[Groop] Hogs of Horder - Update

[Tone]

Gary,

	I really have to agree with you about all these new social web sites
tweeting about. I do not want to end up spacing out and neglecting my own
scheduling book (as physically non-existent as that actually is) and I
would much rather have real face-time with people than socialize
virtually (with on-line gaming as an exception of course).
	For everyone, who does use any of the new socializing sites, please do
not immediately attack me. :) I am no stranger to technological
innovation. I had my own personal computer (an Apple //c) and was toying
around with BASIC programming and computer games back in the 80's while
still in grade school . Heck, by the time I got to high school in 1989 I
already had my own dial-up 300-baud modem and I was connected to the
internet through Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). During High School I
upgraded to a PC when their operating systems were still DOS. I type
super-fast, and I actually met my wife through Friendster as well as
hooked up with many of my earlier girl friends through various "social"
web sites way before any of these new sites became popular.
	Unfortunately now however, apart from having my wife and a couple of
college acquaintances, who all  do not seem to use Friendster anymore,
the only activity I seem to get through Friendster are friend requests
from profiles, which are quite blatantly pornographic ads. I know
Friendster is considered pretty much dead in the web site socializing
scene, but I definitely can see how Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace can
have their flaws.
	All of those sites seem to be big time-wasters where numerous friends can
send you useless virtual "tags", kisses/hugs, and tweets etc. As it is,
apart from this Groop, I am on three other e-mailing lists, which usually
provide me useful/interesting information or I know I will find at least
mildly amusing. Those messages get sent directly to my own e-mail inbox
at a convenient time of my choosing, and all the mail automatically gets
sorted further into their respective group folders. This means I do not
have to deal with logging in to a separate web site, which might throw
unwanted advertising on my screen, slow down my connection with excess
visual and audio content, or unexpectedly cause one of my potentially
logged-in friends to start up a long conversation for no real reason
other than feeling obligated to say "Hi".
	When I first heard about the "Those Who Fear Groo" forum I of course
immediately joined it, but I found within a month of two I lost incentive
to keep visiting it because I basically would get the same exact
information and communicate with pretty much the same group of people
right here on THEE original Sergio-recognized Groop. Except for added
visual content able to be displayed, I really do not see the benefit to
yet another Groo forum. If people want to share visual or audio content,
then a person can always post images on any of the free photo galleries
on-line or that person's own web site and include links in their Groop
e-mails. Also, sometimes with on-line forum formats the user-interface
seems more of a hassle because you have to click into each of the
individual subject folders and then follow further individual topic
threads. That can be extra time added up, which I could use doing
something else. I find it way easier to get everything in my inbox where
I can manage it much faster.
	Do not get me wrong either though. I definitely think the internet is an
incredibly useful tool for so many things and it is certainly my primary
and preferred method of communication between people... just as long as
the essential correspondence is primarily directed as e-mail. On my home
phone I had long distance taken off my line because it was useless to me
since I could keep in touch with my long-distance friends via e-mail and
I would save money by not having long-distance phone service included. My
cell phone includes Nation-wide calls at no extra cost, so we can talk to
my family and my wife's family if needed. I just wish they would
communicate via e-mail, particularly my father, who is not at all
computer savvy and lives in Portugal. That might save more time and money
because I could send and receive updates to/from them all and distance
would not matter.
	Another related issues is how most of the social web sites can be linked
to your cell phone, especially Twitter. Do I REALLY need to get text
messages through out my whole work day, which mostly do not have any
useful or immediately needed info?... especially when every individual
message adds up my cell phone bill considerably. I bet the cell phone
companies REALLY love Twitter.
	Maybe those social sites make sense for kids/ teenagers, who do not hold
down jobs to support a family and have a whole lot of free time on their
hands, which they feel compelled to use to build up their social standing
amongst their "friends", who they may or may not even know in person.
Personally, I do not have the luxury of having indefinite amounts of free
time... at least I will not until I win the lottery, which may never
happen because I rarely ever gamble. Besides all that free time though, I
would imagine those kids (and anyone else on those sites for that matter
)would have to worry about exposing themselves to unwanted attention...
like sexual predators, spam/virus distributors, advertisement marketers,
ID thieves, boring/annoying people they actually do know in real life, or
just about anyone they might not want to virtually connect with.
	My wife uses FaceBook primarily to keep in touch with a couple of desired
friends and family members. However, she admits FaceBook can certainly
get overwhelming even when simply being connected with only less than a
dozen "friends." That does not even include that one old school-"mate",
who keeps sending her a friend invite. Did my wife's old school-"mate"
somehow forget about how she used to bully my wife around when they were
kids? Why the HELL would my wife want to be re-connected with that B!+<#?
	By the way, did I mention those occasional porn solicitations I get
through Friendster seem to usually use my FULL real name? I have always
been extremely careful about ID theft and giving away too much info
on-line because back when I was a kid with that dial-up modem most of my
friends were into phreaking and hacking stuff, so I know how serious that
kind of stuff can be. All my friends no longer do that stuff anymore
because they grew out of it, but somehow those Porn spammers on
Friendster figured out exactly who I really was even though I only used
my first name (and only my nickname "Tone" for that matter) along with my
last initial. They may have somehow put the pieces together because I did
originally include some of the schools I went to and hobbies I have, etc.
Naturally I figured that out myself, so I edited out most of the
identifiable info, but knowing spammers know my full real name is quite
unsettling. Also, none of my actual old school-mates, who I might in fact
want to reconnect with, will be able to track me down anymore because I
had to limit the info I shared with the entire world. That KIND OF
defeats the whole purpose of a socializing web site, doesn't it?
	I have also read a number of articles about how employers and
acquaintances of people on FaceBook and other social sites discovered
sensitive information posted on a person's profile. That information
could result in the real-life relationship dynamic changing drastically.
What if an employer or someone you know begins to judge you negatively
and starts treating you differently due to your previously unknown sexual
orientation, political affiliations, religious beliefs, or involvement in
certain activities? Perhaps someone you know might simply think you are a
complete idiot and loose all respect for you because you actually find
Groo appealing.
	I am no idiot, so I know these social web sites constantly improve their
user-interfaces along with security measures to ensure a user's privacy
and control the flow of personal information to the proper "desired"
people. However, I still am quite hesitant about the idea of posting lots
of personal, identifiable, and possibly very significant content about
myself on the remote and ultimately publicly accessible/hackable servers
of some third-party company, who has their own profit and agenda as a
priority. Has anyone read the reports about people genuinely trying to
leave FaceBook as well as have every piece of their information
completely deleted and no longer publicly accessible? They go through
hell because most of the sites have members sign off on their content
rights to the site when users set up accounts. Also  most of the free
social sites do not have live customer service available, so fully
terminating an account and completely purging a member's info is a low
priority for the people, who do physically work at a social web site's
company. There have been some real horror stories and lawsuits involved.

Gary, bringing up the subject of cutting down trees reminds me of my own
yard work I have been involved with lately... tearing up a third of our
backyard to do some landscaping, which involves a small fountain pond and
a gravel area for a fire pit and seating. I spent all day Saturday and
Sunday feeling like I was going to plant crops in the upturned soil of my
back yard. I did not eve have time to check my e-mail all weekend, so I
could not imagine joining any of the trendy social web sites available
these days. I think I will stick to e-mail, useful web-surfing, and
on-line gaming. Sometimes it is good to "simplify" one's life.

Did I sound like and old-fart writing into a newspaper's editorial column?
Hopefully I did not since I get almost all my news from MSNBC, etc.
articles sent to my in-box with only filtered subject matter I am
interested in... so I do not really have anyone to write into. Therefore
you guys get all the joy of reading my rants and complaints. ;)

_TONE_