In defense of social networking, re: your myspace experience

[DonWidmore]

JG,

I fondly remember your myspace page, but I bailed on it about a month after you did.

This summer I reconnected with about 100 of my friends from the music industry (read: 40 year olds who used to be in bands but now have kids) and child actors via Facebook and I will say this, as long as one limits the amount of connections to their actual friends or reliably intelligent acquaintances/fans the results can be phenomenal. At about 100 friends I'm reading amazingly intelligent commentary in real-time from artists who I want to hear from and actors who I respect are commenting and interacting on pieces I wrote for my friends in music- a strange cross-cultural pollination. And you know, there are still musicians who will talk to me at shows but won't add me on FB because they're keeping it under 200 people.

I know you got burnt by the pig-pile, spam and fake accounts in MySpace, but with real controls and self-control FB rewrites that whole experience.

[ThinkImGonnaHurley]

I have a Facebook account. It is just for Scrabble. I tell my friends, "Don't bother posting comments or sending me PMs. The only page I see is 'Active Games.' If you need to reach me start a game and put it in the chat."

[ThinkImGonnaHurley]

Also. Just to let you guys know. My "Scrabble only" account does not use my real name nor have a picture of me. So if you find a page claiming to be me, I guarantee you it is NOT me. So don't be fooled.