Two points to make about this World Editors Forum story:
1. No fucking shit more articles are shared on Facebook over the weekend; most of us have lives, things to do during the day, etc. Doesn’t it follow that not only will one see an increase in article trading by way of FB, but a general increase in site-usage? Particularly if you consider the number of students on there, particularly middle- and high-schoolers, who (if memory serves) tend to live a more regimented life during the week.
2. This sort of data is, or could be, key to emerging forms of ethnography and social science having to do with the internet. This is something of a pipe dream, but it would be better, more accurate, and less onerous for those who study digital culture if Facebook would open itself to the release of these sorts of statistics (taking into account all privacy concerns, of course) to the public. They could probably even sell that data, and I wouldn’t be opposed to that. The bottom line is, they’re sitting on a wealth of juicy sociological and statistical data and being pretty closed-minded about its use.
[via Mediagazer]



Brought to you by the number 8
If blog software had its way, eight would be the new 13; one trending fail WTPWB has been noticing lately is the inadvertent smiley in numbered lists, where the number 8 should be. Take, for example, this list of “types of bitches,” found here.
(cropped at number 12, my personal fave)
This:
is an emoticon, you see, depicting a smiling face with some sort of glasses on. I guess this is as good a time as any to see if THIS blog will make the same mistake.
UPDATE: So umm anyone know how to turn that off?