Facebook no more

I nuked my Facebook account. It wasn't easy. They do their durnedest to make sure you can't simply DELETE the thing. Even after I finally went on Google, found a tutorial for how to find the DELETE setting, and deleted it, they made it clear that if I logged back in -- even by accident -- anytime in the next two weeks, they'd automatically reactivate my account.

I expect a web site to try to make a little money. I can even appreciate it when they try to make money off ME. But anyone who's going to make it so easy for any and every one to access my information, while making it nearly impossible for me to restrict it with any convenience, is basically appealing to my paranoia: these are people who want to broadcast me. Oh, yeah, and that clause in their Terms Of Service that basically says they own anything I write, post, or put up on their site? E-yeah.

So I quit.

Today I found out that Zynga, the outfit that makes all the games on Facebook, is launching their own site for games and social networking... after Facebook tried to strong-arm them into signing some kind of contract that seems to have been a lot like their Terms of Service.

When Zynga balked, Facebook began shutting down aspects of the games, and threatened to shut down the games themselves.

If it's good enough for Zynga, it's good enough for me. Let it not be said that I had to have a corporate web site to define me.