Obvious Inferences

If you have to use MySpace to keep in touch with certain friends (that is where they communicate, post their pictures, or ask you to read things they have written), you have probably become aware that all user pages show a "Last login:" date. Even if a user has their profile set to private, you can still view when their account was last logged in.

Let's say you've sent an email to a MySpace user. You are expecting a reply from that user. Now, obviously, in order to give you a reply that user is going to have to first log in to their MySpace account in order to read your message, and subsequently reply to it from within their account.

Rather than wondering how that whole process is coming along, we can draw some solid conclusions from the facts:

What DIDN'T happen while they were away...

The most informative thing we can learn from a user's "Last login:" date is what they didn't do while they were away. If they have not logged in since you last checked, you may infer that they have therefore also:

• NOT received recent messages / notifications to their account
• NOT replied to their messages
• NOT posted new pictures that you are missing out on