Don't you just hate it when you see a promising blog entry title that gets those synapses excited, but you end up being dismayed by the post's content? You know the kind I'm talking about... This morning's annoyance had the following come-on: "Question For Everyone, Please Take The Time To Answer, No Cheating..." blah blah blah.

Fine. Groovy. Whatever. IMO, stuff like this should come with a disclaimer at the top of the entry which states that the person who posted a pop quiz without also providing the answer is only making a feeble attempt to get repeat blog traffic. The disclaimer doesn't have to be fancy. One simple word will suffice:

INCOMPLETE

Whoa. I may have possibly just found the only valid use for the dreaded "blink" tag. ;oD

Question: (+ ∞) + ( - ∞) = ? ("positive" infinity plus "negative" infinity equals?)

Answer: nothing

"Zero" is an incorrect answer because zero has a fixed mathematical value. Therefore, zero is still "something."

Dang- Discussion sure has been lively over at Yahoo 360 Refugees. It seems that someone (who will remain nameless) posted an unverified statement that Yahell is not going to execute its financial flop, 360º. I'll beat this dead horse one last time to put forth the following:

Verify your source.

Rumors, disinformation, and idle speculations are simply those and nothing more. Wait- They are something more. These types of postings are overabundant.

While it's impossible to exterminate such behaviors which breed with parasitic zeal, it is quite simple (and greatly appreciated) to include at least one reference/link to a credible source. Do this consistently and you'll save yourself from becoming just more spamtastic internet flamebait, honest! And if a verified source isn't readily available, please learn to use post tags accordingly. Some good tag examples for unverified information are "rumors", "rumor mill", "gossip", "scuttlebutt", "murmurings", "chatter" and "buzz". Of course, tags can be suited to an individual's liking.

Have fun. Play. Explore. Learn.

Thanks to vivalabama for saving me the trouble of hunting for that Y! 360º blog entry.

I found it necessary to remove someone from my contacts a few days ago. I *do* like this person quite a bit. This individual, henceforth referred to as "X",  is one really neat soul. Unfortunately, some of X's contacts insisted on inflicting themselves upon me. X is not blocked. X doesn't deserve to be blocked. Again, I like X. Still...

One of X's contacts, who shall remain nameless, couldn't take the hint when 3 separate invites were declined. That individual is now blocked. I didn't want to do it; I had to do it if for no other reason than to spare both of us further repetition of pointless activity.

Another, who at least was courteous enough to respect the no-images condition for my guestbook, thought it would be kosher to PM me his crap instead. Matters of personal taste aside, many fail to realize that malicious code can be easily embedded within image files- especially the animated ones. Please don't ask me for specifics. I don't have time today. If there's enough interested parties, maybe in the future I can whip up a FAQ. And yes, this individual was also blocked, but mostly as a CYA.

I won't go into the other foolishness that's got more than ample potential to turn Multiply into the same tired troll fest that ruined everyone's fun on Yahell. One of the best things that Multiply has in its favor is that its focus is on quality versus quantity. That standard alone is why I've chosen to build my primary social networking home here on Multiply. This host's flexibility and all these awesome features don't hurt, either! ;oD

One last thing... Before anyone wastes their time mentioning it: I am well aware that it's possible to disable HTML in our guestbooks. I don't want to have to resort to that measure. One never knows what kind of fascinating links they might find in a guestbook, right? Enough outta me for now. L♥ve youze guys! *~*~*poof*~*~*

Happy Monday, my friends! Gee... It's the start of another great week here on Multiply and I'm getting pretty stoked about some personal projects. A couple are from-scratch Multiply groups, and a couple more involve (hopefully) getting some pre-existing groups cleaned up and returned to decent functioning. But the latter involves a temporary nuisance: the ability to assume Admin of abandonded/neglected groups.

It's rare that anyone creates a group with the intent of having it be less than its potential. I'm not even going to pretend that I have any idea what overall Multiply activity was like before we Yahell refugees landed upon these shores. But judging from the volumes of groups left unattended... **sigh**  Those of us who are willing to do the work shouldn't have to search blindly for the correct info on how to make it happen. Thank you, Higher Powers, for giving me the tenacity of a terrier and the stubbornness of a mule!

Shhhh... Hear that? Yup, it's peaceful at the ol' homestead this morning. This is a primo opportunity for me to get back to working on those group graphics- yay!!! Ciao for now...

Commedian Groucho Marx was famous for his glib comments. One of my all-time favorite Groucho-isms is: "I'd never join a group that would have me as a member." Looks like I've broken Groucho's law again. For the past couple of weeks I hemmed and hawed about how involved I might become here on Multiply. These ponderings were seasoned with intermittent outbursts of anger with the Yahell machine.

I did plenty of poking around here on Multiply during that time. This social network does have a fair amount of potential. Its present features and functionality are decent, but there's some things that do need improvement, big time. As much as I'm tempted to outline those items in great detail, doing so here in my humble little Multiply blog is about as practical as a pub crawl for sobriety.

"Okay, Chris. What's the punch line?"

I'm so glad you asked! Social network hopping bugs the crap out of me even though some of those hosts are fairly necessary evils. Others are just pure bullshit, IMO. All have capitalist agendas, of course, but some are less obnoxious than others. The latter is one of the main reasons why I'm really drawn to Multiply. But the most important reason I like Multiply is because the focus of this social network is quality vs. quantity.

Don't get me wrong- I'm down when it comes to mischief and mayhem. If you can swing it, bring it, baby. But our world is undergoing rapid changes, and I can be one outspoken bitch. I don't expect anyone to join me on my various soapboxes, nor am I out to recruit anyone for anything. There's a time for play (read: social) and a time for work (read: networking). Call it weird math, but for me the equation is:

play + work = Multiply

On that note... Hi, honey- I'm home!