Category Archives: Social Networking

Fake Search Results in Shake, Social Networking, WeChat, WeChat, WeChat FAQ, Weixin, Weixin

WeChat Shake Problem – a solution? Maybe.

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There is a problem with the WeChat Shake application that we’ve written about in the past. It seems that the company responsible for WeChat, Tencent International, might have set up a temporary ban for users who use the Shake feature too frequently in one session. One of our readers noticed that he was able to get normal results, as opposed to purely Chinese results in Shake, if he simply stopped shaking for about half an hour.

To us, this makes perfect sense. Although the Shake feature is fun and quite exciting to use by times, we assume that it creates quite a drain on the WeChat servers. For this reason, we think that Tencent/Weixin/WeChat have created a shake limit for users who abuse this service.

This may be because of a drain on their servers or it could be an attempt to cut out or eliminate spammers from using the Shake feature to promote their products. Keep in mind that millions upon millions of Asian users use Weixin/WeChat, not just users in North America, Europe and Africa. India, for instance, seems to have taken to this app in a big way. When a company realizes the marketing potential available through WeChat, we think they would leap at the chance to contact users one to one, perhaps to the point of paying people to shake and then send out spam messages to users. We can imagine a scenario where a roomful of low-paid ‘shakers’ send out endless spam messages one by one. Knowing this, you can understand why we think WeChat has imposed a limit on the number of shakes per minute/hour/day for users. It’s a guess, but an educated one.

How popular is WeChat? This graphic gives you an idea:

Photo of WeChat Graphic
300 million users of which 50 million use WeChat* (as opposed to Weixin*).

 

(* WeChat is the English version, Weixin is the Chinese language version. )

That’s an incredible growth rate, isn’t it? As far as we know, the two sides of the app work in conjunction with each other. We have contacts who use Weixin and some who use WeChat. We can’t identify which app these contacts use so we assume that WeChat/Weixin is one big happy family.

Our advice? Keep shaking but don’t take things too seriously. If you’re looking for a date, sign up for an online service that concentrates on just that. If you’re looking for friends from all over the world, use WeChat’s Shake and relax. It’s free and works well. If you get odd results, take a break. Above all, don’t install any helper apps. You don’t need them and they may skew your search results. Happy shaking!
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Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Facebook 101, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Facebook Likes, Privacy, Security, Social Networking

Facebook Caveats – A reminder of what you can and can’t hide

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We’re still getting comments about Facebook and its arcane and obscure privacy settings. Not only are they as described, they are also well hidden. Here’s a short set of tips for you:

Things you can’t hide: 

Cover photos are all public, all the time.

Profile thumbnails are all public, all the time.

Mobile albums, the ones you upload from your mobile device, seem to default to ‘public’. You have to change the setting to something else if you don’t want these pics to be wide open to the world.

Mutual friends can’t be hidden. You can hide your complete friend list but NOT mutual friends.

While you can’t hide your ‘About’ section, you can hide virtually all of the details in it.

Summation: Three sections can’t be hidden. These are Mutual Friends, Cover Photos and Profile Photo thumbnails.

Actions you can’t hide: 

Photo likes and comments cannot be hidden. If you like Jim or Jane’s photo, everyone that can see the photo will know it. Ditto for comments. There is no way around this. Like something that isn’t under your control and everyone who can see that ‘something’ will see your like or your comment.

The act of liking a page. While you can hide the fact that you like a page, either by hiding the whole section or by quickly removing the action from your activity log, the initial like might show up somewhere. If the act of liking a page can get you into trouble, don’t like it. Read the next tip.

TIP: Facebook now tells you that “If you hide a section, individual stories can still appear on your Timeline, in News Feed and elsewhere on Facebook.” Change the word ‘section’ to just about anything that you do or share on Facebook and you’ll be well on your way to seeing that virtually nothing on Facebook is private. Even if it is private to your friends and the world at large, it is not private to employees of Facebook. OK?

Groups: 

If joining or starting a group will cause you problems, don’t do it. Group settings are up to the group admin and can be changed at any time. If being in a group threatens your privacy or home life, don’t join it.

The Answer to Facebook’s (Anti)-Privacy Settings: 

Start a fresh, anonymous profile, one that doesn’t reveal anything about the real you, and use it to enjoy everything you can’t hide on your real profile. Keep the new profile open in another browser and you can blithely click like or comment or post anything you want. You can relax and be your real self without harming anyone else. Go for it!

Facebook changes frequently. Keep up with these changes by Liking our Facebook page. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Thanks for reading!

 

Free Software, WeChat, WeChat, WeChat FAQ, Weixin

WeChat – Tips and Tricks and New Features Part 2

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Day two of WeChat tips and tricks. We’re using Version 5 for the iOS (Apple) so our photos might differ from yours but the basics should be the same.

How to block someone on WeChat

1. Go to your contact list and press on the profile of the person you want to block.

2. Look for the three dots up on the top right:

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 1
You can block from your contact list or from People Nearby. See the three dots?

2. After you press the dots, this will come up. Choose Block.

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 2
Choose block and then confirm it. That contact can’t see you now at all.

3.

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 3
See? They can’t send you a message and they won’t see your Moments. Cool huh?

 

Social is now named ‘Discover’. Look Around is now ‘People Nearby’. We kind of liked Look Around, it sounded cooler. 

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 4
Social is now Discover, Look Around is now ‘People Nearby’.

 

Sticker Shop is available from your profile page. 

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 5
Sticker Shop. Don’t expect too much.
Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 6
Maybe these names lost something when they were translated. We think we could do a better job.
Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 7
Are these worth spending money on? Really?

Sticker pricing isn’t bad but we can’t imagine anyone using these.

Photo of WeChat Tips and Tricks 8
Under a buck but underwhelming too.

 

That’s it for today. We don’t want to make these posts too long. You’re busy, it’s summer, we have a new Galaxy Tab 2 to test so we’re off to do that. Comments, questions, observations are all welcome.

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WeChat

WeChat – Tips and Tricks and New Features Part 1

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If you’ haven’t heard of WeChat (Weixin in China), you really should get out more! WeChat, put out by Tencent Holdings in Shenzhen, China, has taken most of the world by storm. Fast, fun and free, it’s undoubtedly the best way to keep in touch with friends by text, voice, video or even group video chat. Download the free app for your mobile device here:   WeChat website  Depending on your platform, WeChat’s features may vary somewhat, but if you use an Android or iOS product, you’ll get the best experience. WeChat is available for the following devices: Android, iOS (Apple), Windows, Blackberry,  and for Nokia S40/Symbian.

WeChat recently released updated versions for the Apple , Windows and Nokia devices. In this post, we’re going to give you a rundown of some of the new features on the iOS (Apple) platform. In our next few posts we’ll  show you some tricks to make your experience a bit more fun…and safe. Let’s go:

Photo of WeChat Version 5 5
WeChat is, indeed, the New Chat. It’s chat redefined.

1. In a blatant (and silly) attempt to make some money from WeChat, they’ve started to sell animated stickers from what they call ‘The Sticker Shop”.

Photo of WeChat Version 5 1
The Sticker Shop is available from your profile page. Groups of stickers are $0.99.

 

2. Version 5 for iOS allows you to save (copy) bits or chats or sections of the Moments that you see on WeChat.

Photo of WeChat Version 5 2
We’ll show you how this works in another post. Stay tuned!

3. We’re not sure how this next one works so we’ll have to investigate it a bit. Sometimes, probably because of the language difference, things are lost in translation. Looks like fun, however.

Photo of WeChat Version 5 3
Hold Together. We’ll let you know what we figure out.

4. Swipe and tap. If you’re in the middle of a few chats, you can now swipe to go back to the main chat menu or, better yet, tap Chats to go through open chats one by one.

Photo of WeChat Version 5 4
These two are handy if you chat with many people at the same time.

 

WeChat for Android, probably one of the biggest platforms for it, hasn’t be updated yet but we’ll be sure to share its new upgrade when it’s ready. Next time, we’ll take a look at some of the new stickers as well as some of the blocking systems that are in place. We get quite a few questions on the various privacy issues so we’ll try to clarify all of that for you.

Thanks for reading!