Faceparty
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Faceparty is a community social networking website originally populated by teens through to late twenties, but is now popular with all ages, including thirties, forties, and even fifties. Faceparty allows users to create online profiles and interact with each other using instant chat and messaging facilities (like an interface similar to email).Faceparty was created by Dave Bamforth and Phineas Kibbey in Autumn 2000 although the community was started earlier in 1998 under the name Captain Miracle. [1]
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[edit] Membership
According to Alexa, the popularity of Faceparty had decreased slowly since a peak in reach from the third quarter of 2004 to third quarter 2005.[2].
As of June 2006 the site claims 6 million 'audited' subscribers with an additional 35,000 new members every week.
While some of the site is free to use, many of the features of Faceparty, such as viewing of adult images are reserved for subscription paying customers aged over 18 and the use of CoolTools which allows users to see who's been visiting their profile and rating them.
[edit] Controversy
In 2004, the British press reported that police were investigating Faceparty for allegedly featuring pornographic images of underage girls. It was reported that girls as young as 13 were posting provocative and sometimes sexually explicit images of themselves on the website in return for gifts such as mobile phone top-ups from other users.
Faceparty claimed that they have now banned anyone signing up who lists themselves as under the age of 16. However, under British law no person under the age of 18 is permitted to have indecent images or video of themselves produced for distribution whether physically or digitally.
Faceparty said it would liase with police to remove all illegal material and implement measures to stop underaged persons from signing up to their website [1].
In 2006, Faceparty censured for running a banner that told purchasers of Blue Skin clothing, it would ensure they "got laid", following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority from a member of the public, who strongly objected to the message the banner was projecting to Faceparty's younger internet surfers. ASA adjudication
A defining ruling followed, and the complaint was upheld about the banner that both Blue Skin and Faceparty insisted was a tongue-in-cheek way of communicating with a sex-savvy audience, however, both companies removed it following the complaint, and apologised for any offence it had caused. Faceparty said the ad was no longer appearing, but pointed out "individuals had to be 16 years old in order to join Faceparty".
The ASA noted the terms and conditions of Faceparty.com, which stated that members had to be 16 years old. However, they also noted the site could be browsed without membership. Although the membership function featured a disclaimer, there was no guarantee that those under 16 years of age would not join.
The ASA ruled that the advert made an explicit reference to sex and/or sexual activity and, because it was likely to be seen by those under the age of 16 years, it could be seen to condone or encourage underage sex, and therefore they concluded that the advert was irresponsible.
The ad was stated to have breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising), 47.2 and 47.3 (Children), and codes Section: 2.2, 47.2, 47.3 (Ed 11)
[edit] Grim Rita
The site featured a weekly agony advice column by the dominatrix agony auntGrim Rita (real name Sarah Grimstone).
Appearing on the site since 2002, the advice was usually humorous and explicit in nature, and was a unique attraction to the website. From June 2006, Rita's page and archives have disappeared from the site for unknown reasons. When questioned on why Grim Rita is no longer on the site; Faceparty support gave the following statement:
"Grim Rita has disappeared off of the face of the Earth, the last time anyone from the office saw her she was on the back of a camel smoking Benson and Hedges and drinking Jack Daniels riding off into the sunset. No one knows when or if she will return so I'm afraid I cannot give you an answer to your question at the moment."[citation needed]
[edit] Pay-for Services
Faceparty offers a variety of services to its users including 'Buddy Spy', 'Who's Rated' and very basic profile customisation. These services are available to users for £24.95 a year. However, it's worth noting that Faceparty's competitors such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo offer similar tools free of charge.
Faceparty also offers its own 'Adult Verification System' (AVS) which allows users over the age of 18 to view restricted 'adult' content on other users profiles. Because moderators manually view and catagorise every image uploaded by users, they will mark relatively tame images as 'adult'. For example, an innocuous image of someone giving the middle finger will be restricted to the 'adult pics' section. Faceparty charges £38.95 per annum for subscription to its AVS.
[edit] Events
Although serving users internationally, Faceparty markets mainly in the United Kingdom and has run many major events since its launch in 2000, mostly in London. These events include several parties for members featuring well-known popular music acts and Hamsters of Rock Festivals[2]. Along with the music festival "Big Gay Out", a ticketed event for over 35,000 people in Finsbury Park acting as London's Gay Pride festival for 2004. Big Gay Out was repeated, though this time separate from London Pride, in 2005 [3].
The most recent event was "Carnival De L' Etrange", held in London in April 2006.
[edit] Music
In mid July 2006, Sony BMG struck a partnership with Faceparty, allowing its artists to be promoted to the social network's 6m members on an exclusive basis, with competitions, free music downloads, and plenty of other promotions planned over the next few months[3]. Faceparty's music promotion push follows a trend set by other social networking sites such as MySpace.
