Reverb10 - Prompt for December 2 - Writing

Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? 

Much more could be said about how Facebook has changed the way I communicate with friends.  At first glance, it all contributes to writing.

Zynga Games became an obsession.  Mafia Wars was the first one I detached from, and it wasn't easy.  How do you let go of fantasy wealth, billions of dollars a day accumulating whether you play or not?  Then I noticed teams of high tech players had organized. Just by making a play and drawing attention to myself, I would be attacked hundreds of times in one second.  Someone had discovered a secret unavailable to me.  

I also noticed that in my relatively small Mafia Family of 76 players only three were active.  I got out, and removed the application from my account.  I had my wife look at it from her account a couple of months later.  My character name was still in play, but I was anonymous.

I'm still active in FarmVille.  The same obsessive detachment issues apply. I have active farming neighbors.  Not as many social, ethical identity conflicts plague me as in Mafia Wars.  

I just started playing a new game CityVille.  The start of a game is a pleasurable challenge.

I have discipline and a priority method for dealing with communications of any kind, whether Facebook, email, or phone calls.  This morning, I had been away from the pc for more than 48 hours. None of my highest priorities suffered.

Do You Still Play Zynga Games?

A November 18, 2010 USA Today article about Zynga branching out on its own caught my attention.  Do a Google Search on Zynga and USA Today, and there is more to read and wonder about.  Yahoo and Zynga have had a new business relationship since May.  Mafia Wars and Fishville are available on several Yahoo apps.

I learned one memorable thing as a result of my simple search on Google.  Zynga's profile statement appears in any search result,   "Connecting the world through games".  That's a positive profile.

Social gaming is why I liked Zynga games.  Then they became obsessive time wasters. I began to question my own ethical values. I became very good at Mafia Wars.  Maybe I learned something from the Godfather movies.  On the dark side, maybe my game skills are innate.  Often I would get wiped out by 60 powerful abusers in less than a second, as soon as I made a move.

I played Zynga Mafia Wars on Facebook until two months ago.  I still play Farmville, but have cut way back on the time spent.

Any recent headline article about Zynga mentions millions of players.
Look a little deeper before you invest in the proposed Zynga IPO on the stock market.   I had 76 family members on Mafia Wars when I removed myself from the application on Facebook.  I played the game for almost two years. Only three of my family members actively played the game when I dropped out.  Others were listed as Unknown, but I could see who they were by their character names.  My wife was in my Mafia Family.  I recruited her just to accept any gifts I sent her.  I was still listed as a member of her Mafia Family after I removed myself from action.  Now she is listed as Unknown.  Active participation by 5% of the millions quoted as players  would be a guess on the high side, I think.   Maybe a higher percentage of players are active on Farmville, but I don't have 76 neighbors actively farming.

I would like to see more published research on Zynga.  How do we find the reviews and complaints by Zynga players who left because they felt abused by other players?  How many players experienced identity theft on Facebook after using a credit card to buy Facebook Credits, or Farmville Cash, or Mafia Wars Reward Points? How many pay cash directly to Facebook for anything? How many simply left the games due to slow response time on the Zynga network servers?

Last night we watched the movie "Letters To Juliet".  One of the leading actors, Amanda Seyfried, played Sofie, a Fact Checker for the New Yorker Magazine.   Who are the fact checkers for USA Today, or Gallup News?  How can I become a fact checker for my blog posts? Research before I publish makes sense.

More Things Nbr 26 - Ning

I joined Ning, filled out a unique profile (compared to my other profiles), and made a link to Facebook. I didn't know how to get a "page" on facebook otherwise.

Ning looks really promising. One spin-off I'm considering with various website and blog possibilities is a marketable Weather Service for the North Shore of Lake Superior. Ning looks to be an easy way to get started and practice with tools.

This morning I got one of those annoying notifications from PBwiki that More Things Nbr 29 had been updated. Kathy Lasley made an interesting comment, and I wanted to reply. I couldn't find her anywhere as a participant in More Things. The search functions on PBwiki and Ning don't find her by name. The only clue was her email address is on a Nett Lake school account. I replied to that address.

A few minutes later I came back to my own blog and saw that I have a sixth follower, Kathy. Her blog is "Sticking 23 Things". I like it.

Do we have a directory of users, blog names, and email addresses?

25 Things - Not!

A facebook friend commented negatively on Feb 5, 2009 about the Notes lists proliferating on facebook. He provided a link to a Time Magazine article by Claire Suddath, "25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You". USA Today had an article along the same lines, but without the usual media cynicism about fads.

One of my first facebook friends to post a "25 things" list, touched me with the phrase "because I wanted to know more about you". He might have meant the emotional plea personally, but the phrase is part of the boilerplate instructions. It took me two weeks to compose my list, which I posted on blogspot and facebook yesterday.

The Time posting was full of negative criticism, stereotyping the social networking world in a tone approaching character assassination of anyone who participates. I found it divisive. I'm inclusive. I try to avoid contentiousness in discussions, whether political, religious, or in any arena of social justice or community action.

The USA Today article recognized the powerful influence social networking is, a mass change in global communication.

I came late to the social networking party. Beyond facebook, I started posting on Blogger, and populating Google Reader with a wide range of interesting professional and commercial blogs, as well as my friend's blogs. My daughter had been paying a premium for a Typepad blog for a couple of years, a blog that became a casualty of the economic crises. I found more of my authentic friends (friends I actually know) using Twitter, as well as facebook and their own websites. I started another blog on Wordpress, to explore the features and links to a vast array of blogs.

What may be questionable and dangerous about the facebook lists can be "viral", as the Time article said. Any other online venue that asks us to forward an emotionally charged message to all of our friends, or to allow access to our entire list of email contacts, I immediately delete and mark as spam. Apparently, facebook has a computer server network capable of withstanding the flood of chain letter lists.

Unfortunately, Facebook and some of the Google applications lend themselves to easy mistakes by the user that can lead to computer viruses and all of the other things spam blockers and spyware try to catch. I started a Google gmail account yesterday. On my first email compositions, I noticed the top of the frame scrolling messages for the very same services and products I have been sending to my spam bucket for years.

Among the worst offenders has been the Republican National Committee, and their variations. How did they find me? By following my father's death notice in 1999 to my home address as I moved from one place to another. He never used a computer, but often manned a phone bank in St. Paul for local Republican candidates. When his personal and frequent cash donations stopped, I started getting the same strong-armed requests, questioning my patriotism and party loyalty. His snail mail versions went on for eight years after I returned the first several months worth marked "deceased". The latest Republican spam from headline senators and celebrities asks me to keep up the pressure against any show of support for President Obama. The language is morally bankrupt verging on treason.

Only slightly less troubling is the unknown bias of Time Magazine, and Claire Suddath specifically. One of the tools I picked up on from a blogging writing coach reminded me to use mind mapping. One chain starting from "Time Magazine" leads to "undisclosed bias" to "political bias" to the dumbing down of America. Another chain goes from Time's struggle to survive to its attachment to the "old world order", which leads to their certain failure. Another chain starts with undisclosed bias and leads through special interests, power plays, corrupt business practices, and fronts to organized crime.

How much of this mind map would be the same if I started a chain with facebook? Half a page of positive links, and cautions, but most links lead to useful tools and creative potential.