layout: post title: Imaginary Friends created: 1060833780 categories:

• Social Media

Walter posted this to the Social software intellectuals tribe (hey, I didn't make up the name...):

"Fraudsters:" pro, con, indifferent?
I'd be curious to hear what you all think about individuals with profiles that aren't pegged to their actual persona. If someone creates a "Cheez Whiz" or "George Washington" identity, what do they bring to the party? Do they reduce the value/utility of the network as a whole? Discuss.   

Can you imagine LinkedIn with Jesus?

Friendster always seemed more light-hearted, so why not leave the Fraudsters.

Also, kind of depends on how you link. If you link often/casually, then "fake" profiles are no big deal. If you tend to link sparsley/deeply, you'll skip over those.

I can't, at the moment, think of how Fraudsters might harm a network, other than by consuming some infinitesmal bit of resources.

Friendster aims to take down not only fakesters' phony pictures but also those of "realsters" who post images other than of their own faces. That means users who prefer visual anonymity are out of luck -- like a friend of mine who pictures his cat on Friendster because he'd once been recognized on the street from his original Friendster profile and didn't like it.