Byethost32.com: A Word of Warning

This is a bit of warning about a free host called Byethost32.com who frankly have been more of a pain than useful over the last year who seam to suspend free hosting web sites at a drop of a hat. For the second time in year they have suspended my account because of over use which is highly surprising as I never get more than 3 to 4 hits a day then only on a good day so in over a year I’ had just got to a 1000 hits’

In the end I have had to give up with Byethost32.com as a bad job as my argument what is the point of using a Free Host if you get little more traffic for a short while more than 10 a day they suspend you. I have moved to free web hosts which claim not to restrict both file usage and bandwidth in the hope I do not fall for the same trap again’

Personally after being stung by Byethost32.com twice while other free hosts with restricted bandwidth have not done the same to me I would not recommend anybody uses them as I suspect they routinely suspend accounts to give an unsubtle hint you should buy a paid web hosting from them. If this is their tactics of getting people using free web hosting to buy their products they can keep their free hosting as it stinks!

Scary Places on the Internet!

What has become very clear from my experience both on True-Friends.org and Second Life that some people are finding them very scary places because they have to actually socially interact with people on both of the said social networks!

This does highlight one major flow in modern man world over with ease of communication now modern man has lost the basic social skills we all once had to a point they are lost when they are faced with a real social situation even on a social web site.

How this situation actually happened is still a mystery to me but it could be due to a large part people spend more time at home in front of the television watching the world rather than interacting with the world itself. Add to this children now spend more time indoors either in front of a television or playing games on computers or games consults rather than actually going out and playing with other children as they did in my day.

I think this has produced a generation which are socially stunted incapable of actually holding a proper conversion with someone and it really shows in the way they talk to someone or more like they now talk at someone rather than listening to each other.

All this further exasperated by a media which encourages a shallow society which is more concerned with trivial matters than real social interaction between people. Even social networks like Facebook encourage such reactions between people nowadays.

So I should not be surprised when modern people when confronted with a real social web site, for example True-Friends.org or Second Life they are totally lost or scared as they really do not have the social skills people like myself were taught when we were younger.

And what do they do? They run away like all modern people from something they do not understand rather than learn something new which could be potentially very useful and rewarding to themselves!

Facebook is Now But an Old Nightmare!

It now been over two weeks since I deleted my Facebook account and frankly the last two weeks have been a lot more hassle free and my mood has generally been better which has been very noticeable to those around me.

What it has shown me due to it’s nature Facebook is having an unconscious effect on peoples and my own mood in a very negative way which in itself is very surprising. I cannot really put a finger on why other than it’s very nature brings out the darker side of people’s nature due to the very nature way Facebook is set up.

I have think I have said this before Facebook now fails to do it’s basic task of being a Social Network if anything by it’s very nature and the way people now perceive it as a place for gossip and for trivial matters has change it’s very nature for the worse. In so much people do not go there to socialise any more but to catch up with gossip and such trivial matters with basic socializing and keeping up with old friends as a very poor second.

When I was on Facebook the last thing I could do was easily keep up with my old friends and have private chats with them as the whole nature of Facebook discouraged this. I could not even keep up with their lives on Facebook itself as it got lost in the dross Facebook fills it’s news feeds with without doing some unnecessary work.

Basically in the end Facebook stopped being useful as far as I am concerned made worse I used the excuse that I was there to keep in contact with friends to stay there but I simply could not easily!

The biggest irony of all these so called friends did not comment elsewhere that I left Facebook or even missed me once again just showed to myself that Facebook was failing to do what it claims that is being a social network!

MySpace has Gone Same Way as Facebook!

Today MySpace went the same way as Facebook in so much I deleted my account with no intention of going back there but for slightly different reasons. Basically MySpace new format and contents basically do not appeal to me especially the choice of music which only includes mainstream current and new bands, e,g, too commercial.

But what it does show much like Facebook the major social web sites really not do not do what they claim to do which is be social web sites but have become places for businesses to peddle their wares including music all at the expense of the social side. They have lost focus on what they should be focusing on their users who make their social web sites work something they certainly not doing at present.

I suspect that there are a growing number of people like myself who are getting very disenchanted by the major social networks like Facebook and MySpace to a point they really do not give us anything we need any more. Then like myself they are leaving these social networks looking elsewhere which is missing on the major social networks.

My personal opinion is if both Facebook and MySpace do not do something about their social networks and leave them as they are both will be doomed to collapse or fading into the background in relative obscurity. The process has already started with MySpace and only a matter of time before it starts to happen with Facebook.

Facebook is Gone Without a Regret!

Last week I finally let Facebook this time without one regret or even a tinge of sadness at the potential loss of some friends there but finally Facebook really got on my nerves because of what it has become a place for the trivial, shallow and finally a place which people to use spread unfounded fear, hate and even racism. All this in form of status, pages and so called interesting/funny cartoons!

The final tipping point was one of my so called friends there who thought it was acceptable to spread the obviously fake Australian Prime Minster speech which said Australia would kick out all the Muslims there which was further compounded by the fact they agreed the sentiments. At this point I really thought hard and quickly do I really want to be associated with a social web site which allows such racist and inflammatory posts.

Then add to this my personal view that Facebook has stopped being what it was originally a social network but a place where businesses hammer adverts down your throat and abuse the data given by users to Facebook in good faith. On top of this it has also become a place of trivialities not helped by the fact Facebook encourages a laziness and apathy of it’s user by it’s very nature.

All this and the attitude of Facebook towards their users and their data finally tipped the balance and my Facebook account was deleted this time without a regret or a look backwards.

This also had one other nice side effect as since I have deleted my Facebook account my mood in general has improved over the week as it seems that Facebook’s very nature and contents had a very negative effect on my mood. This did really surprise me as I had not realised it was having such effect on me!

Facebook is Back to Doing Questionable Activities!

Recently in various news web sites Facebook has appeared again this time because they are asking some people on Instagram to produce real identification after locking their account. Initially most of the users thought it was a scam but the said users soon got emails from Facebook/Instagram informing them they needed tha Identification to unlock their accounts.

And what was Facebool/Instagram excuse for this action? It was the said people had broken their term of service by not using their real names on the accounts which considering that users in the past were allowed to use any name on Instagram in the past it is a bit rich on Facebooks part.

But this is the second time Facebook has gone through such an exercise as a few years ago they started to suspend accounts on their main site because the accounts in question were not for so called real people which included a large number of Second Life Avatars.

All this in an effort by Facebook to make sure all accounts were for so called real people so the data they collected was more valuable to the companies they sell it too not for excuse they gave as it was against their terms of service or security.

All it succeeded in doing was browning off of a lot of users of Facebook who suddenly found their accounts deleted made worse by the fact Facebook was not consistent only removing some of the accounts and ignoring the rest some of which are still going now.

So once again Facebook are attempting the same thing with Instagram for exactly the same questionable reason and I suspect all they will succeed in doing is alienating a number of users.

I personally start to wonder just what Facebook is up to as it slowly alienating it’s user base with ill thought out actions with very questionable motives as in the end all it is going to do is push away users who potentially bring something to Facebook as a social web site leaving a bland advert filled site as we are seeing now!

Facebook Turns People into Sheep!

Recently there is a post which is being passed on Facebook which claimed that the Australian PM made a speech claiming she was going to remove all Muslims from Australia and number of other anti-Muslim sentiments. This post has been passed by people, even ones who claim to be intelligent and world wise, as true and it needed to be spread for various reasons.

But if the said people actually questioned and thought about what the post said it would not take much if the Australian PM had actually said those things within the post it would have been splashed all over the World Media currently and it is not. Plus with just one simple google search you can quickly establish it is a fake which is designed to cause trouble for Australian Government and to perpetuate Anti-Muslim sentiments on the Internet.

What this shows it now people now unquestionably believe what is written on Facebook has to be true much as media in general regardless of the fact we all know both from experience and history media can be manipulated by individuals and groups to their own ends with cleverly created stories for their own agendas.

It is not as if these people already know that our media in general has always been manipulated by individuals and groups especially with recent Rupert Murdoch and News Corp here in the United Kingdom which highlighted just how a powerful media corporation tried to manipulate the United Kingdom government.

But people of both United Kingdom and United States now are too lazy and apathetic to question what they are told on the media and seam to live in the glorious illusion what they are told on media especially on the internet. Until people wake up to this fact and start to question what is told them they will be sheep easily manipulated by individuals and groups such posts like Australian PM will continue to be spread on likes of Facebook promoting hate.

The New MySpace!

Recently MySpace has gone through a change into a so called social web site which fans can follow their bands but there is a big but on my part as I find it terrible for whole number of reasons. It will mean I will be eventually deleting my MySpace as I dislike it that much.

The first major problem being that on the new MySpace profile none of the user data from my old MySpace profile so in one foul move MySpace has removed all the friends had there. This would have been just a pain but what makes it worse is the selection of bands you can follow there is very poor indeed and limited to the mainstream of music with the token so called indie and alternative rock.

I know this may improve with time but frankly with the other issues I frankly am not going to waste my time with a so called music web site which only so called mainstream music much like I do not bother with Spotify as it frankly does not interest me at all.

Personally I not recommend MySpace to anybody as it now a terrible social web site whose content leaves a lot to be desired. I am of the opinion the change they make is really not going to help MySpace itself if anything make their position as a Social Web site worse!

Facebook Makes People Lazy!

After I read an article yesterday saying that Facebook as a whole makes people feel worse because they are envious of others who have better life in general than themselves and from personal experience it got me thinking about Facebook itself and I came to conclusion Facebook makes people lazy!

What do I mean by this? Simple people because of Facebook and it’s nature people have become very lazy socially expecting everything at their figure tips. This gets highlighted when heavy users of Facebook actually arrive in social web sites which encourage real social interaction in so much they really lack the basic skills to socially interact with a fellow human being. All they seam to be capable of is making negative remarks about other people or making such remarks the site is boring or they are bored.

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg both have a lot to answer for by creating a social network which rather than encourages real social interaction creates a whole group of people who expect the social network to provide the social interaction and entertainment which frankly the wrong way round. Facebook has not helped the situation by adding games and other distractions which have really detracted from what the site was meant to be a social network.

In the end Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg have done more damage than good in the field of social networks by allowing their own greed and misplaced idea that people actually like an open life which frankly none ever did other than with real friends.

What Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg both have forgotten clearly it is not the social web site itself but the people who make it up gives a social network its life and frankly Facebook has no real life of it’s own but a group of isolated users who just end up posting trivia and playing games rather than actually socialising.

Myself and growing number of people are using Facebook less and less choosing other places to socialise on the internet which tend to be smaller and more personal social networks, for example True-Friends.org and Anybeat before it plus in my case virtual worlds like Second Life. As like myself I rather socialise in a place created by the users not a faceless corporation or one persons flawed vision of the future of the internet.

Add to this growing numbers even on Facebook now just use it to keep in contact with friends and use it less and less reducing their presence there even to a point of not updating their status any more. Myself if it were not for friends who only use Facebook I would of removed my presence there totally.

It has not gone unnoticed to myself and others even some game companies who write Facebook games now are separating themselves from Facebook by creating their own sites to play their games and mini social web sites around their games.

In the end Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg have got it wrong blinded by their own greed and arrogance with a social web site which only exists because people are far too lazy to look elsewhere!

True Friends: One Pointer to the Future of Social Networks

One thing the small social private network True Friends has shown me and others is that it is not the size of the social network but the people who make up a social network which make the social network itself.

It strikes me that the major social networks, for example Facebook and Twitter, have forgotten this singular fact and it shows in their social networks which tend now to be very bland and empty with little real feeling behind them. You might say they are not very clinical in what they do to a point it has destroyed their original proposes as social web sites.

My personal view is that Mark Zuckerbug has got the basic nature of social networks and way people interact socially totally wrong from the start. Basically people do not want public lives played on the internet on the likes of Facebook but to find new friends and communities there something lacking in so called in the real world around them.

What the likes of True Friends shows is the direction of social networks should follow this patten of way people actually socialise in so much we form small communities of people with similar interests or complement each other which interact in a more real and personal level providing a much needed community, be it on-line, people need.

I know I have said this before especially with relation with Second Life but from personal experience and observation of the people around me it is exactly what people need are not big impersonal social networks but smaller more personal social networks which reflects the way people actually socialise.

True Friends shows the way social networks should develop in the future in so much in smaller more personal networks and the developers of such networks should concentrate on the tools which allow the creation of these smaller social networks and allow the interaction between these smaller networks themselves.

True Friends: Small is Beautiful!

I know I have blogged about True-Friends.org before praising it’s benefits but I thought it needed another mention as it as a social web site is worth the effort.

True Friends still is a small but very active and vibrate private social network open to all those who are brave enough to venture there. It’s whole nature encourages a real on-line community of people something which we all need in this impersonal and isolating modern world of ours.

It fills a much needed gap not filled by major social networks like Facebook and Twitter which both due to their size and nature have lost some of their sparkle and ability to actually be true social web sites. In both cases both Facebook and Twitter have allowed their own greed and corporate natures influence their networks much to their own and users detriments.

Personally I do not see the future of real Social Networks in the likes of Facebook or Twitter but in smaller and more personal Social Networks which serve their users far better. It’s a basic fact that people cope with smaller communities far better and enjoy them more than the large faceless communities in which they are small fish in impersonal sea of people.

For those who want to check out or plunge into a real Social Network just follow the link to True-Friends.org: http://www.true-friends.org.

Please Note: If want to view my Second Life Journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Please Note: If want to view a Second Life Wikipedia then go to the Encyclopedia Umbra Machina.

True Friends: A Phoenix from the flames of Anybeat’s Demise?

After the demise of Anybeat a lot of the old members decided to go to Facebook and try to keep up the old spirit of the old Anybeat Social Web site in the impersonal world of Facebook. It sort of worked but as always with all that goes with Facebook the old feeling of Anybeat was lost but luckily not forever.

As one of the old Anybeater’s off their own back decided to create a small and more personal social web site called True Friends and invited the few people from Anybeat on Facebook to join, Sadly not all took up the invitation but to be frank they have ended up the losers.

I am not saying that True Friends is another Anybeat as that would be two much to expect but it like Anybeat it is a unique Social Web Site who unlike the larger social web sites, for example Facebook and Google+, has a personal touch sadly lacking in the larger social web sites.

True Friends is never going to be biggest social web site in the world but it has something the rest do not have a real community of people something sadly lacking in this modern world of ours. I would recommend it to those people out there who wanted to talk to real people and real things but I would not recommend it to those who just want to dip their toes in the world of social web sites.

So if you are game and want a real social experience just follow the link: http://www.true-friends.org

Please Note: If want to view my Second Life Journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Please Note: If want to view a Second Life Wikipedia then go to the Encyclopedia Umbra Machina.

Facebook: Has Bubble Finally Burst?

Facebook was floated this week with lot of controversy of their own and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, making. It looks like that Facebook both over valued themselves and they and their Banks were not totally honest about growth figures to their potential investors.

I think both Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have learnt a very harsh lesson about being honest and more open about their business and this will come back to haunt them as in the process they have shown as a company they have no real integrity and some very dishonest business paratices!

But we should not be surprised as both Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have always shown a blatant disregard to their users, intellectual property and privacy for years so we should not be surprised by their actions with potential investors!

Facebook may be the biggest Social Network in the world but it’s recent actions during it’s floatation has confirmed a lot of peoples views of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in so much they are not totally honest, open and only interested in making money regardless of the fact who get hurt.

Then add to this stories that advertising on Facebook simply does not work and the personification of new Social Networks on the internet who do not have any advertising and do not data mine users information it seams Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg bubble has burst finally!

Facebook as a company has got far too complaint as it grew and now is paying the price for it and they should remember the likes of Pan Am who may have been one of the biggest airlines in the world as it went out of business!


Please Note: If want to view my Second Life Journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Please Note: If want to view a Second Life Wikipedia then go to the Encyclopedia Umbra Machina.

Anybeat: A Bright Light in the Darkness!

Today Anybeat closes but not under a cloud of sadness but as a great testament to it’s founders who created an on-line community which will survive it’s closure and beyond.

Those of us who found Anybeat have found it to be a rare social networks which actually encouraged it’s members to socialize in a real way on real subjects unlike the large majority of other social networks on the internet which discouraged such interaction between it members. The biggest example being Twitter’s open suppression of #athiestrollcore tag just in case it offending it more sensitive Christian members.

But this singular fact made Anybeat into a real living on-line community which was both very vibrant, entertaining and innovative something which now rarely exists in the so called real world, a community so strong that it will exist even after Anybeat has gone. It felt like an on-line home from home to a large majority of it’s members who felt very comfortable to express and argue their opinions without judgement and prejudiced shown in the rest of the world.

What Anybeat has shown is that people of this Earth of ours actually want back are the real communities which have sadly been lost because of our modern world and living. It has also shown where the major on-line social networks, for example Facebook, MySpace, Google+ and even Twitter, have gone wrong in so much they have singularly failed to encourage a sense of community but focused on themselves not the users which have created by shallow and empty social networks, more an accessory than an actual social network.

I know Anybeat in it’s short life time has touched more people in a more profound way than any other such social network and it’s effects will be felt for a long time in the on-line social network world as it has shown they way on-line social networks should go. It will not be forgotten especially by those who were brave enough to take the journey on Anybeat.

In conclusion today should not be a day of sadness but a day of celebration of what Anybeat and it’s founders have created a vibrant, living and intellectual on-line community which both the founders and members of Anybeat should be very proud of. An on-line community which will grow and develop outside of Anybeat a real testament for all of us involved.


Please Note: If want to view my Second Life Journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Please Note: If want to view a Second Life Wikipedia then go to the Encyclopedia Umbra Machina.

Armchair Revolutionaries and Invisible New World!

What I about to say here may be very obvious to some people but it has to be said to make the point again as some people still do not get it!

It has always struck me just how a large majority of people around me totally miss the fact that the Internet is both very public and social place to a point they only see the world directly around them, even on the internet itself, and they simply to not perceive anything beyond it.

This can be excused for those of us who were born before the advent of the Internet as our only access to the World outside of our immediate environment was through Newspapers, Television and Books. Our world then was smaller compared to now so in our case it can be very understandable people like myself can get lost or mystified by the new modern larger world.

But what is even less understandable why some of those who were born after the advent of the Internet have this same small world attitude in so much they see little beyond their own little world and singularly fail to understand the true nature of the internet. This could be due to their upbringing, or culture though I suspect it is more of the modern self centred attitude which has been encouraged globally in the Western Culture since the 1980s.

The upshot of this we have a large majority of people who use the internet from high level Government Officials to low level Workers who simply do not understand the internet is both public and extremely powerful tool for change socially. Then there are those who only see the Internet in terms of just a commercial entity something purely to make money and nothing else.

But luckily there are those few who see what the Internet for what it is a place where peoples, cultures and nations can meet, and exchange ideas, knowledge, understanding or simply talk to each other. Some have found this by themselves exploring and trying what is a available on the Internet while others have found the power of the Internet through adversity. These people quickly learn just how small the internet makes the world and it’s true power to bring people together in a way that nothing else in history has been able to.

These people through on-line games, social web sites and even virtual worlds meet new friends, learn new skills, expand their understanding of the world and even build new virtual global communities. They build a brave New World over the Internet which is largely ignored or ridiculed by those people outside of it as unimportant be that in Government, Business or even in the General Public all over the world.

There are those outside of these people both within Governments, Businesses and individuals who are starting to catch on what is happening, though very slowly, then it is only those Governments who want to suppress their people freedom, those Businesses who and see it as an opportunity to make more money even at the expense of others and sadly among the individuals those who see it as opportunity for criminal activity.

My personal view of all this it is an amazing opportunity for everyone in so much anyone from the comfort of their homes they can talk to anyone in the world who has internet connection, explore new virtual worlds and more importunity build new much needed communities both local and global replacing those destroyed by our modern world.

The internet itself is an opportunity in waiting to build brave new world rather than what most people perceive as a destroyer of communities, cultures and the such. My personal view is it is the responsibility of those of us who see this to inform or try to educate those who don’t even if they do not listen.

I know what I have said here has already been said by others but I think it is so important it has to said by myself and others in the hope someone listens.

Finally I find it totally fascinating that from my chair though my laptop I can talk to the whole world via the Internet, though lost in myriads of other voices, so potentially I can be an Armchair Revolutionary and change the world!

Just really think about that power!


Please Note: If want to view my Second Life Journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Please Note: If want to view a Second Life Wikipedia then go to the Encyclopedia Umbra Machina.