Friday, April 12, 2013

An Airhead in Limbo





Ever since Multiply closed, I’ve been looking for a place to call home. I wanted things to resemble Multiply as closely as possible—the ability to blog, the ability to post videos and pictures, the ability to customize one’s own background to suit one’s individual taste and personality--and probably most importantly, some prescribed system that lends itself easily to social networking, as the namesake of these sorts of sites implies.

Blogger doesn’t really fill the bill in a number of areas.  It does not encourage networking in even the most modest of terms. One must really go out of his or her way to find like-minded friends with whom to network. 

Blogger is also difficult to navigate.  In fact, you click on someone’s user name and it takes you to a person’s profile page instead of their main page, and finding their latest post or often even their main page from there requires an IQ breaking 160.

A friend and I have discovered a site that has many of the features that Multiply had—especially, strongly encouraging social networking.  However, it seems to be populated mostly by airheads, refugees from Myspace, kids who got older without actually growing up.

The bling and glitter graphics is so thick there that you actually end up leaving the computer with all sorts of sparkly things stuck to your clothing, along with all sorts of inane pictures dancing in your head the rest of the day-- everything from couples kissing to donkeys kissing—absorbed as if by osmosis from your page’s comment section. 

The bling is even there in the dashboard, a posting section equivalent to Multiply’s Inbox.  It seems this crowd will even use these childish graphics to respond to other’s serious posts, which leaves you wondering if there is actually a person behind these creepy gifs or if they are randomly computer generated. Fortunately, I’ve discovered a way of disabling the html from being posted to my own page’s comment section, offering me some relief. 

Enter—our plan.  My friend and I have surmised that if we carefully pick and choose our friends here, we may be able to rehabilitate this site to where serious writing, poetry and the serious discussion of esoteric subjects will become the norm. It is going to be a monumental task for sure, given how few mature adults we presently find on this site.

One problem is that when you join, your page is defaulted to “private”. For some reason, which I haven’t quite yet figured out, the members don’t seem eager to change any portion of their page’s status from private to public. It’s not that they are all posting prurient salaciousness on their pages, it’s just that they apparently haven’t quite grasped the concept that if your page is private, no one can know whether or not they want to invite you as a friend. As I said, most of them appear to be former Myspace users.

Anyway, here is my page, which on the surface looks much as my Multiply page did.  Not much has been posted to it yet, but you can somewhat gage the possibilities of the site if you click around on a few of the links. Much of the information cannot be seen, both because of certain privacy settings that I have initiated to keep the airheads from knowing that I’m visiting their pages, plus other settings, which allow only Friendburst members to see certain information on other’s pages:

http://www.friendburst.com/Knightstar//  (now canceled)


~Manfred


11 comments:

  1. Blogger is certainly not as user-friendly as Multiply was, and the social aspect is certainly not as good as well. I think most people have taken to Facebook for their social-networking needs.

    Maybe blogging is a thing of the past. Maybe we're doomed to simple sound-bites and the like. I'm hopeful, however, that a site very much like Multiple will resurface. One can only hope. Until then, I am here, for better or worse ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe blogging is a thing of the past.

      I sure hope not, KJ. While I do regularly eat fast food, I sure enjoy sitting down to a home-cooked meal once in a while.

      ~Manfred

      Delete
  2. Hi Manfred ... It's good to see you blogging once again.

    Thank you for the information about Friendburst. I did a little checking around and found a consumer site where a few people filed complaints about being banned from Friendburst, without being given a reason. I worry about sites that are quick to ban members. Just saying ...

    I hope it works out for you, and I hope you will continue to blog on Blogger. ~D

    ReplyDelete
  3. "... a few people filed complaints about being banned from Friendburst, without being given a reason."

    Thanks, D. Perhaps people are being banned for displaying too much substance.

    I have found a few on there that actually do have stature and write about things that matter; however, they seem to be extremely rare on this site.

    My friend and I were talking about the blingsters last night and we came to the conclusion that while they would like to interact with others socially, these sorts of shallow forms of communication, such as posting pre-made pictures with comments, is the only sort of dialog to which they are capable. Simply addressing someone in a sincere and forthright manner would constitute for them far too much intimacy.

    The site, as far as I can tell, was started about two years ago by a guy named Kevin, who says he is keeping it up and running with cash from his own pocket and you are heavily encouraged, in a number of ways, to sign up for a premium account--which is about three times what it was for Multiply--and that's for the basic for-pay account. Still, the site seems very much to be in its infancy and appears not to be going anywhere, as far as membership. Just looking at the number of groups and the lack of members in each group, makes it appear to me that site has very few members overall. It's too bad, too, since this site utilizes some really great software.

    ~Manfred

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Personally, I would love to see you posting more blogs right here on Blogger. Oh, have you ever checked out Blogster? It's free, a few Multiply people are there, but it is limited as to what you can do with the site. The owners aren't going to upgrade it, and two people volunteer their time to zap the spammers and answer questions. Otherwise, it's very friendly.

      Let's face it, we all were spoiled by Multiply. To quote Kennedy: "I'm hopeful, however, that a site very much like Multiple will resurface."

      Delete
  4. Hello Manfred: I feel your pain & angst!!! I found Blogger & Blogspot not my cauppa tea at all..no offence to anyone on these sites...I could not navigate well & could not connect with like minded people either.
    I had 4 Multiply/360 friends on Wordpress who suggested I try it...i left Multiply last August..literally 'jumped ship' & have never looked back!! I have ben able to set up the blog for Nylablue & I; do a personal background & header & then I jsut started blogging...people came onto my page & welcomed me!!! I have made new friends & they are all animal lovers!!! Also there are actual categories you can go thru to meet like minded bloggers...I did that & have a few deep thinkers I am connected to..one in South Africa & one in Portugal....amazing people....so if you ever decide you want a new home come on over to WordPress....I can introduce you to all our friends...
    I hope Bonnie is well & that Baby & Sweetie are still with you both.
    {{HUGS}} & *nose kisses* Sherri-Ellen & Nylablue.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, Sherrie-Ellen. I think I will take you up on opening a Wordpress account and give it a try very soon. I'm just looking for something that will combine cerebral discourse with the ability to do some actual networking with other like-minded people. Belonging to a site with the added benefit of having a page that reflects my personality, visually, doesn't hurt either.

    ~Manfred

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Manfred ... How is Wordpress working out for you? ~D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry, D., I haven't had the time to do anything yet, but I'll be sure to let you know how it works out. Thanks for asking.

    ~Manfred

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. M, I checked it out and found it to be a little bit difficult to navigate. But, that's just me. The "free" themes are very nice. Good luck to you ... ~D

      Delete
  8. Wow, What a great post. I just love it.
    Also, Please check out my game Traffic Racer .
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete