I just ****canned my account. That was liberating

Facebook Internetwankiness.

Closed mine an hour ago, glad to be rid of it.

i've never knowingly entered my real name onto a site that hosts photos of myself.

those that know me know what i look like so the need for photo tags is irrelevant.

there are no pictures of me in my profile pics.

i spend all of 2 minutes a month on FB.

i really think that it is a sad reflection of the times that so many people feel they need contact with so many other people they met one evening on a night out in Swindon.

I think it's a sad reflection of the times that folk are worried about their own name being linked with photo they appear in!

Not that it matters alpin, because your friends can always tag you in photos anyway.

Oh and most of my facebook friends are lifelong pals that I've known since school, uni or my first job.

your friends can always tag you in photos anyway.

And therein lies the problem. These people who are your friends….are they really "friends" or are they Faceache friends? You have no say over who "tags" you on this pathetically sad excuse of a "networking" site.

For real social interaction, try a phone. Try meeting your (real) friends face to face. Try actually speaking to people.

When it searches your hotmail and email account for friends does it add everyone or can you choose from a list?

You have no say over who "tags" you on this pathetically sad excuse of a "networking" site.

a) you choose who you friend
b) you can untag yourself

When it searches your hotmail and email account for friends

you can prevent it from doing that in the first place!

And therein lies the problem. These people who are your friends….are they really "friends" or are they Faceache friends?

Most of mine are real friends that I've known for years, decades even.

For real social interaction, try a phone. Try meeting your (real) friends face to face. Try actually speaking to people.

How are you going to show me your latest baby pictures on the phone?

Should I buy a plane ticket to Switzerland everytime i want to catch up with an old mate?

Why is frequently chatting with people online AND seeing them when I can, less sociable than not chatting to them and seeing them when I can??

+2 zaskar

And I'm genuinely anti-social so social networking sites don't really appeal to me. Why I'm half-glued to this site is beyond me. Oh yes, you're IT bike nerds like me.

Not sure I get you john?

what I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure I'd want my boss – or any of my colleagues, for that matter – knowing if I was looking for a new job.

I'm being very obvious at work that the drumming thing is a hobby, but if something strange were to get into the water coolers at a major record label and the A&R people actually left that London, and said record company were to offer the band a multi-million dollar record deal, then things might just change 😉

"wake up Mr Mitty"

technically I am on "linkedin" but as soon as I saw one of my colleagues on there I dropped it like a hot potato

Yeah but john, firstly any communication on linkedin isn't public. It's not facebook. No one posts "Congratulations on your interview" on your wall or anything.

Secondly, I don't think there is anything wrong with appearing employable and having an up to date online cv. I'd rather that than be taken for granted.

Plus it's not just about jobs. Say my company wants to start a contract with a new client. I can check my contacts and I might see that I know someone that knows someone that works there or has workef there in the past.

Mind you, i suppose it depends on your cv. Mine is quite keyed towards the industry I am in.

If yours says something like "John is an award-winning drummer, with these drumming qualifications, capable of a sustained samba rhythm at 100bpm for up to ten minutes at a time. Footniote: John is currently employed as a accountant, but would be out of there in a flash if a decent gig comes along" then I could see why you might be worried that it sends the wrong message to workmates. 🙂

I see where you're coming from Graham, but I'm wary of putting my CV where my manager could see it for fear of the "oh he's looking to leave, let's help him on his way" kind of thing.

the thing that pays for my mortgage is IT – I'm a developer in an in-house IT team, in a European sub-team, of a global door manufacturer headquartered in the USA; the music is a hobby, and I realised 20 years ago that it would never be anything but a hobby

But it works both ways – the programming language we use is very much of a niche, so there aren't many potential replacement developers in the local market if any of us decided to leave; on the other hand, there aren't many places locally for us to leave & go to…

"the programming language we use is very much of a niche"

And yet if you have experience of any two programming languages you can learn any others very quickly. [except prolog]

true enough, but try getting any employer to believe that

"yes, i have 20+ years experience of Cobol* programming"

" ah but we're looking for someone under 40 with 30 years of Pascal** programming experience"

* for example
** silly example, nobody uses Pascal these days. Do they?

I'm a software engineer too John. In my experience it's not really the kind of job where you work for the same company for 45 years then retire.

Movement is expected.

If you're in a niche then there may well be people crying out for someone with your experience who are already searching linkedin and not finding you.

I'm wary of putting my CV where my manager
could see it for fear of the "oh he's looking to
leave, let's help him on his way" kind of thing.

The response could equally be: "Shit john is looking to leave. We'll never find someone to replace his skillset. Maybe we should give him a raise."

Besides, having a linkedin profile doesn't mean you are actively seeking a new job. It's just a professional online presence: "I'm Graham, here is my experience, qualifications and contacts."

Job offers may possibly come from it, but it's essentially passive and not the same thing as dropping your CV into a recruitment agency.

did my head in tbh, constant emails notifying me of some ramblings from people I barely spoke to 20 years ago at school

started deleting 'friends' about 6 weeks in and then thought while I'm at it I'll get rid of the whole thing

I keep in touch with the important people the old fashioned way's

This is a bit weird – I must have a different version on facebook. in mine i choose who my friends are, who sees what on my profile, don't get any annoying emails and the people on my friends list are actual friends of mine. for example, i know that SFB is a friend of a friend, but he's not my friend, so why would i hunt him down to my my virtual friend (no offense). my 3 best friends live in Brisbane, Tokyo and LA so FB is a great way to stay in touch and see what they're doing, and yes, we also talk on the phone. I suppose if your best mates live in the same street it will have less relevance. maybe the ones moaning about FB were really hoping that it would help them find some friends full stop and the disappointment is tangible?

facebook?

I'm with idave – I think I registered with a different version of Facebook. the vast majority of people I am friends with are people I have met physically. I won't add anyone I have not met and will hide anyone who posts crap about crap.

I've got friends all round the world and the UK and its a great way of seeing what they are doing and sharing what I am up to.

My privacy settings are clamped down as tight as tight can be and it makes me smile that a lot of people don't do the same.

What really worries me is places like Sainsbury, Tesco, Amazon and other organisations that have much more information on my habits and are seemingly less in the public eye for scrutiny. Who regulates what they do with the data you collect??? The DPA only covers general rules and guidelines and are open for interpretation. Other industries which are often in the public eye such as the Credit Reference Agencies and the Finance sector have robust rules around what they can and can't do but some organisations hold a hell of a lot more "useful" information which are not governed in the same way – that really concerns me. Not Facebook where I have control over what is added.

I view facebook like a blog. You should assume everything you put online is public. Even if it were 'secure' what happens when one of your friends accounts gets hacked because their password is weak?

It is a social website. If you have something private you don't want others to know, then dont post on the internet!

I think the privacy settings are absolutely fine, if you want a private conversation with someone…pick up the phone!!!

All this need for more privacy milark will just end up with facebook being a sunken ship a bit like what BEBO became…

I think the privacy worry is slightly more subtle than just conversations though.

Lets say I "Like" on the HuffyPost or I share a link to an interesting story on the BBC.

Now my mate comes along and "Like"s something on some other website. By pressing that Like button he is not only giving that site access to his Facebook profile, but (with the "recommended" settings) my profile too. So that website now knows my name, email, and that I read HuffyPost and the BBC.

The new Facebook Graph stuff means that loads more website will be featuring Like and Share buttons in the very near future.

And….

Bearing in mind the info collected as we go about our lives outside the virtual world I don't see this is really a worry any more than using my nectar card in shops.

Yes but if I use a Nectar card then it doesn't also tell them what my mates buy.

Personally, I find the idea of a stranger (be they male or female) masturbating while looking at photos of me quite exciting 🙂

simonfbarnes – Member

If you're scared of FB perhaps you need to lie down in a darkened room…

However, if you are scared of SFB, that's entirely rational and normal. 🙂

@deadlydarcy

That is a real LOL.

Tesco clubcard annoys me. They know what products I consistently buy so why do they discontinue them?

I canned mine a couple of weeks ago. I have to say it feels good.