Via Washington Monthly‘s Ed Kilgore, a Facebook app for the aggressively aggrieved:
(CNN) — To the dismay of some, Facebook has no “Dislike” button. But a new application for the social network may prove to be the next-best thing.
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The app, EnemyGraph, encourages Facebook users to list people or places or things they dislike, then share them with like-minded haters as a way of bonding. (“You think Crocs are hideous? I think Crocs are hideous! Let’s be buds!”)
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“Most social networks attempt to connect people based on affinities: you like a certain band or film or sports team, I like them, therefore we should be friends,” writes EnemyGraph co-creator Dean Terry in a blog post. “But people are also connected and motivated by things they dislike. Alliances are created, conversations are generated, friendships are stressed, stretched, and/or enhanced.”…
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Users of the app appear to largely be left-of-center politically. Near the top of the enemies’ list are GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, Fox News, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. President Barack Obama is the sole Democrat on the list…
Yeah, or else the Talibangelicals, fReichtards & Banana Republicans just haven’t gotten the blast fax from Rush and the AFP yet. As a non-Facebook-user, I really really hope this app takes off big time. Given enough fellow haterz to play with, we might never see Veritas or its fellow trolls around here again.
arguingwithsignposts
What about the Balloon Juice social app? I think this group of snarling jackals are united in a dislike for right-wingers.
honus
I hope Veritas sticks around long enough to tell us what his special skill set is that nets him a high-paying non-government job with gold-plated health care benefits that allows him to troll blogs mid-morning on weekdays, and that makes him too valuable to fire, or in the alternative, allows him to find a similar position immediately if he is dismissed for his moral views.
ruemara
We have this already, it’s called Fox News.
chopper
jesus, that sounds just stupid.
Vodkamuppet
I don’t need an app to tell me who I can’t stand on Facebook and I eventually quietly delete them. As for people people I have an affinity for, that’s what my regular round of blog visits are for, I don’t need facebook to find like-minded people. And that app will share your dislikes with anyone so it’ll turn into a bigger flame war than it already is. You’d have to be an idiot to use that app. Is there an app for people who hate that app?
Vodkamuppet
I don’t need an app to tell me who I can’t stand on Facebook and I eventually quietly delete them. As for people people I have an affinity for, that’s what my regular round of blog visits are for, I don’t need facebook to find like-minded people. And that app will share your dislikes with anyone so it’ll turn into a bigger flame war than it already is. You’d have to be an idiot to use that app. Is there an app for people who hate that app?
chopper
jesus, this sounds just stupid.
Maude
@chopper: @chopper:
It’s for Republicans.
dmsilev
Huh. Reminds me of something a classmate wanted to put in his PhD thesis: A dis-acknowledgments section. “This thesis was completed despite the best efforts of …”.
chopper
stupid double post. FYWP.
chopper
@dmsilev:
my wife needs that.
Lawnguylander
I joined. Yankee fans, Pats fans, c!l@ntr0, Republicans and Canadians. Hit me up.
Davebo
Why the hate of Crocks?
I loves my Crocks. Does no one fish anymore?
Now Crocks with socks, that’s an abomination.
Alison
Question for the hive mind: So, my poor grandma, along with a whole host of health problems, is pretty much blind now and thus can’t read, which is a huge loss for her. She has always been a voracious reader and plus, she can barely do anything else due to her poor health…so she ends up sitting around bored out of her skull and quite depressed.
My mom and I were thinking about getting her some audiobooks, and I was wondering what the best method would be for an extremely-non-tech-savvy old lady. She doesn’t have an iPhone/iPad/Kindle or anything like that, and I doubt she’d be able to use it since she can hardly see anything even in large print, let alone the tiny print that would be on the buttons and menus and such. I figured the best bet would be to go old school and get her a portable CD player and get the books on CD – what do you all think? Or would a Kindle or something work okay for an old, blind person? I just want whatever would be absolutely easiest for her.
(And before anyone asks why I don’t just go help my poor grammie, I’m in California and she’s in Florida. Not exactly an afternoon jaunt.)
arguingwithsignposts
@Alison: Books on CD would probably be best. Outside that, audible.com subscription and an iPod Touch. She can load up on books using library wi-fi or a friend to help.
Thoughtcrime
RMoney really doesn’t want the American people to know what’s in his tax returns. What is he hiding that he deflects the issue in such a childish and vile way as this?
As a response for RMoney to release his tax records, his campaign just wrote: “Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/03/romney-campaign-release-all-transcripts-of-all-meetings-119192.html
This asshole just called a sitting President a traitor, and is equating his tax returns to our President’s private discussions and negotiations with world leaders.
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
Actually, the touch-screen iPods have a utility installed called VoiceOver that allows the visually impaired to use it. There’s an article about it here. If she’s reasonably tech-savvy, that might actually be a decent solution. If she’s not, then the portable CD player is probably the way to go.
(I know a 101-year-old who’s using her iPad and iPhone to look things up for the other seniors at the Motion Picture Home, so I’m not going to make any assumptions about how tech-savvy or not tech-savvy your grandmother is based solely on her age. I know better now.)
Vodkamuppet
@Alison: No idea. Cd’s sound rediculously expensive. There might be a reader app that involves giant icons and includes audio but I haven’t seen it. If it doesn’t exist it should.
Alison
@Mnemosyne: She’s really not tech-savvy at all, and neither is my grandfather, beyond the absolute basics of reading email and Mapquest and such. They are very much stereotypical Olds in that way :P
However…I did just check out the Kindles and I see there’s the Kindle touch which offers audiobooks too…and maybe I could load it up with a shitload of books for her and then send it off, and then harangue my second cousins who live closer to actually go visit and help her get more when she needs them.
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
If you went that route, honestly, I would probably just get an inexpensive MP3 player with simple buttons, load it up, and send that. The Kindle Touch doesn’t hold nearly as much as an MP3 player would and I don’t think it would be much easier for someone with sight problems to use than iPod or MP3 player.
slag
I’ve criticized Obama’s ability to speak to women in the past, so let me now praise this video of him talking directly to Planned Parenthood supporters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naP2FbO8_-c&feature=player_embedded. Not bad.
The Other Chuck
If she can’t read the big print on a kindle, she’s not going to want to try to figure out which CD has which book on it. Try Audible and an iPod shuffle. No possibility of getting stuck in some screen dialog with the shuffle, VoiceOver is pretty much the only interface it’s got.
Origuy
@Alison:
If you get a portable CD player, get one that plays MP3 discs. Some audio books come in that format, and you can probably download books from the public library that can be burned to an MP3 CD. I’ve done that for my roommate to play on the car CD player. It’s pretty easy to do.
WJS
Keith Olbermann has been fired?
Why is this shocking, but not so shocking, all at the same time?
slag
@Alison: I say make it a family thing and get people to read to her. Who doesn’t like being read to by people?
Origuy
Last night I saw a documentary called Indie Game: The Movie. It was about three teams of independent video game developers; how they feel about their projects, what inspires them, and how they deal with success and failure. The movie was financed through Kickstart and is really well done. It was shown at Sundance and SXSW, and is now showing in a few cities, where the film makers have been appearing for Q&A. In Palo Alto, one of the game developers, Edmund McMillan, designer of Super Meat Boy, was also there for the Q&A. (They’re friends of my housemates.) Even though I’m not a serious gamer, I enjoyed it.
Tonal Crow
@Thoughtcrime: Thus Romney shows, in one fell swoop, how badly unqualified he is to be President. Flush twice, it’s a long way to Fox “News”.
Spaghetti Lee
Woo boy. Because Facebook wasn’t nearly insipid enough before.
Hujo
Olbermann fired again? ho-hum.
Hujo
Am I the only one who is being shaken down by every conceivable Democratic candidate/committee?
I’ve blown off a couple dozen demands for money so far today.
Why is money the major factor in whether an election is won or lost?