Do you Facebook?

[Dundonnell]

You can be cynical and dismissive about it if you like....I know that I was

But I have chatted to friends from this site on Facebook and had really heart-warming messages sent to me via Facebook recently I have found friends I had lost touch with and renewed old acquaintances

I think that it's great

[karlhenning]

I have a great time there, too, Colin!

[Bulldog]

I voted No - no interest.  After reading the postings on this thread, I can't think of anything I would use it for.

[Heather Harrison]

Facebook is just another website that I don't have a lot of time for.  The main reason I use it is that I have a few friends who use it actively and are hard to keep in touch with otherwise.  If I want to try to reach them, Facebook is the easiest way.  Other than that, I don't have much use for it or other websites like it.

Heather

[Dundonnell]

Maybe my membership says something about the kind of friends I keep then?

[Kullervo]

I'm actually very glad to be able to talk to my friends here at GMG in another sphere of the internet. The anonymous nature of many internet forums makes me uncomfortable in a way.

[Dundonnell]

Yes, it's nice to be able to put a face and a further bit of personality to an internet friend

[Sarastro]

No.
Should I give it a try? maybe...one day.

[Renfield]

As all of you who have received my invitations are aware, I just had a reasonably thorough look through Facebook for fellow members of the forum to add.

If I've missed anyone who'd like to be in my friends list, send me a PM and I'll add you.

(And of course, if any of you I've presently reached do not want to be in my friends list, you are very much entitled to decline the offer.)


Colin (Dundonnell), you're one of those I missed - mainly because I don't know your last name.

There's quite a few Colins around these parts!

[Diletante]

I use Facebook ocasionally. I seldom put up photos, but I sometimes write on the walls of friends. It's actually a great tool to keep in touch with former classmates, many of which are studying/living in other countries.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

I met some people from all over the world I lived together for 4 months when I was younger. But I don't like to concentrate my personal communication on facebook and the likes.
I used to be a PGP/GPG veteran also in Usenet, but unfortunately encryption turned out to be too complicated to my fellow citizens. I resigned.
Today they offer all their emotions and personal data to machines, tomorrow they are surprised their data have been abused/ are widely available/ whatever.
Fact is this: At the moment personal data have been converted into bits and bytes, it's only a question of time to have them available for anyone.
People are like sheep.

[karlhenning]

Generally, people are like people more than they are like sheep.

[jlaurson]

I could understand it if Facebook were a useful tool like, say, LinkedIn or even MySpace (both of which actually make a hell of a lot more sense to me), but it just seems like a mindlessly trivial way to waste a few hours. Usually, on employer's time. Perhaps that's the point ...

If you understand the utility of Linkedin and MySpace, then I don't understand how you don't see the utility of Facebook... which has come to be something right between the two: A social utility network (or some such thing) that can be used professionally, or purely socially, or - although with a tad of difficulty - for both. MySpace is unacceptable, visually, aurally (blurting out unrequested tunes when surfing upon someone's s**tty little page), and content-wise. Pimply teenagers and fanclubs. Linkedin would be neat, but it's not really doing the job for most people...

On Facebook one can share inane matters, but one need not. And one can be kept updated of other's inane matters, but one need not. (That's where the very detailed privacy settings come in handy.) If one doesn't install some of the dumb features that are really just Trojan horses for (innocent) spam, and if one ignores all these "invites" one is bound to get from indiscriminating friends (one could un-friend them, of course), it's not much a bother at all. And depending on how many people of one's circle of acquaintances are on it, it can become extremely useful as a communications tool. Or for sharing articles without bombarding their inboxes. The primary reason why Facebook doesn't suck would be - in my book - that to a large extend Facebook is for you what you allow it to be and make of it... Social-twittering time-waster or professional, interactive rolodex.

[karlhenning]

Nicely done, Jens.

[Dundonnell]

If you understand the utility of Linkedin and MySpace, then I don't understand how you don't see the utility of Facebook... which has come to be something right between the two: A social utility network (or some such thing) that can be used professionally, or purely socially, or - although with a tad of difficulty - for both. MySpace is unacceptable, visually, aurally (blurting out unrequested tunes when surfing upon someone's s**tty little page), and content-wise. Pimply teenagers and fanclubs. Linkedin would be neat, but it's not really doing the job for most people...

On Facebook one can share inane matters, but one need not. And one can be kept updated of other's inane matters, but one need not. (That's where the very detailed privacy settings come in handy.) If one doesn't install some of the dumb features that are really just Trojan horses for (innocent) spam, and if one ignores all these "invites" one is bound to get from indiscriminating friends (one could un-friend them, of course), it's not much a bother at all. And depending on how many people of one's circle of acquaintances are on it, it can become extremely useful as a communications tool. Or for sharing articles without bombarding their inboxes. The primary reason why Facebook doesn't suck would be - in my book - that to a large extend Facebook is for you what you allow it to be and make of it... Social-twittering time-waster or professional, interactive rolodex.

Perfectly expressed

[Dundonnell]

As all of you who have received my invitations are aware, I just had a reasonably thorough look through Facebook for fellow members of the forum to add.

If I've missed anyone who'd like to be in my friends list, send me a PM and I'll add you.

(And of course, if any of you I've presently reached do not want to be in my friends list, you are very much entitled to decline the offer.)


Colin (Dundonnell), you're one of those I missed - mainly because I don't know your last name.

There's quite a few Colins around these parts!

You have found me now though, Eugene

[Brian]

Jed Distler rejected my friend request.

[Kullervo]

Jed Distler rejected my friend request.

Don't feel too bad. Facebook wouldn't let me change my middle name to Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel. 

[PSmith08]

Jed Distler rejected my friend request.

Must not be a CT advertiser, then.

[Sarastro]

Don't feel too bad.

Sure don't. I think it's silly to feel bad about such a virtual event...it's even silly to feel bad after a "friend request rejection" (if it can be called so) in real life.

One of my friends has deleted his facebook account. Knowing him...I won't create mine now for sure.





PS: wow, Mozilla underlines facebook! yayks it underlines Obama as well...they must adjust the new version...along with the new names in history.