You’ve read about the famous ‘Know-Nothing’ in your history class.  In the future you will read about the Internet Know-nothings.  Ever read comments below articles?  Then you know what I’m talking about.  You’re a Know-something, at least.  Most comments are awful and I’m  not just talking about the automated spam comments.  These are real people who hide behind their anonymity of the internet and computer proxies.

There are a lot out there but which ones are the best.  There’s MySpace, Facebook and others that I can’t think of.  They’re all the same.  The trick is to get most of your ‘friends’ to all sign up for the same one.  That’s how the most popular ones get popular.  Social network sites need other social networks to get at the top.  The popular ones are just a fad until the next big one comes out. 

Sometimes search engines display out of date info.  Sometimes I’m looking for current news and not in the ‘News’ section.  The search engines often have sites indexed that are over 5 years old.  So, I go to blogs and forums to get the most up to date info.  They’re even faster for the news that is minutes old.  For more advanced topics seek out a Blog or Forum search engine.   Those sites are designed to find the fast info on just the blogs.  Blogger and WordPress are the best.

Up until now I’ve talked about getting information off of the internet.  Today I’m going to talk about putting information back on the internet.  Before I talked about not believing all the info you get online.  So, when you produce your own info you’ll have to make sure it’s true or at least true to you.  If it’s an opinion, it doesn’t matter.  You can put anything you want online and in a variety of places.  You can get your own domain and website, post on forums, a blog (like blogger or wordpress) or comments on blogs.  If you take from the internet you should eventually give back. 

I know you’ve heard it a million times but online it is especially true.  There are people who actually fall for the Nigerian bank transfer scam.  I don’t know any (I think), but they exist.  Then there’s the ‘you’ve won the lottery’ scan too.  It’s actually the lottery in Belgium or something.  Then you just have to pay your taxes and the money is yours.  The title is a good rule.  Follow it.

I know there’s a lot of information on sites and even more sites out there.  Don’t get discouraged that you don’t know it all.  It’s no fun if you know everything already.  We’re all modern day explorers in this new information age.  You are going down another path than anyone else.  Isn’t that exciting?  Your journey through cyberspace is unique and you should cherish it.    Cyberspace explorers don’t just keep their destinations to themselves they spread  it like this.  Share your experiences on your own blog and in the comments section here.

You possibly work online, you get your news online, you play some games online, you use social networks online, but not all of it is FUN.  Now, make your work and news fun online.  Make your new work a game and your news something not depressing.  Instead of spreadsheets work as a professional online poker player and instead of reading about political fights, read the comics.  Then you can have all fun online, right .

There’s a lot of ‘good’ info out there but is it real, should I spread the info?  The answer is yes and no.  I know it’s annoying to say that but it’s true.  Sites with editors and reputations often have the best accurate info available online.  Sites like WikePedia are also good because anyone can edit an entry but it’s watched very closely.  Other sites are not trusted sources to use in anything formal.  But, even the trusted media gets a story wrong every day.  So, where do you go for real info that you can cite?  Books.  They’re the most accurate source of real info but they’re not online.  The best source for online info is….   I’ll write more tomorrow.

This is my first post here and it’s very exciting.  I’ve been online for 10 years but I’ve never written anything of my own a personal website or a BLOG.  Now I have my own blog.  Over the course of time I will be letting out all my secrets I’ve learned on the internet.  Stay tuned and I will talk tomorrow.

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