Not that I actually understand what to do with it…but it seemed the logical thing to do, since Jane’s on it and Lynn is. The first appearance of things on the Wall was pretty daunting. There’s a lot of completely random stuff. A lot…
But if any of you are on Facebook, I’m now out there. One of these days I’ll have to get a pic up. Right now I’m Sally Generic and have no Facebook face at all.
Welcome to FB. It’s a fun way to waste a LOT of time… as my wife, kids, and law practice have found.
😆 it’s amazingly chaotic.
Indeed, it is a sad day, particularly in light of the recent Wall Street Journal investigation, but more generally because you’re giving away your IP on anything put up on the Face Hook, and giving away all sorts of control of your privacy.
Actually Jane, Lynn, and I are on it for one reason: to let people know we’re out here. We won’t be too participatory on it, except to direct people to our websites, which in turn direct them here, if they’re interested to follow that link, which will in turn advise them that there is far more to be found than is apparent on FB. We ARE people who want to be found—but the real honest ‘stuff’ is always going to be here: WWAS is MINE, as FoC is Lynn’s and C&L is Jane’s. Here we can be honest, and talk to friends and make jokes without having them taken out of context. FB is way too much like standing up in a riot and waving a placard for attention.
We are HERE, my friends, and that’s the way it will be.
What David said. Always figure that whatever you put up on FB is public info, regardless of your privacy settings.
FB can be used different ways. (1) to allow friends, family and others keep up with my life and how I’m doing in real time; (2) to promote oneself in a professional or commercial way; (3) to keep up with others. Of course, there are games and other sorts of apps you can explore.
As for me, follow my FB profile if you want a feel for me as a person. Follow my blog if you want to know me professionally. In your case, Carolyn, you already have a blog; we keep up with you both personally and professionally. But it would increase your exposure and could direct folks here.
It’s just a tool. A cool tool, however. My numerous nieces, nephews, son, everyone of a younger generation finally started to pay attention to me and I could have a peek into their lives via FB. (My son told me that “email is soooo 1990s!”)
Perhaps the biggest reason to use FB is because everyone else is there! 😉
Welcome to the dark side 😉
Actually it’s a great way to keep in touch, especially those out of town. I’ve reconnected with a cousin I haven’t seen in 30 years, which is quite cool. Ignore the random crap.
It works–I understand 40% of the UK population is now on Facebook. Obviously, you’re keeping a low profile, but my Facebook e-mail is herwin@btinternet.com
Welcome to FB! As the only member of my family in the US I use it to keep in touch with the rest of the mob in Australia, England, and occasionally Indonesia and Thailand.
It’s also handy for keeping up with my favourite author(s).
Be *VERY* careful to set each of your privacy settings, individually, to exactly what you want (and no more). Facebook will, by default, share a lot more information than you think (and probably more than you want) unless you work your way through the “privacy settings” pages to set them in the way that will be most useful to you. The problem isn’t even so much other people (or a zillion “friends”) — it’s info-gathering ‘bots. A good guide is here: http://www.sophos.com/security/best-practice/facebook/contact-information.html.
I maintain two Facebook pages: one in my own name, that I keep very private to people I personally know, and who likely wouldn’t mind knowing about each other. I have, like, nine friends — that’s it. Here, I comment and post links I think my friends would be interested in — and assume everything I say will be public.
The other page is in my husband’s name, so that people who have heard of him or his work can locate him and follow a link to his professional website. It allows no friends; and the “profile” information is filled in very judiciously, limited to material suitable for a publicity blurb. If people do send messages asking to “friend” him, I respond nicely that they can keep informed about our work via our website, and communicate with us via regular email. For most people, this works just fine.
(Here’s the unsolicited advice. ) If I were you I’d direct Facebook query folks here, to WWAS, rather than using your Facebook presence (a good thing) interactively (a real time-waster, and a duplication of effort with WWAS anyway). Your time is too precious! Use Facebook as the advertisement, whose tendrils will draw people to WWAS and CC. (You may want to change the Facebook page a teeny bit every now and then, to keep it “fresh” as far as RSS readers go. For example, use it for general announcements that don’t require a response.)
That’s my two cents.
Hm. Between the time I saw this page and the time I posted above, CJ replied with nearly the same thoughts. Should scroll up again before posting…
Your site did list one thing I’d done wrong: I put my birthdate on it: that’s now gone. For contact info, I now list the website. Thank you!
Create folders and put the friends into them. It might help reduce the chaos. If I want to know what’s happening with specific family members, I can check my “Family” folder. Do a right click and hide all of the game stuff. You can hide those applications and greatly reduce your news feed.
I joined to keep in touch with family I’ve never been close to and others that just live in another state. I love reading some of the status messages from one. Another reason was so my dance buddies could see their photos from studio shows and other public perfomances that I attend. The studio gets a CD of all I take, but the dancers get to see the best photos.
As far as the profile goes, I’m a minimalist.
I’ve got a riot of people I don’t actually know, but who know me…this happens, in my profession; but I don’t list family members or any personal info. I’ve scotched every game or gift; I don’t need a hen for Farmville; I don’t say where I live and I listed my interests as the universe; I don’t say when I was born. And I post the website info wherever I can find an excuse: the website splash page has links to here and CC. So that should help recruit new members and bring in new customers.
CJ, do you personally know who is running the fan page for you? They have your Bday listed.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/C-J-Cherryh/93705365153?v=info&ref=ts
Hmmn. I don’t know quite what to do with it: but it’s been up there long enough to have satisfied every bot in the universe. The last action on it was quite a while ago. I’ll take a look at that situation. Thank you!
Your birthday’s also up on Wikipedia.
I am ambivalent about Facebook, from ‘meh’ to ‘avoid’. I tried to sign up last year, but my application apparently got lost in cyberspace, as I never got the confirmation e-mail. This was shortly before the big kaffuffle over private info being made public involuntarily; at that point, I never bothered trying to reinstate my still-born page and considered it a warning from the universe.
Farmville… I HATE Farmville… I’m not even ON FaceBook, and I hate Farmville. I had to listen to my coworker go on and on and on and on AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON about her beans and her cows and her house and her horses and her chickens … I wanted to get onto Farmville only long enough to find a hacker who could put nuclear missiles in my grain silos…
I understand your “sob” reaction: I joined Facebook last year because my academic colleague who founded the Kenya Aid and Relief Effort (KARE) found it was the best way to post advocacy updates on what the Kenyan government was doing to the Samburu people she lives with when researching lions. Many of the younger and also ex-pat Samburu use her account to keep each other posted on police and army movement in the area. I “friended” several Samburu who shared my advocacy activity but then my family and friends wanted to be my “friend” too, resulting in way too much exposure of personal life info to folks I don’t know in Kenya. My current solution: I mostly avoid posting on Facebook (in fact for months I couldn’t figure out how to log back in. My ambivilance shows in that I didn’t try too hard to figure out the obscure place they hide the log-in command). At some point I am going to have to figure out how to create separate accounts so that I can do some advocacy and also, separately, once in a while post silly or personal stuff on what I’m going to my friends and siblings.
The easiest way is to set up a separate account for your friends and family one on hand and your professional life on the other. Or maybe set up three separate ones if your family and your friends don’t intermix. Separate name, separate email account. or the same name and different email accounts, tell your family it’s this one and your colleagues it’s that one.
Yes, I think I will have to do that: annoying that Facebook is based on your e-mail address. I try to have only a few and only one that is “personal” versus my two jobs.
I set up a gmail account for my facebook (just in case of spam or security issues) and pretty much ignore it (also turned off all the FB email notification stuff).
Its really not so bad. I am enjoying getting in touch with people I went to school with last century and sharing pictures with family and friends is fun too. I just ignore all the games and its all good. =)
I hope your experience is pleasant!
Be prepared for FB’s imbecilic “security” system should you ever travel and try to log in. I primarily joined for a couple of reunions, high school and Naval Academy. So any time I try to access other than from home, I have to identify 7 people, without making a mistake, from photos which may, or may not, show faces clearly. I can only skip 2 pics, and am not allowed any misses. Most of the photos are out of focus, poorly cropped if at all, and feature people I last saw the day I graduated from USNA, now 29 years ago. Need I say how well this works? All this jackassery does is limit MY access! (stronger commentary deleted to try to retain some level of politeness).
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In re: Farmville (and other annoying “features”), it is possible to ignore that app, for what it’s worth.
I’d be thoroughly hosed, because many of the people I’ve friended on FB are readers whose names I don’t immediately know.
I’ve travelled overseas and logged on without any problems.
Well, fortunately I rarely social-surf while traveling…but we’ll find out, when I do. If I for some reason am blocked out, I can get somebody to make a note for me, I suppose.