The end of Facebook ?

[stewart38]

Facebook last month shed 6 million users in the US and lost 100,000 in UK, Canada and Russia Norway mainly around privacy issues

I notice I am getting more and more e-mail notifications around stuff I never previously got

I’m sure there is ways of stopping this ??

Does this mean people will come back on here ?

[meghann]

Hooray (I don't like Facebook, but unfortunately everyone else uses it so I'm on it... :doh

I notice I am getting more and more e-mail notifications around stuff I never previously got

I’m sure there is ways of stopping this ??

To turn off notifications:

1. Click on 'Account' then 'Account settings' in the top right corner
2. Click on the 'Notifications' tab
3. Deselect everything. (Or you can be more picky and just deselect what you want.)
4. Click the 'Save changes' button at the bottom

[Andy McGregor]

Hooray (I don't like Facebook, but unfortunately everyone else uses it so I'm on it...

Recently I've been using facebook a bit more - it's a great way to find out what your friends are up to. But you do have to wade through a load of other stuff to get to their news - for example, there's hardly a screen where I don't read that a particular WCS teacher is the best teacher, running the bestest event/workshop/class/new class where you need to get tickets quickly before they're all gone - if I scroll down the screen they seem to come up again and again, like speed bumps!

One organiser put so much on facebook and cluttered up my screen and email in-box I actually unfriended them.

[Yliander]

One organiser put so much on facebook and cluttered up my screen and email in-box I actually unfriended them.

think we have all done that at some point - I geneally just remove them from my news feed rather than unfriendt hem - as then I can keep up with gossip if I want to

[TheTramp]

One organiser put so much on facebook and cluttered up my screen and email in-box I actually unfriended them.

Just the one? I've unfriended at least 6 people for this so far. And another couple more are coming close to being on the way out.....

[David Bailey]

Just the one? I've unfriended at least 6 people for this so far. And another couple more are coming close to being on the way out.....

Hold on, I'm not even sure if we're friends or not

I remember a conversation with one forumite a while back who told me she'd defriended me, so there. (For being too mean, apparently - moi?). And my response was "Oh. OK."

As for Facebook, the way I see it, there's always a natural saturation level for these things. At the moment, it's useful and helpful for me. But I'm certainly open to other possibilities.

I've even got myself a Twitter account

[meghann]

I've even got myself a Twitter account

Are you finding it useful? Despite being a nerdy geek and part of the computer generation I don't seem to have quite grasped social networking....

[David Bailey]

Are you finding it useful? Despite being a nerdy geek and part of the computer generation I don't seem to have quite grasped social networking....

Not yet - but it's like anything, you need to build up some credibility.

The way I'll approach this is that I'll attempt to only tweet stuff which I think may be of interest - class notes, useful links, upcoming events and so on.

But I don't think Stephen Fry needs to lose any sleep quite yet.

[Prian]

I don't seem to have quite grasped social networking....

I'm not an avid user but would be nice to hook up Prian Gunasena @ FB

[David Bailey]

Oh, and as a "general policy" thing, I only ever advertise my events to people who are part of the Facebook group I set up specifically for those events. I figure that if they didn't want to get all the latest (fascinating ) news, they wouldn't have joined the group - or they can leave it of course.

The slight downside to that approach is that if someone does leave, I may inadvertently re-invite them to join, without realising that they left in the first place...

[DavidY]

I notice I am getting more and more e-mail notifications around stuff I never previously got

I’m sure there is ways of stopping this ??

To turn off notifications:

1. Click on 'Account' then 'Account settings' in the top right corner
2. Click on the 'Notifications' tab
3. Deselect everything. (Or you can be more picky and just deselect what you want.)
4. Click the 'Save changes' button at the bottom

The other thing I find is that the new Groups default to sending lots of notifications when people post. Also people can just add you to a group, but you might not want to be in that group or even associated with it in the first place.

So I definitely leave the notification switched on for when someone 'Adds you to a group'. But go into 'Change email settings for individual groups' and switch off most of those. Unfortunately I don't think you can set a default policy for group emails.

[meghann]

The other thing I find is that the new Groups default to sending lots of notifications when people post. Also people can just add you to a group, but you might not want to be in that group or even associated with it in the first place.

So I definitely leave the notification switched on for when someone 'Adds you to a group'. But go into 'Change email settings for individual groups' and switch off most of those. Unfortunately I don't think you can set a default policy for group emails.

What really bothers me is the fact that you can't stop people from adding you to groups without your permission. And you can't stop people answering questions about you on that app where you answer question about friends. Great for bullies, though.though.

[Lynn]

What really bothers me is the fact that you can't stop people from adding you to groups without your permission.

You can leave though and no-one can add you again as it asks...

Are you sure you want to leave this group? This will also prevent members from re-adding you.

And you can't stop people answering questions about you on that app where you answer question about friends. Great for bullies, though.though.

You can hide the app though and then you never see it. I don't think half the time that people are actually answering questions anyway, most of those apps seem to be spammy things that just post on people's walls randomly...

I hide all those sort of apps, and all the 'games' that people have in their newsfeeds - so I just see photos, changes in status etc. I also hide anyone who just uses their status updates to advertise stuff, or posts loads of status updates every day.

[ChrisB]

And Google+ has arrived at just the right time to take advantage. Based on how it's growing, I think Facebook will become the new MySpace in a couple of years, and not a moment too soon

[DavidY]

And Google+ has arrived at just the right time to take advantage. Based on how it's growing, I think Facebook will become the new MySpace in a couple of years, and not a moment too soon

But is Google+ really growing? Sure, lots of people may have accounts, but are they actually doing anything with them?

To my mind, counting Google+ accounts is, at the moment, like counting all the people who went into the "igloo" at the last Southport. Lots of people wandered in, but most of them saw nothing to keep them there, and wandered out again. Very few people stayed long to dance...

I'd be interested to know what the advantages of Google+ over Facebook are? I can see this argument is important to some people, of course...

[DavidY]

Having said all that - I've just noticed that Facebook have changed something again (the Chat system this time).

They really don't like to leave things unchanged for more than 10 minutes, do they?

[Lee Bartholomew]

I write facebook apps and am subscribed to the facebook developers forums (both forum like this and the one that is more like a real life forum) so i get to find out about all the changes FB make before they come out (sometimes a few days before they come out, sometimes a few months)

Facebook is still making alot of changes to it's platform. Just recently they changed the API's developers used for the open graph system.

One of the things facebook has introduced is open graph meta tags which can be used in normal websites. For those who are less tech, it means that soon FB will be in the position to provide web searches, not just on the level of Google, but beyond that !!!!!!

Something else facebook is publicly announcing soon (though it has been out there for some time) is it's own branded mobile phones (ATM seems they will be HTC's Running a version of android) and laptops (same o/s as phones)

With regards to security, FB has ballsed it up a little, but then again there is a fine line between being an open social network and privacy. If you were to go and post your information up on a public notice board in the town center, you would be careful of what you post on there, so if people are too stupid to do the same on a world wide noticeboard, who is to blame??

As to groups etc, the current group way of just being added to a group without permission was wrong and again not thought out. Us as dancers, are likely to be added to more of venue x's groups than non dancers who are not part of an event filled hobby like ours. For these non dancers, the groups thing works. This is all due to change again, and FB are pushing more toward pages than groups, which work better anyway for events and organizers as they are customizable etc.

The main problems with pages though is that people just join them. My page for our Westies classes has over 350 likes. This Westies page states that it is for dancers who come to our classes. If people then still click like, then they can't (although still do) moan when I send an update to them about an event 100 miles from where they are. So again, if you do not want 100's of event invites etc, don't go liking random pages for the sakes of it !!!!


If you want to play with facebook features before they come out, go to http://beta.facebook.com this is the site us developers use but is not always working

The only advantage google+ has over FB is that your parents are not on there

[ChrisB]

But is Google+ really growing? Sure, lots of people may have accounts, but are they actually doing anything with them?

To my mind, counting Google+ accounts is, at the moment, like counting all the people who went into the "igloo" at the last Southport. Lots of people wandered in, but most of them saw nothing to keep them there, and wandered out again. Very few people stayed long to dance...

I'd be interested to know what the advantages of Google+ over Facebook are? I can see this argument is important to some people, of course...

I think there are several. At the most basic level people want to share (and hide) with specific groups and I'm forever asked how to do it. Sure there are friend lists but they came along much too late and here it is the core of the design. I think the experience is fairly empty if you've got the whole world watching your every move. As the thing becomes more and more bloated, it is turning into another MySpace and everyone will be off searching for the next cool thing. We are a fickle bunch when it comes to social networking and this recycle happens time and time again. In my experience Facebook is now a mass of spam, viruses, pointless games etc and is actually getting quite unpopular but all people have. They are in the bottom 5% customer satisfaction companies in the world because of their bad takes on privacy and I think Google are a respected company that people trust more (whether that's wise I'm not sure) In terms of numbers, I'm sure only a small percent of Facebook are heavily active too and the rest playing voyeur. G+ has group webcam; admittedly a little geeky but sure to be quite popular. It brings Twitter into the same experience and will be integrated with the whole of Google. Having personalised news from their search capabilities and sharing it, Google Docs and various other free stuff that I don't think Facebook can do as well. Also the world is going mobile and with them having half of that market share they can really make strong headway there too. I don't think it can be undermined that it is growing about as fast as Facebook at its very peak while still in invite only.

[Yliander]

I've been playing around with Google + for about a week now. And so far not really bonded with it, but know enough people on there that going to stick wtih it and see how it develops.

the one thing I DON'T like about Google+ is that people can add me to one of their groups with out my permission which to me seems kinda like someone adding you as a friend on facebook with out asking your permission.

[Twirly]

the one thing I DON'T like about Google+ is that people can add me to one of their groups with out my permission which to me seems kinda like someone adding you as a friend on facebook with out asking your permission.

Can they though? I've added a few people, you included, and I don't think I can see you until you've also added me, as I get an email when you've done so. Am not 100% certain about this as I've not been on there enough to monitor it. It seems that adding someone to your circle is a bit like a friend's request on FB. For example, I've added you, you've added me and so I can see your profile/wall thing. I've added Lynn, but she's not replied yet, so I can't see anything on her G+ wall (but I can't be certain whether there is actually anything there or not - so not the best test!). I'm finding it slightly confusing at the moment.

At the moment, it's so quiet that I'm not checking it very much, but am still looking at FB each day as there's more to see going on. However I'm also not posting much on either as I'm too busy and don't have anything that I think will be of any interest to anyone else/amusing.