Want more fiction from Smedley? Ever see the movie he starred in? 
AHA!
So you ARE a chubby chaser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Closer to Chevy Chase-r. 
Stay on my good side, Smedley! Your "Special Day" is approaching.....
Then he sells them his version of diet pills, which also serve as arthritis pills; headache pills, cures for baldness, flatulence and the common cold.
Talk about a snake oil salesman... he even claims they are Viagra replacements and can boost sperm counts.
There's only one warning on the pack: "Do NOT Get Stuck in Throat or You Will Get a Stiff Neck."
Yeah, after a lengthy consultation over the internet, he tried to sell me some on the premise they would assist with impotence and hair loss, but I know he was really trying to get me to take them to eradicate extreme flatulence.... tho I think that's more a bi-product of curing the common cold. You see, the flatulence occurred every time I sneezed, and now I'm not sneezing anymore, problem solved.
Don't think they do much for impotence, either! He said to take one before bed, but the trouble there is that they go to my head when I lay down... and I'm up all night cos my eyelids are.
Ok, look out... time to take another one. Yup, they also serve as an anti-psychotic that stops me rambling on. 
But being from "down under" things got topsy-turvyed: His hair is standing straight up, but his... ahem... fell off!
Me poor Cap'n be sailin' the 7 seas searchin' an' searchin'... sorry Cap'n. :'(
bwah hah hah....the plan worked!
So if I was to stand on my head against a wall [for support] do you think it'd work for the other 'thing'?
And IF successful, what position would you call that?
Looked high and low in the Kama Sutra and can't find a thing on it.
No, as it was lost at sea!
Situs inversus...
Of course! How were you holding the book?
You shoulda tried the artuS amaK, Cap'n! Ir'd be a weirdie position, I'm afraid.... You can get a special deal on me "Inverter"...
Just dial 1-800-Bux-4-Doc.
A scantily clad assistant will be wiv you shortly!
Well that buggers that idea.... me bad back yer know. Yup, if I'm not on the bottom....
Orright, then.... and I get a test run of this "inverter" thingwybob? Just hope she doesn't mind being on top. 
Um, that was Tom Sawyer folks.
I was gonna drop this as a difference of opinion discussed adequately. But my last two days have seen a remarkable amount of real world relevance to this topic...
The advertising/distribution/marketing IS a Pyramid 'scheme' process as it's a mathematical progression. I can't help it if you are lost in semantics for whatever reason but so be it.
As I said in one of my earliest posts...
It is not the distribution that defines a pyramid scheme; it is the remuneration. The term Pyramid Scheme means something. Your use of it here is nothing more than some cranky dude hijacking the term for his own selfish misuse. All sorts of things follow a mathematical progression which can be defined as pyramidical progression. Hell, studies have demonstrated how a human smile and other positive salutations will follow a pyramidical progression. There are a plethora of things which follow pyramid progression. They are NOT Pyramid Schemes unless they are venture enterprise which bases it's gains solely on recruitment of new investors. <<< Pyramid Scheme means that, and only that. Pyramid distribution however, is a wide term encompassing even the passing of a smile from one stranger to another. I can't help but think you understand this but want to dis Google cuz you don't like them for whatever reason.
I gotta laugh at this. First thing, I am one who is twenty years fed up with marketing crap. TV, radio, print... its all a bunch of bullshit. Companies say what they will for the purpose of selling their product. They organize fake panels to say "9 of 10 dentists agree that chewing this sugar laced gum is good for your teeth". They misuse terms like "homestyle" and "best in class" the way you use pyramid schemes. I turn blind eyes, ears and mind to advertising. And I sure as hell don't want marketers knocking on my door, ringing me on the phone, and stuffing my mailbox with their horseshit. I look to user recommendations. Maybe that's why I don't inherently have a problem with Google Invites. I respect word of mouth advertising. I actively look for it when in need of convincing. I totally ignore TV, radio and print ads. Garbage in, garbage out. I don't bother with it at all.
But I'd think you Jafo, might also understand the power of word of mouth advertising? Your job may very well be due to it. Without this form of advertising, your company may never have been in position to hire for your services. I can't count the number of times I've read your boss speaking of how word of mouth advertising has been crucial to Stardocks success. I have never seen a radio, TV, or print ad from your company. Unless you count software product reviews as paid advertisements.. which they do appear to be nowadays. The reason I came to know about Stardock and its products, is because of the users you 'subversively tricked' into talking about your products and company. I can't count the number of posts and articles I have read where your CEO clearly puts product X's success as a result of word of mouth advertising. And day before yesterday I am reading archives of the CivFanatics website and there is Draginol aka Frogboy aka Brad Wardell speaking of how GalCiv2 reached best seller status due to users telling other users about how great the game was. Today I google TweakUI and I find him talking in some odd forum about how Object Desktops success is due to word of mouth advertising. I don't get your problem with companies relying on customers to share the good word. I just don't get it.
Looks like you never will, either.
I am a self-employed Building Designer [Architect] who doesn't advertise, and yes, I get my work from 'word of mouth' recommendations which is NOT what Google is doing. Their sole interest is in maximizing their sphere of influence as rapid adoption of their services serves THEIR ends, not those of the users/customers.
Your 'definition' criterium is wrong as it's TOO myopic and narrow.
I'm neither a 'cranky dude', ignorant, nor naive.
Even YOUR interpretation "they are venture enterprise which bases it's gains solely on recruitment of new investors" is exactly what Google is doing.
You cannot see that, obviously, so perhaps it's time you open your eyes. Blind faith in Google's "first do no harm" is missplaced, as selectivity in information search results, for whatever the 'reason' is fundamentally dangerous. Read 1984 some time.
Being a slave to Google's promotion scheme is nothing more than "Come in, sucker and do our bidding. You won't gain anything -but WE WILL".
Alright Jafo, If you've read my posts with intent, then we we've reached the end of this, for I have yours. I don't feel like a slave when telling friends about the function of Gmail. I don't feel like a sheep when I seek what users have to say about Google+. In fact I feel pretty well free minded to have unplugged from the ad network to instead seek out what real users have to say. People who invest their time to pass on invites, while receiving no gain, are people who think the service worthy. Thats how it was for me passing on the good news that Gmail had arrived. Thats the bottom line. Now, I haven't participated in the Google+ beta invite, but I appreciate that threads like these are available should I change my mind. I've gone without MySpace and FaceBook, but features in Google+ do interest me some. Once the bugs are worked out and the system is fleshed out after this beta invite stage, well then maybe I will take a second look.
The law defining a Pyramid Scheme is concise. There is nothing "myopic and narrow" about it.
It is after all, a term used to define for prosecution a crime.
One last thing, I do take the Orwellian message to heart. As a matter of fact, I think systems which foster social interaction are a very very good thing. Google+ appears to be free from some of the Orwellian pitfalls that FaceBook suffers. Time will tell. At the very least it facilitates communication between select groups. Communication is big brothers bane. As evidenced by the amount of energy governments spend trying to limit it.
FFS...it was Google who agreed to 'modify' communication between China and the rest of the world by altering the truth.
They "could" have said 'no' but simple primal greed got the better of them.
1984 the Ministry of Information ... why not eliminate Poverty by removing the word from the language....and thus the concept.
Sounds a bit twee.... but according to the current generation of children going through 'the system' in Japan there WAS NO Changi or sinking of Hospital ships and raping of the surviving Nurses....
First casualty of war Knowledge is truth.
Now Jafo, come on. I'm not saying your ignorant, or naive...but...almost every post I've seen you make is cranky.
It's the constipation, you know.... the forums getting clogged with... um, how could one put this delicately and not offend... er... idiots.
I've frequently advised more All-Bran at breakfast time, to get a better start to the day, but no, not Jafo.... he still persists with the Froot Loops.
Oh well, I suppose he could always resort to a supposi... er, enema if things get too out of hand.
Pretty pointless actually being 'cranky' about anything encountered on the net.
This is simply my 'good side'.
The 'darkside' is much more entertaining, what with sacrificing infants to the Gods and all.....;)
Hard to tell who is who due to the forums being so slow...
Don't tell me, you weren't the naked man arrested in Mossman, dancing around a bonfire with an effigy of an infant lil Johnny raised above your head?
I had thought about traveling down for that festival... but all the effigies of JuLIAR and Bob Brown had sold out.
That'd be cos of the damned constipation.
thought this interesting, wikipedia note;
Early adopters of Google+ have been overwhelmingly identified as male (71.24%). The dominant age bracket (35%) is 25-34.[
I like the 'darkside'. The immature little bugger in me cracks up when Jafo drops the F-bomb.
Everyone uses invites. From Grande Openings of the newest retail outlet, to on-line mutli-player games that you actually pay to play, to social sites (be it music, blogs, etc.) I have never given any unless I felt good about the site and even then, I offer them up to folks who may be interested as was done with this thread. It's the invitees choice to grab one or not. I seldom think about why they are made available or ulterior motives. (Unless I hear the words Amway, Avon, or Time-share. After that, it's open season.)
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