'Original Detail' discussion on Facebook

[daveg]

"I've never used Facebook but have had to create a fake account on occasion when people have said 'you REALLY have to see this thing'. I find it almost unusable. Horrible to look at, impossible to search, and I still don't understand how their comment sorting system works. You say show me ALL comments in order and it shows you some of them in random order?"

That describes me and my experience of Facebook - I look at a few Austin 7 and Lister stationary engine sites but the format is horrible and most of the replies are from idiots who know nothing or just something like "Nice 1 m8" but I see some names from here whose comments would be worth looking at and wonder if I am missing something - am I using it wrong?

[Mick Hobday]

jansens and daveg both reflect my experience of Facebook precisely.
I had an account which I used only to follow my children's activities (they had asked me to!) until it was compromised and I was unable to access the damn thing, although other (apparently unknown) people were!
What ever happened to Yahoo Groups? That was good for sharing and storage of info, and easily searchable. Is there nothing like that now?

[JonE]

You just have to work out what they (businesses) want from you! Set up an account and have no friends. Post/store no personal information. Join closed groups where things are relatively safe as un-joined people can't access them to see what is being discussed. The only issue you have is people from within a group taking things out into public arena.

[JFaulknerUlsterRep]

Private groups on Facebook are the way to go. It’s keeping up with the 21st century. I find it easier on Facebook than on here as it can be a performance to simply upload a photograph if it’s not the right size on here. I run plenty of successful groups on Facebook which are thriving with information etc. I guess it all depends on what you are used to but once you get to grips with Facebook and it’s ways it can be very useful at times.

[austin]

For me FaceBook etc are for "disposable" content, it's designed to be a river of content, ie constantly flowing and changing. That's why it's so addictive.

Because of that it's not somewhere I would use to store details and specifics that people want to come back to and refer to and research etc. Even worse when they are small private groups as it doesn't come up in any searches unless you are in the group. EG I know I've seen the photos of the unrestored fabric saloon on FB but trying to search for them on FB is almost impossible, not helped when there are so many A7 groups already set up.

You also get the problem of who runs them, if that person goes away / losses interest / account gets hacked / stopped etc. then it can so easily all be lost.

For me the solution for specific details would be much better in some sort of WIKI format or as has been done with the GE Cup site Ruairidh did.

[Ivor Hawkins]

I’ve been a member of Facebook for ages, but I find it incredibly frustrating to use, on many occasions I just give up and return here, relax...and breath!

[Tony Griffiths]

jansens and daveg both reflect my experience of Facebook precisely.
I had an account which I used only to follow my children's activities (they had asked me to!) until it was compromised and I was unable to access the damn thing, although other (apparently unknown) people were!
What ever happened to Yahoo Groups?  That was good for sharing and storage of info, and easily searchable.  Is there nothing like that now?

Yahoo Groups apparently ran into financing problems and started to restrict pictures and eventually removed them. It's been replaced by https://groups.io/. There is a free system with limited membership (100 I believe) and standard and premium ones, too. All the machine tool groups that I follow have now moved to io - each administrator asking for a small annual donation from members to cover the costs.

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I've just posted this in Reply to Mike Hobday's observation - so here is the gist of it again, just in case people don't know about them:
An alternative to a private Facebook group is https://groups.io/. There is a free system with limited membership (100 I believe) and standard and premium ones, too. All the machine tool groups that I follow have now moved to io - each administrator asking for a small annual donation from members to cover the costs. Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a tight limit on storage and some administrators have had to strip out larger files. There is nothing like storing what you want to preserve on a 4TB remote hard drive (or two).

[JonE]

For me FaceBook etc are for "disposable" content, it's designed to be a river of content, ie constantly flowing and changing. That's why it's so addictive.

For me the solution for specific details would be much better in some sort of WIKI format or as has been done with the GE Cup site Ruairidh did.

I reckon the reason private groups perhaps aren't so approachable for more discussion is as a lot of people use their FB feed for multiple "new" stuff arising, perhaps on phones too. Your 'Original Detail' post pops up after your 'Border Terrier pinups' and so on. I only go to the individual group if I see activity has occurred, where I know how that particular grouping operates. Phones and pads oversimplify it all.

re. the latter, do you mean wordpress? If so we are back to the issue of people like Ruairidh putting in huge amounts of effort to organise, and having to upload photos - which others cant post directly unless they are taught how to become editors, (if they even wished for that!).  

As such, Tony's point about groups.io is very interesting, but would people sign up if they can't even get on the forum? And contribute? The issue I think is that much discussion material is in the heads of "Austin 7 elders" who are increasingly less likely to be wanting the hassle of social media. I wonder if aural histories/recordings should be encouraged at club level as well as the material being gathered by the association archive?

[Tony Press]

As Austin said: "trying to search for them on FB is almost impossible, not helped when there are so many A7 groups already set up."

Every Thomas, Richard and Henry thinks they must start their own Austin 7 FB page.

Many attendees have a short attention span so any long discussion on a topic makes very little sens- especially as most users are typing  on a phone.