Why I don't Use Facebook

[Welly]

I reluctantly joined FB solely to join a secret FB group of ex-pupils of my old boarding school. I have no photo or any other detail of myself on it and have no "friends". So far FB thinks I live on the South coast!

I have just left FB! Account deleted.

 

I found the user interface bloody awful! For example, to make a paragraph, you had to press CTRL,ALT or SHIFT Enter (I can't remember which) otherwise it posts your half done post - ugh! Some people submitted photos that needed rotating!

 

I also found it creepy that FB recommended to me people that I actually know in real life to me even though I did not look at their FB pages!

 

Also the behaviour of the moderators for the secret FB group were arbitrary and irrational, like how they used to be at school! 

 

At least I tried it.

[bike2steam]

With my many, and varied interests ( mainly railways, model and full-size, military history, dogs, photography, travel,canals) I use fb quite a lot, and find it very useful. I must admit there are some strange people out there, and if I was of more sensitive persuasion, some would worry, or annoy me, but hey-ho you meet all sorts in life, and as for any fool spying on me - carry on, if such a sad thing makes yer happy.

[locomad]

 

Also the behaviour of the moderators for the secret FB group were arbitrary and irrational, like how they used to be at school! 

 

At least I tried it.

I've joined some of these fb railway modelling sites, there seems to be hundreds of them and some of the moderators, often the creators of such sites are real mini hitlers.

 

Some if the vintage railway modellers site are so restrictive you can't mention any other sites so when someone says hey look at this for sale on **** site a well known internet site, you can't make out what actually there are referring, no links etc, mention at all this site and your banned for life !

[Colin_McLeod]

I wouldn't stay in any group that would ban me for life.

[bazjones1711]

Joined a Facebook group last night , within 10 mins , deleted my post / pictures , why you may ask ? Put a pic of a vintage bulldozer (for that's what the group was about) as my first post , the said bulldozer was a shade of green and rust , so I referred to it as a rust bucket for which it was , only to then have the moderator replying that ' language and statement's ' like that would not be tolerated with an emoji of an angry face , well I was an instant goodbye from me !

[locomad]

I've another couple of examples, it doesn't bother me, but it's kind of typical of what I call this one man or woman moderator of many Facebook sites.

 

Someone posted a pic of a track cleaning wagon found in an attic, it had peco coupling and enquired who made it, someone claimed it was a Hornby Dublo one, worth £1000's, I pointed out it was clearly a Wills kit, produced roughly the same time. Easy mistake of a beginner in Hornby Dublo to make as HD wagon is rare and not many enthusiasts have seen one, but looking at the foster book it's quite obvious the difference between the two

 

For my advice I was accused of been a troll, immediately banned for life.

 

Another one happened more recently, quite a few clubs, groups use Facebook as a free advertising site, an event to take place on @ 7.30 pm Saturday 8th September 2017, I noticed about a week before it can't be that Saturday as it was the 9th so clearly a mix up, was it the Friday? Despite trying to message them, call text them to find out no one came back to us, typically there was an online booking ticket service but it said the same thing. Other people asked the same question in the end I and others decided not to go as could be a waste of time and petrol.

 

The event was a flop, hardly anyone turned up, the group lost a lot of money, I was accused with others of sabotage, it was pointed out I should have known it was Saturday as it was last year? and assume it was Saturday this year.

 

Course I was banned for life with others, whole thread or whatever removed

[Gwiwer]

There are groups and groups on Facebook and most are conducted (moderated might not always be the best word) by one individual according to their own rules and whims.  

 

My layout has its own page.  I manage that and I am the only person who can post pictures.  Others can post comments in reply to pictures but any general comments are fed to a filter for me to approve or reject.  Anyone may join.  Over the years I have removed a very few people and deleted a tiny handful of comments which were either not relevant or contained links to inappropriate sites or pages.

 

I am a member of numerous groups and am happy with most but not all.  In one case it is apparent that the Admin is deleting my posts almost without exception and without apparent reason.  She is doing so for other male members of the group but I am not aware of any female member posts having been removed.  Overall I still benefit from being a member and currently there I still am but for how long, I wonder.

 

For social interaction it's still a free-to-use site for which we are at Facebook's mercy.  They change things, push updates and other alterations so frequently it's hard to keep up.  They don't seem to have any meaningful enforcement of their own advertised "community standards" either; I have reported numerous comments and images which clearly show unlawful acts in progress and sometimes including violence.  None has been removed.  A friend has his account suspended for daring to post an image of his wife breast feeding despite nothing terribly private being visible.  But if we want to play we play by their rules.  My account is locked down to friends only and I am not troubled by Nigerians seeking to dispose of wealth nor young females seeking intimate favours.  

 

I use it as a means to keep in touch and up to date with friends and family around the world at Mr. Zuckerberg's expense.  Thank you Sir; your benevolence (no doubt financially backed by all those who pay to promote something) is acknowledged.

[PhilH]

Joined a Facebook group last night , within 10 mins , deleted my post / pictures , why you may ask ? Put a pic of a vintage bulldozer (for that's what the group was about) as my first post , the said bulldozer was a shade of green and rust , so I referred to it as a rust bucket for which it was , only to then have the moderator replying that ' language and statement's ' like that would not be tolerated with an emoji of an angry face , well I was an instant goodbye from me !

  

I've another couple of examples, it doesn't bother me, but it's kind of typical of what I call this one man or woman moderator of many Facebook sites.

Someone posted a pic of a track cleaning wagon found in an attic, it had peco coupling and enquired who made it, someone claimed it was a Hornby Dublo one, worth £1000's, I pointed out it was clearly a Wills kit, produced roughly the same time. Easy mistake of a beginner in Hornby Dublo to make as HD wagon is rare and not many enthusiasts have seen one, but looking at the foster book it's quite obvious the difference between the two

For my advice I was accused of been a troll, immediately banned for life.

Another one happened more recently, quite a few clubs, groups use Facebook as a free advertising site, an event to take place on @ 7.30 pm Saturday 8th September 2017, I noticed about a week before it can't be that Saturday as it was the 9th so clearly a mix up, was it the Friday? Despite trying to message them, call text them to find out no one came back to us, typically there was an online booking ticket service but it said the same thing. Other people asked the same question in the end I and others decided not to go as could be a waste of time and petrol.

The event was a flop, hardly anyone turned up, the group lost a lot of money, I was accused with others of sabotage, it was pointed out I should have known it was Saturday as it was last year? and assume it was Saturday this year.

Course I was banned for life with others, whole thread or whatever removed

All this proves is that there are fools everywhere, don't really see how that is the fault of facebook. You'll probably get worse at your local model railway club...

[jjb1970]

  

All this proves is that there are fools everywhere, don't really see how that is the fault of facebook. You'll probably get worse at your local model railway club...

 

Quite, I'm not in a club either

[jonny777]

To those who believe they have completely deleted their Facebook account, I say "beware". 

 

I am under the impression that one can de-activate an account, but the file remains on a Californian server somewhere. Do they actually send yo evidence that your account has been deleted permanently? 

 

One of my sons thought he had deleted his account, and it certainly never came up on any of the subsequent searches we did for his name and other details. Even trying to access messages sent to me via Facebook Messenger resulted in a blank. 

 

Then, about 6 months later he received an email from someone purporting to be from Facebook saying that his account had been rejuvenated and could he confirm it was him. This had him really worried, because he had done nothing since "deleting" his account, but a little detective work found the link on Facebook led to an account which had his christian name but a different surname and date of birth, even though the filename used to reach this account was his old one.  

 

He has now tried to delete this revived account, and complained to Facebook. We wonder if someone is using defunct account names as an excuse to change the details slightly, in the hope that the real owner will change everything back again thus giving the hacker all the personal information they need?

Edited September 16, 2017 by jonny777

[MarkC]

Admins on FB groups often have a thankless task, and the bigger the group, the worse it gets, as it sometimes feels like all the scam artists from around the world are trying to join, simply to post dodgy links, attempt to sell stuff or simply data mine member lists. I'm part of a team of admins who monitor a selection of specialist railway groups; we don't allow hate speech, and do enforce the few group rules that are in place firmly, but fairly. Sadly, there's always a 'hard core' who won't abide by the rules, then get very aggressive when they get thrown out. It's certainly easier in a team, as our long-suffering Mods on here are no doubt aware. I've also been a moderator on several current affairs messageboards over the years - some posters there are just unbelieveable...

[Jol Wilkinson]

Facebook is US owned company. It has US profit before people culture, like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, Google, Microsoft and many others. Do not be surprised by anything they do or don't do.

[Bernard Lamb]

I also found it creepy that FB recommended to me people that I actually know in real life to me even though I did not look at their FB pages!

It is almost worth having an account just to see who it does flag up.

Bernard

[brianusa]

I  once signed up to FB only to forget my PW.  After actually trying to replace it; there are too many hoops to  jump through, I finally gave up so my one and only attempt is probably still out there somewhere in limbo.

 

Brian.

[jjb1970]

Facebook is US owned company. It has US profit before people culture, like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, Google, Microsoft and many others. Do not be surprised by anything they do or don't do.

 

That assumes there is a conflict between profit and people. If you don't provide something customers want then you won't last long enough to worry about profits. In Ryanair's case they provide cheap transport and part of the deal is you accept that you're not paying for great service. In the case of Amazon, Starbucks, Apple etc they do offer a good service or a good product that people like and want to buy. And US companies are no more profit driven than any others, it's more that they have some very successful companies that make good poster villains for ant-globalisation and anti-capitalism protesters. I don't like Facebook and don't use it, but for those who like the concept they provide a free service which many obviously do seem to like. OK, they sell advertising and use the data to make money, if people don't like that then they should be demanding a fee based service that loses those aspects, but either way somebody has to pay for the service. Given how much data is monitored and the levels of surveillance in this country I really can't see much point worrying too much about Facebook if privacy is the issue.

[Jol Wilkinson]

That assumes there is a conflict between profit and people. If you don't provide something customers want then you won't last long enough to worry about profits. In Ryanair's case they provide cheap transport and part of the deal is you accept that you're not paying for great service. In the case of Amazon, Starbucks, Apple etc they do offer a good service or a good product that people like and want to buy. And US companies are no more profit driven than any others, it's more that they have some very successful companies that make good poster villains for ant-globalisation and anti-capitalism protesters. I don't like Facebook and don't use it, but for those who like the concept they provide a free service which many obviously do seem to like. OK, they sell advertising and use the data to make money, if people don't like that then they should be demanding a fee based service that loses those aspects, but either way somebody has to pay for the service. Given how much data is monitored and the levels of surveillance in this country I really can't see much point worrying too much about Facebook if privacy is the issue.

Regrettably, Facebook has almost become a necessary evil. Increasingly it is the means by which small businesses promote their products. Frustrating when looking for a restaurant in a foreign city to find that, if you don't subscribe to FB, you often cannot find what's on the menu, etc. Likewise, the BBC News, etc.have Twitter and FB sites through which you are invited to get more up to date information. The LNWR Society now has FB pages, without access to which I am denied information they put in the public domain. Yes, I can join FB but I don't want to have to add yet another outlet for my personal data.

 

Is privacy an issue? What internet data gathering does could be likened to stalking. Does that seem too dramatic? If someone followed you about continually and then started knocking on your door trying to sell you something, then you might get rather p*ss*d off. However, it seems to be seen as acceptable though electronic data gathering.

 

From my wife's experience running a charity book sales outlet through Amazon, I still feel that profit comes before the businesses (people) they "serve". However, they and others like them have become so large, their grip on our daily activities are now beyond control.

[Gwiwer]

It is not a requirement that a Facebook account is held in order to view business pages provided they have been set up for public access

 

I am happy to make use of the FB feeds for transport operators though many seem to prefer Twitter for real time information. Annoyingly TfL only uses Twitter though there are apps which also work in real time feeding the same information.

[Bernard Lamb]

It is not a requirement that a Facebook account is held in order to view business pages provided they have been set up for public access

But in reality they try and force you into it, by putting up a message that you can only continue viewing if you sign in using your Facebook or Twitter accounts, or register for that particular site. The lesser of two evils is to keep a Facebook account open.

This morning I received a request to join a group. I am already a member of that group. However I use a different email address so I am not recognized by Facebook while using that address.

Bernard

[jonny777]

That assumes there is a conflict between profit and people. If you don't provide something customers want then you won't last long enough to worry about profits. In Ryanair's case they provide cheap transport and part of the deal is you accept that you're not paying for great service. In the case of Amazon, Starbucks, Apple etc they do offer a good service or a good product that people like and want to buy. And US companies are no more profit driven than any others, it's more that they have some very successful companies that make good poster villains for ant-globalisation and anti-capitalism protesters. I don't like Facebook and don't use it, but for those who like the concept they provide a free service which many obviously do seem to like. OK, they sell advertising and use the data to make money, if people don't like that then they should be demanding a fee based service that loses those aspects, but either way somebody has to pay for the service. Given how much data is monitored and the levels of surveillance in this country I really can't see much point worrying too much about Facebook if privacy is the issue.

 

 

I am not sure it is as clear cut as just providing a good service and/or good products; although the latter is very subjective and so I will not open that can of worms any further.

 

However, most of these retail companies mentioned above seem to follow the same business plan which is sell products at a loss during the start-up phase, in order to put potential competitors out of business, or buy them out. Once that is done, they can charge any price they like, and most punters will be so convinced they are getting a bargain they will not notice.

 

Remember how low Amazon book prices were in the early days in the UK, until they had almost driven other companies (Waterstones, W H Smith for instance) to the wall. Taking one Hornby loco at random, as an example, R3086 4472 in apple green. It is RRP £94.99 at Hattons, but on sale there for £55. The same loco varies between £91.64 and £187.96 with Amazon shops in the UK. 

 

The sad thing is that Hattons are referred to (rather insultingly IMO) as 'box-shifters' and yet Amazon seem to be revered as the epitomy of cheap but good quality, and great service.

 

I doubt there are that many independent local coffee shops doing a roaring trade on streets with a Costa and Starbucks either.

Edited September 17, 2017 by jonny777

[Gwiwer]

 

I doubt there are that many independent local coffee shops doing a roaring trade on streets with a Costa and Starbucks either.

Depends where you are in the world.  Not always in London, generally, where Costa and Nero rule the roast (pun intended) but visit Melbourne Australia where Gloria Jeans and Hudsons are the major chains on every block alongside Starbucks and you will find independents alive, well and often with a substantial queue.

[jonny777]

 

 

Is privacy an issue? What internet data gathering does could be likened to stalking. Does that seem too dramatic? If someone followed you about continually and then started knocking on your door trying to sell you something, then you might get rather p*ss*d off. However, it seems to be seen as acceptable though electronic data gathering.

 

I agree with the point you are making, but sadly when we sign up for any of these information gathering social media sites we agree to their small print; which virtually gives them the freedom to own and process any data they get from our contributions.

 

If someone followed me around without my consent, it would probably be illegal because I had not signed away all my personal rights to them in advance.

[jjb1970]

I am not sure it is as clear cut as just providing a good service and/or good products; although the latter is very subjective and so I will not open that can of worms any further.

 

However, most of these retail companies mentioned above seem to follow the same business plan which is sell products at a loss during the start-up phase, in order to put potential competitors out of business, or buy them out. Once that is done, they can charge any price they like, and most punters will be so convinced they are getting a bargain they will not notice.

 

Remember how low Amazon book prices were in the early days in the UK, until they had almost driven other companies (Waterstones, W H Smith for instance) to the wall. Taking one Hornby loco at random, as an example, R3086 4472 in apple green. It is RRP £94.99 at Hattons, but on sale there for £55. The same loco varies between £91.64 and £187.96 with Amazon shops in the UK. 

 

The sad thing is that Hattons are referred to (rather insultingly IMO) as 'box-shifters' and yet Amazon seem to be revered as the epitomy of cheap but good quality, and great service.

 

I doubt there are that many independent local coffee shops doing a roaring trade on streets with a Costa and Starbucks either.

 

What is the difference between a box shifter model train shop such as Hattons, Kernow, Rails etc and Amazon? I know the term "box shifter" is often used in pejorative terms but personally I find that these shops stock a huge range of products at generally (but not always) attractive prices and offer speedy and reliable delivery. There are very good reasons why people use these shops. Amazon is the same, they offer an immense range of books, prices are often very attractive and since I subscribe to Prime I get next day delivery. Nobody has to use box shifters or Amazon. Equally, despite all of the protestations that Starbucks and the other big chains have murdered the independent coffee shop there is no shortage of independent coffee shops in London. My current office is in the city close to the gherkin, my previous office was in Grosvenor Square opposite Victoria and in both locations there are plenty of good independent coffee shops. I very rarely buy from the big three box shifters, not because I object to them or have any criticisms of them but rather they don't sell the models I want to buy and when I do buy British outline OO there are other shops that I use based on my personal experiences with them. I don't have to buy my books from Amazon, but since most of the books I buy are quite specialised in nature and often from small and academic publishing houses then if I used a bookseller they'd have to order them in for me, with no discount and probably need a week or more to get them. Amazon do not have a monopoly on books (for example, WH Smiths and Waterstones are still there along with many others), I use them not because they're a monopoly but because they serve my needs extremely well.

[jjb1970]

 

Is privacy an issue? What internet data gathering does could be likened to stalking. Does that seem too dramatic? If someone followed you about continually and then started knocking on your door trying to sell you something, then you might get rather p*ss*d off. However, it seems to be seen as acceptable though electronic data gathering.

 

 

 

That's a fair point, but like I say that horse bolted many years ago and it is not the likes of FB and Amazon that concerns me in the case of data monitoring and surveillance. Companies need to fund their activities somehow, FB provide a "free" service which is paid for via advertising and the value of the data they accumulate, the alternative would be a fee based service. I've never done any research but my feeling is that most people probably prefer the existing arrangement which is "free" rather than having to pay a subscription. Nobody has to use FB, I don't and I have to say I've never found my life being limited by not using it.

[Gwiwer]

 

 

What is the difference between a box shifter model train shop such as Hattons, Kernow, Rails etc and Amazon?

I would not call Kernow MRC nor Rails "box shifters"
I would call Hattons and Amazon "box shifters"

Why the distinction?

Because Hattons and Amazon primarily act as distribution warehouses and in the case of Amazon have no physical shop as such but are a clearing house operation only available online.  Hattons does have a shop and grew out of a traditional shop but is now very much a commercial distribution warehouse with the shop almost as an adjunct.

 

Kernow, Rails and others of their ilk are primarily High Street shops in the traditional sense.  They have well-developed internet presence and no doubt do a lot of business online as do may other retailers of most goods these days.  But they are not - and are not anywhere near being - distributors or warehouses and probably have turnovers a mere fraction of what Hattons do.

[jjb1970]

I would not call Kernow MRC nor Rails "box shifters"

I would call Hattons and Amazon "box shifters"

 

Why the distinction?

 

Because Hattons and Amazon primarily act as distribution warehouses and in the case of Amazon have no physical shop as such but are a clearing house operation only available online.  Hattons does have a shop and grew out of a traditional shop but is now very much a commercial distribution warehouse with the shop almost as an adjunct.

 

Kernow, Rails and others of their ilk are primarily High Street shops in the traditional sense.  They have well-developed internet presence and no doubt do a lot of business online as do may other retailers of most goods these days.  But they are not - and are not anywhere near being - distributors or warehouses and probably have turnovers a mere fraction of what Hattons do.

Hattons do have a shop though, I can see a distinction between a business with retail premise and those without, but in the case of Hattons they can fairly claim to be a shop. Therefore I don't really see that they're different in any way from Rails and Kernow.

Edited September 17, 2017 by jjb1970