Lazario wrote:Here is the status of my all-three of these.
1. Facebook - I tried them once. About two weeks ago. Nobody told me what that place was like, so I didn't know what to do. It wanted my full name and I never tell anyone my full name online. Because of my very hard-edged and brutally honest opinions and points of view. I've noticed when some people do that online and have their actual name attached, you know- when they're too honest and people know who they are, they have to become incredibly private. YouTube's Tyler Oakley for example, who isn't even on Twitter anymore and whose MySpace page used to be public but is now private. And whose YouTube videos are spammed constantly with vicious homophobic slurs. It's gotten so bad that he now makes mention of it in his new videos (made in the last 2 weeks). I also don't show photos of myself online either. Though initially it wasn't because of my opinions or to protect my safety, now it very much is. I take extra precautions for the fuck of it now. It's better not to be sorry later. Facebook wants your real name and too much real detailed information. I'm not comfortable sharing that online. So I ended up with a false name account. Which I don't use. (if you really want to know, just search for Lazario, you might find it but everyone knows Lazario isn't my real name)
I don't know if you know much about the history of facebook and I'm no expert, but it was for students at first. People's networks were their schools. I joined it when I was a college student. I think it required a ".edu" type of email address so that's what I used to register. Having your real name I think was okay for that purpose, as you were searching for other students you knew and the people that could see your profile had to be in your network or friends list. As it is now, you can still limit who can see what. Though, your name is visible to many. I suppose if you're really worried you could use a real name and not display your photo in the profile image so when users search they don't see a face with the name. If you did want a photo on the profile you could reserve it for a private album viewable based on your security or privacy settings.
Personally I am not a huge fan of any of the sites out there right now. My Space turned to crap because almost all the activity was bands seeking fans (in my experience). And facebook is cluttered with all these applications. I liked it better before I even knew what Farmville was. I don't play it, but I have people that send me requests for their applications, etc. I get these "so and so sent you a rose. do you accept?" and you think, "sure, what's the harm?" and next thing you know it's like, "please install the rose for a friend application" or whatever. It drives me nuts. I leave requests sitting idle in my box for a long time because I don't want to deal with them.
As far as protecting your true identity... though most people won't do anything with someone's information, there are still some out there. This guy was a jerk on a message board I posted on and followed me to another message board and yanked one or two photos of me and re-posted them on the other board. I knew the guy who hosted the original image so he broke the link, actually made it say something like you don't have permission to use this. But anyway, I think he turned it into a game like he thought he would be cool if he could expose my name or find out more personal info. to freak me out. People are weird.
Twitter... I have never used it. I get the feeling it's just a series of updates, like the facebook status/news feed stuff.
Is there a virus or something??? 
