Just wondering how many are,

I'm on it, but seriously considering closing my account.

I like to choose my friends individually and very carefully.

I find the whole concept of declaring casual aquaintances, or even people with whom I have no personal contact nor relationship, to be 'friends', a rank denigration of that word.

Call me odd and/or eccentric if you please.

I'd take it as a compliment. 

A friend suggested that I/we become members of FaceBook.  Became a member and then after a month gave up and got rid of it.

A huge amount of people use and enjoy FaceBook but for the life of me, I couldn't understand why I should be interested in when a person was going to mow their lawn or they were answering their phone or washing the dishes etc etc .. drove me nuts and surely there's more to life than that.  LOL

Cheers

Very useful for keeping up with friends and the kids ... and it comes free too!

As editor of Caravanning News (www.caravanningnews.com), I also use it (and Twitter) for announcing updated stories and breaking news.

And no, Caravanning News is NOT a commercial publication. I am on the road fulltime  - and have been for five years - and finance it out of my own pocket.

Here's the Caravanning News Twitter site:
http://twitter.com/CaravanningNews

Here's the link to my Facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/dennisamor


Safe travels

Dennis
25ft Boroma full van
4.2L TD Landcruiser

Nice to see you on this site, Dennis.

I thoroughly enjoy reading your "Caravanning News" each month, and the updates that you add from time to time.

It's a valuable service from which I, and many others, have gleaned much valuable information.

Thank you

thanks Dennis, added you as a friend..

A young ,30yr old friend of our son, has just removed himself from face book. I personally don't know enough about it, however he said he could'nt believe how much info there was about him. Nothing to hide but too easy to get info about his life. Maybe I'm too oldfashioned. I,m happy with this forum...Emails and phones. Safer I think.

I have facebook but for selected family only. It is a very public place and too many people air their laundry too easily on it.
I do find it good for keeping in touch with family overseas as they share their photos. I also enjoy the scrabble game with family but am very cautious of many applications on it.

-- Edited by Pam on Wednesday 16th of September 2009 09:28:02 PM

Couldn't think of anything worse than having the world privvy to my life or seeing someone else's life in writing like that. I know you have to be a "friend" to get on their sites but that's only till someone hacks it. To me it's like watching Big Brother on TV. Sheesh...............I have a life of my own and don't need to watch some morons performing.

Unfortunately I am on facebook and don't know how to get off it.  I've looked all over the place to try and find an "opt out" link but can't find anything

Ma wrote:

---

Unfortunately I am on facebook and don't know how to get off it.  I've looked all over the place to try and find an "opt out" link but can't find anything

---

Ma, I think that you have to go to 'your account' or whatever, and there's a link to have your account suspended.

To have all your details removed from their database I believe that you have to contact the management directly.

There was some legal action on the topic of them unjustly retaining personal material after clients closed their accounts.

From memory, in their 'conditions of usage', to which you tacitly agreed when you sighed up, all material that you submit becomes their property and they hold copyright.

In general, too few of us read and understand the 'fine print' before we sign up to things, which can be quite dangerous.

 

Hi Ma,

I had a look around facebook and put myself on it at my son's request but it wasn't for me. Too much crap. More to do with my life. I'm racking my brains as to how i removed myself and I think I went into my account setting and followed the instructions. You have to tick a box with a reason why you are leaving but it was no big deal and no follow up dramas. To each his own. Maybe someone else out there could have more precise instructions for you.Good luck. Do love this Grey Nomads forum though. Good stuff.
Take care
Louise.

Thanks Louise, will go back and have another look.

I agree with you this forum is just the best and the people on it as well.

Ma

I was invited in to face book a while ago and me being dopey I signed up for it, the damned thing imediately grabbed all my contacts and all my files and threw them all over the net it was something that I had obviously done that allowed this to happen (not that bright) but it took me half an hour to reclaim all my gear I will never venture into that stuff again, be very carefull and know what you are allowing to be "visible" sounds innocent enough but there are people out there who grab this stuff and make up identitiys or steal yours I love the folks on the forum as well Louise but I upset most of them most of the time, which I imediately regret, but they are terrific people!! and a great place to be.

I have just joined Facebook at the request of our four girls who are also on it. Their explanation was it will be so easy for us when we travel fulltime to put all our photos on for them to see instantly and daily if we wish. I agree upon looking at the site- there is a certain madness, which I am willing to accept for the reason I am practicing on how to manage my page effectively and without too much publicity, will be beneficial to a certain instant communication to our family. And we will miss them FROM AFAR! the way it should be when retired!
So for that reason I will remain on Facebook and become more efficient on using it for my purpose only. Come on you GNs we can master this- we're not dummies!
For anyone wanting to get to be my friend on Facebook you are welcome just send me a personal email. Cheers for now Dawn

must be good, I had gained 195 "freinds" and I had only been there five minutes but I agree, to try something new is a good thing, it would be great in your situation for staying in contact, it just frightens the bejabbers out of me

I am at the scared as hell stage Dave I have so many things coming at me from everywhere I am amazed. But as I said I am not going to give in until I investigate it more deeply. And good communication with my family is what it is all about! Yes I agree there are some stupid things put in there & I too did put a couple in- thought that was what one had to do at first- but after being on just a week I have now pretty well got an Idea of how beneficial it will be to us when we go next year. "Bejabbers" now theres a word I haven't seen in a while- only an oldie would say that you know! You would never hear a child of this era touting a word description like that today! And thats a compliment- not enough good imagination from them these days- unless it comes from their computer they don't want to know about it! Hence communicating on Facebook! I digressed but got back to Facebook- eventually! Cheers Dawn

I cant stand or understand the language of the unmentionables thesedays, things like "Yo Mumma, yo dawg!, homey!, america has a lot to answer for concerning our future generation if you can get a handle on the facebook thingy then more power to you!! crikey!!! I only just learnt how to turn my putey on a few years ago, and thats because the boss wanted me in the tech side rather than the working class scruffs, silly thing still makes heaps of blues though regardless of how much I swear at it! oh theres a job going up here as well, the croc farm is looking for a groundsman to mow the lawn inside the croc enclosure, must be fast and agile

I have been on Facebook for some time now. I cant remember how, but its not too hard to put your freinds into lists, give different freinds different security levels etc. You can decide how much they can see about you and also how much you want to pop up about them.

I use it to share photos with freinds and family and will use it much more when we begin to travel.

My other favourite bit is that I am now in contact with family members and school friends that I havent been in touch with since I arrived in Australia 37 years ago. You have no idea the joy this has given me and them.

I think you do have to be very careful about what you post and who you accept as freinds. Noone can access your page unless you give them permission, however, comments can be copied and other people can post their photos, which may include you.

As with all internet use, this forum included, never give out any information you would not be happy seeing on the 7 oclock news. Anything else, I am happy to share.
My suggestion would be to talk to your children, they can probably explain it very easily.

I have had facebook for a while and its a good way to get photos from my girls who are scatttered from kununurra to Melbourne. I also chat with them sometimes when they are online. You can play around with your security settings to decide who you want seeing it. I get alot of application requests but decline most of them. I do have farm which is dumb but my step grandchildren have them and love it when i send them animals and fruit trees etc to make their farm bigger. Their facebook accounts are in the parents names and they are only allowed to do 3 applications each and not do any other things on the account so it works out fine. I saw on the the news they signed up their 300mil person the other day. chezgo

I tried to upload, paste etc an email I got called Classic Facebook in which a woman declares her undieing love of some blokes genitailia then goes into a panic when she realises that she has told the whole world she got laid.... rersponses like "congrats", "he has no taste", ' you look a bit old for that" etc etc....

Have been on Facebook for 18 months now and I'm hooked. While on thr road, it gives me a chance to keep up with general info from back home. I can write one entry about our whereabout and what we're up to and don't have to send cards to everyone. I also have a couple of our friends from the road as friends and can keep in touch with them. As long as you only put the information your willing to share on, and only accept true friends as friends there are usually no problems. :)

I'm also on it as friends have requested me to be their "friend". I don't actually use it or participate in anything. I think when you email the reply and you have a lot of other email addresses on the reply those address become available to whoever the receives the reply. To avoid this always remove all names from an email you are forwarding or replying. It stops viruses coming back in to your system via theirs, if you get my meaning, and it also stops other unwanted recipients getting your address. Always forward to BCC as well to short circuit some of this unwanted traffic. Always watch your internet back. Cheers Chris