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Faceparty tells critics to F*** Off, suspends entire site (techcrunch.com)
49 points by madmotive on June 25, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 26 comments


Not a marketing ploy.

My (old) firm used to represent the founder behind faceparty (Lance). He really is like that in person and would certainly shut the site to spite the users.

Good to see it has had a positive effect though!


From the headline I was thinking, "there goes techcrunch being sensationalist again".

But no, they're pretty much dead on here.


Good for them.

Running a social network is like running a bar (or pub in this case). If the owners get fed up and are willing to live with the consequences, why not lock the doors and go to the zoo for the day?


Looks like their traffic has been in decline a bit though. But as they say, it's not like they are paying customers.

Some users can get pretty abusive after a while.

I'm not sure why they didn't just direct the troublemakers to this page, and let others access the site though.


Dunno, throwing a hissy and saying "FUCK THA [CUSTOMERS WHO DISAGREE WITH OUR POLICIES]" like they did makes them seem like babies who couldn't be trusted with a toy ball, let alone a social networking service.


C'mon guys, it's a time tested business strategy.

Anyone remember Cartmanland?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartmanland


Am I the only one that wanted to sign up after reading the message? ;-)


For their sake, hopefully you (and others) do.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=faceparty.com

It might reverse the trend (pun intended).



No, actually, the phrases "pun intended" and "no pun intended" don't mean anything of the sort. Stop whining, they're just a friendly gesture. ;)


> Stop whining

You are telling maddox, not me, right?


Maddox being the author of the link, I suppose that yes, I was. Sorry if that sounded too aggressive -I just don't think that the link really added anything or was appropriate to the parent.


This is the most entertainment I've gotten from a social network in a long time.


Am I the only one who can't stand that horrible spelling? "TO THA HATERZ" indeed.


Somehow, fake gangsta-isms are even more irritating coming from Brits.

I know, I didn't think that was possible either.


It just goes along with the style of faceparty's copy.


Wow, but then again, I'd be pissed too. People's attitudes about what they are 'owed' can be offensive sometimes and the Internet just seems to bring out the worst jerks. Maybe if Faceparty shuts down for good, people will learn to not expect things for free? Hopefully, but I doubt it.


A rare case of reverse psychology actually working on the net? (...especially for a "social" media site).

Anyone know of other successful cases?


I think it's a bit early to tell if it's worked yet or not.


Point taken.

All the publicity I have seen so far has been favourable i.e. not bad and will encourage people to join rather than leave.

Was wondering about other precedents?


Unlike Twitter, you've got to have good uptime for this sentiment to be effective.

Tags: [Faceparty] [Twitter] [uptime] [reliability] [denied]


Can we please keep the poor language (or allusions to it) off the frontpage? It used to be the sort of thing that separated hacker news from the rest.


Poor language? "Fucking" is even starred out!


Our goal isn't to be the most Christian social news site. That's not how we want to be separated.


> Our goal isn't to be the most Christian social news site.

"Our" goal? You.. claim to represent the hacker news community? And - I presume only - downvote me for my opinion?

I don't want it to be Christian. Just refined :) Just because it's a social setting on the internet doesn't mean it has to be trashy.

If someone goes through my comments and finds I've broken my own standard here somewhere in my history on the site then I admit my hypocracy in advance. I think I've been good though - hacker news tends to be civilised and there's a feedback loop in that.


As omouse pointed out, "fuck" was starred out. Besides that, "Fuck tha Haterz" was what was plastered on the faceparty site. I actually am glad that the OP included "F*" in the headline, because it's accurately conveys the newsworthiness of the article.

Shutting down your social site with a profanity ridden rant on the front page isn't something I've read of anyone doing before, and it will be interesting to see the result (if anyone ever follows up).




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