The Rumor & Facts About : Facebook is rolling out new scripts that are targeting identification of foul language, racial slurs.

Alot of you have seen this message going around and are wondering if it is true.

Facebook is rolling out new scripts that are targeting identification of foul language, racial slurs, and other offensive / abusive comments and those that have evidence on their walls will be removed from Facebook. Also, if a group is found to have any abusive language on any of its walls it will also be removed. I am asking that each member please check your walls for any thing that might be considered offensive and clean it…scrub the entire wall....yes that can go back months for some! I don’t want to see someone lose their account for this."
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Well here is what i found out.
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This is partly true. Yes Facebook has been cracking down on offensive sites and even deleting them,but they have been doing this from day 1 of the site. This I think this latest crackdown is due to the increased scrutiny they have been under by the public, news agencies, & the government.

They have yet to put scripts in place that targets foul or offensive language. Even they cant say what is foul language, racial slurs, and other offensive / abusive comments as it is up to the individual to say it is and everyone has a different view on it.

Facebook at this time, from what I have researched, is still relying on the users to flag an item they find offensive and report it. Then they will look at it and make a determination on a case by case basis. Sometimes it takes a few hours and sometimes a few weeks as with almost 500,000,000 users it is hard to keep on top of it.

They do try to keep on top of things and delete pages and groups for these infractions but like I said they rely on us the users to alert them. Will they one day start using scripts for this ? I hope not as we dont need Big Brother telling us what is foul language, racial slurs, and other offensive / abusive comments. We are all adults and should be free to say what we like and monitor and regulate ourselves accordingly.

Do I think we should report these things ? I say yes to some and no to others. I say yes we should report any racial or hateful groups or pages. I might even flag someones comments on their profile if it racial or hateful. No one this day and age should have to be subjected to that nor should it be tolerated. We are all people and bleed the same color blood. We all have emotions we laugh, we feel, we cry, we are all Human. And in my opinion we should be treated equally based on that and that alone.

As far as language who am I or who are you to say what is inappropriate. I use some of that language in everyday life just like most of you. If you dont like someones use of colorful metaphors dont associate with them, delete them and block them if you want. Then you wont have to be subjected to what they have to say. We do have something called freedom of speech here in America and unfortunately we do also have freedom of expression so these hate pages & groups will not be going away anytime soon.

To be honest with you as far as my groups and pages I run I dont allow those thing to be posted on my pages & groups. I delete them and ban them from the sites if after I warn them to stop & they continue. I do it for my own reasons and that is because I do have kids that use the pages & groups and I dont want them to be subjected to that.

So will Facebook be disabling & deleting accounts / pages / groups for this? The answer is yes & no. They will take action if enough people flag issue ( racial slurs, and other offensive / abusive comments ) & some times as far as just language they might take action and they might not. They do take each complaint as I said on a case by case basis. So just monitor it yourself. If you want to be safe until this is fully investigated just dont allow that on your profile, pages & groups and try to curb your enthusiasm.

So as far as Facebook making scripts to curb this there is no direct evidence to support it so this is a rumor pending further investigation.

Christmas In July Contest

Hey Mafia Wars Fans I would like to announce a great contest. Play -n-Trade, Origin PC and Logitech became leading sponsors for the Evil Ed Podcast on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105621752815042&ref=mf

I have checked them all out and this is a legitimate and great contest. So this is what you need to do. Go to The Evil Ed Podcast And Join the group. Then go to http://www.avault.com/christmas and enter the contest.

To celebrate they are launching a huge "CHRISTMAS IN JULY" giveaway with $6,000+ in prizes, including a great gaming PC from Origin. You have to check this thing out! They are picking 22 winners!

Here is what you could win :

One (1) lucky winner will receive a powerful ORIGIN GENESIS PC (retail value $4,400). ORIGIN PCs are hand built, tested, and serviced by knowledgeable gaming enthusiasts, industry veterans, and award winning system integrators.

Three (3) lucky winners will receive several gaming peripherals from Logitech, including a G15 gaming keyboard, a G500 gaming mouse, and G35 surround sound headsets.

Two (2) lucky winners will receive the Logitech G13 advanced gameboard, and sixteen (16) lucky winners will receive a video game from Play N Trade.

Prize drawing will be held on July 29, 2010. And Winners Will Be announced on the Evil Ed Podcast so stay tuned.

I hope you all go and enter today and dont forget to listen to the Evil Ed Podcasts you will be hooked. Please tell all your friends to join the Evil Ed Podcast Group and Tell All Your Friends enter the contest today.

Zynga Screws Up Again & Facebook Info About Disabling Accounts

Alot of news and crap going on this week with both Facebook & Zynga. So lets get right to it.

First off Facebook & Zynga Signed a new 5 yr agreement. So 5 more years of bugs, glitches and headaches. http://www.zynga.com/about/article.php?a=20100518 But at least this dispels the rumors of Zynga leaving anytime soon.

While Zynga will probably make ZyngaLive a reality one day and the move games there it wont happen anytime soon. This will also give them a chance to put it together properly and switch games over to Java based games instead of Flash based, if they were smart but based on their programmers work I would say it is a big if.

Zynga also did another update and just totally screwed it up. This has got to be the worst update I have ever seen them do. I am telling you they could mess up a wet dream.

This update screwed everything up. From removing reward points, not being able to accept or send gifts, not being able to help your friends on jobs, you name it it was screwed up. So what do they do they roll it back to and I quote " Each of these accounts have been tracked and restored to a back up copy that was clean of any glitch possibilities" Now I ask you when have you ever seen a version that was clean of any glitches??? And I still dont see peoples accounts back to normal as on my forum page you are still seeing everyone complain. So Zynga you screwed up again !!!! Fix The Damn Glitches NOW!!!!

I was asked by Zynga to create a Top 10 List of the major issues our forum and players are having across the board and they will try and get those issues fixed or at least give us an answer on when they will be fixed. I send it today and see what happens. I just hope I dont get politician style answers or what is known as double talk.

I dont know about you, but Zynga says they have the best programmers in the world but all I see is incompetence. They have more coding issues than any company I have ever seen. If they are so good why do we have so many simple glitches ? Oh I know to piss us off.

Ok enough on Zynga lets get to Facebook. Now we have all seen by now the new privacy changes Facebook has come out with and there are more coming per Mark Zuckerberg In Monday"s Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052303828.html

There are ways to fix your privacy settings that that is safe and effective and has gotten good reviews from site like CNET. There is a program called SaveFace http://www3.untangle.com/saveface what it does is give you the option on who sees what on your profile whereas Facebook lets everyone see it. It will automatically set all your settings so only your friends on Facebook can see things. It shuts out the outside world & they cant see your wall only your friends can see what you post. One thing you need to do is change a couple of things from the privacy settings tab such as add as a friend so you can add friends. This works really good for me and it is FREE. Just a suggestion to combat Facebook's policy of opting out of thing instead of letting you opt into what the world sees.

Now something I was told by a Facebook manager off the record. You may have noticed alot of accounts being disabled lately. Mainly for over posting but how do you know if you are over posting they never tell you till it is too late. Well here is what he said to me off the record of course!!! You only get 500 posts a day (24HRS) that includes posting on your walls, comments to friends, likes of pages, inboxing your friends or groups and yes even game related posts such as you iced so and so or you leveled up or even you need help on a job.

Yes all of that counts as a post. and when you get the box that says you are do some something that is being consider abusive or what is commonly know as "The Pink Box" it means you are 10 posts away from being temporarily or permanently disabled. He says if you get that message do not post again for 24 full hours and that is when the server resets itself and you can start posting again with no problem but still have the 500 post limit.

WOW !!!! Now a temporary disabled account can stay that way for anywhere from 8 hours to 30 days. Computers choice. Yes, the computer, it randomly decides it. But if you email Facebook this can be sped up to get you back online quicker as they need to manually override the system and they want a good reason to do this so sob stories help your cause and friends emailing them on you behalf helps too. http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=disabled and you should also hound them with emails from yourself and your friends telling them why your account should be restored and be respectful. Here are the email addresses and include your facebook id with each email. Mail at least 2 a day if you give up after a few days you dont have a chance.

info@facebook.com , disabled@facebook.com , appeals@facebook.com
privacy@facebook.com, abuse@facebook.com; warning@facebook.com
customerservice@facebook.com, appeals+du6z2ux@facebook.com;
appeals+njgts3g@facebook.com; appeals+n3nnq8q@facebook.com;
appeals+d256dyy@facebook.com; abuse+nmve3is@facebook.com;
appeals+nbv83tq@facebook.com; legal@facebook.com

Now On a permanently disabled account it is much harder but use the same process. How can you tell the difference you cant. Only Facebook can answer that one and wont reveal it to me at least. But he does say say fight and have your friends fight for you. Petition groups help also so does an outside petition signed by your friends on the web.

They do have have plans to expand that to 1000 posts a day but we will see. They also said once they were going to expand our friends to 10,000 but that never happened. They have also mentioned they are probably also going to be adding a separate news feed for just gaming posts as they have become so popular and again we will see.

You got to remember Facebook doesn't really care what we think or what anyone else does including the government. Why ? Because the internet hasn't been fully regulated and there are so many legal grey areas they can get around almost anything. Plus the fact they are a private company so they only have to answer to their investors and as long as they are making money the investors are happy and dont really care what they do. In Mark Zuckerberg's mind the old movie line from Wall Street is his motto " Greed is Good " & the same goes for Zynga.

Well thats all I got for now I hope it helps. Just so you all know I dont work for either company nor do I want to. I am just trying to let them know our feelings and concerns. I am just trying to help get our voice heard. I do not claim to have all the answers because I dont I wish I did. They do watch my group on Facebook the Facebook & Zynga Forum http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108145119228584&v=wall and I am told they do take some our ideas and do try to fix what they can. Well at least Zynga does. Maybe they will one day get it right but for now lets make our presence know and tell them how we feel. The bigger we are the more we will be listened to. So please let all your friends know about the group and to post the issues they are having BUT I do ask you keep it clean no cursing and no personal attacks on anyone I will delete those posts as we do have kids who post on that site. Lets all act like adults and show our intelligence and frustration with them.

Thank You All

John Sweeney

*** WAR DECLARED *** FACEBOOK vs ZYNGA

*** WAR DECLARED *** FACEBOOK vs ZYNGA ... Thats right it is a war. Facebook want 30% of Zynga's profits and Zynga says no. So what does Facebook do they shut of Zynga's ability let users post anything. 2 rich kids fighting. So Sad !!!

Hello Everyone. This week has been one for the books. Zynga is listening to us and asking us questions on what we would like to see and giving us answers to some of our questions. Facebook on the other hand are just ignoring us as usual and wont even respond to anyones questions. I have called numerous times and sent emails to them and I am ignored now.

Ok lets right to it. Facebook does want 30% of Zynga's profit and Zynga says no. Zynga is stating that when they signed up they were told they get to keep all the profits from their applications and I confirmed that was TRUE. But agreements tend to change especially when rich kid Mark Zuckerberg feels it suit him. They saw all the money they were making and decided they wanted a piece of the action.

Facebook does not own Zynga so it is not entitled to their profits. Zynga does pay between $5 -8 million a month to advertise on Facebook. But alot of good that does when the word cant get out because Facebook shuts down the feeds. So you will see a either a lawsuit, an agreement or Zynga leaves Facebook or a combination of things on this topic.

Think of it this way Zynga makes $350 million on Facebook. Facebook wants 30% or $105 million PLUS the $5 Million per month for advertising, another $60 Million, so that is $165 Million or Almost Half of Zynga's income before Zynga's expenses. And they dont even own they company. Is That Fair ? I think Not !!!

As far as Zynga leaving Facebook well it is unchartered territory for a social game to do this. It has never been done before. Rumors are everywhere that this is happening. Zynga has taken steps to making this a reality by registering Zynga Live back in February as they saw the writing on the wall with Facebook.

Zynga is also looking into the possibility of even taking the company public. Now this could be good for us and them. They would be able to break away from Facebook cleanly and not look back. It would give them the money needed to make sure they have a stable platform and the ability to do what they have can to make games successful.

The good thing for us is that they will forced to answer to the shareholders and regulators so all those glitches and bugs will have to fixed at once. I am not saying you wont have any but when you do they will have to fixed ASAP or their stock price will drop and they will lose shareholders and millions if they dont fix them. Also the regulators will be on them to make sure they offer the public a safe and viable product. So that is a plus for us.

Will it happen? I dont know but Zynga has been putting people in place to see if it is viable and this has been going on since last year. They have now linked all the accounts to a special ID # which will enable them to transfer everyones account over so no one loses any thing especially those who have invested in some cases $1000's of dollars. So the plan is in place now we sit back and watch the war.

Some say this cant be done but I think it can quite easily. Dont believe me, ok check this out. A clan can go make a site just by going to lets say Google. They chose a template, theme and just plug in the applications they want in it such as chat, a forum, games, music and they can even make money with it by allowing ads on site. So It is all plug and play stuff not very hard. So do you think that Zynga with all their money cant make the site. The main issue Zynga will have is with servers and that is really not to much of an issue as they have plenty of servers available to use. Pretty easy to build. But the big worry is "If You Build It Will They Come."

Well the outcry by all Zynga players is yes they will especially if it means the games run better and they aren't handcuffed with Facebook rules. They already have a stand alone version of Farmville. Clans will flock over especially if Zynga makes a section on the site for groups and they are assured they will not be restricted like they are on Facebook. But they will not only come from Facebook but watch for the other sites like MySpace that have Zynga games too.

So the answer to the question. "If they build it will they come " The answer is YES. Will Zynga be successful ? Probably, if they do it right. What will happen to Facebook ? They will go on but they will take a big hit to their membership initially but they too will survive.

Who wins the war ? I think it will be Zynga as long as they stick to their guns and dont cave to the loanshark tactics of Facebook. They will set the bar for other companies and force Facebook to conduct business properly. Besides the fact that Facebook is now coming under the scrutiny of the federal government they are going to have more damage control to do than Zynga. So In my opinion Zynga Wins.

There are rumors Zynga Is leaving June 1st well they are just that so far I am waiting on a confirmation on this from Zynga Corporate as we speak so I will keep you informed.

Thank You

John Sweeney

Zynga Really Is Listening !!! Plus some other stuff for you.

I want to thank you all for reading this blog. I hope it has been helpful for all of you. I have also now created a new page on Facebook so you can tell me what changes you would like to see and any problems you are having with Facebook & all the Zynga games. A sort of place to vent your frustrations but I ask you to please keep all you comments free of any curses or personal attacks as I will delete those posts.

The name of the group I have made is called the Facebook & Zynga Forum Group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108145119228584

The Discussion threads topics are easy to find and just post your concerns in the proper threads. If they are not in the right thread they will be moved to the right one. Any extra thread that dont belong will be deleted. SORRY, but I want to keep it clean and easy to use.

Now here is the kicker, Your comments & suggestions are being looked, at not only by me and other Facebook users but by Zynga Developers, moderators, management & it is also being looked at by Facebook. I am also submitting all your ideas directly to both of them.

As you know we haven't heard much from Zynga on what we changes we would like to see, the bugs the games have and the lack of support on getting things fixed. So what did Zynga do ?They started to communicate with us and ask us what changes we would like to see and they asked us what concerns and issues we are having.

WHY you ask ? I wish it was because of me LOL but I think they felt it was about time to. They have been steadily losing users & money. They saw they writing on the wall and said it is time we get feedback from from the people who keep them employed and keep food on their tables. I also know for a fact some of the developers felt it was about time they came out and started to communicate with us all. So they did and started telling us they have made mistakes and the happenings, process behind the game & most importantly the asked for feedback.

While the changes wont come right away they will come. From what I am hearing from some developers is that they will take the best ideas and try to integrate them into the game. Yes the POP UP issue as well. They are also working as fast as they can on getting the bugs fixed. So lets see what happens and if they dont take us serious well I will have to step things up a notch and really turn the heat on.

Ok now let talk about some other things :

1. Alot of you are worried about The Snag Bar, This toolbar is for Farmville to snag gifts from the players feeds. It is NOT for Mafia Wars. It does not snatch loot from your Mafia Wars Account or interact with Mafia Wars. And the people who you see using it when you check are just Facebook and Gamers Unite members who have it and they are not hackers. You do not need to delete them. This was just a rumor started from what I have researched to stop people from using this bot because some people feel like they were being cheated by other Farmville players. So You Can All Relax It Is Just A Bad Rumor !!!

2. The new security codes are just that. Codes to protect you all. Here is some information Straight from the Zynga chat room on skype:

[5/5/10 8:00:23 PM] Jill: bird's the word that you should all make sure that everyone should grab their 10 digit codes that are starting to show up in game.
[5/5/10 8:00:40 PM] Jill: this is critical especially for anyone that was unwilling to share their email addresses.
[5/5/10 8:01:00 PM] Jill: be certain not to share your PIN 10 digit code as these will not be compensated or supported if lost.
[5/5/10 8:01:12 PM] Jill: Sorry I can't say more at this time. long and short is this will assist us to directly tie your account assets to you so that nobody can phish or steal your account and claim it was theirs.

If you come across a 10 digit code while playing mafia wars, SAVE IT!!! It is your PIN number and is unique to your account. This will help identify who you are in case your account is hacked or stolen. So please heed this warning! when the game gives you a 10 digit code, save that number and NEVER share it with ANYONE!

It has never been stated it will used to help you transfer your account over to a new Facebook account in case you are disabled. Or anything else so far. Dont get me wrong I am sure it will be able to be used for that but I know Zynga wont admit it as of now.

One thing is true you will get a new bonus for using it everyday. So far we have gotten +3 attack and I am sure there will be more. So save that code and dont share it or post it on Facebook or your pc just to be safe.

3. Tagged.com !!! As most of you know there was a site that had Mafia Wars and Zynga pulled it from there. Most migrated over here to Facebook. Yes they were compensated to come here and were given a special code. But most had been playing there for a couple of years and had spent alot of money on their account so it was only fair they were compensated to come here.

Why did they leave Tagged.com ? Well there are a number of reasons some fact some fiction. I will only go into the facts I have found out. It seems like the platform over there was very unstable and the servers couldn't take the load. Zynga could get the bugs worked out due to the unstable platform. Facebook's platform is much more stable than any other one out there so they migrated them here. Also it seems there are some major legal issues with tagged.com as they are being investigated and sued for email phishing by the federal government and some states such as New York. I am told that Zynga didn't want their users to just lose everything if that site does get closed down hence they came here.

4. Now this just boggles my mind and is annoying. Have you ever seen those sites that say you will get free reward points or big high end loot if you join them. I wont name any but you have seen them. So you join them hoping to get your share, you follow all the instructions and invite all your friends. Then you wait and wait but you still dont get anything. You are scratching your head saying whats up where's my stuff ? GUESS WHAT ? You have just been scammed. You have had your email phished and if you you gave your friends emails out you just exposed them to the hackers too.

And what happens next ? One day you go to your game and find you are missing stuff and your numbers are way down. Who do you blame ? Zynga of course because it is there fault, they had a glitch or bug that got you right. WRONG you have been hacked by that stupid site you went to to get something for nothing. And if it happens to your friends guess what you help them get hacked too.

Please remember the only way to get free reward points is from Zynga not some crappy site that says they can get them for you. You cant get them from anyone else without putting your self our your friends at risk. So please dont join these sites and dont recommend them to anyone else keep your self safe.

Well That is all I have for you today. I will keep you up to date on things as they progress. I also recommend that if you know anyone who are having issues with Facebook or a Zynga game that they come to my new site above and post whats going on. Sometimes we can help with out you having to go to Facebook or Zynga for help.

I am also asking that you please become a follower of this blog & ask your friends to as well. If I can get enough followers I can write about these things Full Time for a major company on the internet and then I can really keep you informed and get changes done.

Thank You All For Your Support,

John Sweeney

Zynga Are You Really Listening ???

Hello Everyone. I know most of you are fed up and have had enough with Zynga. All The bugs, pop ups, the new double clicks to help on jobs and the list goes on and on. Some of us spent good money on Zynga's games because we liked them and it was fun.

But now the fun is gone, it has become a hassle to play. we have to come back every few hours to get new things, they dont fix whats broken, they spam the crap out of you with pop ups to buy things, they keep changing the games adding more and more stuff and it is hard to keep up. You never seem to answer our questions or fix the problems with the games.

Why has thee forsaken us ?

You continue to change Mafia Wars for the worse. You are constantly flip flopping, worse than John Kerry during his presidential run, in what direction the game is going to go. First it for fighters, then it is for energy players and even offered a one time character change for those so they can keep up with all the energy required in the new cities. Then you say it is going to geared toward fighters but offer no switch back for the 1000's of players who switched.

You say this is " We are listening to you Week ", Well listen to us then. But dont only listen to us but implement some of the changes we suggest. I can say I am listening to someone but if I do nothing about it then it means nothing. Get the point !!!

Try This, consider us your boss and we are telling you what we want you to do to improve the product we have. No, dont like that one, how about this. We are your mother or father and we are telling you if you dont do it we will take away your allowance. HUH you say ? Think about it, we the Players help pay your salaries and bills so if you still want your allowance or pay check you have to do what we want or we will punish you by not giving you anymore money. No money means you dont get paid, you cant pay your bills and you dont have food on your table because you have no money. HMMM, Sucks dont it.

You are pushing 1000's upon 1000's of people away from your product. Your fan base is consistently dwindling because you dont listen to your customers needs. You do what you want because your arrogant and think we will just stay here and take it. Look at your numbers and you will see I am right.

We are glad you have scraped some things like the top mafia changes & the email requirements but you have a lot to do to fix things. The pop up changes are a big issue. we dont want them but you do. We are not saying we dont want you to make money but that is the wrong way to do it.

You came up with one idea to change it which could be good, but how about this. Use a ticker tape type box that scrolls across the top with what you have available in market place and hourly sales of things. That way we will always see it and if we see something we want we can click on it and it will bring us to the marketplace to buy it. you still have your products out there but it doesn't disrupt the game for us, especially when we are fighting or trying to defend ourselves.

We know you want to roll things out to try and make the game better but you are doing it wrong. When you come up with a change like this new "Street Wars". Get a number of Clan Leaders, like myself, and just regular everyday players who have experience playing the game, and let them test the changes first. Then take their feedback and use it to refine the changes and fix any bugs and then roll it out. This way we know it works and this will be be fair to all.

We do appreciate the fact that Erik one of your developers came online on a Sunday to address some issues we have and explain some things. That was a good thing the bad thing was he did it in the forum where hardly anyone goes to get information. Next time maybe tell us in the game, as a message, about a developer or manager coming to the forum to address us along with the time & date. Also put it on your Facebook page so more people can see it and you can get more feedback.

If you want to see what Erik had to say go here : http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=544674

The main place you need to communicate better is in customer support. Hire more people or have a call center take calls and try to fix customers issues LIVE. And if they cant fix the issues they can send up to a higher level to address the issue. But the one thing is you must keep the player informed so they know and feel confident that their issue will be resolved in a timely fashion. But you must get the issue resolved not just say you will and have the issue swept under the rug. If you need help setting this up let me know I will gladly help you.

I see you are trying to get your act together and this is the only reason I dont support any boycotts of the games. I think if you start communicating better you will see people will be more receptive of the changes because they will know you have taken our feedback and have used it.

Lets make " We are listening to you Week " become " We are listening to you and will get it right Week "

Thank You

John Sweeney