As much as I dislike Facebook, the company that is, it needs to be said that Facebook isn’t going to eat your children, run off with your wife or burn you to death whilst you’re questing in the Wetlands, as Deathwing did to me last night!
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the concept of Facebook, it’s the practices of the company that make it an area of debate and some of those practices are not comfortable viewing, this is why when Blizzard wanted everyone to use their real names on the forums, there was a backlash and complaints to privacy bodies, because Facebook goes beyond your circle of real life friends and neighbours and that’s where the issues start, hence why Facebook have been in talks with the German authorities regarding privacy settings on their friend finder feature, as reported by AFP here.
Over at New World Notes, Hamlet Au is talking of how Second Life was once considered the social networking platform of the future and how Facebook has passed it in spectacular fashion. There’s an interesting video there from 2006 featuring Robin Harper, who has been working for Playdom since November, a company who specialise in Facebook games.Facebook has its uses and as much as I wish they would go away, it’s somewhat foolhardy of a company to not engage with Facebook in some way, those companies however should be mindful of what they’re getting into, options should be opt-in. Those of us who oppose Facebook domination want options, such as widgets not appearing on Second Life profiles. Argent Stonecutter has created Jira-Web-3544 with some simple options that go some way to alleviating concerns over minor privacy concerns by simply having options on whether widgets appear on your profile, or any profile you read. This is a happy compromise.
Compromise is of course an area where Facebook and Second Life are at odds with each other. Hamlet is quick to point out that nearly 110,000 likes have been made on the Second Life Facebook page. However, what we don’t know from those stats is how many of those likes came from users with Facebook accounts that are in violation of Facebook’s TOS. There are Second Life accounts on Facebook, indeed in 2009 Hamlet reported about Second Life avatar accounts being deleted from Facebook. Hamlet also reported that roughly, between ten and twenty percent of his friends on his own network, were using Second Life names, that would amount to between 11,000 – 22,-000 of those likes on the Second Life Facebook page, which is a sizeable number.
This is the rub, Facebook steadfastly refuse to see the concept of a Second Life, even though Second Life users who social network in Second Life circles, would be more widely known by their Second Life names and a Second Life network on Facebook could be compromised of premium residents only, therefore backing up their Second Life Facebook profile with a real world link., even if that’s well hidden.
This of course wouldn’t alleviate the privacy concerns surrounding Facebook itself, but it would be a sensible step forward in reaching across the privacy divide. The Facebook concept really isn’t a bad one, it’s the murky world of privacy that leaves the bad smell, or rather lack of privacy. Pseudonyms are not evil, many singers and authors use them, if George Orwell were around today and had a Facebook account I’m pretty sure he’d be allowed to use the name George Orwell, even though that’s not his real name. Facebook’s insistence on not allowing people to find their own comfort zone is part of the problem.
However, some would say why should Facebook be bothered when they are doing so well on their own, despite all the obvious fake names on there, there are plenty of people every day using Facebook as intended, which is all fine and dandy, that’s their choice, what those of us who object to the Facebook borg want, is choice, that’s all, it shouldn’t be too much to ask for, setting your Second Life profile to not show in search really isn’t much of a choice.
The easiest choice with Facebook is of course, to not engage with Facebook, don’t have an account if you don’t like it, that part is easy, what isn’t so easy is to have choice when platforms you use decide to engage with Facebook and that’s something that requires a little bit of thought and most importantly, options.