Dear Wise Flist...

[ash48]

Yep.. I'm back again seeking advice on other fandom places to hangout.

I'm not really a Twitter gal and I don't think Tumblr is for me either. So now I'm considering Facebook. I've had no interest in getting a Facebook before now because, to be honest, real life stuff really doesn't interest me so much - except in real life of course. (and that's not to say I don't like hearing about YOUR rl stuff.. it's just I don't really want to follow rl friends to hear what they're up to...)

So.

I'm thinking a fandom Facebook page. Where I might most stuff a bit like on LJ. (vids etc. maybe occasional personal stuff) My thinking is this: the thing I enjoy most about fandom is connecting with other people who are into the same thing. Chatting, sharing creative works etc. But I realise that not everyone is on LJ. In fact I keep being told "I don't do LJ because it's too complicated". Which I agree with. Until you get to know it that is.

So. I'm curious if anyone else does this. Have a fandom named Facebook? I'm pretty keen to keep my RL and fandom life separate - mainly because I would hate for my students to ever find me.

I have a very limited knowledge of Facebook so I don't really know how it works. Though I understand you can create a community as well as a personal page. Ack! I am so internet challenged!

Advice?

(and um... if I did get a FB is it easy to find like minded peeps?)

Sorry for the lame questions..

Comments

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

Out of everywhere I find lj the only one I can really understand and makes sense to me.

Couple of things with Facebook, anything you post over there is theirs and theirs to do with what they want. Sort of annoys me that, so I would never post anything but links and they'd lead back here anyway.

Also Facebook wants you to be real, I do have one in the Ellie pseudonym, but it's on the understanding that if they ever find out I'm not real? They can toss me out any time they like, so again I'm just not keen on the idea of that either. I know a lot of others do it that way and get on fine, but that and the fact that anything I post, pictures of dog or walks or anything like that belongs to Facebook and anyone from my RL recognising places could end up tracing back to me here through tags and things?

Nope, I think I'm staying just here and have closed my Facebook account. Besides which, finding out where to post things and find things was a nightmare and everything was very short, quick notes and I was always being notified about who was where, what they were doing, what games they were playing and such, just felt very invasive and highlighted my natural paranoia!

L/J has become very quiet though and I can see more and more moving over to other platforms, so it's probably worth you opening one and finding out how you feel about it.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I find Facebook very annoying. Everything is for the here and now and there's not history to anything. If you've got lots of "friends" and don't constantly check it those posts just disappear. And I've also found that so much of it is just so dull and boring. Why in the hell do I want to know every time someone arrives at a location or liked something they were currently eating.

And it seems that everybody you know just "NEEDS" to be your friend. GAWD! There are lots of people I know in RL that I don't allow on my LiveJournal. But it almost seems like sacrilege to ignore their friend request.

It looks like a perpetual time-sucking device which I don't care for.

Now the reason I actually have a Facebook account is it's the easiest way to get a hold of my daughter.

Nope, my primary place is here on LJ...

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how facebook would work for trying to be fannish, as I only have a rl one, but it seems very poorly designed for that. It is definitely not someplace I would want to post content. It is basically an address book with a twitlonger feature as far as I can tell.

But I also cannot figure out how the hell to use it most effectively, because they change the layout and features every five minutes. I will be interested to see if there are ppl who use it for fandom with any success.

[dragonfly-sg1.livejournal.com]

I hate Facebook. The only reason I'm on it is because I've found some old friends it was really nice reconnecting with. Other than that... I'm tempted to close it every single day.

The community sounds like a really cool idea, though! I'll have to think on that one, myself.

It is easy to find people/communities of common interests, I believe. In fact, they're always recommending people with common interests to add as friends. Which, like you, I like to keep fandom and rl separate.

[debbiel66.livejournal.com]

I have a FB account, and I really do hate it. I would never ever dream of doing a fannish one out of terror that something would overlap and be posted everywhere. I don't even really understand how it works.

From what I understand, it's really hard to delete as well. LJ makes a lot of sense to me...I don't even know what Tumblr is... I've heard about it but never been on, never poked around.

[redteekal.livejournal.com]

Facebook is RL for me. Totes separate from my fannish life however I do occasionally post one liner episodic reactions or trailer links to epis I'm excited about. Put it this way my close friends IRL on FB know I'm very much a fan of the show they just don't know quite HOW much that is *g* ;-)
And I'll keep it that way ty very much :)

But I'm curious as to why tumblr is not for you? OMG that place is soooooooo full of the pretty! Seriously - I am having to enforce strong restrictions on my tumblr time otherwise I keep incessantly scrolling down and right click saving ALL THE PRETTY. There's is some gorgeous art on there and some hilarious posts and just so much to look at. I am planning on doing an LJ post soon that showcases some of the pretty I've found there.

And I'm choosy about who I follow so that much like LJ flist my dashboard page is full stuff I like.

[ruby-jelly.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll be interested to read your replies. I got into facebook at the behest of a friend, and I tend to be confused, *shuddup!...*

It feels like starting a story in the middle, no idea what's gone before, nor how to find out! And I find reading that someone I don't know has commented on the wall/post/fart of someone I do know is a tad tiresome, 'cos I can't figure out what's going on!!!! I'm sure I need to practise, but no energy.

PLUS, never want my lj and rl to EVA, EVA, eva converge. Then the universe as we know it would definitely implode!!!

[tenaciousmetoo.livejournal.com]

If the objective is to make sure your students don't find you, you may want to stay away from FB. It takes a bit of effort to keep things locked down, and they're constantly changing policies and sharing your information publicly in ways you might not expect. They also automatically crosslink to just about everything these days, which means that, if you keep your FB logged in, you might end up sharing it when you visit other websites without realizing it. And then you're all over Google.

Also, DO NOT LEAVE ME. <3

[destina.livejournal.com]

I will never in this lifetime join or participate in ViolateYourPrivacyRightsBook, otherwise known as Facebook, so. I'm probably no help to you in this department. *g*

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

I'm very similar to you in that I am careful to keep RL and fandom life apart because it would be inappropriate in my line of work to be very visible on the internet.

My experience of facebook is entirely based on having friends who use it, but everytime I take a look around I find it very offputting. It's like a conversation where everybody's talking and nobody's listening. But nobody really cares because nothing that's been said has much substance anyway.

I actually consider my webpage my main-home, and LJ is just an extension to this.

[greyowl88.livejournal.com]

I just read all the comments here and since I don't know anything about face book, it seems I also haven't missed anything. ;)

So, nothing lame about your questions. I learned something, too. :)

[yourlibrarian]

I'm finding myself laughing because the reason I clicked on your post is because I was curious to see how people explained fandom working there. I don't have an account myself so I'm of no help in this dept.

I have to say the general responses don't surprise me. FB has, so far as I can tell, been best for real life engagements -- for locating people and perhaps organizing events or sending out periodic "I'm still alive" notices to people who'd forgotten you exist. And since you want to keep RL things separate both for work and personal reasons, I don't know that the upside will exceed the downside.

For example, celebrities have started to use Facebook so that they can be found and because it's easier to start, maintain and track their followers than a standalone website is. Being able to show off followers is, I am convinced, becoming an important coin of the trade in terms of employment opportunities, so I expect we're going to continue seeing a lot of Twitter and FB pages being started for celebs or media types (as well as corporations and projects). However, I feel it also suits the fact that these people rarely have much to say because one does not go to FB to read essays or get anything other than short news briefs, and to my mind that's already served even more conveniently by Twitter which does not, at least, give you relentless status updates or try to maneuver you into playing games or doing other "revenue enhancing" things. At least on Twitter you have to be saying something even if it's inane.

Others have already pointed out the privacy concerns, which is a central reason why DW is my main site. Unfortunately, since you're looking for more activity than you're finding on LJ I can't recommend it. It's a superior platform and keeps being developed in helpful ways. But while I'm seeing more activity there it's very low compared to LJ and I find that my fandom-related reading there is around 20%. I would agree with others that Tumblr and Twitter seem to be the growing fandom sites. I think the reason they're growing is because a lot of fandom has always been the skim and chat side, and they better serve that sort of sporadic attention. LJ has always accommodated it, but it's better served for long-form content (and DW, with its much longer posting and commenting limits, better still). I enjoy the social nature of fandom here but when it comes down to it, I want to have my time served by meaty content and I'm not likely to find that anywhere else.

I think in time the AO3 may serve as a good base for that, but as it's both still in beta and has years to go yet in being able to host both art and vids, expand its bookmarking system, etc. I think it'll be the option of our next decade if it's one at all.

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

Facebook is, unfortunately, the future. Their overwhelming market share -- and potential eyeballs for companies -- is undeniable.

However, it doesn't come without problems.

Privacy and security is a major issue. It's definitely why I deleted my account (it's not impossible, but they make it difficult to wipe your account completely).

There are groups on Facebook that you can join, but they're not really fannish cliques they way we know them, probably because you're a real person there and people don't want others knowing their proclivities. I did join the biggest SPN group on there, but basically all it was was people "liking" stuff and them posting about when new episodes were coming on. There's no real community like there is here.

If you do choose to join under an anonymous account, DO NOT USE ONE OF YOUR CURRENT E-MAIL ADDRESSES. When you sign up, Facebook will link your contacts in your e-mail account to people already on FB. Luckily I signed up under my real-life account, but I found that FB suggested a lot of "friends" who I did not know in real life but were fandom friends and I had their e-mails in my account.

That bothered me most of all. I did NOT want my online persona linked in any way to my real-life one, especially considering I've been looking for a job.

The new third-party connection system is troubling too. When you are signed in to FB and visit a website that is connected to and shares into with FB, FB knows where you surf and visit. It's makes it easier for third party sites to focus their ads on you.

My suggestion? If you are concerned about anyone from real life discovering your SPN "secrets" DO NOT JOIN FB.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

In fact I keep being told "I don't do LJ because it's too complicated". Which I agree with. Until you get to know it that is.
That's Facebook to me. I get some idea of what's going on and the whole damn thing changes again. I use it to look at pretty pictures of my nephew, but I don't get it at all!

[geckoholic]

Well, I do have a facebook, but only to stay in touch with my brother and giggle around with my BFF. Fandom, that's what LJ is for. ;) Or Tumblr. And, to a degree, Twitter. *gg*

[cosmicviolet.livejournal.com]

The only reason I have Facebook is because my brother made me get one. I don't really get why everyone thinks it's so great. There isn't much to do on it. Yeah, it's good for finding old friends you've lost touch with or something like that, but for fandom activities, you're better off staying with LJ. However...have you heard of Fan Forum? I used to go there. They have boards for just about everything, they're very active, and the people are really friendly. So you might explore there. :)