I wholeheartedly agree!   In fact, isn't there anything that can be done to "wall off" FB at the Aussie & NZ virtual borders?   If Zuckerberg wants to be a dick, prevent him from making any $$ from it's citizens?

Um, that's not necessarily so for first timers who do not know where to look for such settings, tools and filters.  It was my first and only time on Facebook, but before I could go back to tweak things my inbox was filling up faster than I could empty it.... over 700 emails in just hours... and more of the same the next day.

Most people don't, but according to some people I've spoken with since then, they also got bombarded within hours of joining with hundreds of emails asking if they knew this or that person.... and then there was the Facebook generated spam advertising various things as well.   It seems, then, that some folk are singled out for the spam and others aren't.

In any event, Zuckerberg is an egotistical bully whose greed knows no bounds, and if he does not want to play by our rules then he can piss off and DCB [don't come back]

WYSIWYG ...

This didn't last long: Facebook reaches an agreement with Australian government, will unblock news in the country.

We don't tend to take crap from anyone.

I think he saw we were just the beginning of a lot more grief.  Other countries were looking at him too.

bombarded by emails; until I shut them off. 

A long time ago internet providers tried suing cable companies, for kicking them off the their cable, and providing their own internet. They lost. Look at things nowadays. Things are starting to change again. What’s next YouTube. News today, tomorrow avatars... why stop there. This is precedence for more stuff, more countries. Well the internet is changing again. Enjoy. 

It was a while ago now [perhaps 10 years ago] and I seem to recall that there were no obvious settings or controls to regulate emails on the sign-up page, just what personal information was displayed online, etc.  I think the email filters/controls came a bit later. 

Anyway, it doesn't matter to me anymore, I simply don't go there.

I signed up in 2008. It would be nice to put options on the set up page, but I’ve never seen that. You would have to had gone to your page with all your information. It would have been by your picture, but it has gotten easier to find over the years. For many years people didn’t usually fill out their information. I guess you have to prioritize looking for these things. A bunch of emails was incentive for me. Brad is talking about making a social network site. This would probably be a good idea for that. To make the options easier to find.

Exactly!!!!!  The email filters and other user preferences should be easier to find and should probably be a part of the sign-up page.  Back when I signed up these were not obvious and not easy to find.  Furthermore, as a naive, first time user back then, one was not expected to know about all the privacy concerns, nor the issues with emails being sent by the hundreds, so why would one have needed to go searching for filters and settings to exclude them?

If Brad does eventually build a social network site I may actually sign up because he would implement a more user friendly format than others like Facebook and Twitter, neither of which I'd bother to visit.