“Here’s the thing: With the miserable rise of nasty, inane, puerile, meaner-than-thou anonymous commenting on every media website in the world (see most of below), with the concomitant death of intelligent email correspondence and the end of the sacred author/reader bond, it turns out only Facebook is now offering the kind of connection most creative types I know dream of having with their audience.

“Which is to say: active, responsive, reasonably or even wildly intelligent, at least somewhat authentic, intimate, human.

“On Facebook, no one can hide behind fake names and rancid anonymous ideologies and sneering spittle-flecked right-wing Bill O’Reilly bulls–t, and if they try it, not only can you see who they are and just how sad and low their lives hang to make them behave that way, but FB makes it a snap to kick them to the digital curb, forevermore.”

Mark Morford, SF Gate columnist, from Me and my 5,000 Facebook friends