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[pacovf]

For the first time in a long time, I don't think I get today's SMBC comic:



Can somebody explain the joke?

Killing whales is bad. Maximizing human flourishing would let us kill whales. Hence this definition of ethics lets us do bad things. Contradiction.

Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.

EDIT: to clarify, I like SMBC, but when Zach goes preaching to the choir (a problem Randall from xkcd suffers from too nowadays), not so much.

[silverspawn]

Anyway my advice is, go out to eat. Try a different restaurant each night and after a few nights you will have found a cute waitress in the here and now that you can wish you had the guts to talk to, and can stop thinking about this girl from 5 years ago who after all is someone else now.

if i were in a new relationship with the love of my live that I happened to meet a couple of months ago, my reaction to this would be the exact same. dunno how much clearer I can make it. I just feel like, if I was obsessed over someone for the better part of 5 years, from 5th to 9th grade, it would be sad if I never talked to that someone ever again. it's almost a quarter of my life! that's the reason. it has nothing to do with how things currently are.

It's possible that youngsters will have different attitudes towards this stuff, that they will think, of course everyone who wants to can find that naked picture of me that I sent on my phone to my special someone and that they posted after we broke up; everyone has one of those and there's no hiding them. Currently people aren't trying so much to shut down google's image-based search, but somehow they draw the line at it being part of a pair of glasses. I don't really know where things are headed but it's interesting.

I don't get what your point is. this wasn't something she would be ashamed of people seeing it, it was her profile picture, something that she uploaded herself and also something that's completely harmless. I mean, I don't necessarily disagree with your post, but it doesn't really fit what has happened here.

In this day and age, posting the image *is* giving us a link to the facebook page

fine, I actually didn't know that. but I still don't get your point.

I think you misunderstood the whole situation. either way, I really hope you post another answer.

[GeoLib]

I'm actually fairly annoyed by the fact that people can tag you on photos without your consent, and then the picture appears on your page. Is there anyway for me to prevent that? I don't mind the tagging specifically (odds are, people_that_know_my_name == people_that_recognize_my_face), it's the fact that it appears on my page that bothers me.

Yes there is! Assuming facebook is laid out the same for you:

1. Click on the padlock in the upper right hand corner
2. Click on "See More Settings" at the bottom
3. Click on "Timeline and Tagging" on the bar on the left
4. Enable the second option down in "Who can add things to my timeline?"

Now you'll get notifications any time you're tagged and you can either add them to your timeline or not. :-)

[pacovf]

Oh, this is getting iiiiiinteresting.

[Axxle]

I've been blocked for "liking" too many posts by a "new" friend on FB. Someone I hadn't talked to in a while. I have very few friends so I see a LOT of what they post. I've also been blocked for complimenting people, because apparently compliment = infatuation in the world of Facebook.

A certain friend of mine (who I won't name but he has an account on F.DS and was my housemate for about two years) I've got blocked permanently on Facebook because on three occasions he's reported posts of mine as bullying him, and Facebook has upheld it and sanctioned me for various periods - the most recent being a 3 day ban and being told that any further infringement will result in a permanent ban. What was I doing to bully him? Oh, things like saying that he did something innocuous and not me, like renaming a group, or tagging him in a generic photo he's in. I'm such a bully.

I bet it's chairs.

[Donald X.]

It's possible that youngsters will have different attitudes towards this stuff, that they will think, of course everyone who wants to can find that naked picture of me that I sent on my phone to my special someone and that they posted after we broke up; everyone has one of those and there's no hiding them. Currently people aren't trying so much to shut down google's image-based search, but somehow they draw the line at it being part of a pair of glasses. I don't really know where things are headed but it's interesting.

I don't get what your point is. this wasn't something she would be ashamed of people seeing it, it was her profile picture, something that she uploaded herself and also something that's completely harmless. I mean, I don't necessarily disagree with your post, but it doesn't really fit what has happened here.

That is just me commenting on the concept of "what will people's attitudes towards privacy be in this era of less privacy, especially people born into this era." It's not about you at all; it's strictly tangential.

In this day and age, posting the image *is* giving us a link to the facebook page

fine, I actually didn't know that. but I still don't get your point.

My point with that sentence was just that: "isn't this interesting." And you didn't know it so I nailed that one.

It's not weird to want to catch up with someone you were friends with in high school. But when you say (digs up quote) "I have no idea what kind of a person she is," I think, what we have here is, a "stranger." Okay here: "i used to spend countless hours in class just sitting there staring at her. other people would have done something, but I never did." That's not someone you contact 5 years later. If you used to go skateboarding with her behind the safeway after school, but just never brought up the topic of romance, then sure, that's someone you can contact 5 years later.

[silverspawn]

That's not someone you contact 5 years later.

well, why not? at the beginning of fifth grade I was 10 and she was 8, when I changed schools after the end of ninth grade I was 15 and she was 13. now I'm 20.  Maybe I'm overestimating how big of a difference that makes, but my feeling says that after such an amount of time, you can talk to someone pretty much regardless of what happened. yea I obsessed about her, but so what, we were kids. Dunno, that's my reasoning anyway. Whether or not you think it's weird ultimately depends on what kind of a person you are, maybe it would still be weird to most people.

Anyway, thanks for clearing stuff up. I'm glad the main thing was just me misunderstanding your post.

[Awaclus]

It's not weird to want to catch up with someone you were friends with in high school. But when you say (digs up quote) "I have no idea what kind of a person she is," I think, what we have here is, a "stranger." Okay here: "i used to spend countless hours in class just sitting there staring at her. other people would have done something, but I never did." That's not someone you contact 5 years later. If you used to go skateboarding with her behind the safeway after school, but just never brought up the topic of romance, then sure, that's someone you can contact 5 years later.

I had no idea what kind of people some of my Facebook friends were before I friended them. I'm pretty sure that most of my Facebook friends still have no idea what kind of a person I am.

The girl might have no reason to accept silverspawn's friend request, but what if she does? Wouldn't it be a huge waste then to not send one?

[KingZog3]

It's not weird to want to catch up with someone you were friends with in high school. But when you say (digs up quote) "I have no idea what kind of a person she is," I think, what we have here is, a "stranger." Okay here: "i used to spend countless hours in class just sitting there staring at her. other people would have done something, but I never did." That's not someone you contact 5 years later. If you used to go skateboarding with her behind the safeway after school, but just never brought up the topic of romance, then sure, that's someone you can contact 5 years later.

This is not entirely true. There were people I didn't really talk to in high school, but I might want to see what they're up to later in life. Just as a point of interest. "Hey, so how are you? I ended up being a film director." "Cool, I never would have imagined that from my few memories of you." You can still contact people, as long as you present it in the right way. Like if I were going through my year book and decided to contact everyone in my year. True, perhaps silverspawns intention is different, but I don't really know. I certainly had crushes and I would totally contact them again, although I've gotten over them now. The more I write the more it seems I'm just agreeing with your post.

[eHalcyon]

That's not someone you contact 5 years later.

well, why not? at the beginning of fifth grade I was 10 and she was 8, when I changed schools after the end of ninth grade I was 15 and she was 13. now I'm 20.  Maybe I'm overestimating how big of a difference that makes, but my feeling says that after such an amount of time, you can talk to someone pretty much regardless of what happened. yea I obsessed about her, but so what, we were kids. Dunno, that's my reasoning anyway. Whether or not you think it's weird ultimately depends on what kind of a person you are, maybe it would still be weird to most people.

Anyway, thanks for clearing stuff up. I'm glad the main thing was just me misunderstanding your post.

I think Donald's point was that your comment makes it sound like you had a crush on her but never actually talked to her, making you a stranger that just happened to share a class with her.  It may be odd to send her a friend request then, not because you obsessed but because there was no actual interaction between the two of you.  It would be less weird if you had actually been friends with her in the past.

(But it would still be a bit creepy to go to the trouble of setting up a Facebook account just to interact with this one person.)

Edit: interestingly, I said just about the opposite of what KingZog said.

[silverspawn]

not because you obsessed but because there was no actual interaction between the two of you.

but that's not true at all. there was stuff that happened, lots of stuff, really. by saying "i never did anything" i just meant I never actively tried to get into a relationship with her.

[eHalcyon]

not because you obsessed but because there was no actual interaction between the two of you.

but that's not true at all. there was stuff that happened, lots of stuff, really. by saying "i never did anything" i just meant I never actively tried to get into a relationship with her.

So then you fall into the latter example that Donald gave.

[Tables]

1. Did he make that report facetiously?  Maybe he doesn't realize how serious Facebook takes reports like that.

Yes. I think he did most of them while I was in the room.

2. Did he actually find your actions hurtful?  You might have meant some things in good fun and they may seem harmless to you, but some little things may bother your friend a lot more than he'd care to let on.

No, he wasn't bothered at all. He pretty much just hit the report button while I was watching him. I knew nothing was going to happen (at first), because it was obvious there was nothing FB would do, since I clearly wasn't doing anything. But they did.

This is probably the thing that really irks me about it. Most of my friends say when they've reported things on FB, nothing gets done and nothing happens. Yet somehow when this friend reported me, FB upheld it without the slightest shred of evidence being on the site (heck some of the things he reported me for made it look more like he was bullying me - which basically means a bully could continue bullying someone by reporting THEIR stuff online).

[Witherweaver]

Okay I'm kind of confused.. are you actually not on good terms with this person any more, or was this just a joking thing that ended up being taken seriously by Facebook?

[Joseph2302]

Okay I'm kind of confused.. are you actually not on good terms with this person any more, or was this just a joking thing that ended up being taken seriously by Facebook?

This was me being silly, and Facebook being stupid and over-serious about it.

[Witherweaver]

... so are you two going to brawl?

[Lekkit]

Also, do Tables have more IRL friends that he used to live with here? Otherwise he might have just said it was Joseph from the beginning.

[Watno]

I guessed it was him, but wanted to protect his anonymity.

[Joseph2302]

Also, do Tables have more IRL friends that he used to live with here? Otherwise he might have just said it was Joseph from the beginning.

No he doesn't.

[Tables]

I thought I was being pretty obvious that I was referring to Joe but I guess not. And no, I wasn't complaining about him as much as I was complaining about FB's reporting system being dumb.

[2.71828.....]

I thought I was being pretty obvious that I was referring to Joe but I guess not. And no, I wasn't complaining about him as much as I was complaining about FB's reporting system being dumb.

I think you have actually mentioned this incident before somewhere on this forum.  So I knew who it was.

[silverspawn]

is there a way to bookmark a thread so that it always jumps to the newest post, instead of always jumping to the post that was the newest at the time when you created the bookmark?
and I'm just going to do it, the nice thing about advise is that you can ignore it if you want to

[LastFootnote]

and I'm just going to do it, the nice thing about advise is that you can ignore it if you want to

[Witherweaver]

That post is so great because the quote together with the image works perfectly even completely out of context.

[AndrewisFTTW]

I read a little bit of the discussion but here's what I think:

If you have a facebook account already, go for it.

If you're creating a facebook account JUST to contact this girl, bad idea.

Thank you, goodnight.