h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's been brought to my attention by a special friend that I'm a little too enthusiastic sending stuff that isn't appreciated, on Facebook. I appreciate being told, as I don't think of it as being annoying or intrusive myself, but I understand if it's not welcome. So, let me know if you don't want such (and photo tagging) because I am storing photos of my fellow hootooers (who have Facebook accounts) as well. Thanks!

I've almost forgotten about Facebook

I haven't even checked into that site for almost a year

I wonder if I still have an account

Great Scott! Everyone's been very busy, I see

Can't be bothered with it

I may look at it some time this winter, when I'm really bored.

That is, if I can find the damn thing....

I'm better off without them because, to be honest, I really don't understand how all that works with fb.
Not that it's unappreciated.

I use FB mostly for keeping eye on world. Oh, and farmville - I recently started and I almost understand how it works. But all those s and other blinking things... I'm afraid those are mostly wasted on me. I mean, it's kinda nice to receive those but then I don't really understand all this stuff and I just don't have the energy to get into it. Or - to make long story short - all fine with me as long as I am not supposed to *do* something.

I've never understood all that stuff either.

My Facebook page seems to be full of things like:

"Morag sent you Snookums the care bear"

or

"Wayne took the 'What is the state of your mental health?' survey and he's officially 'Off with the Fairies!'"


If it gives people pleasure to send that stuff, then that's cool with me, but don't expect me to understand it!

I quite like the photo tagging on Facebook. And the notes (though you can do just as well on a blog or in a hootoo journal). And sharing links. I post links there all the time. It's almost all I use the site for.

Everything else I ignore. Feel free to carry on. I just ignore them.

TRiG.

thanks guys

i knew you would understand

I had a hissy fit at Facebook a couple of weeks ago for similar reasons, but my own ire was directed at *apps* rather than people.

The default for apps is that they are allowed to post to your news feed, so to stop them from doing so you have to tell them not to. That meant that every time somebody bought a cow in FarmVille or went up a level in Mafia Wars, I'd be told about it automatically.

If you access Facebook via a PC, that's annoying rather than infuriating; all you do is hover on the right side of the news item and you get an option to hide the app - and hey presto! it never appears on your news feed again. Any app will always appear until you ask it not to, though.

This is really irksome when you're accessing with an iPod, though. There is no option to hide apps on the limited version you see from a mobile device. And any time somebody makes a new quiz on a subject such as 'how well do you know Rich?', it treats it as a new app, so it automatically appears on your news feed. Last week, I had three-quarters of my 'news' on my news feed related to games people were playing, and found this irritating as I'd joined Facebook to keep in touch with people. I can't turn off these notifications from apps from my iPod and, as I only turn on my PC three or four times a week these days, turning each of them off individually so I can actually see what people have been doing is a real hassle.

Imagine if h2g2 automatically subscribed all users to PR, Ask h2g2, EF and Lil's Atelier and only allowed you to unsubscribe from individual threads rather than entire fora and you'll imagine how off-putting that could be.

Personally, I don't think anyone should go on Facebook if they're likely to get irked about people sending them a pint of cider or tagging photos of them, as long as nothing malicious is going on. Somebody uploaded an old photo of me dressed as Duncan Goodhew to http://tinyurl.com/yzrpupq and really that's all part of the fun when you share things among friends. It's unfair for anyone to expect you to remember who wants notifications about what and who does and doesn't mind being tagged - people can choose not to allow tags in photos and to show limited profiles of they wish.

Please, send me anything you like, and tag me in anything you wish. I love nothing more than thoughtful people. The bit of Facebook I resent the most is the lack of an 'opt-out' button for all apps, so that any time one of my friends gets a new aquarium app I don't get a dozen offers of fish.

the only time facebook actually annoyed me was when i suddenly - without ever having asked for it - found myself in a dating forum

a forum that instantly told me that a lot of my friends - some of whom are in in marriages and similar relationships - were also members!

these guys were now visible to all my other friends

took me a quite while to figure out how to get out of it!

I ignore all those "gift" things on Facebook. I rarely hit the "reject" button, though, because I don't want to offend you, GB. I don't know whether you get a message in that case "Eoin has rejected your offer of a ..." and I wouldn't like you to get such a message.

that was precisely what was bugging me, gnomon

*learns to use 'hide' button*

I admit I was a bit over-enthusiastic with the gift giving when I first joined, but now I gift only those fellow-participators, like Minichessemouse, and others I know who have the apps installed. I only do green patch and eco racer every day, because they make rainforest donations and grant you carbon credits or some such, the 101 eggs app raises funds for cancer research, and the African safari app because that has just donated £5,500-worth (so I was informed) of mosquito nets to needy families in Africa.

I don't think anyone gets told about a rejection, Gnomon, if I ever do send you something accidentally (unless you inform me you are taking part) then feel free to delete/ignore. I promise I won't take offence.

Some apps are annoying in that they won't let you participate unless you invite someone off your friends list but I usually ignore those kinds of

Eco racer is annoying because it invites you to race all your friends, even if they don't have the app installed, and if you click them it says "invite so-and-so" but I don't usually send out invites unless I specifically think it will be of interest, and wouldn't like to be bombarded by requests myself. I get invites to join groups and causes, and sometimes the image that comes along with it - like a seal getting its head bashed in, or dogs being made to fight - really upset me. I know it goes on and I hate it, but I don't want to join the group to be bombarded with such images so I just ignore the request.

The Hallowe'en apps are quite fun, I've joined them all, and I'm sorry if you got notified of that Rich

http://apps.facebook.com/aclunc_privacy_quiz/

Is that the quiz that shows you which information is accessible for the app creator although you don't even have this app?

Ever since I read that I've spent a large chunk of my facebook time blocking apps my friends have added.

Btw, everyone can edit their settings in a way that nobody else is notified of all the cows you buy etc. I know, because I did in my settings. My friends should actually get very few notifications about what I've done on fb. If you do, please let me know what it was, then I can turn it off (I've probably missed a few).

I don't really bother with any of the apps, so I do ignore any requests I get sent.

I never get notified of anything you do, Bel, I was surprised when I went to Pierce's page and saw your convos with him, I thought you had dumped Fb (your security wall is great)

Bel's protection is very good, I can't even send her friends request.