Scaremongers

I only popped on here to check my emails but couldn't help but stick my head in and have a talk about the insipid Facebook groups that seems to want to scare people into thinking something is going to happen...but quite clearly is not.

It's not even potentially scary things either such as 'The Nazi's Are Returning, Lets Stop Them' or 'Sisqo Is Getting Media Attention Again, Lets Nip This In The Bud' (That happened? Oh Shit...)

No its things like 'SAVE TOP GEAR'.  Now I know the show in its current format has been going for a while now, and I find it highly entertaining but I guess it could be seen as samey in some eyes and its not impossible to think that the viewing figures are going down. Not drastically but everything has it's peaks and valleys right?

Anyway this group was created based on the following...

"It's the news Top Gear fans have been dreading - the show's boss has hinted that the show is coming to an end as ratings continue to slump.

Andy Wilman, executive producer of the BBC Two programme, also said that he fears the series is turning into a cartoon because the presenters were playing up their on-screen characters too much."

Erm...source? That's it. The entire group based on a random rumour which seems to have no weight to it. Not to mention Top Gear has been running for decades in various incarnations and if the time came when a shakeup was needed...they would just reinvent it again. 

This group has over 443,000 gullible members! Do they not realize that all the information they have is 2 very short paragraphs. But then if you read some of the comments on there that fact doesn't seem to matter.

Adam R. says "If they stop producing TOP GEAR then we should all stop paying for are TV licence, If 500,000 people didn’t pay then the BBC would lose about £ 71000000 this is taking into account that these 500,000 people have coloured TV’s."

Well that's one way of looking at it Adam. Or maybe you could start your own Top Gear and drive cars made of marshmallows over rainbows.

Connor B. throws a bit of political insight into his...well...pointless rant. He doesn't appear to have read even the 2 paragraphs..."some say the head of the BBC is a complete and utter TWAT, Some even say a bigger twat than Gordan Brown himself, all i know is we should not get rid of Top Gear!!"

I will finish the Top Gear group talk with probably one of the most concise and witty arguments I have seen on the page from Ben H..."top gear is the best fucking thing in the world it needs to stay cause well life would be boring nd shit like tht y dont they cancell a diffrent show like the andrew marr show who in the right mind would want to cancell topgear im mean good u on drugs r wat"

Starts with threatening suicide, randomly taking a shot at Andrew Marr and answers on a postcard about the last part, beautiful stuff though.

The most common scaremongering group that can be found on Facebook is the 'SAVE FACEBOOK/KEEP FACEBOOK FREE' group. For years these people are constantly under the impression that Facebook is suddenly going to start charging for use. The only time I have ever seen mention of this is when I have seen interviews with the creators of the site denying it.

I had a search for 'Keep Facebook Free' - this is what I found.

My first result was simply called 'KEEP FACEBOOK FREE' but reading on draws a totally different picture. The rallying war cry of this group is...

"We HATE the new facebook and want the old one back, why the fuck change something that everybody knows how to use ? to something that is all over the fucking place and is shite to use,,,, GIVE US OUR OLD FACEBOOK BACK"

Not really a case of being free is it though? Kinda wasted my time there, so will have another look. The groups creator may wish to change the name there though.

Danilo Mastrantoni has opted to keep his name out of things, keep a low profile and that with his group - which is the most popular 'Petition to keep facebook free by Danilo Mastrantoni'.

The main information section on the group is an email from Facebook denying that they will charge and all information they have heard on the matter is false. So even Danilo has thrown in the towel and made it visible everywhere on the group that Facebook WILL NOT CHARGE for usage.

Sadly the 92,000 + members don't think this is good enough.

Jill J. has a very valid view in this current economic crisis "we pay for enough things Facebook should b free". Well it is Jill, read the words just to the left love. Says right there.

Marcel B. has adopted a very laid back, almost Buddha like stance to the concept of Facebook charging... "I will not pay for facebook. I enjoy it a lot but it has not yet become a necessity in my life. I pay enough for everything already. There was life before there will be life after."

I like how he says it has not become a necessity YET. Not closing the door on the possibility Facebook may one day be responsible for how we breathe. Although he seems certain that Facebook has no involvement in childbirth.

Finally Vin F. singlehandedly rips apart everyone who likes using Facebook more than the average "Why would someone stay with Facebook if they had to pay for it. This is just a silly past time and in no way is it worth paying for." 

Vin could just take it or leave it. He'll be sorry when we need it to breathe.

There are many other groups I may mention in the future, they pop all the time - in fact just now I saw a group suggesting we should bring Concorde back for the 2012 Olympics for a flyover. Yeah. Because the last Concorde flight I heard about went so well. And I honestly don't think it would be very exciting. Hardly the Red Arrows - this massive lumbering jet hulking across the sky. No one would even see the fucking thing for one, its hardly going to fly low enough for a flyover in Central London is it?

I digress anyway, I only came on here to check my emails.

Till next time playa's.