Monday, December 24, 2012

CamoSpace Social Network

A couple of years back I stumbled across a social networking site called CamoSpace.  I was not the least bit interested in Facebook but I noticed that a few people that lived in areas where my family is from were on CS so I gave it some thought.  Eventually, with nagging  encouragement from The Lovely Bride, I decided to sign up.

First thing I did was conjure up a screen name.  Lantry wouldn't do because the number of people who recognize where that comes from is way too small.  No.  This had to be something that would give people a general idea of my age and that I have a sense of humor.  I came up with one that I thought would make people have to think for a second to get the pun that it made.  TLB thought it was great.   Once that was done, I started the signing up process.

Its simple.  You fill out a form and you are in.  Some blanks are mandatory but others aren't.    So I'm on CS and decide to start building my page and I put up pictures taken from my tree stand, pictures of a foggy lake taken at sunrise and stuff like that.  I thought it looked pretty nice until I noticed that it had a field called "Star Sign" on my profile page.  Your birth date is one of the mandatory fields and the site sticks your Zodiac sign on your page.

Well, crap.  I don't do Zodiac stuff.   Since I don't do Zodiac stuff, I didn't want something on my profile that suggested that I did.  I sent a message to whoever runs CS asking if there was a way to remove it.  They were polite enough but told me there wasn't.   I ruminated over it for a few days and I finally decided to take all my stuff down and not fool with the place.

While I was doing that, I noticed that I had several friend requests.  Some were predictable like places that advertized on CS but others were from people I didn't know and had no earthly idea why they thought they'd want to know me.   I never answered any of them.  I mean, why answer any of them when I'm shutting down my page and leaving?  It wasn't until about a month ago that I found out why those people may have wanted to friend me.

You see, when I dreamed up my screen name, I was thinking of old cartoons like Quickdraw McGraw, Wally Gator and Augie Doggie but  I couldn't think of one based on them.  Yogi Bear seemed promising but a pretty bland screen name. I mean, would people think I steal pick-a-nick baskets?  So I took the Yogi theme a step further and made my screen name a pun on Yogi.

Yogi Bear is "smarter than the average bear" so "The Average Bear" became my screen name.  Everyone was supposed to know how clever I was  because I made them think of Yogi Bear without mentioning his name.  Everybody would know how modest and unassuming I was because Yogi Bear was smarter than me and I admitted it.  It would have been great except for that star sign problem.

About a month ago, I was telling a co-worker about how CS still sends me emails now and then even though I haven't fooled with it for two or three years.  I told him about why I left and that I might go back if they ever let me take that "star sign" crap off my profile. I even told him about the unsolicited friend requests and then I told him about how clever my screen name was.

The laughing eventually subsided and he managed to catch his breath long enough to tell me that a "Bear" is now slang for a heavy-set, hairy homosexual. 

OK.  So I'm not up on the latest slang used by homosexuals.   It kind of worries me that my co-worker is but that's a whole-nuther discussion that he needs to have with somebody besides me.  The question in my mind now is whether that was why I got those friend requests? 

I still think CamoSpace is probably a good site but I don't reckon I'll go back even if they do make the Zodiac stuff optional.

2 comments:

GunRights4US said...

Aww that's funny! But it's a damn shame that parts of our language are being appropriated by the pervert lobby.

Lantry said...

Next they'll probably name some gay sex toy "Cordite" so I'll have to change that. We ought to start taking back our culture.