If Teresa thinks you are silly, then i believe you are clever for adding more and more friends, life is about connections and networks, that why it is called social networking. Why such websites would be here if you do not want to add friends, even people you never met, maybe one day you will meet, have a drink, share an idea, discuss a blog, whatever ...
50% of my friends on facebook, i never met them, i added them after seeing their profiles, as I was trying to drive contributors to write for my blog http://www.facebookism.com and many of them accepted to do it with pleasure and i am sure more and more will also accept.
Many interesting people are out there ... so lets be friends on facebook or on any other social networking site.
Krupo
· 2 years ago
I call this the "I dare you to add me" school of fcbk'ing. ;)
Matt Sledge
· 2 years ago
The one thing I like about Facebook is that you can make your contact information available only to your friends. Thus, I choose my friends wisely - and there's also the option of having friends who can only see a limited profile.
Teresa Valdez Klein
· 2 years ago
Hey, who am I to judge how you use Facebook? I think it's great to let people in.
But I have two points of clarification: 1) You're a man. You're not going to have random, creepy guys stalking you on Facebook. I feel like I have to be on guard against that, which is why I'm really careful about the information people can see in my profile. 2) For me, Facebook is a tool I've used for years to keep in touch with close friends who scattered after college. Now, I have a whole host of people that I know in other contexts who I am friends with on Facebook and I'd like to keep the information they see about me within that context.
I wish there were a way to create a "professional profile" so that I can share some information with people I know in a social setting and some information with people that I know in a business setting.
I wonder if Facebook is working on that.
rslux
· 2 years ago
I wish there were a way to create a “professional profile” so that I can share some information with people I know in a social setting and some information with people that I know in a business setting.
I wonder if Facebook is working on that.
It's called LinkedIn.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Yeah, that's true, that's a problem that I usually don't have to worry about. Well, there IS Kevin Rose. But he begged me to get into Facebook so I could start stalking HIM. Seriously, that's the conversation we had at dinner a few weeks ago.
Anyway I agree that would be a good idea to do, have two separate Facebook personas maybe? One with your home email, one with your work?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
rslux: I'll have to get on LinkedIn again. But clearly there's a TON of professional people on Facebook, judging from my list of friends there.
Sam Jackson
· 2 years ago
I'm not particularly worried about my privacy since I don't put up any private information of any sort on my facebook profile that isn't on my blog already. But, we'll see, eh? I go through and cull out friends every now and then, so, it's sort of probationary in that sense. I take much greater care in controlling my online presence than do some of my peers, to their detriment. Look as you might, there is nothing to find!
Sam Jackson
· 2 years ago
I think that sometime soon we will start to see a real conflict between the professional facebook users and the people who are growing up now with it, as they are often miserably incompatible. Some people I know counter this by wiping clean their facebooks to make the transition from say, college to workforce, but for those who don't... things can be chancy, sometimes. People get into trouble for foolish things.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
You mean I shouldn't write about my youthful indescretions on my Facebook profile? Now what fun would THAT be?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Heck, wait until you see my impression of Steve Ballmer on Jason Calacanis' show tonight.
Who writes about them? It's the pictures that do the damage. I'm not ever in those compromising positions to begin with, mind you. I used to post links to discouraging articles whenever I saw the lovely plastic cups and half-nakedness, but I just gave up because no one listened.
I was Facebook friends with many of the admissions officers at schools I was considering applying to last year, for example... and even now, I do mix them up a little bit, between business and pleasure. Mine is more multi-purpose than some.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Sam: I don't know, when I got naked on the Internet my traffic went up 30%. Seriously. Heck, we got half naked at a TechCrunch party. How many people can say THAT?
Well, there are exceptions for when there is no credibility left to lose... :P
Facebook's privacy policy always icks me out a bit. It used to be a little bit contradictory in places, :\
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Funny!
But it demonstrates that you can get gainful employment, even after taking your shirt off at an industry party!
Anyway, seriously, there's no such thing as privacy anymore, is there? What you all trying to hide?!?
Keith Kamisugi
· 2 years ago
I'm only a reader, Robert. But thanks for adding me on FB. I get to see your life through mini-feed.
sriram
· 2 years ago
Thanks Robert for adding. I like the fact that you're pretty transparent and open with whatever you're doing. I too strive to be as transparent as possible to everyone but just curious to know where do you draw the line?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Sriram: my bedroom door still has a line drawn on it. :-)
Bill Dalsen
· 2 years ago
I became a reader in a roundabout way. I had heard of you before, most likely thorugh one of Leo Laporte's many net(pod)casts or Dvorak. Then I found the interview you gave to Tim Ferriss on how you read 622 feeds every day, probably via Digg. I had never used a feed reader before, and so tried Google Reader.
I don't think I subscribed to your blog right away, but the real hook for me was your Photowalking series. I love photography, and the look into how Thomas takes pictures was inspiring.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Bill: interesting. I always wonder how people find my blog. Glad you like the Photowalking series. Thomas is going to do a lot more of the for us. On Friday there were more than 20 photographers out with us. They are my favorite shows too.
sriram
· 2 years ago
Well said Robert, well said. ;)
Pete
· 2 years ago
I may be missing the nuances of Teresa's point given the fact given this quote: "But if you’re a friend of his and you don’t want a lot of exposure, you might want to change your privacy settings to reflect that you don’t want friends of friends to be able to see your profile."
It is not, nor has it ever been, possible for you to see someone's profile based solely on the fact that you have a mutual facebook friend. The only choices you have relate to your network. All of your networks, some of them (you can specify, I think), and only your friends.
So if folks are poking around trying to find a "Don't show this to my friends' friends" they're going to be looking for a looooong time.
Jim Johnson
· 2 years ago
"Teresa, it might look silly to you, but at Gnomedex I’ll show you why it’s not so silly for people who have audiences to invite them onto Facebook."
Robert... For those of us not able to attend Gnomedex, would you be willing to post your points on this topica after the fact?
To be sure, I understand the value of bringing your audience closer using a social network ... but I'd like to hear your perspective, and won't be at the conference.
Oh, and when I send emails from my personal account, my signature includes links to my profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn... I suppose with Friendster building more page views I will need to add that link as well (my first, now-unused, social network).
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Jim, sure!
joe bruzzese
· 2 years ago
Robert, great to hear/see you are keeping the dream of collaboration and connectedness alive. Ignore the naysayers who still try to keep the web closed like a pipe that only serves to connect two people on opposite ends of a line. We already have a system like this it's called the telephone.
I appreciate you for showing the world how the web could be if we were to embrace the connectedness it truly allows for. Keep on keepin on!
Regards,
Joe Bruzzese
Eric Edelstein
· 2 years ago
Thanks for commenting on my blog posting I did about you making my day by proving to me how small the world is! (I know it, but it's good to get a reminder every few days!)
Within 20 minutes of reading your blog, we had connected in facebook and had moved past the icebreaker.
Now once we agree on whether all friends should be accepted or only after a non facebook related icebreaker (an IM message, an email), we can move onto sorting out world peace.
Both viewpoints have merit, but i still buy into my way of facebook "virtual contacts" accepting which is i think i should have an idea of why i have accepted someone as my facebook contact (they actually tell me a piece of information which proves they're REAL "company they work for, industry they're in, sport they're interested in" - SOMETHING).
[Yours is that as someone reads your blog they're connected to you through that, but that seems to be a 1 way connection rather than a 2 way connection, as they know you, but you don't know anything about them.]
Now about that 22 hour flight to actually have a face to face conversation...
Teresa Valdez Klein
· 2 years ago
"Ignore the naysayers who still try to keep the web closed like a pipe that only serves to connect two people on opposite ends of a line."
Hoo boy! Joe, I am NOT a naysayer. I've just been using Facebook for a while and I'm starting to see that its purpose has changed a lot. I guess I'm going to have to reevaluate how I use it.
"It is not, nor has it ever been, possible for you to see someone’s profile based solely on the fact that you have a mutual facebook friend.">
Pete, I dunno how long you've been on Facebook. But I do vividly remember this privacy setting existing at some point in time. I'll have to ask some of the people I know from Facebook if my memory is flawed or not on that one. I'm certainly willing to admit I'm wrong, if I am in fact, wrong. But I'm pretty sure I'm not.
"But it demonstrates that you can get gainful employment, even after taking your shirt off at an industry party!
Anyway, seriously, there’s no such thing as privacy anymore, is there? What you all trying to hide?!?"
Robert, I wonder if you'd say that about me. I've been asking that question for some time. If I took my shirt off at an industry party, would I still be respected inside or outside the world of technology the next morning?
Perhaps things have changed more than I realized, but it used to be that any hint of sexuality from a woman in the workforce was an automatic strike against her. I've tested that limit to be sure. I've posted photos and videos of myself frolicking in bikinis on YouTube, FB and even *shudder* MySpace. And so far, I haven't met with any pushback or obvious judgment. But I'm curious to see whether it will ever bite me in the ass.
I've posted more about my thoughts on this subject. Check it out if you're interested!
macbeach
· 2 years ago
I find the security (personal ID security etc) of Facebook to be a bit muddled:
On signing up they almost immediately asked me to enter credit card information (why I would want to do this I don't know, as I declined, and no reasons were given for me to enter it in the first place).
They also wanted me to pick a "region", but really forced me to pick a city (not the same as a region) and the closest choice was thirty minute drive from here. Last night as I was updating my profile it warned me that all of this info was available to anyone else who had picked this city as their "region".
Anybody could, I guess pick various cities as a way to snoop around on strangers profiles. I decided to try using my old college as a network instead, as I'd probably have more in common with that group than the residents of this distant city. Oh, no, can't do that unless you have an e-mail address at the college. Huh?
One thing I Do like about it is the "light" interface that would probably work even on a dial-up link. Not nearly the clutter of Myspace. I'll probably keep my Facebook ID even though I won't use it all that much, unlike my Myspace test which I deleted after the first day.
Really, people should err on the side of caution when it comes to giving out personal details. To encourage people who may not know the risks to do otherwise is irresponsible.
A few systems such as this have established themselves as "mainstream", but what do we really know about their hiring practices for the people who run their data centers? Have they had background checks etc? One of these days we'll see a headline that some social networking site has been completely harvested from inside and the rules will suddenly change for what "makes sense". I think I'll stay on the bleeding edge of this curve, with no apologies to those who want to be universally connected.
Tree Shapiro
· 2 years ago
Well, I am glad Scoble has agreed to be my friend. I think it shows great largesse on his part, and would welcome any friend invites from any of his insightful readers. Gambling enthusiasts especially encouraged. Thank you Robert for bringing this to our attention. Let's continue the conversation!
All Comments
50% of my friends on facebook, i never met them, i added them after seeing their profiles, as I was trying to drive contributors to write for my blog http://www.facebookism.com and many of them accepted to do it with pleasure and i am sure more and more will also accept.
Many interesting people are out there ... so lets be friends on facebook or on any other social networking site.
But I have two points of clarification:
1) You're a man. You're not going to have random, creepy guys stalking you on Facebook. I feel like I have to be on guard against that, which is why I'm really careful about the information people can see in my profile.
2) For me, Facebook is a tool I've used for years to keep in touch with close friends who scattered after college. Now, I have a whole host of people that I know in other contexts who I am friends with on Facebook and I'd like to keep the information they see about me within that context.
I wish there were a way to create a "professional profile" so that I can share some information with people I know in a social setting and some information with people that I know in a business setting.
I wonder if Facebook is working on that.
I wonder if Facebook is working on that.
It's called LinkedIn.
Anyway I agree that would be a good idea to do, have two separate Facebook personas maybe? One with your home email, one with your work?
Here's a link: http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/operator-11...
I was Facebook friends with many of the admissions officers at schools I was considering applying to last year, for example... and even now, I do mix them up a little bit, between business and pleasure. Mine is more multi-purpose than some.
At least my wife was there. Heheh. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdlasica/101847350...
Facebook's privacy policy always icks me out a bit. It used to be a little bit contradictory in places, :\
But it demonstrates that you can get gainful employment, even after taking your shirt off at an industry party!
Anyway, seriously, there's no such thing as privacy anymore, is there? What you all trying to hide?!?
I don't think I subscribed to your blog right away, but the real hook for me was your Photowalking series. I love photography, and the look into how Thomas takes pictures was inspiring.
It is not, nor has it ever been, possible for you to see someone's profile based solely on the fact that you have a mutual facebook friend. The only choices you have relate to your network. All of your networks, some of them (you can specify, I think), and only your friends.
So if folks are poking around trying to find a "Don't show this to my friends' friends" they're going to be looking for a looooong time.
Robert... For those of us not able to attend Gnomedex, would you be willing to post your points on this topica after the fact?
To be sure, I understand the value of bringing your audience closer using a social network ... but I'd like to hear your perspective, and won't be at the conference.
Oh, and when I send emails from my personal account, my signature includes links to my profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn... I suppose with Friendster building more page views I will need to add that link as well (my first, now-unused, social network).
I appreciate you for showing the world how the web could be if we were to embrace the connectedness it truly allows for. Keep on keepin on!
Regards,
Joe Bruzzese
Within 20 minutes of reading your blog, we had connected in facebook and had moved past the icebreaker.
Now once we agree on whether all friends should be accepted or only after a non facebook related icebreaker (an IM message, an email), we can move onto sorting out world peace.
Both viewpoints have merit, but i still buy into my way of facebook "virtual contacts" accepting which is i think i should have an idea of why i have accepted someone as my facebook contact (they actually tell me a piece of information which proves they're REAL "company they work for, industry they're in, sport they're interested in" - SOMETHING).
[Yours is that as someone reads your blog they're connected to you through that, but that seems to be a 1 way connection rather than a 2 way connection, as they know you, but you don't know anything about them.]
Now about that 22 hour flight to actually have a face to face conversation...
Hoo boy! Joe, I am NOT a naysayer. I've just been using Facebook for a while and I'm starting to see that its purpose has changed a lot. I guess I'm going to have to reevaluate how I use it.
"It is not, nor has it ever been, possible for you to see someone’s profile based solely on the fact that you have a mutual facebook friend.">
Pete, I dunno how long you've been on Facebook. But I do vividly remember this privacy setting existing at some point in time. I'll have to ask some of the people I know from Facebook if my memory is flawed or not on that one. I'm certainly willing to admit I'm wrong, if I am in fact, wrong. But I'm pretty sure I'm not.
"But it demonstrates that you can get gainful employment, even after taking your shirt off at an industry party!
Anyway, seriously, there’s no such thing as privacy anymore, is there? What you all trying to hide?!?"
Robert, I wonder if you'd say that about me. I've been asking that question for some time. If I took my shirt off at an industry party, would I still be respected inside or outside the world of technology the next morning?
Perhaps things have changed more than I realized, but it used to be that any hint of sexuality from a woman in the workforce was an automatic strike against her. I've tested that limit to be sure. I've posted photos and videos of myself frolicking in bikinis on YouTube, FB and even *shudder* MySpace. And so far, I haven't met with any pushback or obvious judgment. But I'm curious to see whether it will ever bite me in the ass.
I've posted more about my thoughts on this subject. Check it out if you're interested!
On signing up they almost immediately asked me to enter credit card information (why I would want to do this I don't know, as I declined, and no reasons were given for me to enter it in the first place).
They also wanted me to pick a "region", but really forced me to pick a city (not the same as a region) and the closest choice was thirty minute drive from here. Last night as I was updating my profile it warned me that all of this info was available to anyone else who had picked this city as their "region".
Anybody could, I guess pick various cities as a way to snoop around on strangers profiles. I decided to try using my old college as a network instead, as I'd probably have more in common with that group than the residents of this distant city. Oh, no, can't do that unless you have an e-mail address at the college. Huh?
One thing I Do like about it is the "light" interface that would probably work even on a dial-up link. Not nearly the clutter of Myspace. I'll probably keep my Facebook ID even though I won't use it all that much, unlike my Myspace test which I deleted after the first day.
Really, people should err on the side of caution when it comes to giving out personal details. To encourage people who may not know the risks to do otherwise is irresponsible.
A few systems such as this have established themselves as "mainstream", but what do we really know about their hiring practices for the people who run their data centers? Have they had background checks etc? One of these days we'll see a headline that some social networking site has been completely harvested from inside and the rules will suddenly change for what "makes sense". I think I'll stay on the bleeding edge of this curve, with no apologies to those who want to be universally connected.