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Topic: Anyone else not on here much anymore?

Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-24-2011 07:46 PM

I realized today that it has been MONTHS since the last time I logged into this site.

I guess with Twitter and Facebook, my Internet time is wasted elsewhere.

Anyone else have this issue? [Big Grin]

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-24-2011 07:51 PM

A lot of people spend more time on Facebook than here. If you're on Facebook, just type in the name of any prominent Film-Techer and you'll find many others among their friends list.

Me, I have a desk job in the daytime so I can keep both F-T and FB in two tabs, so I can look at them in spare moments.

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Tom Wienholt
Master Film Handler

Posts: 371
From: Towson, MD, USA
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-24-2011 07:58 PM

I still log on to film-tech pretty much daily. I don't post on the forum much but I like to read what's going on.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-25-2011 10:30 AM

Don't do Facebook.

I have a Facebook name but it's just a bogus account so I can get on when other people invite me to see their pages. You have to be logged in to see a lot of stuff there.

Probably will never have a regular account on Facebook.
If they want to data mine the stuff I put on their site and use that information for marketing they can pay me for the privilege. I won't even get into all the other privacy issues.

Frankly, Facebook is bullshit anyway. The whole concept of Twitter is laughably stupid. That crap really just doesn't interest me.
I prefer web forums over blogs and "social networking." You can talk directly to the people you want to talk to and the signal-to-noise ratio is a whole lot better.

So, I'll be right here for the foreseeable future.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-25-2011 11:51 AM

Most people who work for Regal are too afraid to post here. Regal has them by the balls (or the teets). Regal owns every fiber of their being, like slaves. You are taking a big risk, Dennis Benjamin! At least you're only posting in Yak, Regal says that's OK.

Facebook is cool. I do not fear it. If there is something that I don't want to get out into the world, I don't post it anywhere. Twitter is cool. Even David Faustino from Married With Children follows my pathetic ass.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-25-2011 12:40 PM

My posting activity here has dropped a bit. It's not so much Facebook and Twitter are taking up more blogging time. There just isn't as much to talk about these days when it comes to movies.

Hollywood is putting out an unprecedented level of derivative been there, seen it already crap. Video is replacing film in theaters and even more and more in production. IMAX as we knew it is dead. The premium pricing on 3D, fake IMAX and super duper mega sound (5.1/7.1 sound that's actually being maintained) is doing more to push me away from theaters on top of the shitty movies Hollywood is releasing to play in them. My Blu-ray buying habits have trailed off to a very low level, perhaps even less than it was when I was done with DVD years ago.

Basically I just don't have anywhere near as much enthusiasm for movies in general as I did a decade ago. I still love a great movie, especially one shown in a theater that has its shit together. The problem is the movie studios and movie theaters are missing various ingredients to make the optimum movie going experience possible.

As for Facebook and Twitter, there's plenty of good and bad with either one and social networking in general. Users need to be street smart about what they post in those extremely public forums and be equally careful about clicking on links to various apps and articles. Facebook helped me get in touch with friends I haven't heard from since high school or even grade school. Facebook was certainly far better at doing this than Friendster or MySpace. Twitter can be very handy at a networking tool. Both Facebook and Twitter have useful integration with smart phones.

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Jonathan Smith
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 201
From: Youngstown, OH
Registered: Jan 2010

posted 05-25-2011 01:25 PM

quote: Randy Stankey
Don't do Facebook.

I have a Facebook name but it's just a bogus account so I can get on when other people invite me to see their pages. You have to be logged in to see a lot of stuff there.

Probably will never have a regular account on Facebook.
If they want to data mine the stuff I put on their site and use that information for marketing they can pay me for the privilege. I won't even get into all the other privacy issues.

Frankly, Facebook is bullshit anyway. The whole concept of Twitter is laughably stupid. That crap really just doesn't interest me.
I prefer web forums over blogs and "social networking." You can talk directly to the people you want to talk to and the signal-to-noise ratio is a whole lot better.

So, I'll be right here for the foreseeable future.

Randy, concur wholeheartedly. Who the hell do people think they are data mining you and asking for your personal shit?

Working with the U.S. census last summer, it was SICK what I could find just in public data, BEFORE social networking, stuff like Whitepages.com, and the new affiliated site that has sprung out of it, I've heard described as "Facebook for old people.

Forget the name now, the one that ran the ad campaign "Fidn out who's searching for you?"

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-25-2011 01:58 PM

What Bobby said.

It has been a while since I have been excited about any current mainstream film release, and the pattern of boring movies does not seem likely to change anytime soon. The vast majority of screenings that I have attended during the last year have been revivals, rather than current titles.

Similarly, the technological developments in the cinema industry are, for the most part, no longer about improving picture and sound quality, but rather about reducing costs while producing quality that is "almost as good" as whatever they attempt to replace. This is sad.

At this point, my involvement in the exhibition business is pretty much limited to occasional film festivals and special screenings. And I am fine with that. Showing films has been a hobby for me, anyway, and I have always made a point of not being dependent on the (small) income that it generated.

I don't know what the future holds for exhibition, but I'm willing to bet that movies will eventually (in ten years? one hundred years? who knows?) become like live theater is today: a fairly pricey and rare event for the average patron. I don't necessarily see this as a problem, however, if screenings are seen as an opportunity to put on a special show, rather than just a way to sell as much popcorn and show as much advertising as possible to the audience.

As for my opinion on social networking (as if anyone asked): Twitter is a load of crap--it's just a normal blog site with more restrictions. I don't see th epoint. I can see how some might find Facebook useful, but I would not personally want to give away a bunch of personal information for the purpose of having Facebook put advertising all over it and make money off of it, while not even allowing me to own my own content. In any case, I am in the phone book. People who need to find me know how to do so. I don't need Facebook for that.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 05-25-2011 02:11 PM

Absolutely NOTHING on Facebook is there to be a warm and fuzzy meeting place. Oh, it may be disguised to LOOK like that, but it's ALL there for only one thing -- to troll for your personal information and all your friends that they will SELL. EVERY SINGLE PIXEL on your monitor screen when you loggin is there for one razor-sharp focused purpose only, and that is to get you to either BUY something or to give up personal information that they can SELL to someone.

Every game, every puzzle that they design is for one of those two purposes and each to make money off you. And if they expose you to crooks and thieves and risk your identity in any number of ways, well, too bad for you -- read their fine print....you have agreed to hold them harmless in EVERYTHING under the sun. If they expose your children to predators and pedophiles, hey, better make the best of it. It's the internet's equivalent of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Yah, I am on it -- was for about two weeks until I realized it was a modern Tower of Babble....wait....OK, a Tower of Babble with a wolf inside dressed in sheep’s clothing. I haven't shut my account down because like Randy, I just use it if someone leaves me a message, which I answer admonishing them to STOP IT and email me if they have someone to say. But as far as communication of any substance, Facebook actually discourages it. They are not interested in giving you a forum to voice substantive ideas or discussions.

Then there is that transparant self-promotion it encourages people to participate in -- "Ooooh, see what great causes I've joined!" "Ooooh, look what award I just won." "Ooooh, see what a great humanitarian I am....join my Stop The Norwegians From Clubbing Baby Seals Group." It's pathetic.

Me, if I want to communicate, there is such a thing called email, and better than that, I PICK UP A DAMN PHONE. Anything you can do on Facebook you can do with email or a Yahoo group, or direct communication voice-to-voice -- you know, real human beings talking to real human beings. And you do it without being party to a billion dollar company that passes out false sleeze mongering about its competitors.

Facebook a pure sleaze operation thru and thru....spend ten minutes on it and you feel like you need to take a shower.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-25-2011 02:47 PM

It's only all that if you let it. I have never clicked on a FB ad. As far as marketing to me based on my interests....well, either my interests are so goofy that nobody can target me, or I'm just immune to it -- I haven't noticed any increase in spam, or junk mail, and I'm a fairly regular Facebook user.

As for all the games and such......people who would actually pay for that crap are just being stupid. If you can't entertain yourself on the internet without paying, you need to find a good book or something and turn off the computer.

The craziest thing is how you can "send gifts" to people which are not really gifts, just little icons on their wall....and people PAY MONEY to do that! How idiotic is that? When I hear of this kind of thing happening (along with the big sales of things like giant TVs, jet-skis, Xboxes and so on) I feel like our economy is in better shape than we think it is.

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Keri Delio
Film Handler

Posts: 26
From: Carrollton, TX, USA
Registered: Mar 2011

posted 05-25-2011 04:01 PM

I go by an alias on Facebook. It's handy for keeping up with people that live far away. Honestly I've found more folks on there that I know who expose so much about themselves freely it scares me just to see/read it.
This is the only place on the web where I actually go by my real name. I really don't like the policy from a personal security standpoint but I do enjoy reading the threads here and commenting occasionally else I would not have registered.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-25-2011 06:08 PM

LOL at all of the Facebook paranoia. Put on your tinfoil hats, guys! Facebook is exactly what you make of it. Information about you can be found without Facebook. Also, am I the only one here who knows how to put their Facebook page on private? You can't see shit about me unless I let you see it. At most, you can see that I am on there and perhaps a low resolution version of my profile picture. No boogie men for me to worry about. As far as data mining goes, what exactly are they mining? What could they? I don't see any ads on Facebook at all since I use Adblock Plus. So instead of being scared that everyone is spying on me, I just go on and have fun. And if there is something that I don't want known, then I don't post it.

Film-Tech is waaaaay more public than Facebook is, hence the reason Regal-types don't post here much.

Keri Delio, since I know your real name I am going to make life really hard for you. I don't know how, but I surely will. The government will know about this. Job opportunities will surely be lost. If only you went behind an alias. It pays to be scared!

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David E. Nedrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 368
From: Columbus, OH, USA
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 05-25-2011 06:18 PM

Plus, Facebook isn't a forum in the classic (CompuServe threaded-style) sense.

Things like PHPbb and UBB came along to fill the gap when CompuServe imploded. I worked there when it happened, but escaped unharmed. [Wink]

Face book has no facility for providing a manageable interface to any type of threaded conversation.

I dislike Facebook when people try to use it for a "forum", in much the same way I dislike a blog used as a company's actual website. Ugh.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-25-2011 06:33 PM

Joe--I'm not paranoid. I have always used my real name when posting stuff online. I'm not a believer in hiding behind aliases or anonymous comments. I just don't see how a Facebook account would improve my life, and I don't see the need to post a bunch of stuff on a commercial web site where it will be surrounded with advertisements which benefit someone else. I also don't like the idea of granting anyone else unlimited worldwide rights to my words and pictures without compensation.

Actually, I prefer Usenet newsgroups to web forums (fora?), but spammers and general lack of interest in net news have made that form of communication less useful than it was a decade ago.

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Keri Delio
Film Handler

Posts: 26
From: Carrollton, TX, USA
Registered: Mar 2011

posted 05-25-2011 07:27 PM

I didn't say I was scared, said I just didn't like it for my own reasons.
I'm not paranoid, but at the same time I don't care to make my life an open book on the web either.
A lot of you guys seem to like putting words into other peoples' mouths around here for whatever reason, especially if someone has a dissenting opinion.

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