No, but the amount of time in a day is a fixed-sum game.  The question is, how distributed do I want my online presence to be, given that each site requires nonzero time to maintain?  I think they take nonzero time.  I use last.fm because it takes absolutely no time to maintain — I just set SqueezeCenter to scrobble my listens.  I’m on LinkedIn, but again, it’s fire-and-forget.  I suppose I could set up static content on each of the social networking sites, each with a link to the presence to which I’ve decided to dedicate nearly 100% of my time — namely, mcgees.org.

Actually, though, I don’t even know whether an effective presence can be achieved with one expenditure of energy.  Some sites expire your membership and content if you do not use the service for a certain amount of time.  Traditionally, most sites did this.  It may be that the new breed is different — but I haven’t considered it worthwhile to go in and research this.

As you can see, I’m lazy. That’s why I’m on Facebook.

The other thing, as I mentioned in an email to you, is definitely the social networking aspect. You mention that Amal and I make up 25% of your close friends, and that seems to be a number with which you’re comfortable. I’m substantially more of an extrovert. I have ten people (Emma, Chris, Rachel, James, Keith, Shanti, Dan, Art, Robi and Owen) that I spend a minimum of four hours with every week. Additionally, I have three friends that I make a point of seeing at least once a month, two friends with whom I talk on the phone every day and several handfuls of people that I fit in whenever I can. Oh, and four pen pals (snail mail variety). I love interaction, and the larger the group, the better. Facebook makes this a breeze.

All of this is sort of beside the point, however, as the internet is not a zero-sum game. It’s possible that this site will outlive Facebook, or that Google will outlive Facebook, but that really doesn’t matter. Joining Myspace won’t delete your site off the internet. I have a Myspace page, a Facebook page, a Livejournal and a gaming wiki. Each of them has their merits, but using any of them won’t prevent me from using the others.

Ultimately, it’s your call. I’m certainly not urging you to join a social networking site; there are plenty of reasons not to join one. I’m just answering your question as to why someone would consider doing so when they already have a site.

But I HAVE my space
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:26:16 -0600

Do a Google search for joshua mcgee, and this site comes up first.  josh mcgee, and it’s 13th.  I have total control here: I can install software, I can reap all the ad revenue, I can sell stuff if I want, I can re-write code if I like — I am, for all intents, the god of this space.

My thoughts on the myriad sites out there now — MySpace, LiveJournal, Blogger.com, etc. — are that they seem, as far as I’ve been able to tell, weak substitutes for people without the interest (or know-how) to have their own site.

Yes, many have some sort of “social networking” aspect to them, and while this nascent paradigm is interesting (I’ve met interesting people through last.fm and LinkedIn, for instance) I am not overly wowed by this.

Am I missing something?  Why is MySpace a good idea for someone with a domain name that’s been around for more than a decade?  Some people have said stuff along the lines of “everyone I know is on there” or “I want to be easier to be found”, but are people really not going to run a Google search on my name?

Maybe what it comes down to is that I have, give or take, eight close friends, and my feeling is that is, if anything, a little on the high side for me.

I’ve joined Twitter, but it so far seems like utterly pointless wankery.

Am I missing something?  Please chime in.

I am, it should be noted, far more convinced of the likelihood of Google’s continued existence than Facebook’s.

By the way, the two of you taken together do, in fact, make up 25% of my close friends. 

Does the fact that this line of reasoning make absolutely zero sense to me say something more about you or me?  It is indistinguishable for me from the argument “Credit cards will reimburse you for fraudulent charges, and will replace lost cards.  With cash, if you lose it, you’re up shit creek.  Therefore, you should always pay with credit and never pay cash.”

All the other advantages — cash is anonymous, cash is accepted more places, cash does not rely on the continuing existence of certain companies for value — are swept under the rug.  Yes, I realize that this second argument spirals into “Therefore you should always pay with gold”, or “Therefore you should always barter with ammunition, canned goods, and gasoline.”  Which I would totally agree with.  WordPress is like cash: it’s a middle ground.  If I wanted to go all libertarian, I’d write my own damn CMS.

Sorry, Amal, but if people I’ve lost touch with cannot Google for “Joshua McGee” and find me (go ahead and try it, both with and without quotation marks), I probably wouldn’t consider it worth reconnecting anyway. 

And well . . . Bob Mike pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.

I like coming here and will continue to do so, by the way. I also enjoy Facebook. It’s a quick way to see what’s going on with everyone at once, and a much easier way for me to find people than Google (I’ve tried – believe me. Maybe I just suck at it).

It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It’s meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful wife