Facebook?

[PWD]

So my wife wants me to join facebook to keep in touch with IRL friends better. She's on it with all her friends and digs it. She's reconnected with old friends from highschool, all that sort of stuff.

Apparently most of my IRL friends are on it too. In fact, my wife's been in closer touch with them than I have.

Now, I've avoided these things like the plague. I hate the idea of reconnecting with old highschool friends, and the idea of non-friends thinking maybe we were friends makes me vomit. I'm not a confrontation avoider, I don't mind telling someone I just don't particularly care where they are in life, I just don't think that's the addition to my life I need to make right now.

Still, I've been so ridiculously busy at work the last year that I have distanced somewhat from real friends, so maybe this is an approach.

I dunno. I'm conflicted. So sell me, those who use it.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Random people who tried to make me their "friend" on MySpace, despite my profile being completely empty: Countless - hundreds, at the very least.

Random people on Facebook who has done the same: Zero.

Simply put, if you don't care to keep in touch even with people you do know, there's no point in using it. Otherwise, it's pretty useful. You'll share as much information with them as you like (i.e - you can share your full contact information with your gaming group etc if you want them to have your address and phone number, while only sharing a limited profile to those old class mates and former colleagues).

[PWD]

Real friends: good

We were in english class together once: not good

So if I can help grease the communication paths with the former without attracting the latter, cool.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Then just reject them, or pretend you never got the e-mail of their friend request...

[Cyragnome]

I hate the idea of reconnecting with old highschool friends, and the idea of non-friends thinking maybe we were friends makes me vomit.
Egads, I'm so in tune with that I could vomit myself. :)

[Sobek]

Egads, I'm so in tune with that I could vomit myself. :)

Likewise. There are some people I'd like to be able to find me, but I'm very much not cool with putting anything particularly identifyable online.

Basically, I'd only want my facebook to be available to people I told to check it out.

[Harry]

It's hard to find out anything real and tangible about me on the internet by typing my true name into Google. The most you will find are some obituaries and some rather old posts I made in my early days of surfing, before I stopped using my real name.

For lands' sakes, I'm not going to go and actually make it EASIER for folks by plastering my name on something like Facebook.

[azrael]

actually, I have some friends that use their screen names as their first and last name on face book, so unless you have their email, or know what their title is you can't find them....

and honestly, I prefer facebook to my myspace, even with all the optional shit they're starting to include...

a

[Ancalagon]

I have a question about it...

How is it at dealing with the "world's colliding" issue? It seems that everyone and their little dog has a Facebook. I'm a member of the local bdsm community, but it's not something that I shout on the rooftops, even though I'm not exactly in the closet about it either. So if I create a profile, even if it's very bland and proper, others might find it a bit odd that half my friends are apparent perverts... Is there a way to avoid this "guild by association"?

thanks,

Ancalagon

[azrael]

you can regulate who gets to view which parts of your profile... I forget how much exactly, but i's thtere in the settings... and sorry about the crappy typing, I"ve been up for twenty some odd hours, and didnt sleep much this weekend either....

a

[Droid101]

I dunno, I kinda like the way MySpace works. You have your display name (could be Cockmuncher and it wouldn't matter), and if anyone does a search by your real name, you'd pop up (your real name is kept hidden, so they'd have to know it to do a search for you).

Then, just set your settings so that only people who know your real full name can try to add you as a friend, and you'll be clear of "hey I think I saw you this one time..."

[shabois]

I think Myspace is one of the great plagues on the multiverse. Besides being a convenient tool for pedifies to prey on kids, it does seem to skew to the 20-something crowd. If you are like me and heading into your thirties kicking and screaming, Facebook would probably be better. I have searched on MySpace to look for people in the past and have found to longer I am on there the more I want to put a bullet in my head! :D

[Martin]

I have both a MySpace and a Facebook account. I got both to be able to keep touch with friends. Both are similar, however, I do find that Facebook is more comfortable, more easily accessible and more restrictive in regards to other other people obtaining your information. Furthermore, I can access Facebook at work, which in my mind is a major selling point.

[GreyOne]

I succumbed to Facebook a few days ago, mostly to keep in touch with my gamer friends and do some gamer stuff on there. I resisted it for ages and my wife continues to, which is ironic if you know me and my wife. I still resist owning a damn cell phone.

Freedom Canadian started a Nothingland group after we were talking about this on Nothingland just before it went into the Big Good-Bye.

It does seem really good at only allowing people you want to see your info, even if you're in a larger group. I'm a pretty private guy especially when it comes to posting stuff about myself on the internet. It's got good privacy features and cool little odds and ends to add to. It kind of just reminds me of a specified private messageboard with more features.

[dmmagic]

So I guess a KT MySpace group is out of the question?

:)