Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues

Slashdot | Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues

It's interesting to hear this.

I think it's quite troubling that people such as this student, and the employee of Barrow's Thorntons, can get into trouble for something they post "privately" amongst friends.

This is the issue with the Internet as it currently stands, however. If you're going to write something publically, you have to know that anyone in the public can view it.

Blogs need some sort of categorisation on who can view what, like:

Level 1: "These are my general acquaintances, co-workers, parents etc so show them only the professional stuff."
Level 2: "These are my friends so show the larking around and the booze-ups in all their gory detail."
Level 3: "These are my very close trusted friends so go ahead and show those diary-type posts where I'm baring my soul."

It's not like there's anything to hide as such, and I'm sure the same goes for many people concerned with privacy and the effect of the internet. But there are some things that you want to tell certain people and keep quiet from others. Issues like the one linked are just one type of many.

You can sortof do this with Blogger, but of course people need to register and the last thing people want to do is register for yet another blogging site. Maybe one day we'll be able to use one login and one friends-list for all these "Web 2.0" things... blogs, myspace, msn, etc etc. That would make things so much easier, don't you think? I mean even as a convenience, how many people have built up almost the same list on myspace, bebo, xanga, livejournal, msn spaces, that new google one (not blogger), the list goes on?

Someone needs to create a centralised friends list, basically, and make it work with everything. Any takers? Go make a fortune! I'm too lazy to be an inventor!