Blogger Says Farmville Ads are "Scams"

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Blogger Says Farmville Ads are "Scams"

Popular social games like TechCrunch [http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=102452128776] says a lot of that revenue comes from from "completely unethical" advertisements that trick players with false promises of free stuff .

Online games that are free to play but offer in-game items or currency for sale to gamers who want to advance faster or farther than everyone else should be familiar to just about everyone reading this. Microtransaction-based MMOGs have been around for years; their emergence in North America is a relatively recent phenomenon but the system has already been credited with at least the short-term salvation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95429-Free-to-Play-Relaunch-of-DDO-Unlimited-a-Big-Hit] of Dungeons & Dragons Online. But on the more casual side of the gaming coin, ironically, Arrington claims that there's an unsavory aspect of the business that's often overlooked: "Lead gen scams" that trick unwary players into spending big bucks on in-game items they think they're getting free.

It works like this: Users respond to an ad promising free Farmville currency in exchange for filling out a quick survey or questionnaire. After answering the questions, they're told to submit their mobile phone number so the results can be sent to them via text message. They are then sent a PIN code to be entered on the quiz and that's where things get ugly: Following the steps to completion results in a subscription to a $9.99 monthly service, essentially for nothing and often at the hands of Tattoo Media, a company that was fined in late 2008 [http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/11/19/tattoo-media-fined-for-serving-up-myluvcrush-com-ads-to-facebook/] for serving up similar ads on MyLuvCrush.com.

The dicey part for game developers is this: A significant majority of game revenues (as much as 70 percent, according to one executive) can come out of these offers and small-time studios desperate for income, not to mention the social networks themselves, which take their own hefty cut, are hesitant to bite the hands that feed them. Meanwhile, companies that refuse to take part find themselves falling further and further behind in the battle for monetization.

The end result, Arrington says, is a self-perpetuating MySpace [http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/] both have rules against certain types of scams but have apparently been rather lax in enforcing them, at least in part, one must assume, because they themselves benefit tremendously from this kind of advertising.

Arrington took his complaint to last week's Offerpal [http://www.vgsummit.com/2009/] CEO Anu Shukla to "explain the ethics of her business." Shukla initially met his complaints head-on, calling them "shit, double-shit and bullshit," but then dodged the point by shunting responsibility for ethical advertising behavior onto Facebook and suggesting that virtually everyone who signs up for an Offerpal program is an informed and consenting adult.

This, of course, is where the debate gets interesting. These offers do spell out their terms and conditions, including catches like high-priced monthly subscription fees, in the fine print - which we all know nobody ever actually reads. So who should ultimately be held responsible for these unwanted "surprise" fees: Companies who knowingly camouflage the truth of their "deals" with pages and pages of mind-numbing legalese, or the unthinking schmucks who blithely toss credit card numbers and other personal information onto the internet without giving a second thought as to what's actually being done with it?

I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?

Interestingly, while Shukla aggressively defended her company's behavior and Offerpal posted a comprehensive rebuttal of Arrington's accusations on its media blog [http://myofferpal.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/virtual-goods-summit-09-what-an-ending/] the next day, the company's mobile survey offers have apparently been removed from most, if not all, Facebook games. A quick look at Farmville reveals that while lead gen offers remain, including a freebie from something called EliteMate, there are currently no mobile offers available. As Arrington asks, "If there's no scam, why remove them?"

Why, indeed?


Permalink
 

Motiv_

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Jun 2, 2009
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You know, I made myself a nice little list of rules for internet conduct.

Rule #39
You are NOT the 10,000th visitor. You did NOT win that new Dell Laptop for free. DON'T click on that link, you know it's bullshit.

Perhaps people should listen to me more.
 

rainman2203

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Oct 22, 2008
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What a *****. Why am I not surprised that someone like her is behind a scam agency like Offerpal.
 

theultimateend

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Nov 1, 2007
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Furburt said:
Thankfully the girls from the Evony ads cleavage distract me from clicking on the more unsavory ads.
I love Evony ads.

Is it so much to ask that I nearly find porn anywhere I go? I thought that was what the internet was about! >_> <_<

Yes...I am a DnD nerd...cut me some slack.
 

SharedProphet

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Oct 9, 2008
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Malygris said:
I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?
We as a society shouldn't be allowing this sort of deception to happen in the first place. Fine print is in itself a deception (or, if you prefer, misdirection). It doesn't directly exist because of regulations; those regulations require that information to be provided but they do not require it to be provided in fine print. That is done to quite intentionally make it more difficult and tedious for people to read, thus reducing the likelihood that they will.

Sure, maybe legal details of offers won't fit in the main body of an ad or whatever, but the basic premise should be spelled out clearly in the main copy.

But attitudes like the above, attributing it all to people's "stupidity," "laziness," and "indifference" are what enable such scams to continue. Seems more like ignorance than any of those things, but calling it that makes it a little more difficult to defend the position that it's all the fault of the person clicking that link. Then it becomes a question of whether that person is responsible for not knowing they're being conned. Are we as a society providing adequate resources out there to inform them, then, and in places they are at least as likely to notice as the scams themselves? If not, how are we supposed to expect them to know? They aren't born with that knowledge.

But, of course, all of that is avoiding the real issue: it is blatantly obvious that the people running these "ads" are intentionally tricking people out of money. The question of who is responsible for preventing this sort of thing (answer: every single one of us) would be moot if we as a society would recognize that it's counterproductive to keep scamming each other left and right. Of course, that would require people to realize that money is not the most important thing in the universe.

Until such a collective epiphany materializes, we have to each take responsibility for our part and do what we can right now to make "we as a society" more in line with what works (actually, that is the collective epiphany, just on an individual level). Personally, with regard to this particular issue, I will be spreading the link to that TechCrunch article around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog, and warning people to avoid those offers.
 

Lukeje

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Feb 6, 2008
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But... what if the offers are real?
[http://xkcd.com/570/]
 

CyberKnight

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Jan 29, 2009
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SharedProphet said:
Malygris said:
I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?
We as a society shouldn't be allowing this sort of deception to happen in the first place. Fine print is in itself a deception (or, if you prefer, misdirection). It doesn't directly exist because of regulations; those regulations require that information to be provided but they do not require it to be provided in fine print. That is done to quite intentionally make it more difficult and tedious for people to read, thus reducing the likelihood that they will.

Sure, maybe legal details of offers won't fit in the main body of an ad or whatever, but the basic premise should be spelled out clearly in the main copy.

But attitudes like the above, attributing it all to people's "stupidity," "laziness," and "indifference" are what enable such scams to continue. Seems more like ignorance than any of those things, but calling it that makes it a little more difficult to defend the position that it's all the fault of the person clicking that link. Then it becomes a question of whether that person is responsible for not knowing they're being conned. Are we as a society providing adequate resources out there to inform them, then, and in places they are at least as likely to notice as the scams themselves? If not, how are we supposed to expect them to know? They aren't born with that knowledge.

But, of course, all of that is avoiding the real issue: it is blatantly obvious that the people running these "ads" are intentionally tricking people out of money. The question of who is responsible for preventing this sort of thing (answer: every single one of us) would be moot if we as a society would recognize that it's counterproductive to keep scamming each other left and right. Of course, that would require people to realize that money is not the most important thing in the universe.

Until such a collective epiphany materializes, we have to each take responsibility for our part and do what we can right now to make "we as a society" more in line with what works (actually, that is the collective epiphany, just on an individual level). Personally, with regard to this particular issue, I will be spreading the link to that TechCrunch article around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog, and warning people to avoid those offers.
Well said.
 

300lb. Samoan

New member
Mar 25, 2009
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SharedProphet said:
Malygris said:
I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?
We as a society shouldn't be allowing this sort of deception to happen in the first place. Fine print is in itself a deception (or, if you prefer, misdirection). It doesn't directly exist because of regulations; those regulations require that information to be provided but they do not require it to be provided in fine print. That is done to quite intentionally make it more difficult and tedious for people to read, thus reducing the likelihood that they will.

Sure, maybe legal details of offers won't fit in the main body of an ad or whatever, but the basic premise should be spelled out clearly in the main copy.

But attitudes like the above, attributing it all to people's "stupidity," "laziness," and "indifference" are what enable such scams to continue. Seems more like ignorance than any of those things, but calling it that makes it a little more difficult to defend the position that it's all the fault of the person clicking that link. Then it becomes a question of whether that person is responsible for not knowing they're being conned. Are we as a society providing adequate resources out there to inform them, then, and in places they are at least as likely to notice as the scams themselves? If not, how are we supposed to expect them to know? They aren't born with that knowledge.

But, of course, all of that is avoiding the real issue: it is blatantly obvious that the people running these "ads" are intentionally tricking people out of money. The question of who is responsible for preventing this sort of thing (answer: every single one of us) would be moot if we as a society would recognize that it's counterproductive to keep scamming each other left and right. Of course, that would require people to realize that money is not the most important thing in the universe.

Until such a collective epiphany materializes, we have to each take responsibility for our part and do what we can right now to make "we as a society" more in line with what works (actually, that is the collective epiphany, just on an individual level). Personally, with regard to this particular issue, I will be spreading the link to that TechCrunch article around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog, and warning people to avoid those offers.
Definitely well said. I'm comfortable cruising the internet personally because I can smell these things coming from a mile away and I won't touch it even if there's a chance it's legitimate. But my parents will fall for this stuff all the time, because they didn't grow up with banner ads and "YOU'RE OUR 1 MILLIONTH VISITOR" scams on every page. The internet would be more enjoyable for everyone (and I might actually put some faith into the virtual goods concept) if the virtual economy was one I could take seriously and put my trust in.
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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CyberKnight said:
SharedProphet said:
Malygris said:
I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?
We as a society shouldn't be allowing this sort of deception to happen in the first place. Fine print is in itself a deception (or, if you prefer, misdirection). It doesn't directly exist because of regulations; those regulations require that information to be provided but they do not require it to be provided in fine print. That is done to quite intentionally make it more difficult and tedious for people to read, thus reducing the likelihood that they will.

Sure, maybe legal details of offers won't fit in the main body of an ad or whatever, but the basic premise should be spelled out clearly in the main copy.

But attitudes like the above, attributing it all to people's "stupidity," "laziness," and "indifference" are what enable such scams to continue. Seems more like ignorance than any of those things, but calling it that makes it a little more difficult to defend the position that it's all the fault of the person clicking that link. Then it becomes a question of whether that person is responsible for not knowing they're being conned. Are we as a society providing adequate resources out there to inform them, then, and in places they are at least as likely to notice as the scams themselves? If not, how are we supposed to expect them to know? They aren't born with that knowledge.

But, of course, all of that is avoiding the real issue: it is blatantly obvious that the people running these "ads" are intentionally tricking people out of money. The question of who is responsible for preventing this sort of thing (answer: every single one of us) would be moot if we as a society would recognize that it's counterproductive to keep scamming each other left and right. Of course, that would require people to realize that money is not the most important thing in the universe.

Until such a collective epiphany materializes, we have to each take responsibility for our part and do what we can right now to make "we as a society" more in line with what works (actually, that is the collective epiphany, just on an individual level). Personally, with regard to this particular issue, I will be spreading the link to that TechCrunch article around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog, and warning people to avoid those offers.
Well said.
That sir.. was deep.
 

samsonguy920

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Mar 24, 2009
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SharedProphet said:
Malygris said:
I'm all for protecting the public from predators, but when it comes to protecting people from their own stupidity I tend to be a little less generous. There's no doubt that these offers absolutely push the ethical envelope if not the legal one and on a personal level I find it a despicable practice, but the question remains: How far are we willing to go to protect people from themselves? Fine print exists precisely because of various industry regulations; are we now admitting that we as a society have grown so lazy, indifferent and/or stupid that we need these warnings spoon-fed to us in monosyllabic 24-point boldface?
We as a society shouldn't be allowing this sort of deception to happen in the first place. Fine print is in itself a deception (or, if you prefer, misdirection). It doesn't directly exist because of regulations; those regulations require that information to be provided but they do not require it to be provided in fine print. That is done to quite intentionally make it more difficult and tedious for people to read, thus reducing the likelihood that they will.

Sure, maybe legal details of offers won't fit in the main body of an ad or whatever, but the basic premise should be spelled out clearly in the main copy.

But attitudes like the above, attributing it all to people's "stupidity," "laziness," and "indifference" are what enable such scams to continue. Seems more like ignorance than any of those things, but calling it that makes it a little more difficult to defend the position that it's all the fault of the person clicking that link. Then it becomes a question of whether that person is responsible for not knowing they're being conned. Are we as a society providing adequate resources out there to inform them, then, and in places they are at least as likely to notice as the scams themselves? If not, how are we supposed to expect them to know? They aren't born with that knowledge.

But, of course, all of that is avoiding the real issue: it is blatantly obvious that the people running these "ads" are intentionally tricking people out of money. The question of who is responsible for preventing this sort of thing (answer: every single one of us) would be moot if we as a society would recognize that it's counterproductive to keep scamming each other left and right. Of course, that would require people to realize that money is not the most important thing in the universe.

Until such a collective epiphany materializes, we have to each take responsibility for our part and do what we can right now to make "we as a society" more in line with what works (actually, that is the collective epiphany, just on an individual level). Personally, with regard to this particular issue, I will be spreading the link to that TechCrunch article around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog, and warning people to avoid those offers.
I dont know about whether someone is being stupid if they follow through on an offer without reading the finer details, as they just may not be fineprint savvy. I have found that many people do one thing very intelligently, but may not know enough for another. But SharedProphet does raise a good idea. Regardless of how savvy others are, it should be on our part who do know better, to spread the word among our friends and peers to be aware that such scams exist. The only free to play service I use is Second Life, and that is the only. I am quite experienced to know that many many companies out there pull out their legalese to justify embezzling people of their money. I hope sometime in the near future that justified embezzling becomes unjustified. Too many businesses these days have lost the idea of customers, and more just think the people that buy or use their product as tools and saps. But when you aren't seeing the person's face in person, that's all too easy to do. It's come time that we remind internet companies that we are people, we are customers, and we deserve respect for the money we have. The economy has no hope of improving if more and more companies find cheap ways to scam us of money, therefore discouraging us from doing business with even legitimate places. It truly is contradictory and harmful.
I ask everyone who has read this thread, to make sure your friends family and peers are aware to watch out for these legal scams. But to also not be discouraged from dealing with legitimate sites as well.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
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Well this raises some questions about what you should be able to agree to by signing a form or pushing a button. Some rights should be impossible to sign away, something that has been held up in the cases of doctors requiring waivers and such from patients they are giving treatment to before surgery, basically saying that even if THEY messed up the patient gives up the right to seek legal recourse against them.

Likewise, I feel EULAs, agreements to access websites, etc... should all be considered non-binding.

Scams are scams, and truthfully anyone who falls for a scam winds up feeling dumb. The thing with Facebook Flash games is that it's a great place to pull a "fine print" scheme because this is the kind of game that is going to be played by a casual gamer (usually none to bright, hence the level of intellectual stimulation... as offensive as that sounds), probably coming home from a day of work, and wanting to unwind for an hour or two living out his Tony Soprano fantasies or whatever. The simplistic, casual atmosphere, puts people off guard and they aren't expecting it, and honestly catching a rube unaware is pretty much what scams are all about.

The thing is to consider is that even when you get past targeting specific vulnerable audiences like casual gamers, is that scam artists are predators. Nobody is on guard 100% of the time, and honestly who wants to live in a world where you have to be THAT paranoid. As such laws to regulate this kind of thing (or people getting others to sign away rights like that to free speech) is something that should be illegal. Not "well you were stupid, so haha on you". Trust me, we are ALL vulnerable at some point no matter how good we are, how well educated, or how aware. Laugh at someone today, and tomorrow the stupid guy could very easily be you. Most scams are bloody obvious, and "avoidable" once you know how they work. I mean heck, HOW Many people lost tons of money to pay lines run out of third world nations pretending to be phony prize give aways? Once upon a time if "Publishers Clearing House" or someone was to contact you you'd be doing cartwheels of joy. Today someone tells you that you won something, even if it's legitimate, your first reaction is "okay, what's the scam?".

At any rate, I'd imagine most of those targeted by Farmville or Mafia Wars are people who despite my comments above would be VERY careful when dealing with a business transaction or someplace where money is supposed to be involved. Stupid does not mean ignorant, and even dumb people are smart enough nowadays to know that when money is involved that if they don't understand something they need to confer with an expert who does. However this is a bloody online game intended to blow off steam, not dealing with a creditor, or trying to finance a big purchuse.

Really, the first step is simply to maintain there are certain kinds of agreements that are non-binding no matter what. Just like a "sex slave agreement" over Craigslist is non-binding because you can't voluntarily agree to something like that. EULAs, most "internet contracts" of any kind, etc...

I'm rapidly getting to the point nowadays that unless a contract comes from a face to face meeting, and is notatized by a third party unaffiliated with either (Notaries still exist, but aren't used quite like they used to be) it's meaningless in any legal sense.

Predators are predators, and face it, no matter how much you look down on others, one day the "sucker born every minute" might very well be you.
 

IrrelevantTangent

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Oct 4, 2008
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SlainPwner666 said:
You know, I made myself a nice little list of rules for internet conduct.

Rule #39
You are NOT the 10,000th visitor. You did NOT win that new Dell Laptop for free. DON'T click on that link, you know it's bullshit.

Perhaps people should listen to me more.
Well said. And in addition to this new development, the news room contributors keep pointing out how life-destroying and pointless FarmVille is, so I think I'll just say no once a flashing ad for that game pops up.

Desert Tiger said:
Furburt said:
Thankfully the girls from the Evony ads cleavage distract me from clicking on the more unsavory ads.
PLAY NOW, MY LORD.
PLAY NOW DISCREETLY!

I have no idea for the life of me what that means, though, even IN context.
 

HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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If you go to TechCrunch, you discover that this story doesn't end as it's written here. Zynga (you may know them as the guys who stole Farm Town and repackaged it as "FarmVille"), praised by Shukla in the accompanying video, has publicly admitted that it's used scams and will no longer, while a major network on Facebook has promised to cease CPA offers.

There's also a post on TechCrunch by a former spammer who points out this stuff will only exist until a larger company comes along to drive out the spammers. Basically, the fight right now is between Google AdSense versus these Offer Scams. It's a battle between 10cents to a couple of bucks, which is why the spammers are winning. But when some larger company comes a long that can offer $50 for targeted local legitimate advertising the scammers will have to move on. The guy also surmises that Facebook will either have to crack down or risk becoming MySpace, although as Arrington notes, Facebook has shown no real drive to take this action so far.
 

Rednog

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Nov 3, 2008
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Wow why did none of her colleagues run up and throw some tape over her mouth. You gotta know that when some one responds to a well reasoned argument with "shit, double-shit and bullshit" the following rebuttal is only going to go downhill. Hell she didn't even give any decent argument to support her company, I mean really her argument against people scamming Netflixs is that she rented 2 movies a year ago and is paying them $20 a month to keep them...so it is ok to scam them?! WTF. Oh and she thinks Blockbuster and some Disney Club does a better job so everyone should go out and scam Netflix.

On second thought, just looking at their (what I would describe as) greedy smiles of those on the panel, they probably all do honestly think what they are doing is ok. Which is a shame, because it only hurts users in the end while they run away with their loaded pockets.
 

Crunchy English

Victim of a Savage Neck-bearding
Aug 20, 2008
779
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Not my problem. That's not my usual approach, mind you, I like to think companies are held accountable for their actions. But when I'm not living in my fantasy-fairy world where everything is rainbows, I understand that companies lie, cheat and steal and the bigger the business then the less likely they are being honest with me. If people can't be bothered to protect their money, then consider it Economic Darwinism.

OT: Also, I realize I'm about to nullify any credibility in my argument by alienating the audience, but shame on them for using text messaging. That's the ultimate regression of mankind right there. Let me give you text-ers a free heads up.

1) Texting is not less rude than talking on the phone while you are talking to me, and it does not count as "more polite" at the table where you are eating or in a movie theater. Shut up.

2) Its a scam. Even paying for "unlimited texting" is a ridiculous notion. If its an emergency, call the person. If its not, wait till you get home and use one of 500 free services to reach them. Twitter, Facebook, even good old email. There has never been a time when texting has been appropriate. If you need to be that connected constantly, like for business, then just get a headset or a laptop. Maybe spend more time in the office, slacker.

3) If Texting absolutely must become acceptable? No one under 18 is allowed to use it. You're 12, who are you texting? Your mother has already laid out the footy pajamas, calm down.