Help the old fogey with social networking sites

[Annpan]

Does anyone know anything about facebook?

It has been suggested to me to open an account for my business but I only seem to be able to open an account by giving my full name and my DOB.... then prompted to put in info about sexual preference, inside leg measurement and eye colour.

I am relatively cagey about giving away personal info, should I really have to? can't I have an account for my business without telling everyone my bank account details?... or is that the deal with these 'social networking sites'

Also, I put in my name to open a business account and now I have a page, and I don't want one with my name on it.... I can 'de-activate' it, but it is still there I have asked them to delete the account altogether but I doubt they will

Am I just a grumpy old woman?

[eccentric_emma]

I think there would be absolutely nothing to stop you putting in false info, after all who is going to know?

[Millymollymandy]

As I've said many times before, I joined Facebook with a forum type name because I couldn't look at it without joining, so how was I to know everyone else had joined under their real names? And I still don't know to this day because nobody has yet answered my question that I've asked loads of times - how did they know to join with their real names?!!!

So why not join up as Annpan?

I've joined Twitter with a forum type name as well, so there's no reason why you should give any personal details away on the internet anywhere. On Facebook you don't have to put in your DoB either, or anything else in order to join up.

[Annpan]

I did MMM.... it had a space for First Name, Last Name.... I tried cheating and it told me it wasn't a recognised name format' plus I had to use my real name to show for legal reasons that the business name of 'Snowdrops and Daisies' is mine to use. I had to put in my DOB because it says you can't join up with out telling them you are old enough to use it.... I used my real one because I have been know to be asked it as a security question in the past and had forgotten which fake one I had given

I punched in all this information thinking it would open a business account but then it came up with a page with 'Welcome Ann Mc*****" and a 'profile' underneath it.


So I left it a few days and went back, but as soon as I started it said 'you already have a profile page' and showed me the one I had tried to delete. and now I can't seem to change the name on it I can hide the DOB but that is about it.

[Mullein]

top right hand side - click settings - account settings - you should be able to change your name there.

If that doesn't work, you can deactivate your account at the bottom of that page if you want.

hope that works...

[Annpan]

I can 'deactivate' it but it is still there... it is not deleted, and I don't like that you can't delete your account.

I think I will just go and change the name somehow (I did try that already, as I said, it tells me it is 'not a recognised name format') I'll see if I can find a way around it.

[Green Aura]

I've been on Facebook for a few months Ann and I love it. I've made contacted with friends I lost touch with over 20 years ago. And the best thing is we talk occasionally with any pressure for more.

You don't have to give them all the info - I only gave them sufficient for people to recognise who I am - otherwise there's not much point!

[Annpan]

Unless I gave my maiden name no-one would find me anyway... and I don't really know that I want people finding me TBH.

Besides, if I make it so old friends can find me, then so can old 'enemies' (I have had more than my fair share of weirdo nutjobs deciding I am their arch-enemy ) and a few old stalkers too .... nah, I think I'll just leave it...

[Millymollymandy]

It must have changed since I joined then Annpan because although I have a two word username it never asked me for first or last name or date of birth or anything. The only info I filled in was France but I didn't even have to do that. Once I'd looked around I realised it was not the place for me. Well I couldn't find there was anything to actually 'look around' at. I can't even find friends from forums because I don't know their real names!

I can't find anyone because the crap site only recognises yahoo and a few other email addresses so the finding people who are in your email address book is a joke cos you can't use it!

Then it comes up with strange things like suggesting to me out of the blue that I might know my husband, (who I ddn't know had even joined up) - how the hell did it do that????

There are (apparently) a lot of security problems with Facebook and I do know of people who have taken their details off as they were really unhappy about it.

[red]

Unless I gave my maiden name no-one would find me anyway... and I don't really know that I want people finding me TBH.

yeh the only thing i think it is good for is getting in touch with people you have lost touch with. and i looked and cant find them probably because, like me, they have changed their names....

[red]

Then it comes up with strange things like suggesting to me out of the blue that I might know my husband, (who I ddn't know had even joined up) - how the hell did it do that????

There are (apparently) a lot of security problems with Facebook and I do know of people who have taken their details off as they were really unhappy about it.

I did start an account some time ago, looked around, found no one I did not already have contact with, and deactivated my account. Recently my brother asked if i had an account as he did not want to post pictures of my neice any other way. this is the part of FB i hate.. they way people make you feel you have to have an account or they wont talk to you!, anyhow, i revisited my deactivated account.. which was there all along of course.. it does not go away. ever. and i regret that i ever looked. i found FB was now suggesting lots of people i actually knew.. such as my brother.. so it seems if they search for you... FB logs the info and suggests you might be interested in them.

spooky is that some of the people turned out to be people i dont know at all, but had some email correspondance with.. and with that they looked me up - they didn't find anything.. as i never put any info or pictures up, and gave a false dob.

I really hate the way it hangs on to your info even if you deactivate, that it tracks all the people interested etc. you cant seem to get away form it. and of course.. nothing stops people i know posting pictures i dont want posted.... the whole thing is a bit... big brotherish

[Green Aura]

They got heavily criticised recently, and if I remember rightly they were successfully sued, over them hanging on to that sort of info. So hopefully it won't last much longer.

The reason you get these weird suggestions for friends is because they have a facility for people to let them search their email address book and contact them. I don't have anything to do with that. You also get suggestions based on your friend's friend list - if that makes sense. But again you can just ignore all of that.

[Millymollymandy]

I got in touch with some old friends through Friends Reunited where obviously it would have been pretty dumb not to put in your real name . What's annoying about FR now though is since they stopped people having to pay to be able to send messages via the site, they now publish your married name to all and sundry which used to be kept private. Then come up with lists of people who you might know or want to be friends with (bit like Facebook) but again, who you don't know from adam.

With Facebook Ann, you need to do a privacy thing for your page (sorry can't remember what buttons you need to press!) because you may well get odd people you don't know wanting to be your friend (I do). The only reason for having it IMO is that sometimes people on Ish post photos via Facebook and that's the only way to view them!

[wulf]

I've found Facebook to be a boon... for keeping in touch with people I know. I don't think it is such a great place for just promoting a business though. There's LinkedIn if you want to promote yourself as a business person and I think a plain old website is a better core for a business, even if you then expand into certain social networking avenues both to promote it but also to listen to and engage with customers.

Wulf

[Graye]

If you persevere and go through all the options you can basically make yourself totally "unfindable". The problem emerges when some other person doing the same thing wants to become "your friend" and you are in agreement (ie the photo sharing thing agreed via email for instance). With the best will in the world you can't do it unless one of you temporarily drops defences to let the other one find you. I use my account to send and receive photos with my daughter in the States but otherwise the whole system sickens me. I commented to her that it seems to bring out the worst in people - they are all pretending desperately to be something they are not and having a great time at all costs. And before I managed to make myself so unfindable I had a bad experience with someone trying to contact me who I didn't want to have anything to do with. The good thing is that you can just use another email address and open a fresh account if necessary.

But what I can't see is the advantage for your business to be on Facebook. Am I missing something here?