Take Back The Poke

Came across this on Mashable this morning – made me smile

I have a mission for you. One so lofty, so arduous, so utterly impossible that many of you may abandon the cause.

We’re going to reclaim the Facebook Poke. Why? For the same reason we climb mountains, cross seas and eat an entire pie in one sitting: Because it’s there.

Yes, since the inception of the social networking site, the mysterious option to poke friends has been available — and it hasn’t really changed since then.

In the early days of Facebook, a version of the FAQ noted that Mark Zuckerberg and Co. just wanted to create something with no real purpose.

That’s not really rational when you think about it. As Anton Chekhov said, “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.” Yup. A poke is basically equivalent to a loaded gun — an apt description, really, considering it’s become a kind of weird weapon over the years.

What started as a mere bauble has morphed into a tool only regularly used by utter and complete creepers. We conducted an online survey of a few hundred of our friends, fans and followers, and 55 percent banished poking to the realm of “ick.”

… read the full article on Mashable