The Idiot's Guide to Facebook

Subject: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 09:54 AM

Could we start one, please....probably just for me! :0)

HOW do you put videos on to your profile? I've clicked the ''Video' button, but it says I have to upload them via my computer, through their 'Browse' button...

B*ggered if I've a clue what they're on about! In myspace, you simply copy the 'embed' code and there you are, job done.


AND...is there any way that you can customise your page? I've tried a few of the Facebook sites that say you can put backgrounds on via them, but nowt shows up...

Now I remember why I packed it in last year..   :0(

Thanks for any help....
Lizzie :0)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 10:15 AM

Click the 'browse' button, select the video you want to upload then click 'send' or whatever it's called. I've sent photos but no video yet.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you actually have a web page. You register and can 'network' with folks: talk to them on the Wall or in chat and share things with them, but it's more like a public meeting hall then your own room.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Carol
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 10:18 AM

Can anyone tell me what these 'lil green' things are that i keep on getting sent and I think they will cost me money -am i right?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 10:20 AM

Thanks, Jeri.

I did that, the 'browse' bit, but it takes you to your own computer bits and bobs. I've no videos loaded up on to there. It's different from last time round, I'm sure I just embedded the codes, straight from the Youtube pages.   I had masses of videos on there last time, but they seem to have altered it.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: jeddy
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:18 AM

if you want youtube vids, go to youtube then underneath the vid there is a facebook link. click that and it will automatically send it to your wall and stay in the links list. beware if you do too many at once it shows the first one and then says 3? similar posts so it is better to do them slowly!!!

hope this helps... someone said they could change the colour but i haven't worked out how to yet

takr care

jade x x x

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:18 AM

They might have changed it so people couldn't upload other people's stuff. I'm guessing there were legal issues. Maybe you can put a link in?

From Facebook:

     Please upload a file only if:
  
           * The video is under 1024 MB and under 20 minutes.
           * The video was made by you or your friends.
           * You or one of your friends appears in the video.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Weasel
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:19 AM

I've never had anything from Facebook that has cost me money.

I don't know what "li'l green' things" are. If they ask you to take them to your leader, then I suggest you refer them to a higher authority.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:28 AM

most commercial sites now have an instant facebook link, that asks you to sign into your facebook account and posts it for you.

Other than that, you could try copying the address from you tube to your documents, then picking it up with the 'browse' function?

Dani

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:48 AM

Some folks don't want to be found in search engines but, for anyone who does, Facebook still doesn't allow our own URL - although, I haven't checked for a while..? "Craze" is the appropriate word, I feel - myspace, where I am, has improved, and is better for musicians, but folks goto Facebook because folks are going to Facebook.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: topical tom
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:49 AM

I have a different problem with Facebook. On each page the chat feature appears for a few seconds and then disappears (just a wee red showing, not enough to click on or click and drag). It almost totally disappears at the bottom of the page. Has anyone else had this problem?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:12 PM

"Other than that, you could try copying the address from you tube to your documents, then picking it up with the 'browse' function?"

Thanks, Dani...but..HOW do I DO that? (utterly confooosed smiley)

I did the 'copy' thing with the mouse, then found my 'documents' but how do I get it from the copy stage into the documents, nothing will open. Darn it..

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:43 PM

Jeddy, thanks. I learned something--guess I'm in the right thread!

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:48 PM

Oh, thanks Jeri, I missed jade's post there. Excellent, I'll try that now.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: GUEST,Captain Jack Sparrow
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 01:05 PM

Are you going to stay for more than two days this time, before shutting it all down on the grounds it might suit two hundred million other people but not you?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: BB
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 03:45 PM

Is it really necessary to get your wooden spoon out, Captain, especially as you are only a Guest here?

Barbara

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 06:11 PM

Don't worry, Barbara, I'm having way too good a time on Facebook to get worried about comments like that, especially when I know who the Captain is. I've found out how to add them now, thanks to jade. :0)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: jeddy
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 06:38 PM

i think i may regret telling you LOL.
glad you are getting into it!!

take care all

love jade x x x

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Becca72
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 11:56 AM

The "little green patch" is just a game of sorts...you send different types of plants to your friends and they collect them in a "garden". The more you send, the more different kinds you have access to. Facebook claims that by doing this money is donated to the rainforests, but I fail to see how that happens. It does NOT cost you money, just lots of time and energy.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Surreysinger
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 09:45 PM

Actually, to be perfectly accurate it is NOT Facebook that makes that claim, but the application in question, which is an independent thing (as are all the quizzes, groups, fan pages etc). When you sign up for an application the disclaimer telling you this appears (except for the one or two applications which are actually Facebook controlled, of course). I gave up on the little green patch, the aquarium and other similar allied things ... I just got rather fed up with continually having to send plants, fish, birds etc to those who'd sent them to me, water the garden, etc etc etc ...as Becca said, it wastes a lot of time and energy.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 10:37 PM

You CAN'T "customize" your Facebook profile page or home page, which is fine with me. For every decently-designed MySpace page, there are at least a dozen unreadable pages crowded with unintelligible graphics.

(No offense; I didn't mean YOU. Your MySpace page is a model of sophistication.)

I like the uniformity of the Facebook pages; once you get familiar with the format, it's very easy to nagigate and quickly find your bearings. Yeah, I know; you can validly criticize the design as "corporate," or whatever, but it's simple and it works.

Facebook does not serve as well as MySpace for self-promotion, especially not for musicians. FB makes it much easier to post videos (and of course photos) than audio files, for some reason. Facebook does allow you to set up "group" and "event" pages to publicize yourself and/or your gigs. Aside from that, I find it useful/entertaining mostly for maintining contact with people and trading wisecracks. My sons are both aspiring comedians, as are many of their friends who are now my FB "friends," and I thoroughly enjoy swapping one-liners with the bunch of them.

Incidentally, I receive videos via FB that are on YouTube, but also quite a few that are not. I think you can upload directly to a Facebook page from your computer ~ assuming that your videos are on your computer.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 06:14 AM

Oh BOY! Am I having fun loading videos onto my page! :0) I'm in there for the music, and to help spread the word about all the wonderful musicians I've come to know about, so that's what Facebook is, for me..

I *loathe* the uniformity of it though. I totally loathe being controlled in any way whatsoever..and worry terribly about the lack of individuality in this world with every passing day, as more and more people become Proles who conform and do what they're told....

Darn it, I'll find a way, somehow to colour my Facebook page... ;0)

Vive la Difference!   (spelt whichever way turns you on!)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 09:59 PM

"More than a half billion people use online social networks, posting vast amounts of information about themselves to share with online friends and colleagues. A new study co-authored by a researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found that the practices of many popular social networking sites typically make that personal information available to companies that track Web users' browsing habits and allow them to link anonymous browsing habits to specific people.

The study, presented recently in Barcelona at the Workshop on Online Social Networks, part of the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communications, is the first to describe a mechanism that tracking sites could use to directly link browsing habits to specific individuals.

"When you sign up with a social networking site, you are assigned a unique identifier," says Craig Wills, professor of computer science at WPI, who conducted the study with an industry colleague. "This is a string of numbers or characters that points to your profile. We found that when social networking sites pass information to tracking sites about your activities, they often include this unique identifier. So now a tracking site not only has a profile of your Web browsing activities, it can link that profile to the personal information you post on the social networking site. Now your browsing profile is not just of somebody, it is of you."

Like most commercial websites, online social networks use third-party tracking sites, called aggregators, to learn about the browsing habits of their visitors. Cookies are maintained by a Web browser and contain information that enable tracking sites to build profiles of the websites visited by a user. Each time the user visits a new website, the tracking site can review those cookies and serve up ads that might appeal to the user. For example, if the user frequently visits food sites, he or she might see an ad for a new cookbook.

Online networking sites have gone a step further by allowing for transmission of unique identifiers. It is a particularly troubling practice for two reasons, Wills says. "First," he notes. "users put a lot of information about themselves on social networking sites. Second, a lot of that information can be seen by other users, by default. There are mechanisms users can use to limit access to their information, but we found through previous research that most users don't take advantage of them." With a unique identifier, a tracking site could gain access to a user's name, physical address, email address, gender, birth date, educational and employment information, and much more. "

From PhysOrg.com . Full story here.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 10:03 PM

In facebook where you type what you are doing or your thoughts
look right underneath that box where you type. One is for a link the other for photo's one is for video ... you can upload a video there. If it is one on youtube just use the link button and paste the youtube link in it

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 10:04 PM

by the way I shut mine down ... sick of the scammers

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: elfcape
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 04:16 PM

Scammers - been there 8 months and haven't met any yet.

Videos? If they're your own, go to your profile page and click on the >> or the +, choose Video, then the resulting page with give you the opportunity to navigate to the location of the video on your own computer.

If it's a youtube vid you want to link to your Facebook space, go to youtube and use the "Share" link under the video to send the url of the video to your Facebook space, or click in the space to the left of the url for the specific video page which will highlight the url for the video. Then copy it to your clipboard, go back to Facebook and insert the link into your "what's on your mind" field.

Don't play any games or accept any gifts that you don't want. If you get plagued with "I played this game/contest/whatever announcements from your friends, you can eliminate those postings by moving the cursor over the upper right corner of the friend's message until the Hide button appears. Then click on it and choose whether to hide postings from the friend, or simply hide further comments from the game.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:58 PM

"online social networks use third-party tracking sites, called aggregators"

For Firefox users, there is now a new addon called "BetterPrivacy" that blocks something called 'LSO's - Longterm Storage Objects (sorta like cookies, used to track your site visiting patterns) - which are implemented in Flash - and cannot even be found unless you have the latest tools like this...

There is also "TACO" (been around for a while) which gives you a pile of 'opt-out' cookies for your machine that are supposed to be respected by many web sites now.

Robin

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: kendall
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 06:08 AM

Whatever it is, I'm against it.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Susan of DT
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 07:45 AM

I have a more basic question: Why would we want to be members of Facebook, Myspace, or the google(?) group that pops up here? We have mudcat for networking. I have a website for professional (not music) things. I have no desire to post recordings of my singing. Yes, I am an old fuddy duddy. I find the existence of the Google group particularly confusing - if it is only our people, why would we need it?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 07:01 PM

.. sorta the difference between radio and tv might be one way to explain it ... ;-)

"if it is only our people, why would we need it?"

Max has been known to send out a message to the group to say "the cat is down, will be back ..." and stop heaps of people stressing... :-)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 08:35 PM

Well, I was a member of Facebook or something and I got all these "applications" that wanted me to give a beer back to so-and-so, and I didn't have time for that - so I quit. And so I know next to nothing about Facebook, and am generally very happy about that. I swee that Susan of DT shares my feelings about Facebook, so I figure I'm in good company.

But now I'm under orders from the Board of Directors to put a link to our Facebook page on the Website of the Women's Center where I do volunteer work.

So, what address do I use, and maybe is there a cute little icon I can use or a script I can copy to post on the Website? I have to say that sometimes when I get orders from the Board of Directors, it's actually something wanted by our development director, who's the age of my kid - and she figures I'll be more responsive if she says it's what the Board of Directors wants. What she doesn't know is that I'll do anything she wants, and maybe it's better that she DOESN'T know that....

T'anks.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 09:46 PM

Joe,

Well, whenever you have a Facebook page (I don't find it in a Facebook search), you can just put a link on your web page in the usual way. If the person using the link is not a member, or is not logged in, they'll get to see the page, and it will automatically include a "Sign up for Facebook" option at the top.

For instance, you (as a non-member) can try this link to a page for Jed Marum and Lonestar Stout.

When you get the Facebook page set up, you can click on the "widgets" link (which for some reason I can only find at http://www.facebook.com when I'm not logged in), and then go to "badges" and select "Page Badge" to get a pretty link graphic widget to use on your web site.

Of course I'm not a doctor myself (which is to say, I don't have a business Facebook page!), so others may have more or better advice.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 09:48 PM

Also, FYI, it is possible to block the silly game posts from your Facebook friends, so you can just see their silly status posts... ;-)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Janie
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 10:23 PM

My wise friend Dani told me, when I first signed up for facebook, to simply go into my settings and disallow (or not allow, or something like that) all the applications.

I messed around for a little while with trying to allow some, then ended up dumping all of them. If I click on anything and a window pops up saying I have to allow an application to see it or respond, I decide to just not go there.

I'm not on facebook much, but it does have it's uses - especially once i figured out that I could use it without it using me.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 10:23 PM

Life is too short for the facebook apps. Ignore those.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 10:23 PM


But now I'm under orders from the Board of Directors to put a link to our Facebook page on the Website of the Women's Center where I do volunteer work.

I am impressed that your BofD knows about Mudcat's FB presence and wants a link....**bg**.

I got outta there, too, so can't be of any help.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 02:21 AM

OK, let's try it. I'm surprised that they make it so difficult to find a way to make a link. Thanks for your help, Becky.

I'm using Jed's link as a template:
Wellspring Women's Center
-I couldn't get that one to work.

I found this link on our Facebook profile page, and it seems to be the one I want: Wellspring Women's Center

You'll see it on our "Latest Links" section on the left-hand side of our Web Page

And Kat, by "our," I meant a link to the Women's Center Facebook page. I think I'm the one who wet the Facebook account up in the first place, but maybe the development director did it.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 09:03 AM

Yes, copying and pasting the link is the best approach; Facebook includes a lot of information about the trail of your clicking (I tried to minimise it, but apparently not enough).

It looks like your organization's Facebook page is really an individual's page. It might make more sense to set it up as a business/organization page... if you go to the sign-up page (click "Join Facebook" anywhere), below the form for filling in your name, e-mail addresss, etc. is a link to "Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business." One of the options you'll get there is for an "organization". There will be some special features in the management of the page that may be useful.

~ Becky

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 02:40 PM

Thanks, Becky. I wondered about that, too - but I wouldn't have noticed that link to "Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business" without your pointing it out.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: danensis
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 03:32 PM

I go to the links page, and put the link in the top box - this automatically loads the page, and allows you to choose an icon.

I didn't realise until recently that if you hover the mouse over the top right hand corner of each status update, there is a (hidden) hide button which allows you to hide applications and even people.

John

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 03:58 PM

Joe - Facebook has one of those "minimize the menus" interfaces that leaves you wondering how the heck to find features that you know must be there somewhere.


John - yeah, that's the new (and great) thing that I was referring to earlier. It used to be that you could just block people, but now you can block the games, without blocking their other posts.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:26 PM

I know, Joe, I was teasing you.:-) Also, teasing when I mention your "wetting" the FB page!;-)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:35 PM

>>Life is too short for the facebook apps. Ignore those. <<

I agree whole heartedly with Phil Cooper

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 05:01 PM

Managed to get video's of my next act on Facebook and Myspace.

http://www.facebook.com/les.worrall?ref=profile

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=310835943

mind you I could only get them into teh blog section of myspace.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 12:50 PM

Recently joined - seems like the more friends I acquire,the more friends I acquire??

S'pose its some sort've pyramid three degrees of separation 'til everyone in the world's my friend!?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 01:09 PM

Only if you want them to be. :0)

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 02:31 PM

I, actually find Facebook to be very user friendly, as long as you set it up properly to begin with. Using it, I have re-connected with so many old friends across the globe, shared photos, sound clips etc. It's actually very user friendly. I don't bother with any of the Farmville/survey/Mafia Wars garbage. But, used sensibly, it's a great meeting place. and....more importantly, you can reject friend requests that are unwanted...(No names mentioned!)
It can be whatever you want to make it with a bit of thought...Gave up on My Space months ago, completely hopeless now.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: gnu
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 03:33 PM

I was gonna start a site called MyFriendsFaceSpace years ago but I didn't have any.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Greg F.
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 05:29 PM

I have a more basic question: Why would we want to be members of Facebook, Myspace......

Apparently a lot of folks have a lot of free time hanging heavy on their hands and nothing worthwhile to do.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: Seayaker
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 06:48 PM

To answer Greg F, it's a convenient way of keeping in touch with people who have moved to different parts of the country/world and you can spend as much or as little time on as you see fit.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: bobad
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 07:09 PM

It seems that people of a certain mental age just don't get it.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: gnu
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 08:38 PM

Greg... I agree totally. I mean, I spend my time fruitfully and don't bother to waste it posting on forums chastising others for not doing what I don't do. How can those people be so pointless eh?

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: bobad
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 08:42 PM

gnu....LIKE

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: gnu
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 09:00 PM

bobad... is that LIKE some new mod Facebook term er what eh? I don't understand you kids these days. Yer all out the window with all this high tech stuff and yer fancy lingo. I just can't...well... don't wanna bother ta keep up. You kids have fun. I'll just sit in the corner of The Café and sip my beer.

Subject: RE: The Idiot's Guide to Facebook
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 10:16 PM

S'pose its some sort've pyramid three degrees of separation 'til everyone in the world's my friend!?

Those are not your friends. They only hang around you until they find out whether you have anything they can borrow.

If you don't lend them anything, they'll soon be gone.

If you do lend something to one of them, you'll never get rid of 'em until they have everythibg you used to own.

(Although not really friends, they can sometimes be just like family - - especially like your kids.)

John