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An alternative header picture we considered, but the real one won

CampoPulse had been removed because an automatic system thought we were spamming (definition of spam in blogs by Wikipedia here). As we told Blogger (by Google), we wouldn't know how to do that. However, as a precaution, we have asked our commentators to register with one or other of the social media when wanting to make a comment (see what we mean by clicking on Comments below). It was there that the problems began. We apologise for any inconvenience. We will continue to post things on Alberto Bullrich Ward (formerly Prospero Campo on Facebook)

Spammers take advantage of Facebook narcissism

Regular readers will know that we are none too keen on the social networks here. Yet another interesting article on ZDNet by Jennifer Leggio starts off by saying, "Narcissism fuels 'friend collecting,' which is the practice of either aggressively pursuing connections with friends of friends one barely knows, or indiscriminately accepting friend requests from unknown people" and goes on to warn of the dangers of doing so, and offers a few simple ways of avoiding the problem. Please read the whole article here and help make the Internet safer.

Is Facebook turning its users into spammers?

(ZDNet/Rich Harris) "I was wondering how aggressive and granular Facebook would allow contextual advertising to get. With the latest talk of Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories,” I think they make it clear that no content must go unadvertised. Right now there’s a battle on Facebook between quality personal user experience and methodical ad revenue implementation. Every era and medium brings a new threshold of how much advertising consumers are willing to be slapped in the face with before flipping the bird and bailing out on something they were previously enjoying." That's how this interesting article begins. Read all of it to see how we're being manipulated.