Standing in the way of control!

From: The Telegraph

Hiroko Yoda says she made several attempts to sign up to the popular social networking site but her applications were always met with an error message.

The Japanese author suspected that her distinctive surname – which she shares with the wise, green Jedi Master of the Star Wars film series – may be at the root of her problem.

Her suspicions were confirmed when her attempts to sign up using other anglicised versions of her surname, including Youda and Yohda, proved successful.

After contacting Facebook she claims she was told that Yoda had been placed on a name blacklist because so many members pretended to be the fictional three-fingered seer. The website only allows people to join under their real names.

“Facebook blocks the registration of a number of names that are frequently abused on the site,” the website’s message read.

“The name ‘Yoda’, also being the name of a popular Star Wars character, is on this list of blocked names.”

Under Facebook’s terms and conditions, users must agree not to “impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself”.

The rules also dictate that members must not “register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself”.

Facebook has now relented and allowed Hiroko Yoda to set up a profile on the site.

Yoda is a fairly common surname in Japan, and a search of Facebook reveals dozens of apparently genuine members with the name.

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Koobface is not the latest thingamajig in the arsenal of objects you
can throw at other Facebook users. Instead, Koobface is a set of two
new computer worms (like viruses, but more interested in spawning than
infecting) that are spreading themselves all around Facebook and its
lesser predecessor MySpace through the sites’ comments sections. Users
are tricked into involuntary computer infections when they click on
links titled “Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street,” which might’ve
been a headline on TMZ but is actually a nefarious attempt to get
people to download a video player “patch.” And if you upgraded to the
“new” Facebook, you probably deserve it. [D'Technology]

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Gay and lesbian refugee claimants struggling to shed old-world views of their sexuality are turning to new-age technology to make their case.

Facebook, the online social network, is being used as a tool by some claimants to help prove their sexual orientation to immigration officials in Canada.

“Sexuality has always been very complicated and when you have to prove it as a matter of life and death you will use any resource you have available to you,” Diego Macias of Among Friends, a Toronto-based gay and lesbian refugee support group, told The Canadian Press.

Those seeking refuge after 1992 were permitted to claim status based on their sexual orientation and required to prove their claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

Wearing their sexuality on their sleeve was never an option for many back in their home countries and finding suitable evidence to support their claims can be difficult.

Macias tells his members to use technology to their advantage and feels facebook can help demonstrate involvement in the gay and lesbian community.

“During Pride we took hundreds of pictures and we have a facebook group and when people sign up to that group we encourage them to show their membership to the IRB member.”

In more than 75 countries people face jail, or worse, for having gay sex.

Acts of homosexuality are punishable by death in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan.

In many other Muslim countries homosexuality carries prison sentences, fines, or corporal punishment.

Last week in Winnipeg a federal court judge upheld a decision to ship a Nigerian man back to his native country because the IRB ruled his claim of being gay was a hoax.

He says his life is in danger if he goes home.

Experts say it can take different components to paint a convincing picture of one’s sexual orientation for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

“I have used facebook (because) people put stuff on there about themselves and who they are, and in a relationship with,” immigration lawyer El-Farouk Khaki, who specialises in representing gay and lesbian refugee claimants, told The Canadian Press.

Khaki explains how many in this situation have spent years - even decades - trying to hide their sexuality back in their country of origin, so any glimpse into a claimant’s new life can help.

“Basically it’s like a jigsaw puzzle and you just try and take the little pieces here and there and you try and construct a larger picture of a person’s life,” he explained.

Khaki says he often provides his clients with a list of items that can help prove their sexual orientation to the immigration board - and there is very little off-limits.

Claimants can use letters from family and friends, pictures at Pride festivities and memberships on gay chat rooms.

Incorporating one of the most-used web-based networks in the world (facebook has 90 million members) is just the next logical step says Khaki.

“Before there was facebook, I was using other profiles,” says Khaki, giving examples of Gaydar.com and adam4adam.

Evidence can come in many forms, agrees Charles Hawkins, spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

“A refugee claimant may not have (typical) documentation to support their claim and individuals may have to be more resourceful in their submissions.

“A member of the board can accept any relevant evidence and then assign an appropriate value to that evidence.” Hawkins told The Canadian Press.

With Macias’ support group at more than 45 members and more coming through the doors every week, he says he will continue to use facebook to support refugee claims.

“I do foresee the IRB saying this is not an acceptable form of evidence,” says Macias.

“But until then I am going to keep on using it.”

(Pink News)

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Turns out Jon Qwelane and the Press Ombudsman of South Africa, Joe Thloloe has a history. In fact it seems as though the two are comrades.

This claim is not made by the gay pressure group, who formally laid charges against Qwelane for his now infamous column, expressing his disdain for gay people but according to Qwelane himself in a column he wrote in 2005:

I remember one Sunday afternoon in Rockville, Soweto, when my close friend and colleague Joe Thloloe and I were leaving what had been a rather heated political rally in Regina Mundi Catholic Church.

The group now plans to appeal the finding made by Thloloe.

More here at the Facebook page of “Appalling Homophobia in our midst!!”

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What the hell? Did Facebook steal Multiply’s look?

Last week, Facebook filed a lawsuit against German social network studiVZ, claiming that the site copied its “look, feel, features, and services.” Today, Multiply is alleging that Facebook did much of the same in launching its new re-design, and illustrating what they believe is a pattern of Facebook copying their site’s ideas.

Here’s a look at how one’s profile looks on the new Facebook and how it looks on Multiply:

While no lawsuit has been filed by Multiply, the company is certainly coming out swinging. In addition to the similarities in profile design, Multiply makes the following claims:

* Multiply launched its proprietary newsfeed in August of 2004, when the site launched. Two years later, Facebook introduced a similar, yet more basic, news feed for its users.

* Blogging, one of Multiply’s core features since launch, was introduced to Facebook more than 20 months later.

* Video sharing, a Multiply feature since June 2005, was introduced on Facebook nearly 16 months later.

* In September 2004, Multiply introduced photo printing services for its users, something that Facebook implemented two years later.

* In its most recent enhancement, “New Facebook” features several changes – both aesthetically and functionally – that make Facebook look and feel even more like Multiply.

While Multiply obviously feels like Facebook is copying them, they also take the opportunity to list reasons why they believe their product is superior, illustrated in the chart below:

So is Facebook ripping off Multiply, or is this simply a case of sour grapes? While Multiply has been growing steadily (traffic recently doubled to around 600 million monthly page views), it’s only a fraction of the size of Facebook. It’s also fairly common to see innovation imitated elsewhere on the Web – MySpace’s latest re-design added a lot of Facebook-like features including status updates and a news feed – so Multiply might not really have a foot to stand on, other than being able to say “we were first!” Let us know what you think in the comments.

From: Mashable!

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Ever since I became part of the whole blogging/social networking phenomenon I have been searching for that special social network site that would make feel totally at home. So, with lots and lots of free time I embarked on this arduous and difficult task.

It is my opinion that each site caters for a diffirent market(not unlike blogs) however with one commonality namely to enable the user to interact with others. In the next few posts I will focus on several I have tested including the old favourites Facebook, myspace to the newer one’s including uber.com and perfspot. I will further take a look at the so-called paying social networks like mylot and Yuwie. If along the way you agree or disagree let me know!

Popularity: 30% [?]

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