In the last few months Facebook has become one of the most talked-about social networking sites on the internet. The network, originally intended for US college students but now thoroughly infiltrated by the military (officer class only) and media (‘for research’), is also one of the fastest-growing networks of its kind. Once a critical mass of people you know have signed up, their evangelical zeal becomes irresistible and it’s only a matter of time before you’ll cave in too. Here is Times Online’s quick guide to hit the virtual ground running:

1: Read The Billy Goat Curse’s ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About Facebook’ . Mainly composed of nerdy Facebook hacks, no-one expects you to actually do them but dropping an airy reference to these tricks at a dinner party will attract dozens of acolytes eager to share your insider knowledge.

2: Get on the inside track with the CIA funding theory. Facebook’s sudden and apparently unsupported rise has led many bloggers – for example Josh Smith – to suggest that the network is in fact an elaborate data mining exercise by the Central Intelligence Agency. Certainly there isn’t a great deal of advertising on the site, which points to a questionable business model, but Facebook shares its unsustainability with dozens of other stars of the new web boom.

3: Make sure you follow established Facebook etiquette. Do upload a picture, don’t upload a picture in which you’re naked. Do message your friends, don’t try to ‘friend’ people that you’ve never met in the real world.

4: Use Greasemonkey to hack Facebook . It’s a little bit pointless, but once you’ve made online friends with all your real friends, there isn’t all that much else to do.

5: Keep up to date with what’s going on. Times Online runs the occasional story when the world of Facebook intersects with the real news agenda, but this handy page aggregates mentions of Facebook all over the web. When stories start drying up, it’s time to jump to the next big thing.

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