Facebook - issues with, use of, anything about it....

[Petrushka]

Possibly not a fixed rule. I found this:

"We recommend sending friend requests to people you know in real life, such as your:
Friends.
Family.
Colleagues.
Classmates.
[...] To get updates in your News Feed from people you don't know personally (e.g. journalists, celebrities, political figures), try following them instead.
Note: We recommend only accepting friend requests from people you know. If you're getting unwanted or inappropriate friend requests, you can report the account or block them. "

I think the problem must have been that someone reported me.

This is precisely what I've done and all I ever thought it was intended to be. I only have family (and one or two of them have been blocked, such is life), friends, ex-work colleagues and former school friends in my list. I can't understand those people who have 500+ 'friends' as it's unreal and possibly asking for trouble.

[Dave2002]

That rule is news to me. My 'friend' list would be rather smaller if it were restricted to people I knew personally!

That's striking most of us round here off, then!

[french frank]

That's striking most of us round here off, then!

I think it's a question of "I know who you are, and you know who I am", even if we've never met. And a problem only arises if someone complains at receiving a friend request from someone they've never heard of. I misinterpreted the "Add friend" button as a sort of instruction . I didn't know I was asking them: Please will you be my friend .

[Petrushka]

One word of warning re friend requests: if you get a second request from someone already in your friend list you should ignore it as it's likely to be a scam.

[Bryn]

One word of warning re friend requests: if you get a second request from someone already in your friend list you should ignore it as it's likely to be a scam.

Yes, a very good point to make. Such fake duplicate requests have become more frequent. This is another reason to restrict the information about yourself you make available in your FB profile. No hacking of the supposed sender's account is involved. The sender just uses information gleaned from a FB genuine profile to set up a fake source.

[Ein Heldenleben]

On the other side you wouldn’t believe how useful Facebook is to journalists. It never ceased to amaze me how much personal stuff people put on it - third party medical information on their children and relatives for example. It’s also used a lot by HMRC when they ask self employed people who declare profits of £5,000 how they can afford the two week stay in a villa in Ibiza.

[richardfinegold]

[QUOTE=RichardB;921577]It would be regarded as quite eccentric if someone of my profession were to have no "social media presence" so I do use Facebook (with the third party FBP extension that removes advertising and other annoying things before I see them), both as a private individual and as a representative of my place of work. It has its annoying aspects, and one does need to bear in mind that while it appears to be free this is because one is the product and not the consumer, but apart from professional matters and the occasional rant (and no doubt for what one forum member has called my "interlectual masturbation") I use it to stay in contact with many far flung friends, I mean real friends not Facebook "friends". Earlier this year an old and dear friend living on the west coast of the USA passed away (not someone anyone on this forum would know or have heard of) and through FB I was able to exchange thoughts with him and send love and support until the very end. I can put up with a lot of social media unpleasantness to be able to do something like that.[/QUOTE
My mother just passed and I put a message in fb. Many people around the world that I had scant communication with in years reached out and fb is very useful in times like these. My fb postings are otherwise confined to groups that I have joined, one being a music site that was founded by BBM;with his passing I got sucked into being a moderator. Another is a Zoom book club that my wife and I participate in, in which I guess I have become a de facto moderator since no one else organizes the meetings

[Jonathan]

I regularly use Facebook and have no issues with it. I have over 1500 friends, many of whom are abroad and are fellow conchologists. I only accept requests from people who have more than 50 mutual friends or I have heard of. As Bryn said above, it's been great for staying in touch with old colleagues and friends.

[Serial_Apologist]

One word of warning re friend requests: if you get a second request from someone already in your friend list you should ignore it as it's likely to be a scam.

I hadn't realised that, having had a few of them - I thought they'd just forgotten we already were - so thanks for that warning!

[RichardB]

It’s also used a lot by HMRC when they ask self employed people who declare profits of £5,000 how they can afford the two week stay in a villa in Ibiza.

And by US immigration to point out to visiting musicians that there's an admission charge for concerts they're playing in, which makes it a commercial event not covered by the class of visa they were recommended to apply for by the (unfortunately somewhat clueless) concert organiser. I was nearly refused entry to the US a few months ago because of this. Resolving it required a phone call to said organisers to tell them they would have to make admission free.