Why I like FaceBook

[thumper]

Lots of criticism of FaceBook (FB) on this forum recently, but like anything else, your FB experience can be what YOU choose it to be.

If you limit your 'friends' to just a few individuals who you want to keep track of, and they are not prone to posting cat videos or political rants every day - you can keep the junk to a bare minimum. Just take care in setting up your 'Privacy' parameters and you can stay junk free.

But aside from keeping in contact with a few old friends and acquaintances, what I really enjoy about FB are the Groups you can monitor, and contribute to, if you wish. My morning routine usually includes reviewing my feed, that includes these groups that I've joined:

Alberta Wildlife - tremendous wildlife photography by amateurs and professionals, usually only a post or 2 daily.

Alberta Birds - spectacular photography by amateurs and professionals and a great learning tool in Alberta bird identification. Also a great help in photography technical tips and where to go to find good bird subject material. Usually 10 or so daily posts.

Alberta Flyfishing - a good general notice and assistance site. Some trophy shots, but generally just good info. Lots of fly tying info too. Usually 1 or 2 posts per day.

Alberta Bugs & Insects - great photography and macro-photography of Alberta's bugs. Good insect identification help too. Pretty dormant in the winter, and maybe a couple of posts per week in the summer.

Wildflowers and more, Canada - mainly photography and macro-photography as well. Only a couple of posts per week.

Canadian Skull and Bone Collectors - great site for identifying bones & skeletons, and a great source for buying cleaned/bleached skulls of all sorts of animals - if you're interested in that sort of thing! A few posts per week.

Animals Don't Cover Their Tracks: Animal Track Identification Help Group - as the group name suggests - a fun group with sources to clubs and courses of people who go out on animal track identification field trips! Mainly american, but some Canadian content. Good fun and I've learned tons from this group.

I F..... Love Science - with science news/info. An unfortunate name, but a great site. A few posts daily.

Also the Banff, Jasper and Kootenay National Park FB pages for news and updates - they generate a post each per week.

And then my local Buy & Sell group, with lots of daily posts, and a couple of personal interest groups like retired work-related alumni that generate very few posts.

All told, reviewing these FB group posts takes about 15 minutes every morning, and I learn something new every time. I've been motivated to ask questions on these FB groups, contribute advice and photos, and often praise others. I've never been treated with condescension by those better informed/skilled than I am, and have only witnessed one argument (on whether or not it's ethical to lure wild owls with live mice - to get closer, dramatic photos). I'm constantly amazed by peoples photographic skills and kept up-to-date in my areas of interest - primarily natural history.

If I want to watch fights, insults and drama, I flip over to this Alberta Outdoorsman forum!!!

My point is, for those considering joining FB, it doesn't have to be all drama or the minutiae of others lives. It can be a very informative learning tool.

[3blade]

Cam Hanes, Steve rinella, solo hunter, ducks unlimited. All get me stoked to workout and looking forward to hunting season.

And educating people on the role hunting plays in conservation. People actually have to be a little more careful when their names are attached to their posts.

[Rumtan]

I use facebook to stay in touch with my sister in NZ and my other sister in TO and my brother in High River. If they are not online you can just leave a message for them and they always get it.

[Sigma]

I have been on Facebook for years and could care less about what many of my family and friends are doing. In fact, I have un-friended from many of them that put useless dribble there for all to see.
A few years ago, I joined a couple of German genealogy groups specific to the area where my paternal ancestors came from and had other group members steer me to records that allowed me to take my family tree back to the mid 1400's. I even found several cousins in Germany that I did not know existed.
I had not been able to add 1 ancestor to my Italian maternal family tree for over 10 years. The oldest confirmed ancestors I had were my grand parents.
I joined an Northern Italian Facebook group a couple of months ago and members on that site steered me to non-indexed free records on the internet for the villages my grandparents came from. It was strenuous research going over these records but it allowed me to go back another 6 generations and I was able to download many original birth, death, and marriage records from their microfilm for free. Without joining those Facebook groups, my tree would have been a lot shorter. In my opinion, facebook groups are very similar to this forum with members helping each other out.

Sig

[RavYak]

Anyone who dislikes Facebook either is using it incorrectly or not to its full potential. It can be whatever you want it to be. You just need to add the right friends and join the right groups. If people are annoying you on there unfriend them or if they are family etc set it so that their posts don't show up in your feed.

Facebook like AO and like life is what you make of it. Go into FB hating it and thinking it is stupid of course you won't see the positive sides of it...

[Arachnodisiac]

I'm a member of most of those, but I didn't know about the bugs group. Thanks!

[moose_hunterette]

My daddy passed away going on 11 years ago. 4 years ago my sister recieved a facebook message from a young woman stating my sister looked like her mother and believed her to be her aunty. My sister set this person straight, telling her no because I am her only sibling, our other sister died when she was 2.

My sister called our mom and told her the wierd message and mom nearly had a coronary. She hung up on my sister and called my sister's hubby and released a family skeleton from a locked closet for 52 years.

Our daddy is my biological dad and my sister's dad is alive and well living in Kamloops. My sister has another sister and 6 brothers. The young woman was indeed my sister's neice.

So that's what facebook did to my family.... In one message changed our entire lives as we knew them to be.

This was a secret my daddy took to his grave and would be heartbroken knowing it was told.... To him my sister was his from the day he told my mom he would marry her. His name is on her birth certificate.


But Facebook has so much to offer in regards to groups about many topics, places to share your interests and a way to keep in touch with family that you wouldnt normally be able to, plus share photos back and forth.... I like it a lot....

[Tactical Lever]

If all my information didn't end up "belonging" to FB, I could probably overlook some of their other policy. And computers seem to run crappy with FB, and all the crap that goes along with it.

[Clgy_Dave2.0]

Originally Posted by Tactical Lever

If all my information didn't end up "belonging" to FB, I could probably overlook some of their other policy. And computers seem to run crappy with FB, and all the crap that goes along with it.

I don't understand this. Exactly what information do you "give" to Facebook? Facebook only has what you give it. You don't need a real name, or a real email, you have complete control over what gets published or seen. You control who sees your pictures and can delete them at any time...How are they getting any info that you don't willingly give??

You have less control over what you post on AO, than any Facebook account.

• You can't go back and edit any of your posts.
• You have no control over who sees your posts.
• Once you post your pictures through the AO servers, you have no access to them and can't ever delete them.

None of these problems with Facebook.
I've seen more people give out their entire personal information on AO than I have seen anywhere else, and it's impossible for them to remove it.

Also, Facebook does not take up any computer resources. It's a website. With no more content than AO has. If you're experiencing any slowdowns, it won't be from Facebook.

[32-40win]

I tend to use FB more for info than socializing. There are groups & people in there that supply all kinds of good info, and tips or leads to places and info, you may never find otherwise. I find some of the local & foreign news from various places interesting at times, find out about movies & music I had never knew existed, ways to do things I hadn't seen before. You can pretty much lock down your profile and info as you like. Today I read a post about an American MOH being given, watched a couple of fly tying vids, a vid about a ricochet off a gong hitting the shooter, a story about a debate on blob flys in competitive flyfishing in England, a cop getting killed first day on the job. Stuff about WW2, the Middle East, Australia, China, Germany, Russia.
You really don't have to post anything on there if you don't want to. Don't like what someone is posting?, don't follow it anymore.

[Domestique]

all the items mentioned here on why people like facebook you absolutely don't need facebook for.

[Big Bull]

Originally Posted by Clgy_Dave2.0

I don't understand this. Exactly what information do you "give" to Facebook? Facebook only has what you give it. You don't need a real name, or a real email, you have complete control over what gets published or seen. You control who sees your pictures and can delete them at any time...How are they getting any info that you don't willingly give??

You have less control over what you post on AO, than any Facebook account.

• You can't go back and edit any of your posts.
• You have no control over who sees your posts.
• Once you post your pictures through the AO servers, you have no access to them and can't ever delete them.

None of these problems with Facebook.
I've seen more people give out their entire personal information on AO than I have seen anywhere else, and it's impossible for them to remove it.

Also, Facebook does not take up any computer resources. It's a website. With no more content than AO has. If you're experiencing any slowdowns, it won't be from Facebook.

[Clgy_Dave2.0]

Originally Posted by Domestique

all the items mentioned here on why people like facebook you absolutely don't need facebook for.

We get it. You don't know how to use Facebook and you don't want it.
Why come into this thread then?

[Talking moose]

Kind of funny, most people on these Facebook threads that dont like Facebook also end their post by saying they never have used Facebook...

[Domestique]

Originally Posted by Clgy_Dave2.0

We get it. You don't know how to use Facebook and you don't want it.
Why come into this thread then?

Where did I say I don't know how to use facebook and I don't want it?

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by Clgy_Dave2.0

I don't understand this. Exactly what information do you "give" to Facebook? Facebook only has what you give it. You don't need a real name, or a real email, you have complete control over what gets published or seen. You control who sees your pictures and can delete them at any time...How are they getting any info that you don't willingly give??

You have less control over what you post on AO, than any Facebook account.

• You can't go back and edit any of your posts.
• You have no control over who sees your posts.
• Once you post your pictures through the AO servers, you have no access to them and can't ever delete them.

None of these problems with Facebook.
I've seen more people give out their entire personal information on AO than I have seen anywhere else, and it's impossible for them to remove it.

Also, Facebook does not take up any computer resources. It's a website. With no more content than AO has. If you're experiencing any slowdowns, it won't be from Facebook.

If I had a FB account, it would be so my friends could get ahold of me. That may entail some information. Facebook has decided that it reserves the "right" to sell you phone number and address.

You can delete on FB, but FB can keep that info and images.

Maybe it does not bother others, but I find some of their policy concerning.

[Clgy_Dave2.0]

So don't put your phone number and address on there. WHY would you do that?!!!

[CaberTosser]

I have the Calgary Police page on my FB feed and it posts handy stuff like road closures and wanted posters. The manner in which it spreads security cam images to identify suspects is unparalleled. The absolute best though is for missing/kidnapped children, I don't think any other entity spreads faster than people sharing that important information. Literally thousands of local eyes knowing what vehicle or suspect to look out for is a tremendous tool.

[Red Bullets]

I enjoy the Alberta Fish & Wildlife Enforcement FB site. It is actually a great resource when a person has a question or query regarding F&W. I also like that they publish the names of poachers and perps up on charges. Their involvement in various communities and events is posted too. Good stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/AlbertaFish...ifeEnforcement

(you can go to the page even if you don't have a facebook account. You can read F & W's posts.

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by Clgy_Dave2.0

So don't put your phone number and address on there. WHY would you do that?!!!

I don't think you're picking up what I'm putting down.

[HunterDave]

Facebook is alright, I guess.
Like and share if you agree.
Type Amen if you aren't a knob.