Saturday, December 19, 2009

Spambook

I was under the impression that I could get spam only via email. Thankfully there has been a notable reduction in the number of mails that say "Send this to 7 people within the next 12 minutes and a your Fairy Godmother will appear and drop you straight into Richie Rich's mansion where you will find all the money in the world, your true love, and a diamond as big as your arse!". I don't deny that they still exist and no, I don't believe that if I read a "horror" email and don't pass it on, a rabid goat will appear and eat my brains at midnight. Also, I don't really need anything offered to me over the internet which will make me money in Indonesia or increase my sex appeal.

But forget about email spam, that's old news. Facebook spam is all the rage right now. Well maybe I don't get several mails in my facebook inbox with random information, but here are a few things I consider to be facebook spam on my homepage [to name a few]:
  • FarmVille
  • YoVille
  • Mafia Wars
  • Crazy Taxi
  • Quizzes about the type of alcohol/flower/animal/furniture you are
  • Quizzes about which movie/twilight/comic book/cartoon character you are
  • Random communities you have joined

The list goes on but I will stop here. There is an option not to publish all the random things you do on facebook. I suggest generous use of the 'skip' button when facebook asks you whether you want to publish things or not. There are also several people who take the quizzes seriously. I have come across a person who told me that she was good at math cause a facebook quiz told her so. If I had functioned according to facebook, I would've been following the profession of my destiny according to one of the quiz-makers which is to be a nanny. [Nannies are awesome, and I respect what they do, simply because I cannot do the same.]

The communities are even more confusing. I joined one of them just to see what it's about and it's called "I Chase And Roar At Squirrels And Sometimes Get Caught And It's Awkward". It currently has 2,279 members, I promise. And in that community, people either just talk about arbit and unconnected things, or actually describe their Squirrel chasing encounters. At least it's remotely entertaining. Don't judge me for joining.

What's even worse is the "If 94859345 People Join, My Girlfriend Will Marry Me And We Will Make Babies" communities. Firstly, what kind of whack-job is that girlfriend? Secondly, what would you DO in such a community? Alright it's sweet. Awwwww! Mr Stranger McQuackGirlfriend gets babies. But I don't care. You know why? It's because I don't care, really.

Fortunately though, facebook has been kind enough to offer me the option to block posts from certain applications and people if you choose to. For this, I thank facebook. And those of you who spam us, Shame On You!

5 comments:

  1. But again.. you have this majority-mob joining groups like "Randomely laughing because you remembered something funny" .. so? so why the devil should we know! LAUGH, DIE, JIZZ IN YOUR PANTS, DO WHATEVER! why join groups?! such a piss-off it is.. you can't keep blocking posts by everyone afterall!

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  2. Also, you have the option to "hide" the feed, and hence restrict it from appearing it on your homepage. For ex, of you hide a feed from Farmville, all feeds thereafter will cease to appear.

    The blod is well written and structured by the way.

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  3. Sorry, read "blod" in my last line as "blog". Attributable to human typo.

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  4. @Neeraj: Yeah I guess that's what I was getting at in the last para
    @Kaushik: Facetube... When every "Photo" on facebook is in fact, a video... which plays when you click on it; nfiltrating the world with new sets of internet mems, making rickrolling and keyboard cat obsolete

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