Adventures in Multiplication
Well, it has been a pretty interesting 14 days or so.
I have been seeing a lot of people flock en masse from http://360.yahoo.com to www.multiply.com in the last few weeks. This was in response to the fact that Yahoo was transforming their 360 platform to a new unified profile platform,
The fear was that, though Yahoo categorically stated that any content, including friend's lists, blogs, pictures, etc., would be preserved in the move, that it would disappear. Not to mention the fear, possibly real, that Yahoo may use this opportunity to purge its profile pages once and for all of people who.....let's say.....think that all sexuality is a wonderful thing, not something to be whispered and snickered at, but to be enjoyed. People who thing that the human body in all of it shapes and hues, is a beautiful thing.
After all, we must protect the children.
It's a paranoia fueled by things such as the capitulation of Facebook and myspace to legislators who fear some Chester-the-Molester is lurking, preying on the little rugrats. Rugrats who pose in provocative poses, thongs, and titillating wear, or have you been on MS recently? Many of the "innocents" are looking....and in some cases, getting what they are looking for.
But the "need" to "protect" kids is really a smoke-screen. What they REALLY want to do is to de-sex the web, especially social networking sites like 360 and Multiply.
So many people made a beeline to Multiply from Yahoo thinking things would be better. But for some, that is not the case. The same prude patrollers who infiltrated 360, MySpace, and many others, have found their way to Multiply. The lengthening line of people who no longer have Multiply profiles are evidence of this.
The result is that many who live in fear of losing long-cultivated friendships on 360 may now be facing the same challenge at Multiply at the hands of people who, frankly, continue to live in an ostrich-like state.
For you see, showing someone's head being blown off is fine. Seeing someone....anyone....and I do mean ANY one experiencing pleasure is out of the question.
So now, it seems, that those who are sexually and eroticallty advanced in thier thinking are being shoved into a corner of darkness, where the prudes would like to put us. Please remember that many of these social networks are not only ad-driven, but they are being noticed by media companies who would like to use said networks as promotion and revenue platforms. All it takes is a Donald Wildmon or someone like him to scream "PERRRRRV!" and your social site becomes PG-lite real fast.
The best thing you can do is, if you join a new network, READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE THROUGHLY! Make sure that anything you post privately conforms to that. If you have anything that might cause a red flag, post it individually to people you know would be open to your wants and desires.
If you are on Yahoo, do not forsake it yet. Give the the opportunity to make good on thier promises. If they don't, then bolt. If you are accepting new friends, be judicious, because you never know who is trolling for a reason to shut you down. Red flags are: no picture, scant location information, an obviosuly fake age, and a generic sounding intro.
No I have started my own social network called Sybarite (http://sybarite.ning.com). Having read thier TOS, it seems that they are pretty liberal, and they are still under the media radar. You are welcome to join, but just remember it's a work in progress. I am also going to talk to a good friend of mine, Jojo (http://jojo.bz) who may help in creating a network. I'll keep you posted.
My final word: no matter what, stay true to you to yourselves. For you to do otherwise means the bad guys have won. And I am not willing for that to happen just yet.