MuseBlog

As most of you know, one of the fundamental principles of MuseBlog is the GAPAs’ insistence on pretending that the rest of the Internet does not exist. We do this for two reasons:

1. We see MuseBlog as an island of civility in a generally barbaric Internet. We’re not fond of the way online culture has developed so far, and, frankly, we think we do it better here.
2. We don’t want MBers or their parents to think that we’re here to make it easy for them to connect with one another on other websites. We’re not, for reasons including but not limited to those listed in item 1.

Toward these ends, we strongly discourage references to activities on other websites and Internet services, particularly popular ones like Facebook. Just to make things easier for ourselves, we’ve even added the word “Facebook” to our spam filter’s standard “zap list” of obscenities and insults.

As a joke, MBers started referring to Facebook as “Voldynet” — i.e., the Voldemort Network, That Which Must Not Be Named. Some even seemed to think that it was all right to post comments about their Facebook activity as long as they called Facebook Voldynet.

So, to clarify: it isn’t. We still don’t allow any references that might help MB readers (who include a fair number of Mysterious Lurkers along with the regular MBers we know and love) to find you elsewhere on the Internet. That might seem unreasonable and even quaint, but several younger MBers have told us that our stubborn insistence on that rule is the only reason their parents let them post here.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean you can’t talk about Facebook (etc.) at all. It’s part of your world, after all. So you can talk about it, if you’re careful. For example, it’s allowable to say “My friend got in trouble after her parents read some incriminating posts on her Facebook page.” But it’s not allowable to say, “Hey, everybody, go to my Facebook page right away and see the cool link I’ve posted there.” Got it? In between those extremes, of course, are a lot of gray areas, but we’re sure you’re smart enough to negotiate them as long as you remember the spirit of the rule and the reasons it’s in place.

If you understand all of that and still decide to post a comment violating the spirit of the rule, we (abetted by our trusty spam filter) will zap it — and talking about Voldynet won’t help.

Yr. obt. svts,

The dictatorial but ultimately well-meaning

GAPAs