This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

I just need to rant. I'm not sure who reads this, because lets be honest, I hardly get comments here. So I assume not too many people find my posts interesting anymore. But I need to vent anyway so here it goes.

It's not the first time I'm annoyed about social networking. I've blogged about it before. But mainly because people kept on inviting me to certain social networks. People I don't know personally, but who are inviting me as "Sims Network". They get a welcome mail from SNW and use that address for all their "funny" forward mails, invite me to all kinds of crappy social networks and let's not forget the many spam mails I get for "free" stuff and stuff I can win.

This time however I just want to let out annoyances per social network.

Facebook.
Facebook is one big annoying social network. I don't want to close my account down though. It can be useful at times. And friends who closed their accounts, suddenly came back after a couple of months. When I confronted them, they claimed they never reactivated their account. So Facebook has a bug that automatically reactivates old accounts. Facebook loves to change their Terms in such a way you lose control over your personal and private content. And then there are the hundreds of annoying games my "friends" play. One final thing I really can't stand? Family members adding my (community) friends and the other way around. Pretty pathetic. I can't get my own friends so I'm adding Rosie's family members, or in case of my family, lets add Rosie's friends I have never ever met in real life.

Twitter
I think I complained about this on my blog before. But I would love to continue my rant. I absolutely HATE people on Twitter who add me, wait for me to add them back, and then almost instantly remove me. Oh wow, I'm so popular. Look at me, I've got hundreds/thousands of followers! Get a life, losers! I also hate people who change their user name into a name of one of their new projects, and keep on changing it, ALL THE TIME. I start to follow someone because I liked the person or subject the account was about. When the subject is suddenly changed into something completely different, I'm probably no longer interested. It's another sneaky way to gain followers for your website but I really don't like it.

Plurk
Plurk has "friends" and "fans". I used to have 200-300 friends, in 2008 or so, when it was very popular. It's not so popular anymore these days. I still use it every day, but sometimes I just wonder why. I have often cleaned out my "friends" list because many of them hadn't used it for a long time, or people who never talk to me. I don't get that. Why bother adding someone if you don't plan on communicating with them? I really hate it when people add me to gain popularity or followers on their website whatsoever. I still have 50-ish friends on Plurk today. But I plan to remove even more depending on how much these remaining people communicate with me. If they never respond to my Plurks, and never respond to my replies on their Plurks, I don't see the use of being "friends". I also don't like it when people add me who don't communicate in English or Dutch. It's obvious I only talk in English and sometimes Dutch.

Hyves
I joined Hyves because of the many family members who kept asking me to join. I don't like Hyves. I never did, and I still don't. But I'm keeping the account because it's the only way to communicate with many of my family members. However. I wonder why I'm still on there. When I post something, I hardly ever get comments. I can comment and "respect" (like) others and their posts and pictures, but except for one cousin and one friend, I just don't get any kind of feedback on my posts and pictures. When commenting on posts from family members (or friends for that matter), I'm often ignored. I'm not sure if this is on purpose, but it really annoys me and makes me wonder what the hell I'm still doing using Hyves.

Social networking used to be a fun medium for me to communicate with friends and followers. People who didn't like commenting on my beautiful website could comment on social networks. But these days that doesn't even happen anymore. I'm losing interest in a lot of social networks. I can't help it.

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

Just a quick note to let you all know that from now on, the 365 posts will no longer appear in the feeds. I did this because I want people to see the 365 posts on the front page first, with the teaser and all. If people would see the post directly in the feeds, they would no longer look at the teaser, which is NOT visible in the posts itself. So this was the most logical choice. The people who are interested in seeing the 365 photos can come to my blog.

I will make sure I post a link to the English blog every day, on several social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and Identi.ca.

Awesome news! With the launch of my new website in August 2010, it is possible to only show the teaser in the RSS feeds, leading people to my website to see the full and other picture along with a story. From now on people can subscribe to the feed again and follow all my posts, including the 365 blog!

I decided it was time for a new Twitter design on my @Rosiewosie Twitter account. I've had the old one for over a year and since I love Christmas, I designed a new background, along with some matching colors:

You may not know what this is all about. I don't think I have really explained this yet on my own blogs so I will try to do this now.

Before December started, I was looking at my own blog and realized I only blogged a few times a month. And it's not as if I'm not doing anything else. It's not always a possibility to blog whenever you please. Then there's the issue that your topics may not be interesting to others. But you will always have this. Not everyone can enjoy your posts. With that in mind, I decided to (at least try and) post every day in December. So that's how the December Blogging project was started.

Paul noticed this, and thought it was so much fun, he'd join in as well and do the same on his blogs, in Dutch and English. Very soon, Junior followed, doing the same on Juniorwood in Dutch and English. Mollie Moonbeam decided the world really needs her environmental tips during this expensive and materialistic month. Who can blame her for that? Rens also started the December blogging in Dutch on Renssies. Corosben Mini'Mata shares us about his planet's festivities. And Mogway has also seen the light and decided to join us on her blogs in English and Dutch! Jimmy joined us today and is blogging in Dutch on his blog.

Who's next? You? Everyone is welcome to join. Just let us know on our Facebook page, or through Twitter (send us a reply @december_blog on Twitter).

I cannot guarantee I will post every day in December. But I will most certainly try.

As you can see in the title of this post, we're going to launch the MacDesperate website on December 6, which is only a week from today! A short intro to MacDesperate:

MacDesperate consists of 4 crazy Dutch people. Three guys and one girl. No, this is not the title of a lame sitcom Cheetah, Wouter, Tales and me are the people behind MacDesperate. Cheetah helped building the website, writing scripts. Wouter will be writing witty columns, he's usually incredibly funny so I suggest you read those columns. Tales will be updating the site with news and possibly reviews. I designed the MacDesperate website, I have made (and will be making many more) goodies for people to download and I will post on a regular basis with must have items like laptop bags!

In the meantime, please follow our updates on Twitter, Facebook or Identi.ca!

I recently decided to get myself another Twitter account. I realized I needed a real Design account. One I can follow fellow designers on and let others follow me so they can see my work whenever I create something new.

So go ahead, follow me on @missdesign! I will continue to use my old accounts at @rosiewosie and @snw. @rosiewosie will be used more personally and @snw will be used for my gaming sites; SimsNetwork, SporeNetwork and MySimsNetwork.

Well, I blogged about the "all new" social networking site Plurk yesterday. I was curious to check it out. I am a social networking addict. I like to try everything out. I usually have a beta account before a service launches to the public. But I just found out about Plurk. People on Twitter were talking about it and some even called it the new Twitter. I wasn't happy at all yesterday with Plurk, as you might have read in my previous post. Today I tried the service again. And I will share with you what I experienced today.

Plurk has quite a different timeline than Twitter. Twitter has the newest tweets on the top. Plurk has the newest plurks (not sure what to call them yet) on the left. I myself did not have any trouble adjusting to the timeline. But many people seem to have trouble getting used to the timeline.

Plurk has the same option 'follow' like you have on Twitter. But on Plurk, you can also add someone as a friend.

Plurk has a very good way to follow conversations, something I often miss on Twitter. I can keep track with older messages on Plurk. Twitter seems very limited and won't even go beyond page 3 or so. When I haven't been able to go online for hours, my timeline on Twitter has grown so big that I have to guess what all my followers were talking about while I was away.
Some people may want to argue with me on what I am about to say. But I actually think Plurk is less messy than FriendFeed. I am no n00b, but I am often having a hard time keeping up on FriendFeed. There's just too much happening in a short amount of time. And it's hard to read back everything. I personally prefer Plurk in this case for the conversations. But maybe everyone has a different feeling about this. I wouldn't blame you. I just feel more comfortable having conversations on Plurk.

I have mixed feelings for the collapsible/expandable Plurks. I do think it looks nice (neat, tidy). But to hover and click on every one of those Plurks does cost extra time.

Some people find the default creature of Plurk disturbing. I do not know what to think about the default creature (a dog with no head). But I do like most of the other creatures. They really remind me of Spore. Anyone who knows me a bit, knows I am a Spore fan. I mean, I even have a few Spore fansites! Visit SporeNetwork to talk about Spore. I could use some company there! I could also use some team members to help me out a little. I'm usually the only one working on all sites. Anyway, continuing with the subject of Plurk.

The name, well, I think it's an interesting name. I don't hate it. I don't like it either. It's something I won't forget for a while. But overall I think it's a weird name. No offense to whoever has come up with this name.

I love the fact that you can use emoticons on Plurk! I would have been nice to see unique ones. But I don't care that much. The ones you can choose from now are good as well. Doesn't really matter. It's just a fun addition to have which I didn't have on Twitter. I can live without them of course. But it's nice to have.

I love the whole fancy linking. Just typ an url followed by (text or title between parenthesis) and it will show a nice text link in stead of just a plain url.
http://www.plurk.com/user/rosiewosie (Find Rosie on Plurk)
The above code will give you:
Find Rosie on Plurk

Hmmm let's see. I love the fact that we can choose color schemes. But I would have liked to create one myself, like I can on Twitter. I like my own 'styles'. Most designers would like that. I would understand it if you would need some Karma points to do this. But right now I don't think it's possible at all.

I adore those different colors you see with each verb you can choose. I'd love to see a few additions to the verbs list, like 'can', 'should', 'would', 'could', 'agrees'. Stuff like that. But there's always the freestyle option which you can use for missing verbs. Doesn't have a fancy color though

Even though right now I don't have a phone to use for Internet, I do like the fact that Plurk has a mobile site. You can visit it here.

Something I really didn't like it that I invited myself for a group account for a new website I share with some others. I tried inviting myself/us on Plurk. I got the invitation, followed every step and became a member. But for some reason it did not add me as a friend and my invites count wasn't updated either. It's not a matter of time, because it's been hours and when you get invited by someone, you also have an instant friendship. I don't mind that one invitation didn't work properly. But it does show a bug they might want to work on.

I do not like the 'rules' the creators of Plurk have set up. There's a page called 'Safe Plurking habits guide'. I'm sorry. But it's obvious they're taking advantage of the Twitter downtime and server issues. You can expect a bunch of Twitter peeps signing up for this new service. Then don't expect they will use Plurk any different!
I myself only stick to #4, #7, #9 and #10. And #4 doesn't even apply to me if responses also count as Plurks.

I also still dislike the Karma system. I don't want to invite a bunch of people if I'm not sure they want this. And I'm not going to ask each one of them individually either. Like I said in my previous blog post, the Karma system is something that could hold me back.
See, I don't like the fact that I cannot change personal information like my real name, biography, location and relationship until I reach 40 Karma points. That's plain ridiculous! I'd want to know who I'm dealing with on any site, including Plurk. So if people do not have any recognizable information on their Plurk page, I often have a hard time recognizing them. I do recognize most people by their username, but not all.
I do understand that a Karma system is fun for extra benefits like extra creatures, more emoticons, stuff like that. And I don't mind the barrier set to 40 to be able to change your username. But I really hate the fact that I can't tell about who I am until I have spent a whole week Plurking full time. I have contacted the Plurk staff about this. But for some reason I doubt they'll take it serious. I hope they will.
(Edit: I just found out you have to fill in your birthday first in order to be able to edit the rest of your general profile information. Stupid that it's not stated clearly, but it does solve some issues for me and perhaps for others as well!)

For some reason I cannot check my mail accounts through Plurk to see which buddies and friends have joined Plurk without me knowing about it. It just keeps giving errors. Doesn't matter which mail account I use, error after error. It states I have entered incorrect information, like a false password. Well, I don't think so. It's working just fine. Only not through Plurk. Another thing that isn't working for me is checking buddies through IM accounts. I hope this will get fixed soon.

Overall I think Plurk can make a good social networking app. I may not be the most technical person around. But I know what I like. After all, I am a user on that site and they usually know best what they would like to see, right?

It does need some work on widgets though. I'm used to my fancy extended Twitter script with support for own style/colors, a friends timeline, links and user icons. I would like to add a fancy customizable Plurk widget in the near future if I will continue to use it as much.
Another point I'd like to bring up is the lack of support in programs like Twhirl. I would like to see some good apps with support for Plurk, working in both Windows, Mac and Linux. I'm a multi-user and I like my desktops to be similar to one another.

If you're new to Plurk and feel like the standard F.A.Q. page on Plurk doesn't offer you all the answers, this page might bring you some extra information.

Maybe I will post a third post about Plurk. But for now, I think I have explained both my positive and negative experiences here in this post. Feel free to comment!

And don't forget, you can find me on Plurk here as rosiewosie and here as snw (for Sims and Spore updates).

Another blog post about Twitter? Really? Wow! Well, no, not exactly. I have been pretty inactive for the past couple of days. I was in need of some calm and relaxing activities. It also meant I was going to be offline for a bit. Yes, it's really me. I'm not sick. I just felt like taking it slow for a few days.

So today I came back online, checked Twitter and noticed people talking about Plurk. Quite an interesting name, right? Some people call it 'the new Twitter, except for the downtime'. Well, some people have spoken too soon. Because Plurk has been experiencing some downtime (or at least many server errors) today.

I signed up as well, you can find me here. But so far, I don't really like Plurk. It does look nice, that is true. However, I don't really hate the looks of Twitter either. Here comes the ranting and complaining part. Their servers are hardly stable, but there's already a 'Karma' system. You cannot edit certain parts of your profile unless you have Karma points. And you cannot get Karma points unless you invite people. Well, even though I hate inviting people without a good reason, I did invite Junior to see what it would change. Until now, nothing has changed. The site does reckon my accepted friend invitations, but it doesn't update my Karma. What's up with that? Back to the server issues. I cannot change my avatar because of their server issues. Yet I have to change my avatar in order to get Karma. Strange system so far.

I cannot review a service if I cannot test the features. A huge part of those features cannot be used because I don't have Karma. And another part cannot be used because of the server issues. I guess I'll have to wait until all is stable again.

So far, it does indeed have some similarities with Twitter: the server issues. You can add me on Plurk if you want, but I won't stop using Twitter now Plurk is around. It's too soon and it isn't working properly.

So, another blogpost about Twitter. It's becoming a regular subject. There's the Twit-out that took (and is still taking) place today. And it doesn't seem to have much impact on Twitter. No, even worse. For a while it was down. Again. Anyway, I didn't join in on this Twit-out. It's not for me.

Another topic about Twitter and its downtime. Well, you see that block on the right here? The one with a Twitter script in it? When Twitter is down, my site loads very slowly! It's something I've been thinking about for a few days now. I really, really like that Twitter block. But if Twitter keeps on going down every day, I cannot afford to keep the block on my site. It will annoy my visitors, I know for sure.

The third and last thing I'd like to rant about is again something about Twitter. It came to my mind to blog about when @thattalldude talked about it on Twitter today. He has also blogged about it on his own website. There are people who start following you just so they can gain followers. In my personal experience, I've had people who started following me. I followed them back within the hour. And then they decided to unfollow me. It has happens more than once. And it seems some people are trying to build up a nice set of followers so he/she can look good. Well I won't be used for that. If you start following me, do it for the right reasons. Of course, it's possible to make a mistake. But it's quite obvious you're doing it for the wrong reasons if you immediately unfollow me on the moment I have just started following you! Don't do this. Gives you a bad, bad reputation in the end.

I frequently visit other blogs from people I follow on Twitter. @hjortur also has a blog, and that's where I found this 'Twittoholic Screening Test'. It's to check how addicted to Twitter you really are. The results are here.

1. Have you lost time from work because of Twitting?
   Yes
2. Is twitting making your boss unhappy?
   Basically I am my own boss. And I am not unhappy about me Twitting, so no.
3. Is twitting affecting your reputation?
   I have no idea, maybe? I guess not. You'd have to ask others who follow me.
4. Do you convince yourself the affect on your reputation is positive which is why you not only should but must continue to twit?
   No
5. Have you ever felt remorse after twitting?
   A little. So that would be a yes.
6. Have you ever twitted when you knew you should be doing something else?
   Yes.
7. Have you ever continued to twit when asked to stop?
   No, then again, no one asked me to stop.
8. Have you ever jeopardized your health or the one of others by twitting, (like mobile twitting while driving)?
   No
9. Do you feel irritation if you haven't twitted for some time?
   Yes
10. Have you ever twitted before breakfast?
    Yes
11. Do you want to twit the next morning?
    Yes
12. Does twitting interfere with your sleeping habits?
    Not really, my sleeping habits are screwed up anyway.
13. Has twitting caused arguments or disagreements with your spouse?
    No
14. Has your efficiency decreased since twitting?
    I don't think so.
15. Do you reply to twelebrities (twitter-celebrities) to build up your self-confidence?
    No, if I reply to twelebrities it's probably. because I feel like having a conversation with them.
16. Have you ever lied about what you were doing while twitting?
    No
17. Have you ever hid your twitter homepage when someone is around?
    No
18. Have you ever turned to third party applications to twit when your boss has closed for access to the twitter homepage?
    No (see #2)
19. Have you ever had a loss of sense of time because of twitting?
    No
20. Has your tech staff ever had to treat your computer because of twitting?
    No
21. Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of twitting?
    No?
22. Do you twit alone?
    Lol, no.
23. Are you in denial and lied or "stretched the truth substantially" when answering any of the questions above?
    Nope.

If you answered 3 or more of these questions with a Yes it is a definite sign that your twitting patterns are harmful and possibly considered twitter dependent or twittoholic.

I guess that means I am a Twittoholic. Though I don't really feel it that way. I answered yes 6 times. Once Twitter is back up, I will tweet that I am a Twittoholic. However, I do have to add that I am not that addicted, that I can't live without Twitter. Seriously.

I am into social networking, new media, web 2.0 and all that. That means I have a ton of services I use, basically to try out. Some because I just really enjoy them. Twitter is one of those services I often do enjoy.

There have been issues with the downtime on Twitter. Some people really can't stand the downtime at Twitter. See, I don't like it when Twitter is down, because I have a few scripts running on my website which slow everything down if Twitter is down. And naturally that's something I don't want. I want my visitors to enjoy my website. If I visit other websites and those websites won't open within a few seconds, I know myself, I will get impatient. So I can imagine my visitors getting impatient as well. And I don't want that. So no, I don't like the downtime on Twitter.

But, with all do respect, there are people out there who just can't handle Twitter being down. If we have to start boycotting a service because it happened to be down a lot lately, then what are we doing? Let's not forget that Twitter is a free service. It always has been a free service and afaik that's not going to change either in the near future. You do not have to pay for Twitter. Hell, you don't even have to use Twitter if you can't handle the downtime. Remember, no one is forcing you to use it. Twitter doesn't make a whole lot of money off of this website either. They do have ads, but only on the Japanese pages. At least that's what I've seen. My own page doesn't have ads. I also read some statements that 'we are the community, we make Twitter what it is'. And that is true. But do you really think a few hundred people will make a difference? It's not like the staff doesn't already know what 'problems' the site (or basically, the server) has. Not using Twitter for a whole day doesn't make a difference either. I respect the people who are going to boycott Twitter. However, I don't think I will join. I want to use Twitter when I feel like it.

I'm almost finished with my new theme (or shall I just call it a extremely updated version of my current theme). And before I will launch it, I would like to ask the visitors of my blog to give feedback, tips, comments on stuff for my website. I'm just wondering what items are missing on my blog? What items do you think are still missing?

A poll - Do you think I should have one?
Shoutbox - Do you miss my old shoutbox? Why?
Guestbook? I really don't like guestbooks... They're so... dull :?
Registering... Should I open up my blog for 'anonymous' visitors? Right now it's register-only. And I kind of like it that way. But I know it's keeping people from replying to my posts.
Sitemap? I doubt you'll need one once my new theme has launched. But I might add one anyway.

I would like to hear your thoughts. You can also post your thoughts on this on Twitter (just reply a message to me).

I'm just posting a short note here to let you all know that the lack of updates here is mainly due to my activities (projects, yes). I currently have 8 websites I'm working on, so I'm kind of occupied until I have at least four of them online. Not to worry, I'm almost done with three of them.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date by adding me on Twitter. If you want to see my latest photos, I suggest you take a look at my DeviantArt or Flickr. And if you feel the need to stalk me some more, FriendFeed, Profilactic, Onaswarm and Soup show you most of my (social networking) online activity. Have fun with that

Yes, I've joined Twitter. Don't ask me why. I'm busy enough already. But Alex asked me whether I had a Twitter account a while ago. And if I find something appealing enough, I tend to join anyway, even if it is just to try it out. So now I did. Have a Twitter? Add me here (You will need to be logged in on Twitter to do that though)