Making the news

Though Syria has officially banned Facebook access from within the country, residents can apparently get around the ban with relative ease. Our correspondent in Damascus (i.e. a friend of mine who happens to live there at present) reports that he’s been continuing to access the forbidden site via internet cafes by simply removing firewall blocks. He reported this by writing it on my Facebook Wall, so I believe him. Now I’m just hoping no one arrests him for it.

And a discussion question: Would you risk arrest in order to access your Facebook profile everyday? Just how much does the ability to Superpoke your friends mean to you?

In other news, you can start sending your e-cards via a new Facebook app from 123greetings.com. I mention this only because it made the news; the cards themselves aren’t too impressive. The first one I glanced at had grammatical errors (nitpicky, maybe, but it was a card designed to be sent to a co-worker, and don’t you not want to look like a moron in front of co-workers?); none of the cards I saw had especially impressive animation or artwork; and as far as I can tell they can only be sent to Facebook friends, with no option of typing in an external email address. Say what you will about Amazon, but they still rule my e-card world.

Webs.com is also making a splash in the newsy world with their increasingly popular Facebook games. They may be best known for the text-only game WarBook. I just went and played around with this, and I can see how it could rapidly become addictive: it’s got many aspects (building, fighting, costuming, all that stuff people love to do in games yet often avoid in real life) that can take up a lot of time without getting boring. On the flip side, people are also loving completely non-interactive Facebook games like Street Race, where all you do is click a couple of things and the game is over. This just goes to show you that it’s possible to please all of the people all of the time but not possible to understand them.

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