My Facebook experience lasted exactly two hours, and then I deactivated.

[Mike 03]

That place scared the shit out of me, even worse than eHarmony, which I belonged to for exactly twelve hours.

My hope in joining Facebook was to find some place where I could meet people with my own interests, maybe keep a blog, express some very personal feelings.

The moment I signed up I had all these strangers on my "friends" list (or at least, on my page) and invites from five thousand people who attended my college.

Then the first two emails I get are from the LAST TWO PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD I EVER WANTED TO HEAR FROM, a far, far right Conservative (who no doubt read my profile and figured out for sure that I'm a "liberal democrat") and a pompous, thin-skinned individual in the film industry I had been trying to avoid for years.

I feel kind of bad because it seemed like a great place to meet some cool people, but damn, by the first minute I made the damned page it seemed like everyone in the world was aware I was on Facebook. This was nothing like LiveJournal, where it is a slower process of meeting, finding and inviting friends based on shared interests.

Facebook happens so fast it is like an onslaught. This was more like the TET Offensive or something. Sheesh.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Sounds like you made too much of your information public

Always make the bastards ferret you out. :)

[Mike 03]

4. I knew it! I knew I'd done something wrong. Maybe there is some way I can redo or undo my

page, because I'd love to have one.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Go to 'Settings' at top right

then "Privacy settings."



Adjust according to need. :)

[Zuiderelle]

13. Yep, that's what it sounds like to me too.

I love Facebook. I've reconnected with a lot of people from long ago.

[ThomCat]

2. You definitely made too much information public.

:(

I'm very sorry.

I had a friend help me set up my page, only accepted known friends, and grew from there. It's reasonable, manageable, and I haven't been spammed like you were.

It's a system that can handle either a few small contacts or thousands, so you have to set it to let in the people you want to let in.

Please try again when you're comfortable, and only let in the people you know. DUers would love to be able to talk to you there too. It's a different and more personal experience.

:hug:

[Mike 03]

3. Wow, that makes sense. I knew I had done something wrong.

Hmmmm. I wonder if there is some way to salvage this situation.

[Mike 03]

5. I was dumb. I had no clue that making just basic info public could turn into such a

damned nightmare.

I was trying to be "transparent", like Wall Street should be.

I thought: "What harm can come from being who I am?"


:crazy:

Me = Naive Dumbshit

[Zuiderelle]

16. What basic information did you make public? It seems pretty odd that you would have had THAT much

traffic, requests, etc., even if you made your entire profile public.

Two hours? And all those college acquaintances happened to be online looking for old classmates in the same two hour period?

[DS1]

7. That happened in two hours? Horseshit.

[Mike 03]

15. You are right: It wasn't really two hours. It was more like thirty minutes. NT

[Bucky]

19. Are there programs or cookies from members that automatically scan new profiles for invites?

That seems like a lot of grief to occur in 30 minutes. I assume there's automatic invitation programs running on that site.

Of course I also assume there's a tiny rock band living in my radio who do impeccable cover songs of everybody...

[Happyhippychick]

8. Try again. You don't have to accept anyone as your friend if you don't want to.

I have made mine very private, only people who really knew me will be interested in finding me because I have nothing as public information. And if you "friend" somebody and then decide you made a mistake, you can de-friend. :)

Facebook is incredible. I have reunited with some of the most important people of my past through it. Good luck!

[Mike 03]

12. I did because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. My bad. NT

[bigwillq]

9. Try again.

There are several features that allow you to control who sees your page. And you don't have to accept all those people. Just decline their invite.

And don't give out too much personal info!!

[Mike 03]

14. I should have paid more attention to what I was doing.

I was too eager. It seemed like a great thing and I just said "Yes" to everything, probably.

[bigwillq]

10. dupe

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. I have very little info posted. Thing is, evidently, I started a profile

a couple of years ago and forgot about it. Now, they want me to be friends with my old profile. I have written to them for help. STILL...no response. The Old profile has too much info and some of it is now erroneous. I want it deleted and am hesitant to move forward with the new one :(

[Mike 03]

18. See, you were smart. I gave my whole life story.

It's sad, because it would be nice to meet people like you. I just didn't want to get stuff from every single person who attended the same university I did.

I wanted something really private, and hopefully to meet people from DU.

Even my experience at MySpace wasn't this overwhelming. Maybe it's my fault, but when I set up a MySpace, just for a very temporary reason to find out some info, there was no big deal at all.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. MySpace moved so slow...all that STUFF on there, UGH!!

Maybe you could start another one on FaceBook. :shrug: :hug:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. Remember me?

When you were looking for people, I gave you some suggestions, and then cautioned you, telling you that people had come out of the woodwork to find me when my first book was published. You thought that was kind of neat - and, in some ways, it was - but now you can see, alas, what it feels like when people just swarm and you feel so assaulted.

I hope you get it fixed. Good luck, and be very careful....................

[Mike 03]

20. My question: Should I make a new page or re-activate and modify the old one? NT

[Ikonoklast]

22. Be aware.

http://www.wimp.com/badinfo/

They are always watching.

Always.

[supernova]

24. Yikes!

I'm a writer and it's disturbing to me that they can datamine other parts of the web for info about you and publish stuff there. I want to maintain control of my writing distribution.

Thanks for the info.

[justabob]

25. that is more than a little disturbing

I don't even like posting my resume online for a job. I definitely can't deal with anything like Facebook or MySpace, especially now that I watched that.

[femmocrat]

23. I had the opposite experience.

I couldn't find a single person I knew from the past. And no one contacted me. :shrug:

I went there after seeing people talk about it here.

I also went to that experience project that you mentioned ... same thing. I got tired of checking it. I must be the most boring person on the planet.

If I wanted to be ignored, I could just hang out on DU. :rofl:

[Lavender Brown]

26. How did you have strangers on your list or your page?

They can't show up there unless you approve them in the first place. :shrug: That's weird.

[Fire Walk With Me]

27. I was once told that I'd be happy with just a couple of actual friends

and I have indeed turned out to appreciate that mode of living. I'm an introvert, and facebook, and things like it, aren't pleasant at all. :shrug: