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Oops, there goes another rubber tree....
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The troubling trend of deletions at the CBS Jericho Board has given me pause to consider the nature of social networks as they stand and where they might be headed.
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In the case at hand there are those who will gladly remind you that the owner of the board and its content is CBS and that by agreeing to the terms of service you have thereby given up any right to hold claim over any content that you contribute. OK, that covers the legal end of things but in the real world it is hogwash. Social networks are communities and communities are made up of people. Not people who are looking to hold the copyright to the post they just authored but people who hold a stake in the relationships they are forming and who value their history.
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The CBS Jericho Board has been a less than stellar place to raise your Social Networking Inner Child. Moderation has swung between nonexistent and heavy handed, users have been banned for little or no reason and for months a chat room existed there which frankly was an embarrassment. Even still the strong connections formed amongst the boards residents. People did what they do astonishingly well; thrive in difficult circumstance.
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But people are not hardwired to accept adversity without seeking to better the situation. I wonder if the current model of social networking, where a private owner can obliterate whole communities at a whim, will not soon be challenged. There is much inherent responsibility in the act of online community creation and the ethical questions grow more relevant by the minute.
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Brand yourself before someone else does.
