (sometimes even free to the end user) that we end up with the poor having the same access as other more financially responsible members of society.
Yeah, that's what I want to read: Just the literature produced by financially responsible members of society. How did you know? We must be soulmates.
Ideally, we could find a way to take the pencils and wordprocessors away from anyone who doesn't shower daily, too. Our campaign motto could be, "Clean, Fiscally Responsible Stories for Clean, Fiscally, Responsible People!"
Can you imagine the literary heights to which our well-to-do society could soar?! Wow.
And for an encore, we could go around to all the hotels nationwide and replace the Gideon Bibles with the latest issue of Golf Digest...
in the US, the Internet will be a place for businesses that can pay the carrier cartels. In Europe, the Internet will be a place (more like what we in the US have today) where ideas are exchanged freely.
The U.S. will resemble Manhattan. The EU will resemble Woodstock. As I live midway between these two places and frequent them both, I can tell you that each are interesting -- nay, captivating -- in their own way. Neither place is "better;" each has its fanatical supporters and detractors. I fall in love with, and am infuriated by, both on a regular basis.
The questions "Where Would You Prefer to Live?" and "Where Would You Prefer to Work?," as relates to these two cultural paradigms, are the fundamental queries here.
Slashdot Mirror
Not all Christians are Catholics, just as not all witches are Wiccan
Currently. But once upon a time (pre-Reformation for the Christians, earlier in the 20th Century for Witches) they were.
The apostles "invented" Christianity/The Catholic Church, if you will, and then various Methodist, Baptist, Adventists, Mormons, etc. splintered off. Buckland and Gardner and their peers invented modern witchcraft/Wicca, and all the Norse, Faerie, Seax, Egyptian, Native American, Urban Solitary, and other sects followed, distinguishing themselves from Wicca like a Methodist might distinguish himself from a Catholic.
Of course, the law enforcement official in the article should have said "neo-pagan," but that doesn't sound so nearly as sinister as "witch."
Which is the point I'm trying to make.
And if the article said "Christians" instead of specifying "Catholics," would that be fine by you?
What?!
Where are "Christians" or "Catholics" mentioned anywhere in the article?
You would not, I believe, be talking this way if the author had mentioned Jews or Hindus in the same light
I would if, as a Jew, he referred to himself as a "Goblin," or as a Hindu, referred to himself as an "Ogre." I'm not disparaging the religions, I'm mocking the pagans' predilection for describing themselves with the same term as a fairytale boogeyman and then moaning about how they're so misunderstood. Words have meaning.
I wish people would try to feel a little more empathy once and a while.
I'd say I'm about as empathetic as one can be on the topic. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've forogotten more about Wicca and "neo-paganism" than you'll ever know. The truth is that so much of the angst and anxiety and "Help! Help! I'm being Oppressed!" -edness that the movement feels is self-inflicted. Wiccans are not going to let anyone pry the "witch" moniker from them anytime soon because it is their link to their own "holocaust" of the Salem Witch Trials etc. "Never More The Burning Times!" and all that rot. Of course, there is nothing but the most tenuous, spurious of connections between the craft as concocted by Buckland and Gardner and Starhawk et. al. and whatever it was that "witches" were burned for hundreds of years ago, but, hey, it's Christians oppressing women, so let's milk it, kk?
well-established religions with long histories
Again, I got nothing against Wicca. But long-established? Compared to Judaism? Islam? It's as modern as Mormonism and Scientology. Not that being a "new" religion is a bad thing, but let's call a spade a spade.
Oh, Please. The article did not say "Wicca." It said "witches." Give it up.
The "Witches are Happy Peaceful People" diatribe is even slighthly more annoying then the "Hackers are Happy Curious People" screed. Both words mean something else in popular parlance, and that's all there is to it. I have more sympathy for the "hackers-are-good" crowd, because they legitimately lost their word to a media gone suddenly cyber-melodramtic, but the Buckland and Gardner crew deliberately took an already negatively charged word, stuck it up there with all the other chips on their shoulders, and tried to win it back -- in the most irritating and condescending way possible -- from all us ignorant "mundanes." Sure, good luck with that...
Oh, yeah, about those Crusades: many, many, centuries ago, my li'l crystal polisher. Better analogy would have been, "Hello... peaceful earth-based religion here. We don't crash airplanes into someone else's building in the name of our goddess..."
oooooh, i'm gonna get modded down so-o-o-o-o fast.....!
Anybody...?
Christ, I want four-armed Martians and time anomalies and big honkin' mechs and sexy androids and crew-cut space marines, and your giving me SPIMES? Hey, if I see Sterling "in concert," will I have to sit through some smug intro where the moderator (from the cable TV industry or NASDAQ, I'll bet) tells us how, despite how "hi-tek" the author is, he still writes all his manuscripts on parchment using the juice of mashed berries and JuJubes? Cuz that's the part I always look forward to...
WRITE!! Jeezus, God, Mary, and all the goddamn archangels in Heaven, WRITE! A Story! With characters!! and an ending that makes me happy, or leaves me wondering and wanting more, but please, just lock your fuckin' luggage in the attic, lose the key, and WRITE A STORY!
kk. thanx. better now...
There is also the "mob mentality", whereby if enough people have the same
views on a certain issue, then it has the potential to sway political thought
Sure. That's what I want, too. Mobs, ruling. Just give me the chance to buy up stock in some torch and pitchfork manufacturers first.
I think that every vote on every matter in every legislative body in every nation in the world should be slapped up on a wiki someplace so that everyone can weigh in, and I think that our elected reps should allow for extensive debate on the wikis until a clear consensus is reached prior to passing any new legislation.
See, this way, government world-wide will grind to a halt and then maybe we can all get some work done...
The EFF is pretty ineffective in moving change, no? Why include them?
If by "moving change," you mean finding a way of getting all the loose coins out of your piggy bank and into theirs, I'd say, no, they've proven pretty darned effective at that.
If you meant "actually making a difference," then I'd say your analysis is spot on.
I still have not forgiven them for installing rootkits on all of my boxen, thus 0wning my boxen. It just goes to show: "0wn me and I won't 0wn your stuff."
Happily for Sony's Investors, the PS3's pricing indicates it is being aimed at a demographic higher than the 12-18 year-old market, so I'm guessing that what you "think" does not matter.
Too many people like Google
Too many people where? On Slashdot? Get around a bit more and you'll find Google holds no special place in the hearts and minds of those the slashdot elite would derisively term "Joe Sixpacks." And -- Gosh, I hope this is not a NewsFlash -- it's Joe and his friends, not the Digerati (and underage Digerati wannabes) who actually make things "go," including the justice system.
Of course, by the time that they "become more hated than AOL," they will have amassed a database of all the names, addresses, credit card numbers, purchases, online searches, library check-outs, pizza topping preferences, mistresses, school grades, medical records, phone calls, ATM withdrawls, instant messages, investments, e-mails, mattress firmness, and masturbatory fantasies of every man, woman and child in the Free World. Oh, yeah, and in China too. Then they just change their motto from "Do No Evil" to "Psyche!!" and sell it to the highest corporate bidder and/or government for 987 Gazillion Billion dollars.
Keep telling yourself it could never happen: "Not Our Google! Not our Beloved Google!"
...that neither the Sheriff's Office nor the local journalists who cover this will use the ridiculous and completely counter-intuitive phrase "wardriving" to describe what's going on.
you didn't get the point of my post
Sure I did, Pal: "Bush is stupid." And to illustrate that, you use a Phonetic Texan Accent.
That's bigoted. Kind of like the way animators use a German accent when they want to quickly and cheaply establish that a character is a megalomaniac.
calling me Fritz is also racist
You got my point. I see there's still hope for you.
lastly: who ever rates this - "dummkopf" is a german insult - since when are offensive posts rated higher than 0?
Ooooh! "Mommy, Mommy, Punish the Bad Man! He won't let me mock Texans and the President of the US without making fun of me back! Waah!" But to answer your question, offensive posts get rated higher than 0 when they're *funny*. If your original post had been *funny*, not only would it be rated higher, I might have even left you alone. Next time, try *funny*.
Now, give me your lunch money...
GWB: "ya knouw, ey've heyerd 'bout a scjureytey syseym called 'ceysar eyncrypjein' - let's all use it, man"
Ach du LEEEEE-Ber, Fritz! You left ze link to your German language vebsite in a post mocking the Texas accent of ze President of ze United States!
Mein Gott!! Vat a DUUUUM-Kopf you must be, Ya?
* * *
Demonstrating once again that Americans don't have a lock on jingoism, nationalism, and general stupidity.
Thanks for participating in our survey.
I don't think that such a perspective is possible. First of all, I've never seen a theory or technique enumerated or even hinted at for achieving a biasless perspective
I won't disagree with you.
Of course, the logical follow-through to the argument is that all journalists are frauds at worst, and merely "pundits-in-training" at best.
Works for me.
As it stands, the only thing these leaks are doing is proving to your average American that, hey, Bush really is the bastard the ultra-liberals decried him as in the first place.
Except that the "average American" is not quite as "average" as the classist ultra-liberals envision him. What it really does is cause the "NASCAR Dads" and "Soccer Moms" to get even more disgusted with the mainstream news spigots and start seeking less-biased and more representative sources. That, of course, can only hurt the bottom lines of the Old Guard.
To successfully compete with an Internet across which one can aggregate news (and opinions) from all over the political spectrum, a traditional mainstream outlet will have to either clearly claim allegiance to one pole (e.g., Fox News) or genuinely have no political leanings or agenda (e.g., nobody right now). The days in which an outlet can pose as unbiased while actually trying to manipulate opinion with stories slanted either left or right are dwindling, or so say the accountants...
No reasonable person would argue that the hoods of all cars should be welded shut and only openable by the manufacturer, so why is it extreme for Stallman to make the same argument about software?
Uh, because I can't digitally copy my car's engine and then sell six million copies at a fraction of the cost to people around the world in virtually no time and at virtually no cost to myself? Because to compare the distribution issues surrounding software or music or a novel or anything else which can be electronically cloned to a physical object which must be assembled from physical parts is ridiculous?
"Extreme" does not begin to cover it.
D00d...?
I say we strip the DRM from all passwords! Down With Evil Password IP!!
Who's with me?
OK, compromise: Everytime we use your password, we promise to give you credit and link to your blog. Deal?
Face it, until people start making passwords available for a fair price in all nations everywhere, this kind of piracy will be rampant...
Here is the thing about moral codes: individuals subscribe to them according to their own beliefs. The government has no business legislating them. If christians of various flavors have a problem with stem cell research, they are free to refuse treatments based on it.
Here is the thing about governments: it serves the people. More than that, it represents the people (ideally), and it makes laws in a way that reflect the constituency.
If the US was a representative democracy with a majority composition of pagan Inuit hunter/gatherers, there would probably be no laws on the books protecting the elderly and disabled, and government-sponsored science would be culling their organs because, let's face it, they've stopped contributing to society.
But, no, the US is a representative democracy with a majority composition of Judeao-Christian manufacturers and industrialists, so we not only have laws protecting the very old, but also the very young, as well.
It's religious, it's cultural, it's who we are. Most of us, anyway. When it ceases to be "most of us," or when the majority voice gets lazy (or the minority voice gets sufficiently energized and organized), things may change. Who knows, maybe in a few decades, when you're ready for your rocking chair, society will have hardened to the point where we once again cast the useless among us out onto the ice floes.
Dress warm, D00d.
I fear for my children's future when I read that "head blogger" is an important role anywhere, let alone a company of Microsoft's size.
I'm not saying that is isn't, just that I fear...
I tremble...
Silly American government, spending taxpayers money buying personal data...
The US Intelligence Agencies don't bother paying for British citizen's personal data; they just jack into the live feed
Longer than I've been alive anyhow
You needn't have spelled that out for us. The Wikipedia citation was enough.
BBS?! You're comparing the prevalence, pervasiveness, and concerns of the Web in 2006 with Bulletin Board Systems? You might as well compare the freedoms, responsibilities, and pressures of modern urban newspapermen with their Dark Age Irish Monk forebears.
C'mon...!
And why does Myspace have any more responsibility than ANY other community-based website or bulletin board?
Right. Beacause community-based websites and bulletin boards have been around for such a long time, and there are so-o-o-o-o many legal challenges and precedents in that space.
Face it: The MySpace cesspool is in danger of leaking out and poisoning the well of community-based boards everywhere; the pure, crystal clear waters of SlashDot and its ilk are not going to have a cleansing effect, legal or otherwise, on MySpace.
I am seeing activism on the grass roots level against MySpace like I haven't seen since the early 90's (the kind of awareness that laid the groundwork for all the online child protection legislation). If the "good" community spaces are smart, they will toss MySpace out into the snow with extreme prejudice then circle the wagons before the Clintons and the Liebermans and all the other politicos up for re-election start painting them with the same brush they are currently tarring-up for MySpace.
Right or Wrong, there is a BIG RECKONING coming, and it WILL be impacting business models throughout the 'Net.
My Prediction, based on historical precedent? MySpace goes the way of GeoCities (socially un-cool and retro), and the kids all start gravitating to their own (and de-centralized) unique TLDs, just like their neo-adult blogging counterparts.
Although there are millions of active users on Myspace, most are teenagers with little buying power, that are therefore less likely to click on the adverts that gain the search engines revenue
Teens, schmeens. Fox is going after the fat-walleted 40ish pedophiles who are using MySpace like it was their own web-based rolodex. I was recently part of a tech-and-law-enforcement seminar, and was blown away by how easy it was to (a) locate your underage victim of choice, and (b) find out exactly where s/he would be when (softball/cheerleading practice at Acme Field, Tues and Thu from 3:30 to 4:45, etc.) If you're a perv, than MySpace is a virtual, virtual smorgasbord.
Fortunately, from what I have recently learned, the Good Guys are stepping up to the plate and starting to educate kids about exactly how NOT to fill out their online profiles and other narcissistic blog droolings. The aim is to make it tougher to find people.
Now, Fox is going out of its way to create search mechanisms to counter such obfuscations, presumably. Fascinating.
Gee, I wonder what Fox Interactive's Sister Company Pundit Bill "Who's Looking Out For Your Kids?" O'Reilly what have to say on this topic...?
Uhhhhh, I was referring to Woodstock, the town in Ulster County, New York. It's known as a beacon for the counter-culture. Sure, there was a music festival or two there, I suppose.
Here's a tip: Don't just plug words and phrases into Wikipedia and regurgitate them back onto major websites as if The Lord Has Spoken. There is so much wrong with that, on so many levels...
The Internet already is available to too many. It has become so affordable (sometimes even free to the end user) that we end up with the poor having the same access as other more financially responsible members of society.
Yeah, that's what I want to read: Just the literature produced by financially responsible members of society. How did you know? We must be soulmates.
Ideally, we could find a way to take the pencils and wordprocessors away from anyone who doesn't shower daily, too. Our campaign motto could be, "Clean, Fiscally Responsible Stories for Clean, Fiscally, Responsible People!"
Can you imagine the literary heights to which our well-to-do society could soar?! Wow.
And for an encore, we could go around to all the hotels nationwide and replace the Gideon Bibles with the latest issue of Golf Digest...
in the US, the Internet will be a place for businesses that can pay the carrier cartels. In Europe, the Internet will be a place (more like what we in the US have today) where ideas are exchanged freely.
The U.S. will resemble Manhattan. The EU will resemble Woodstock. As I live midway between these two places and frequent them both, I can tell you that each are interesting -- nay, captivating -- in their own way. Neither place is "better;" each has its fanatical supporters and detractors. I fall in love with, and am infuriated by, both on a regular basis.
The questions "Where Would You Prefer to Live?" and "Where Would You Prefer to Work?," as relates to these two cultural paradigms, are the fundamental queries here.