Facebook

[Russ]

Twitter is excellent for instant news, and interesting to see how much all the media players use it to announce their wares (see my previous post). I have found however it's not so good as a means of identifying 'similarly minded people' for specialist interest subjects, and that's where fora (like this) are far superior. Maybe FB is better for the specialist areas, but I've always been wary of FB for the security reasons others have mentioned, although I've no doubt these can be contained if you really know how the system can be worked.

[Globaltruth]

Twitter is excellent for instant news, and interesting to see how much all the media players use it to announce their wares (see my previous post). I have found however it's not so good as a means of identifying 'similarly minded people' for specialist interest subjects, and that's where fora (like this) are far superior. Maybe FB is better for the specialist areas, but I've always been wary of FB for the security reasons others have mentioned, although I've no doubt these can be contained if you really know how the system can be worked.

A neat summary. I've used Twitter increasingly for live coverage, am on Facebook, but only to prevent my name being used by one of the other 3 people in the UK who have it, and it is treated as a dormant account despite FB's frequent attempts to entice me back.

Personally I think FB is somewhere near its usage peak and will begin to tail off as people simply become bored and discover new tools/toys.
Which are already here, for example, in the shape of the smartphone - next time you're out and about notice how many people spend every possible second peering into that tiny screen, or typing into it (less and less actually using it as a phone), even when just walking down the street.

It's an addiction, far bigger than FB, long term effects unknown.

[Lateralthinking1]

I will never understand how Facebook took off as it did. It is so clunky, many of its functions seem slow or sporadic, and it just feels so vague.

My main point in writing though is to mention Google in this context. Is it me or has it gone seriously downhill this year? The bookmarks being on the right are one example. By far and away the worst of it for me though is the search engine. I can't stand the way you go to type something in on the centre of the screen and it suddenly pings to the top. You then have to reinforce the cursor. The same appears to have happened to You Tube.

As for Mcafee, half the functions never seem to work now, ie no visible warning traffic lights against the individual entries on the directory lists once a search has been made.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

[Frances_iom]

I

Has anyone had similar experiences?

turn off javascript (+ images), clear out all google cookies and set user-agent to "guess" then behaves as it always has - but you are correct in that it is now obvious that searches are biased by advertisers (at least for simple searches for consumer products)

ETA why use McAfee - well known resource hog

[Lateralthinking1]

Frances_iom - Thank you for this helpful advice. - Lat

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I will never understand how Facebook took off as it did. It is so clunky, many of its functions seem slow or sporadic, and it just feels so vague.

Friends Reunited was far more useful than FaceBook, yet the former has been largely eclipsed by the newer site. Rather than use FB, I would rather e-mail or phone a friend. I have very few FaceBook "friends" as I don't value my friends by their quantity.

[Lateralthinking1]

Yes Eine - funnily enough I have just re-established contact on Friends Reunited with someone who I last saw 30 years ago! - Lat.

[Roslynmuse]

My main point in writing though is to mention Google in this context. Is it me or has it gone seriously downhill this year? The bookmarks being on the right are one example. By far and away the worst of it for me though is the search engine. I can't stand the way you go to type something in on the centre of the screen and it suddenly pings to the top. You then have to reinforce the cursor. The same appears to have happened to You Tube.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

Google search - yes, absolutely. I also find the 'predictive' searching that seems to be the default setting both irritating and a waste of my time. I'm sure there is a way of turning this off but I've yet to find it.

I've resisted contributing to this thread before now. FB is something I've used for about four years, having tried a couple of other social networking sites before and not found a way of engaging in any meaningful interaction with anyone. FB is far from perfect, but I enjoy the banter with friends and getting in contact with (or being contacted by) long-lost acquaintances. I worry about its use by the younger end of the market, but on the whole the privacy settings have been effective enough for me and in four years I've only had a handful of mildly annoying intrusions (and nothing personal or dangerous) - far fewer than arrive in my email account, for example. I do think that any site (even this one) where one lets something of oneself (however anon- or pseudononymously) into the (semi-)public domain has risks as well as as benefits; the sheer scale of FB and size of its membership makes it impossible to police, however.

Incidentally, re Globaltruth's message above; registering your name will not prevent anyone else using your name (whether it's theirs or not) starting an account - I know several people with more than one account in the same name - to interact with different friend groups, for example, and have a couple of friends with the same names.

I've noticed FB being used in different ways over the last few years - subtle changes that probably reflect the changes introduced by FB itself (statuses, likes etc). I concur with whoever wrote about the frequently self-regarding status updates and also wonder how much energy is needed to keep all the uploaded photos etc accessible at any time - I'm sure I heard a radio programme (Costing the Earth) that reported 100 photos stored on the main FB database for a year burns the equivalent of a 40 watt lightbulb. Figures are probably wrong but the principle was sufficiently shocking for me to avoid uploading photos for public consumption - not that I would anyway!

Edit: have now seen frances_iom's instructions re Google - many thanks.

[Panjandrum]

It seems that the only way to get a response from the R3 hierarchy is via its facebook page. One irate listener has been venting his frustrations at the new Breakfast format. Petroc Trelawny, for it is he, responded with: "You're not yet convinced by this new format are you?"

[Globaltruth]

It seems that the only way to get a response from the R3 hierarchy is via its facebook page. One irate listener has been venting his frustrations at the new Breakfast format. Petroc Trelawny, for it is he, responded with: "You're not yet convinced by this new format are you?"

It's hardly a place for active discussion though - I've just had a quick look, last discussion took place about a week ago (and generally looks as if it is a place haunted by trolls), latest NOTES entry is from 2010, they haven't even configured the part where sample tracks can be played.

It is also set up so that the Twitter feed is the same as the FB feed - meaning that this is automated.

So, the justification for closing down the old MB's (we're going to embrace the New Social Media) is hardly supported by the lacklustre reality...

Having said that, a couple of the regular FB commenters are on fairly perceptive and acerbic form, and I'm hoping may be refugees from this place ?

[BBMmk2]

I am on Facebook and I have posted my displeasure on the wall of R3.

[Flosshilde]

the smartphone - next time you're out and about notice how many people spend every possible second peering into that tiny screen, or typing into it (less and less actually using it as a phone), even when just walking down the street.

I already have - constantly having to side-step someone who isn't looking where they're going, meandering along, getting in the way.

[Anna]

What did I do wrong with FaceBook? I joined, clicked the thumbs-up icon for the R3 site, posted, could read my posts when logged in but no-one else could see them. So I removed them and deleted my account in a fit of pique! I had all the settings to Public so does that page have a pre-mod time delay like the old R3 MB and was I queued up in it? <confused emoticon>

[David Underdown]

Pages can be set up so that be default you only see posts made by the page adminstrators, not hoi polloi, check below the comment box. There's no moderation that I'm aware of though

[Panjandrum]

Facebook is set up so that you can filter by most recent posts or by most popular. You may need to check your filter setting.

I see cavatina is posting again on the R3 page.