Friendsters and fakesters explained and exposed

Friendster and other US-based social networking and dating sites are explored in an article available on iWire. Researcher Danah Boyd, interviewed by the New York Times, says the 3.9 million registered site users are not all they seem. There are Pretendsters and Fakesters.
In addition "Ms. Boyd has found the site populated by a variety of subcultures: a large contingent of gay men from New York City, the Bay Area's Burning Man scene, ravers in Baltimore. Porn queens and venture capitalists share the site with neo-Nazis and garden-variety hipsters. Most users are in their 20's and 30's. Many are overseas, particularly in Asia."
More seriously interesting is the discussion of the relationships between the real world architecture of our social networks, and those offered by sites like Friendster, including email, profiles and ways of connecting your, your friends, and friends friends. Danah Boyd suggests that social software like Friendster collapses our networks in ways we're not used to.