Get your Facebook URL now!

9 posts / 0 new

Sat, 2009-06-13 10:00

Michelle

For those of you on Facebook, and who use it a lot as a social media tool to stay in touch with friends and also professional contacts, Facebook is offering simple username urls now.

So, now's the time to go grab your real name as your URL. I just grabbed mine this morning and managed to get my real, full name, no numbers in the URL! Get yours quick while it's still available and no one else with your name has taken it.

Go here: http://www.facebook.com/username

Obviously if you hate facebook, don't do this. Just thought I'd post this here as a reminder to those who use it. I think it's going to be important for those who network using social media to get in on this now.

Sat, 2009-06-13 10:42

remind

Are there other people with your name Michelle? ;)

I could wait the rest of my life time and still get my name. :D

Though I would never do so, hate facebook and never use it at all anymore. But will tell my daughter.

Sat, 2009-06-13 21:36

Michelle

There are lots of people on Facebook with the same first and last name as me. :) I was lucky - I meant to log on right at midnight to get mine, thinking someone would get ahead of me, but woke up at 6:30 a.m. and realized I'd forgotten. I got on right away, figuring my name would be long gone, but there it was!

Something interesting - you can only have one name, according to the rules on google. So I was shocked to find both michellelanglois and michelle.langlois available. And I agonized over which one to choose, but then chose the one without the dot. Then, out of curiosity, I checked to see what would happen if I inserted the dot in the URL - and discovered that michellelanglois, michelle.langlois AND michelle-langlois all point to my profile!

I just assumed that they'd want to let as many people as possible have a good URL, and I feel kind of bad that other people with my name can't have the dot or the dash one. I guess they're trying to prevent "squatting" by not letting people register almost identical urls. But it seems to me on a site where there are tons of people with the same name, you should try to distribute the url wealth a little more evenly!

Anyhow, I'm selfishly happy to have all three point to my profile, but I probably wouldn't have set the system up that way if I were FB.

Sun, 2009-06-14 08:17

remind

Funny Michelle, right after I wrote that, apparently a long lost cousin of mine, was registering her url, (same last name) and found me on face book and sent me a friend request.

Sun, 2009-06-14 12:34

martin dufresne

But if you have debts, beware...

Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Sleazeball Debt Collector?
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Posted on June 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140547/

With millions of Americans struggling in the current economic crisis, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of people are falling behind paying their bills. This is no cause for celebration -- unless of course, you happen to make your living as a debt collector, a debt-settlement company or other notoriously sleazy outfits engineered to profit off people's financial misery.

It's bad enough that while newspapers and car companies die off, the debt business is booming. But recent months have brought a number of reports and lawsuits that exposed some of the latest -- and slimiest -- ways the "financial services" industry is using to cash in on already-struggling Americans.

Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Debt Collector?

When Michigan resident Paula Newland fell behind in her car payments, she found herself battling some typical -- and not so typical -- tactics used by debt collectors. In addition to repeated, harassing phone calls from three companies -- including 15 calls on one Saturday and claims that phone calls were "concerning a 'family emergency' " -- Newland was told that if she did not pay up, her car would be reported stolen, and she would be arrested. The company also threatened to deploy what they called a "shame automobile" and "camp out all weekend" in front of her house.

And then came a novel approach: As if all this weren't enough, the fact there were overdue payments for her 2005 Chevy Impala were broadcast on her MySpace account.

Outraged and humiliated, Newland filed a civil suit earlier this year claiming "damage to her business and community reputation, extreme mental distress, aggravation, humiliation and embarrassment."

Newland is hardly alone. Debt collectors are increasingly using social-networking technology to go after people in debt. Ever get "friended" on Facebook by a cute stranger? Think twice before you add them. Some debt collectors have been caught posing as random "friends" on Facebook.

According to a post on Consumerist last month, "Debt collectors are using cute chicks as bait on Facebook to track down and keep track of debtors." It told the story of one employee of a debt-collection agency, who after "friending" some 658 people, declared (rather bizarrely):

haha you guys i tricked you all my name is actually Emily and i work for cbv collections as a skip tracer i bet you guys got calls from them saying you owe money thats all my doing :) you want to call and bitch? i dare you to call me 604-[redacted]!!! I wait to hear from you :)"

(...)

Sun, 2009-06-14 12:38

martin dufresne

Thanks, michelle, did it too. Now the four other martin dufresnes of note - a U of Ottawa history and criminology prof, a Quebec duck farmer, a VP of Bank of Hong Kong and a Web entrepreneur will have to take numbers... he he.

Sun, 2009-06-14 13:49

Michelle

That could happen whether you have a personalized Facebook URL or not, if you "friend" people indiscriminately. Which I don't. I also don't belong to networks. You want to see my info, friend me. You want to friend me? Know me.

Sun, 2009-06-14 13:55

Unionist

I too practise Safebook.

Sun, 2009-06-14 14:14

remind

I do not friend anyone LOL.