Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[giraffe]

I suppose that famous people would be bombarded if it was open to anyone to contact them. It's one of those things I don't "get". What is the point of sending a message out saying what you had for breakfast or what you have just done, unless it is to someone you know? I'm too old for such new fangled things.

[Bunnylump]

Bit like facebook really. But just DON'T get me started on that!!

[MBH]

Does anyone use twitter? I'm not sure I get it.

I'm SURE I don't get it, but to be fair since I only hear about it in news articles and such I've not been tempted to look into it.

The 'messaging your followers' makes sense, and I suppose once a connection has been made then it can become two-directional.

Bit like facebook really. But just DON'T get me started on that!!

Don't get you started on Facebook? Why?? What would you do if you were there???

After another year or so since I last mentioned Facebook, I still can't see a purpose for it IN MY circumstances. It's been getting bad press as well (bullying, meetings gone wrong, etc) and it may be a personal thing for me but I don't really care what everyone else and their granny are getting up to in this way. I AM however a great promoter of Forums - where people come together because of a shared interest (or problem) and get to know each other through that.

My small concern is that by advertising and weight of numbers the 'majority' of us get pressurised into having and operating a Facebook account because it is SEEN to be the norm.

[giraffe]

Kingsley has a facebook, not that I've ever seen it. She says she was just about the only person at school that didn't, so got nagged into joining.

[dramaticat]

I was very resistant to Facebook at first. Ian was *recommended* to get an account by the university because apparently students don't read emails anymore - they only communicate on Facebook! So he had an account before me.

I can't remember why I took the plunge, but I do enjoy using it. It's one way to keep in touch with people I don't see very much and strangely to keep in touch with people I do see a lot of. I think the danger of it is, those people that use it a lot forget there are a lot of people that don't, so when they 'announce' something or ask for help with something, they forget that not everyone will see that message, as they would if an email was sent out to everyone (I'm thinking in terms of drama group stuff here).

I've never been tempted to tweet though.

[eirian]

I was resistent at first and got dragged onto it by a uni friend who was trying to organise a get-together, which never happened. I'm afraid it appeals to my nosiness - get to read what everyone's up to.
I am keeping in touch with more people than I would if I had to email everyone, and just as a lot of people aren't on facebook, so other people drop off forums, so I've kept in touch with people I'd've lost track of otherwise.

Afterall, you don't *actually* have to post anything about yourself. I will occasionally, but usually I just comment on other people's posts, or message them rather than emailing.
And it does mean we have some warning about what mood my work friends are in before we arrive at work! So can be useful as well!

[Bunnylump]

Well, there is a reason I'm so anti facebook. It all revolves around one of my son's stupid mates (who was drunk I expect) sending me a link to join up a club whose name I just can't post on here because it's too rude. I panicked (thinking I don't want THAT on my page) and clicked on it to try to get rid. What it actually did was to enrol me. All my friends got a message saying I'd joined the * **** ******* **** club. The first thing I knew about it was when one of my friends texted me to say she wasn't sure she liked me any more!!!!!!!! I haven't used it since...

If anyone really wants to know what it was called, pm me. But only ask if you're not shockable...

[Scurra]

I'm all in favour of Facebook. But then I've been around the 'web long ernough to remember AOL which did much the same thing - it kept the idiots out of "the real world".

Facebook does do one thing remarkably well, which is to mimic the effects of "group email" better than the real thing, which means that certain forms of communication that previously might be confined to round-robin letters can be enabled far more easily. There are a couple of downsides - that the "groups" don't really work properly* and that the site itself cannot function without some way of making money, and since it doesn't generate anything by itself** then it has to do it through its members which leads down some very dangerous avenues - creating more and more places for problems to occur. Not to mention that if you aren't on the site, you can't join a group - something which email doesn't suffer from.

Twitter has similar problems but its very nature means that it can't expand its services in the way that Facebook continues to do, which means that it is slightly more fondly regarded by those who use it. But this means it is even less financially viable as a service.

*Bunny's example is good, if flawed. If you get a message which says "join XXXXX click here", then the response "I don't want to do that, let me just click there" doesn't necessarily elicit much sympathy. It's a bit like saying "well, when it said "do you want a virus, click here", of course I clicked."

**the reason most of you are here is because we produce a magazine of puzzles which is an actual product that you purchase from us. The most exciting thing Facebook can offer is a bunch of games where you click on icons every day...

[Bunnylump]

The thing is that it didn't give me any option to just delete it. The thing I clicked on said something like "Information", which IMHO made it even MORE mean.

...and FYI I DON'T.

[Scurra]

The thing is that it didn't give me any option to just delete it. The thing I clicked on said something like "Information", which IMHO made it even MORE mean.

I refer the Honorable Lady to the point I made about virus emails. Just because you get a message doesn't mean you have to pay any attention to it. Especially if (a) you don't know where it is from and (b) you don' know what it is about.

[Bunnylump]

Yes, Dad. I know that NOW.

[MBH]

I'm afraid it appeals to my nosiness - get to read what everyone's up to.

I am SO glad you said that, because i was being diplomatic and not saying anything about the nature of the people who say they are on Facebook "all the time". How can they live their own lives if they're constantly looking to see what everyone else is doing?

**the reason most of you are here is because we produce a magazine of puzzles which is an actual product that you purchase from us. The most exciting thing Facebook can offer is a bunch of games where you click on icons every day...

This relates to the question I ask the users of Facebook I think I can get an intelligent response from - what DRIVES the visit to the site? I give the example of here, where returns are driven (demanded) by our interest in the mag puzzles, the self-created 'puzzles' (they are 'games' to us, but there would be a limited number of players in the wider world), and the friendships that have been generated by those things.

When I talk about DVP and the PuzzleBrains, I'm always told that we could have this group within Facebook and NOBODY sees the backward concept of "you don't want to be part of this but what you do could be incorporated" - why SHOULD it? What we do works quite happily where it is, thank you very much

[Bunnylump]

Hear hear!

If we (well, I) want to tell you all what I had for breakfast on here then that's fine. In fact, maybe we should use the "signature" bit in the user profile to "update our status"? It'd be JUST like facebook then.

(I AM joking btw, even if I did do it just this once )

[Scurra]

When I talk about DVP and the PuzzleBrains, I'm always told that we could have this group within Facebook and NOBODY sees the backward concept of "you don't want to be part of this but what you do could be incorporated" - why SHOULD it? What we do works quite happily where it is, thank you very much

I also tend to react similarly - I ask why I would want to have a group subsumed in someone else's private fiefdom (which is what Facebook is, let us not forget!) when we can roam free on the actual internet - and where people who [shock horror!] aren't actually members of Facebook can find us...

[Actually, this does raise issues about something called "net neutrality" - if some sites are treated more favourably than others because they can afford to pay extra fees, then there will be problems in the future with being an "independent" site, as opposed to a behemoth like Facebook. But I try not to worry about things like that, and nor should anyone else!)

[Bunnylump]

Phew, all this Facebook stylee status updating is hard work.

[eirian]

Yes, I have Facebook open most of the time. Well, I have this forum open as well - when I open Firefox, I open a set of tabs which include: BBC, my usual forums, facebook, conceptis, etc. These stay open. I will check the forums and facebook to see if any of my friends have said anything that I might like to respond to. In this way, I treat Facebook exactly the same way as I treat forums (except that it's less organised). I would post on facebook exactly as I would normally post on 'Today I've mostly bin...'. I certainly wouldn't (and none of my friends would either) tell everyone what I've had for breakfast!!
I don't play games on there, and block updates from applications so my news feed doesn't get clogged up.

I just don't see what the fuss is about. It isn't the only place I use to look to see what my friends are doing. It's exactly the same as our 'today I've mostly bin' thread. Yes, some people will post lots on there, and some people will only post a little (just like here, really). If one of your friends is posting all the time, and it annoys you, then either remove them as a friend, or just block their posts. You don't have to do all the other stuff. Just because some people use facebook as the rest of us use the whole web (to play games etc), doesn't mean that facebook is necessarily a bad thing.

It's like the internet as a whole. Some of my friends want to know why I spend so much time on it - isn't it better to get together with your friends in real life? Don't people on the internet spend all their time looking at porn? Well, no, we don't, do we! It's only what you make it. You don't have to visit the porn sites, just like you don't have to update your facebook status every 2 mins with useless bits of info.

It's just another way of keeping in touch with people. It's not an either /or option. You *can* use both facebook and other forums!

Facebook has it's role. Just like these forums have their role. Just like webcomics have their role. Just like the BBC has it's role.

I certainly wouldn't, however, ever say that facebook can replace forums like these. It's just not possible (or at least extremely hard) to have a discussion like this on facebook, but that doesn't mean facebook doesn't have any value.

[Laura]

However, it is possible for me, both my sisters and brother-in-laws, and mum, to discuss our plans for the trip to centreparcs, all chipping in as and when we happen to be on facebook, rather than sending crossing emails and getting very confused. I find it very useful for that. The last time we were all together was at new year. Then next time will be when we all arrive at centreparcs.

[dramaticat]

I find some of the games quite useful. Each turn only takes a few seconds to click on something, but I use them for taking mini-breaks from my work when my brain is getting clogged up and it's not time for a proper tea break yet.

I also play scrabble with a real live human being friend (not in real time obviously).

[Laura]

I tried that with my sisters. It got a bit nasty. There were many 'Come on!!! It's your turn!!!!' messages being flung around!

[LAT]

What I would like to know is - if I joined would the few people who were my friends on Facebook know how few friends I had? It feels safer here.
One of my sisters seems to spend time farming on it. The other sister doesn't even own a computer And as I think I've said before I'm sure my kids would ignore me.

In fact, how long has it been open to anybody to join? I'm sure when my daughter joined up it was limited to certain schools and Universities only. Or have I misunderstood that?