# Questions about Facebook



## Pergamum (Oct 2, 2008)

This month not much travel - confined to the coast. 

I discovered Facebook.



I found out that it is easy to keep in touch with several friends and relatives easier than even hotmail.



As a new Facebook-er.....Here's some questions:



---How secure is it?

---Can I track other people's activity if they read my notes or look at my pics (i.e. So-and-So just looked at pic B or read Note 3")

---Is it polite to purge my friends? Under what condition? I did an invite and went from 10 friends to 200 in a day (how does THAT happen). 

---Can I write blog-type entries under the "Notes" section?

--Seems like there is a bunch of junk on there too. People will understand if I don't want to throw them poke them, give them a gift or become a Jedi warrior or other time-wasters, right? I check email and PB (using PB as a verb here) in moments between checking on other things...I need no other time-munchers.

---I have several drunk relatives who like to post pics of parties on their profiles. Should I delete them from my friends list? Who wants to see them with their head in the toilet.....not me?

--If someone comments on a note or a photo and mentions country details, can I erase these comments, and can outsiders see these comments and how secure are our conversations? 

--Can I empty out my history in case people post comments that are too private?

--Can my friends see who my friends are? Can I block this so that my pastor friends don't see the profile pics of my old pre-conversion friends who have profile pics of them flipping the bird, puking in a toilet or mooning the camera (yes, I knew some real winners back in "the day"....)?

---Can outsiders see who my friends are?

--Is it snobby not to admit who my friends and former associations are?


Does this platform have potential for pastors, missionaries to send out news, updates? Yes or no, why or why not? Any dangers?


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## Kim G (Oct 2, 2008)

I don't know the answers to all of your questions, but here are my opinions about some of them.



Pergamum said:


> ---Is it polite to purge my friends? Under what condition? I did an invite and went from 10 friends to 200 in a day (how does THAT happen).


I have purged over half of my friends. Some people that I "friended" to catch up with really weren't the best people to hang out with online. I was tired of photos and words popping up in my news feed that made me sick. Your friends won't be notified that you deleted them.



> Can I write blog-type entries under the "Notes" section?


 Yep. I actually have a personal blog for family and friends, and Facebook automatically uploads my blog posts from wordpress into the "Notes" section.



> Seems like there is a bunch of junk on there too. People will understand if I don't want to throw them poke them, give them a gift or become a Jedi warrior or other time-wasters, right?


 Feel free to ignore all that junk. Some people have all the time in the world to waste on there, but I don't. I delete everything that gets sent my way. People understand that you probably won't even look at what they send you. Some applications require you to forward information to friends before you can play or see results of a quiz, etc. 



> I have several drunk relatives who like to post pics of parties on their profiles. Should I delete them from my friends list? Who wants to see them with their head in the toilet.....not me?


That's up to you. I had a former friend whose profile picture went from cute to nasty (single pregnant her kissing her new GIRLfriend). I deleted her from the list. Other kind-of quirky people I let stay. 



> --If someone comments on a note or a photo and mentions country details, can I erase these comments, and can outsiders see these comments and how secure are our conversations?


You usually have the option of deleting anything that you want to--any comment made on anything of yours. In addition, you can set your profile information to private and secure so that no one but your friends can see your profile, wall, pictures, etc.



> Can my friends see who my friends are? Can outsiders see who my friends are?


Friends can see who your friends are--their profile picture and networks. I wouldn't be too worried about Christian friends judging you because of another friend's drunk profile picture. I think we all know people who are unbelievers, and you can't dictate what's on their pages. (On that note, if the photo is actually obscene, like flipping someone off, you can report it to Facebook and they will have the photo removed.) As far as strangers viewing your friends, you can choose that in your settings. I allow people to see my friends so that they can decide if they really do know me. But many people choose to keep their friends list away from strangers.

That's about all I know. Hopefully other people can help with the rest of your questions!


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## Pergamum (Oct 2, 2008)

COOL! Let the drunk hillbilly relative purge begin!


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## Simply_Nikki (Oct 2, 2008)

Where is your facebook page btw?  So that I might addeth thee =D!


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Oct 2, 2008)

There are different security options for who can view your page etc...

With that said I would not put anything up that could get you in trouble. It is not _that_ safe.

Deleting friends should be no trouble.

It is a problem I face that a lot of my "friends" put up silly photos and all sorts of things so if you ever add me on Facebook you find a whole mismatch of junk and good things. I tend to use it less and less but it is important for networking.


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## matt01 (Oct 2, 2008)

I just started using Facebook this week, while looking for someone. I was inundated with 'friend' requests, many from people I haven't spoke to in years. Nice to know they can be purged without knowing...Still not sure what the point of the thing is, other than letting everyone know what you are doing.


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## Brother John (Oct 3, 2008)

*facebook*

My wife and I just got a facebook page. I think we are literally the last in our families to get one. We got it to stay in touch with family and a few friends. Mainly to post pictures of our kids for the family. We tried a blog but it has seemed to work out better with the facebook. We are able to have more control over who sees the pictures. So far we like it but we are being cautious. I will say that many of the advertisments are very offensive. I would like to be able to block them, anybody have any ideas on how to do that?


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## Kim G (Oct 3, 2008)

Blev3rd said:


> I will say that many of the advertisments are very offensive. I would like to be able to block them, anybody have any ideas on how to do that?



My husband was able to download some type of program for Mozilla Firefox that can block images . . . not sure what it's called.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 3, 2008)

Blev3rd said:


> I will say that many of the advertisments are very offensive. I would like to be able to block them, anybody have any ideas on how to do that?



My wife tells me that you can right-click on the image and a drop down menu with the option to block all Facebook ads will appear. This is a Firefox-only feature, as far as we know.


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## Timothy William (Oct 3, 2008)

I've found Facebook useful mainly for contacting people I haven't seen in years and years. I have gotten in touch with a few old friends I would never have located otherwise; however, I'm quite nostalgic, while some others aren't. 

I'm pretty cautious about adding friends, and I wouldn't, say, add someone from the PB because I don't know anyone well enough, and would feel too shy and impolite asking them - but I'm happy to add anyone who wants to add me.

A missionary-in-training I know added everyone on her contact list, over 300 people, in one go - suddenly she had lots and lots of friends.

If you visit someone's page, they can't see that you have viewed it, however from what I can see the security of the whole setup is pretty low, so I'm guessing it would be pretty easy for someone to crack in. I wouldn't put anything there I wouldn't want half the world to know.

Most people have heathen friends or family on their friends list; it's kind of expected you'll have someone who posts gaudy pictures and idiotic comments.

People can't see if you delete them, but they will be able to see that you are no longer in their friends list, and there is an application you can add on that tells you if anyone deletes you. I wouldn't delete anyone unless I didn't mind directly offending them - easier not to add them in the first place.


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