Social network services
Talking about those "social network services"... Well, here it all started with Orkut. Although developed by an North-american company, it reached a huge popularity among Brazilian users. My guess is because it was the first one of its kind that many Brazilians discovered.
Many Brazilians have some kind of "group feeling", but different than, for example, the well-known Japanese group sense. Let's just say that once one recieves an invitation, it won't be long before he invites almost every single friend he has an e-mail address. And as Orkut was the first one (I suppose) it may explain why there're so many Brazilians there.
I won't say it wasn't a good experience in the beggining. I've found some friends from kindergarden to university. Some that I really haven't met for a long time, and it was good to be in touch with those people again.
But of course it wouldn't last. Spammers, hate groups, crackers also have discovered opportunities in such services. The Portuguese version of the Wikipedia article about Orkut shows some. Spam (lately, around 80% of the scraps I've been receiving) about events, job opportunities or whatsoever. A recent one that's a little weird was from a... humm... "candidate for member of the (state) house of representatives ". Note that he's candidate from the state of Sao Paulo, while I don't live in that state... Annoying to say the least.
Out of that, and some profile viewing (not a problem... one shouldn't put something one wouldn't like other people to know) there're also virus (until some months ago I was flooded with scraps that asked me to "check some pictures of the party" or something of the kind, with a lovely link to an .exe file), hoaxes, unauthorized profile editing and posting (like hacking into a woman's profile and changing her info and posting in communities as if she's a... you know what I mean)... But a recent problem is surely scary... Criminals look at your info for kidnapping purposes... or to simulate a kidnapping.
How? Choose a teenager or young person and call their parents or grandparents in a time that usually young people go out to tell that that person was kidnapped or suffered an accident and needs some cash. Keep the line and the person's cellphone busy to avoid a call to check if that's true and use the info about preferences, etc. to "confirm" it really is the person. Of course it's not only that. Sometimes they know some things that aren't written (by observing in real life maybe) in details that are... disturbing.
No, I haven't been in this situation, but have friends that almost fell for it.
Recently, another of those network services has been through its share of problems from what I've read. Myspace. I'm not part of this one (was invited, but too many of those things are hard to manage...) and don't know much about the problems.
Then comes mixi. If Orkut is Brazilian and Myspace is North-american, mixi is Japanese. Given the Japanese nettiquete, most people use nicks (although usually real name is also visible) and it's not unusual to find someone who put another picture instead of one's photo (it also happens in other services too... but perhaps the percentage of "no-bogus profiles" without a person photo is bigger... not sure though). So far, no signs of spams, virus or whatever. Maybe because I'm still a minor user and don't (can't) go too deep into it. I wonder if it will suffer the same problems of its Western counterparts or it will be saved by Japanese online behavior (being entirely in Japanese keeps most Westerns out of it...)
My last hope that such services aren't doomed...
Many Brazilians have some kind of "group feeling", but different than, for example, the well-known Japanese group sense. Let's just say that once one recieves an invitation, it won't be long before he invites almost every single friend he has an e-mail address. And as Orkut was the first one (I suppose) it may explain why there're so many Brazilians there.
I won't say it wasn't a good experience in the beggining. I've found some friends from kindergarden to university. Some that I really haven't met for a long time, and it was good to be in touch with those people again.
But of course it wouldn't last. Spammers, hate groups, crackers also have discovered opportunities in such services. The Portuguese version of the Wikipedia article about Orkut shows some. Spam (lately, around 80% of the scraps I've been receiving) about events, job opportunities or whatsoever. A recent one that's a little weird was from a... humm... "candidate for member of the (state) house of representatives ". Note that he's candidate from the state of Sao Paulo, while I don't live in that state... Annoying to say the least.
Out of that, and some profile viewing (not a problem... one shouldn't put something one wouldn't like other people to know) there're also virus (until some months ago I was flooded with scraps that asked me to "check some pictures of the party" or something of the kind, with a lovely link to an .exe file), hoaxes, unauthorized profile editing and posting (like hacking into a woman's profile and changing her info and posting in communities as if she's a... you know what I mean)... But a recent problem is surely scary... Criminals look at your info for kidnapping purposes... or to simulate a kidnapping.
How? Choose a teenager or young person and call their parents or grandparents in a time that usually young people go out to tell that that person was kidnapped or suffered an accident and needs some cash. Keep the line and the person's cellphone busy to avoid a call to check if that's true and use the info about preferences, etc. to "confirm" it really is the person. Of course it's not only that. Sometimes they know some things that aren't written (by observing in real life maybe) in details that are... disturbing.
No, I haven't been in this situation, but have friends that almost fell for it.
Recently, another of those network services has been through its share of problems from what I've read. Myspace. I'm not part of this one (was invited, but too many of those things are hard to manage...) and don't know much about the problems.
Then comes mixi. If Orkut is Brazilian and Myspace is North-american, mixi is Japanese. Given the Japanese nettiquete, most people use nicks (although usually real name is also visible) and it's not unusual to find someone who put another picture instead of one's photo (it also happens in other services too... but perhaps the percentage of "no-bogus profiles" without a person photo is bigger... not sure though). So far, no signs of spams, virus or whatever. Maybe because I'm still a minor user and don't (can't) go too deep into it. I wonder if it will suffer the same problems of its Western counterparts or it will be saved by Japanese online behavior (being entirely in Japanese keeps most Westerns out of it...)
My last hope that such services aren't doomed...
1 comment:
É, ultimamente eu vejo um abandono em massa do orkut. No final só vão sobrar os com muita paciência, além é claro dos spammers, dos fakes e de outras pragas tais...
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