Facebook

2008-02-12 [Jitter]: The link does work ;) But I think you gotta be logged on :)

2008-02-17 [xido]: You sure do.

However, since we stated our user names over their, I thought about stating my real name over here:
R. William Thompson on Facebook.
-will

2008-02-17 [xido]: I think it's worth it... But I also have high-speed internet. Not sure how much I would like any site with dial-up. With online school, I would go crazy. 

2008-02-18 [Linderel]: I think Facebook is a silly fad, just like MySpace :P
*not joining, ever* Though I did get an account on the latter just to see what all the fuss was about. Wasn't impressed.

2008-02-18 [iippo]: I use Facebook for keeping in touch with the people I went to uni with. It's really handy for that, and for co-ordinating large groups of people, like the kids I go to church with (we try to do stuff together a lot, and you always forget to text someone etc...). Plus Facebook emails you when someone sends you a message or invites you to something or whatever, so that's really handy. And I've made contact with loads of people I used to know in the past. So it's mostly useful for real-life friendshipping, it's not a community in that sense like ET, where you can look at anyone's profile and send them a message or whatever. ET is a community, Facebook is social networking (and the difference is pretty important). I'm not sure what MySpace is, but it leans more towards networking too. I use MySpace to find new bands/musicians.

Although admittedly, Facebook has a similar tendency as Wikipedia does: you can waste surprising amounts of time on it, doing nothing, just looking at stuff you don't necessarily even need to look at.

2008-02-18 [Hedda]: Hm, can't a site be a community and a social networking site at the same time?

Elftown also emails people when they get a new forum-message or comments on a wiki-page they are watching. Unless you're an active Elftowner that reads it anyway. (This was one of the good things I learnt from Facebook and implemented.)

2008-02-19 [xido]: Yeah, I feel that MySpace is both gawdy and over-rated. I like Facebook because it is more organized, not able to upload crappy styles and music to your user-page, and it helps you stay in touch with people from old schools and jobs. I have met a lot of great people after joining facebook, and made some really wonderful professional connections. Like any web page, it can get old if you let it. The trick is finding out what parts you like, and quickly shunning all the parts that make you want to vomit.

The main difference between Facebook and other sites/developers is one that the maker of Facebook is quoted as saying, that, "Facebook is not a social network, but a social utility that allows social networks to be created and maintained in creative ways." It is therefore actually more of an online software application than a simple social network. I think that's why the interface is a little more accessible and easy-to-use than MySpace.

I think that Elftown has a lot of successes that could be benchmarked from fb, though I won't ever claim that Elftown isn't good enough. I'd drop fb in a heartbeat, if I thought that is wasn't worth my time, and just stick to the Town where I know the cool stuff happens.

Applications and add-ons are what separate fb from the others, and of course how it is laid out as well. It is not over-bearing and over-run with media, for the most part.

It does not, however, have a wiki. And in that way, ET wins big.
-will

2008-02-19 [iippo]: I'm not sure Hedda... But I think that people behave differently on ET and on Facebook, in a community and in a social networking site. I find Elftown has a lot more potential for the individual: I have loads more creative outlets as one person in ET (all the possibilities of the wiki, my house, forums etc...) that you can do without knowing anyone. You can just jump into a forum and start doing stuff and make friends that way. But if you didn't have any friends on Facebook, it wouldn't be a very busy place, and I imagine it would be very hard to start doing anything there, since (at least this is how it works for me) the stuff you do there you are actually doing to or with other people (making groups, writing messages or on people's walls, giving gifts, all the applications that look at your friends list etc...) I'd say a community is a place with individuals gathered together, doing stuff, and the stuff they do can lead to friendships and collaborations and the formation of relationships; while in a social networking site you operate in a social context (=your network of people), broadening your contacts list, doing stuff with your friends, learning about your friends (I found out through Facebook that two friends of mine got engaged).

Now there probably is a PhD to be done in this subject, because it's so vast and new and emerging as a phenomenon that we can't say anything concrete about it based on observation alone (also because you can't just observe it either, you have to be in it, and that makes any kind of neutral observation impossible).

2008-02-22 [Cia_mar]: cool! i joined!

2008-02-22 [Hedda]: [iippo]: Well, if one is a part of busy Facebook network (Like Linköping University), it is kind of like being an Elftown member. There are events and photo albums that sort of do the same thing as wiki-pages, and people invite each other to parties and stuff.

But other Facebook applications are mostly a pain in my butt. Stupid quizzes, chain-messages and some people manage to get their Facebook profiles almost as bad as the worst MySpace profiles.

So my current plan is to not try to do anything like the applications on Facebook, but instead simply implement the ones that are good.

It would of course be very cool to make an Elftown Wiki application for Facebook, but I don't know if that is possible.

2008-02-22 [iippo]: Is Facebook regulated in any way (like ET has guards)? I've never seen anything that would suggest that, and there is a lot of "random" and copyrighted stuff floating around there. But I suppose... since not anyone can see your profile, the copyright holder wouldn't actually find out about his stuff being used unless the people using it were in his network.

I quite like the gift-idea that Facebook has as a default thing (although I wouldn't pay a dollar to give one <_< I only give the free ones :P)

2008-02-23 [Hedda]: There are report buttons around Facebook, so I guess things can be reported.

Using images for private usage is fair use, so it's pretty hard to sue someone for that.

2008-02-27 [Mordigen]: i would not put anything up on facebook that i wouldnt mind other people yoinking ....like, petty sketches, or family photos ((really, whos going to steal a family photo for anything other than being an idiot?)) 
but i used to feel just like all you guys do about Facebook -- I was SO against it, thought it was stupid as hell....i already had a myspace page i hardly ever check so there was no point in facebook, yadda yadda yadda....but then I got talked into it by a friend....and holy shit.
Do you know how many olde friends I found?? Olde friends that were incredibly DEAR CLOSE friends that just by the graces of moving at the same time lost a phone number, which left a gapping whole in my heart wondering what ever happened to them....and then I FOUND them! holy shit,I had no clue good things like that could really come from the internet -- I am now a facebook supporter. I found so many dear friends of mine, it was like a fantastic school reunion............I had no clue. and I would have never have known, thanks to my attitude, without my friend finally talking me into it.
I say at least give it a try and join the ET group for shits and giggles.....and then if its not your thing, then so be it. but you never know till ya try it out -- apparently :P

2008-02-29 [xido]: Exactly, Mordigen. You just never know until you try.

Making a wiki-integration application would be nice, but I think that sounds like a long-term goal. Plus, what would the benefits be, since you can link to any exported page with a simple URL?

Also, Artsie suggested to me making an application somewhat like the 'My Deviantart' application, which would feature 'My Elftownart'. And furthermore, that could be said for Elfwood as well... (*continues to feel that Elfwood is underrated*)

The thing about Applications on Facebook is that I have personally been affected by the way in which - somehow - the applications just add you to it THEMSELVES and post it to your profile as though you did it. I have had to block several applications after having this happen. One thing that I find intriguing: if you go to the space on your profile where it says, "so-an-so added this application" and click on the 'X' to get rid of it, it asks you, "Hide Story", "I didn't do this", and "Cancel". When I clicked on "I didn't do this", it wouldn't let me choose that! Shady at best!!!

So just watch out for those applications, and make sure to both delete them and block them, then report it if you can. Not sure why or how that is allowed, but it is not cool.

I agree with iippo. There are some interesting difference in how a person operates on these two sites. I think a lot of it has to do with user-interface, as well as how the site is set up. I still vote Elftown over Facebook any day, but it is more fun to have both, and network between the two of them. I don't think ET needs applications, though. Especially if they would be misused, like those others are.

The application most recently in question:
"Are YOU Interested?"

Keep an eye on that one.
-will

2008-02-29 [xido]: Could we add a picture here?

From http://static.ak.facebook.com/images/welcome/welcome_3.gif

2008-03-01 [Hedda]: No, that's an ugly image, so I see no reason to add it.

2008-03-02 [Nocternity S.]: lol...