My Guide to Social Networking

Admittedly, this is mostly tongue and cheek but I think I'm onto something here.

• Gentlemint: Pinterest for guys.
• Pinterest: Tumblr for ladies.
• Tumblr: Twitter for kids.
• Twitter: Facebook for ADHD types.
• Facebook: Like MySpace only much less awful.
• MySpace: Like Google Plus only it was actually successful for a while.
• Google Plus: Blogging for people who don't know what a blog is.
• Blogger, Wordpress, and other blogging platforms: Online diaries for people who don't know HTML or what a .plan file is.
• .plan file: An online diary for people who were sick of getting flamed on Usenet.
• Usenet: The original and best ever social communications platform for the Internet. Like the rest of the Internet it followed the typical path: created by nerds for nerds, then all the "cool" people joined up, and then regular folks joined up. Then it fell to constant infighting, frustrations, and people started leaving for the next big thing. And finally nothing but spam and porn. While many people continued to use it, it hand lost its relevance in much the same way that MySpace did. It's a little hard for me to be too snarky about Usenet, since I used it and loved it for so much longer than these other networks.

Enjoy your future folks, it's going to look a lot like the past....

Digsby—Ease of Use Isn't Worth the Intrusiveness

Image by BigBlue via Flickr

I tried to like Digsby. I really did. And for the most part I did like Digsby. But while this application which allows you to conveniently monitor your email, IM, and social networking sites like Twitter all in one place is simply too intrusive. The installation was a mess as Digsby wanted to install all sorts of "free" toolbars and services which I had to accept or reject before the installation could complete. And even after all that, I found that Digsby had insinuated itself all over my web browser for example replacing my default start page with its own. While it might seem like a good deal, get a nice little free IM client, I frankly resent the level to which Digsby insists on running roughshod over my preferences. As a result, I'm no longer running this software and don't feel that I could recommend it to people.