Facebook: graffiti comparison and a survey

Above: some samples of "graffiti" that I've been posting on various friends' Facebook Graffiti walls.

There are now (at least) two add-on Facebook applications called Graffiti. The first Graffiti I tried was written by Mark Kantor, Tim Suzman and Ted Suzman. I had some trouble using it but when I posted a question in the forum, I got no reply at first. It seems that the app still has drawing problems for some Mac users with OS X.

Meanwhile, a newer Graffiti became available, this one written by Alex Onsager and Joachim De Lombaert. I liked it a bit better because you could draw directly on a Facebook profile instead of having to open a different window, plus Alex was extremely responsive when I posted a support question. The Graffiti team even has a blog.

I also prefer the latter because the developers are constantly adding improving and releasing updates, in response to user feedback. I like the new interface, which gives you an option for a bigger canvas, allows you to save an unfinished drawing, and also gives the option of posting the same drawing more than once. Plus if you click on "replay", you can see the whole picture being re-drawn!



It's been fun, doodling on various friends' Facebook walls. If you're on my Facebook friends' list and want me to add some graffiti: if you post on my graffiti wall, I promise to post some on yours (but I can't promise exactly when). Even if you think can't draw or have to make do with a mouse instead of an Artpad. Any attempt will be appreciated.

But PLEASE don't whine if I don't draw on your wall. I do this for fun, eh? :-)

If you're using the older Graffiti (URL will read http://apps.facebook.com/graffitiwall/ rather than http://apps.facebook.com/graffiti/), I can't guarantee a pic because my Wacom Artpad/Mac still has issues with that app sometimes. Here's what the newer app looks like:



You can find its main page here.

Facebook is targeting 60 million users by the end of 2007. Holy cow.

One thing I've found interesting about Facebook so far: of all the social networking platforms I've checked out, this is the first one that seems to be appealing to pretty much every one of my social circles (work, filk, family, old school buddies, etc.)

I think it helps that Facebook permits users to have a wide range of privacy options, rather than the limited binary "private/public" option of most other social networking communities. It also allows you to control how much interaction you have with other people.

Jeff, for example, is not really into social networking but joined Facebook because he's able to limit his public presence as well as interaction; he can be more of an observer than an active participant. He doesn't have any interactive components on his profile page (e.g. message board, polls, etc.), but can post on other people's pages if and when he likes. I've also had more work-related interactions (paid assignments, even) through Facebook than any other social community -- including LinkedIn, which I quit ages ago).

Facebook isn't for everyone, I know, but so far I'm quite enjoying it. People seem to be using it differently; for some, it's purely for fun, and for a small circle of personal friends.

Others use it more for work networking or promotion, and opt for the "add as many 'friends' as possible even if I have no idea who they are" strategy. I'm sort of in the middle, leaning a tad more toward 'fun' and limiting the amount of time I spend on Facebook. I can see how it could be a real time vampire, so have purposely declined numerous invitations to fun apps like Scrabble and other games.

SURVEY: Are you on Facebook? If you are, how are you finding the experience so far?

LINK O' THE DAY

Speaking of time vampires...

Bloxorz: The aim of this game is to get a block to fall into a square hole. There's much more than that, of course. The realistic sound of the block moving around greatly enhances the experience, at least for me.




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