Facebook?

[AlfBaz]

I have a broad range of hobbies and accompanying skills which, according to some friends, might be lucrative and or helpful on certain facebook groups.
The inverse seems to be also true. Friends advise me that there can be some very helpful stuff on there as well

I know diddly squat about facebook and at the same time loath been tracked and profiled on line.
Many years ago I created a user profile on there with the bare minimal info. My brother contacted me, telling me facebook had asked him to verify my mobile number (cell number). Information I certainly never entered. I promptly deleted said profile (at least I think I did)

As I get older these kind of shenanigans still piss me off but I'm less inclined to be outraged and leaning more toward meh, what the hell.

I'm curious what some of you think about being part of that platform

[andy3055]

If you lived all these years without it, why now? Just let it go. You will not miss it. The downside of your profile getting hacked is quite high. All platforms track you and there is no difference in FB.

I use it only as a means where I can find old friends with whom I have lost contact. I have all bogus data in it! Never visit the site unless someone is trying to contact me. All guards up. No one can find me unless I initiate the contact.

Of late, I have started disliking Mark S. for his arrogance and disrespect for our privacy. I am sure there are many who like it. But not me anymore.

Just my 2 cents!

[AlfBaz]

If you lived all these years without it, why now? Just let it go. You will not miss it.

That's precisely what I've been thinking up until now.
As it runs out however, it would appear there is a community around me I wasn't aware of

All platforms track you and there is no difference in FB.

Precisely why its FB's intrusiveness bothers me less these days.

I use it only as a means where I can find old friends with whom I have lost contact. I have all bogus data in it! Never visit the site unless someone is trying to contact me. All guards up. No one can find me unless I initiate the contact.

I kinda like my bubble, not sure I'm up for reunions 

Of late, I have started disliking Mark S. for his arrogance and disrespect for our privacy. I am sure there are many who like it. But not me anymore.

...of late? I've always disliked the way he pushes his agenda

Just my 2 cents!

Valued

[plazma]

A facebook account can be beneficial for reading all the various hobbyist groups.
That is my main use for facebook.

[DimitriP]

Hobby groups on Facebook make me think of bible study groups meeting at starbucks.
It can certainly serve a purpose, not always yours.

[EEVblog]

I'm curious what some of you think about being part of that platform

It's a necessary evil as a central point of contacts.
If there was another way to keep contact with old friend and relatives etc (and there was a critical mass on there) then it would would win out over facebook.

[EEVblog]

Hobby groups on Facebook make me think of bible study groups meeting at starbucks.
It can certainly serve a purpose, not always yours.

I used to be huge into a canyoning group that was originally on Yahoo Groups. Then someone set up a Facebook group and everyone eventually migrated over to that and I hated the interface.

[nctnico]

I'm curious what some of you think about being part of that platform

It can become a massive time sink. I looked at my wife's facebook page once and couldn't make heads or tails from it. If you want to stay in touch then whatsapp is much easier (which is probably the reason facebook acquired whatsapp).

[TheWelly888]

Years ago someone set up a private forum for ex-pupils of my old school and it was quite interesting and helpful for me (I won't go into the why)

But recently a facebook group was set up and everyone migrated there. I joined it very briefly and hated the interface of it, sadly some other people who were not moderators for the forum became moderators for the facebook group and I found myself in conflict with them so I though "Stuff them and FB!" and just left. 

[JPortici]

I hated the interface.

The facebook groups interface eventually got really usable, with file management and advanced search (per word, per user, per date, per friends of user etc)
It's also very nice to set up meetups and the like
My main use for facebook has become hanging around in electronics, snowboarding and some shitposting with friends

[Bud]

Read my signature below 

[AlfBaz]

Speaking of interfaces I've just had the brief look at some of the groups on a desktop pc. Waiting to be accepted into some.
Are there topics and message threads like on forums? Surely it's not one message after another

[AlfBaz]

Here we go again. "weve noticed suspicious activity" and now I can't go any further without providing my mobile phone number

[MadTux]

Facebook-free life and Rigol-free shack.

Same for me, and China free workshop as well 

[rdl]

You'd probably be surprised how much facebook already knows about you, even if you've never visited their site. It's very, very hard these days to maintain any semblance of privacy on the internet. It actually may not even be possible without some very strong legislation being enacted.

[edy]

You'd probably be surprised how much facebook already knows about you, even if you've never visited their site. It's very, very hard these days to maintain any semblance of privacy on the internet. It actually may not even be possible without some very strong legislation being enacted.

That is, without using a pseudonym and Tor to hide your IP. Unfortunately all these sites require "verification" through phone numbers, which means if you are going to try complete anonymity you will need to buy a prepaid SIM with some phone number just to get a text verification code (but don't use the phone to access Facebook, use a security-laden anonymity OS like Tails, Edward Snowden's favourite Linux distro). There may actually be online vanity numbers you can also get to handle that. But then if you do that, what is the advantage in using Facebook? I agree, if you haven't gone on Facebook yet, consider yourself lucky and don't start.    It gets overwhelming fast and a huge time waster.

[rdl]

It seems that once you create a facebook account you're basically trapped forever unless new laws are enacted. Though you can now sort of untangle yourself, just not completely.

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21112380/facebook-activity-tool-data

A short informative video concerning cookies, tracking, and advertising in general which includes some commentary from the guy who invented browser cookies.

https://www.vox.com/open-sourced/2020/2/3/21116801/ads-internet-sites-cookies

or

https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=HFyaW50GFOs

[nctnico]

You'd probably be surprised how much facebook already knows about you, even if you've never visited their site. It's very, very hard these days to maintain any semblance of privacy on the internet. It actually may not even be possible without some very strong legislation being enacted.

True. Even websites like Farnell have Facebook tracking. I've put facebook.com in my computer's hosts file to make it point to nowhere.

[donotdespisethesnake]

The only reason I was on Facebook was to look at the Neon 816 project. But now my account has been disabled, I've no idea why, they just say "because Terms and Conditions". To recover it, I would need to upload ID and have it verified (because fake ID is impossible to acquire ), why would I bother with that? No other website has required ID just to use it!

So now I'm pretty much thinking f**k Facebook.

[andy3055]

Now the latest scary thing is FB wants to create a digital currency! I hope that does not go through. The last thing the world needs is some brash a-hole taking control of the monetary system that is best left for legitimately elected governments.

Please note that this is not to be taken as a political statement.