Does anyone find that facebook is not that fun? Do you find it confusing?

Who needs facebook when u have fluther?

Not to sound snotty (because I truly don’t mean it that way….) but why not ask for facebook help on facebook?

I have never used it so I have no idea how to help. But I would surmise that your best resouce of help would be from people who use it all the time…..?

Dump them! We are better anyway :)

@Snoopy, No offense taken. But there are some people that use more than one site for their fun or entertainment…so that is why I asked on here. And, yes I did and still haven’t found the answers as I am not sure of continuing on there anyway.

Facebook is a very effective social directory and means of communication. Once you ignore all the fluff, the excessive applications, the games, and the polls, and the advertisements, at it’s core, it’s an easy way to look up your friends’ contact informations and communicate with them relatively quickly in a casual way. I use it to keep in touch with my friends, plan events, and communicate quickly.

This is also why you use your real name, not a username—you wouldn’t use a username in a phone book. Your profile is you—the real you—not a persona. Your friends need to be able to keep track of and find you. That’s much easier with your real name than with an internet handle.

Try to think of it as a utility, not a game or a recreational activity. This isn’t the only way to think of it, but it’s how I use it and in my opinion the most effective way of using it.

@lapilofu Did you mean Facebook and NOT fluther?

:)

Yep. I already corrected it before you posted. :p

Lollipop, are your friends on facebook? If they are it’s awesome, if they’re not, it pretty much sucks.

Here are my top 3 favorite things about facebook:

1. friends
I like that it uses people’s real names. I use it to send my friends messages, instead of digging up their e-mail addresses and keeping track of who has what address and every damn time they change it. With facebook, I just type in “John Smith” and then i write him a message.

2. events
My friends and I use it to invite each other to events. That’s one of the best features. For example, my friend Steven is having a party this friday. He makes an ‘event’ with all the details, where, when, what kind of party, etc, then he selects who he wants to invite by just typing in our real names (so easy!), then i can see it instantly when he invites me, i can view a map to his house right on the site, and i can accept, decline, or say “maybe”. he gets a count of how many people will be there, and there’s also a calendar of all my events, so i can keep track of what’s coming up, i don’t have to sort through my e-mail to see if something is soon, or transfer it to a pda to see if things are conflicting.

3. photos
after i go to this party on friday, i’ll most likely post the photos from it on facebook and i can “tag” the people in them, which will send them a message that the pictures exist. that way i get to share the pix with my friends, and then if they want to, they can share them with their friends.

snoopy, to answer your question, facebook isn’t at all like fluther. fluther is about helping people figure stuff out. facebook is about keeping in touch with your friends. it’s not a “resource” kind of site. he couldn’t just “ask a question” and random people will see it. the only people he can really communicate with are people he’s already friends with.

lolipop, going back to the original question, it’s only fun if your friends in real life use it too. if they don’t then either get them to, or don’t worry about facebook.

I feel your pain i cant stand facebook go on myspace nothing is confusing.
@snoopy just do you know you dont ask people questions about facebook on facebook just to tell you its just for talking not asking.

@La chica gomela, Thank you for your great description! I don’t really think I have heard a clear definition of facebook before that was easily understood. I guess if you have ‘real life’ friends then facebook is great to keep in contact with. But if you have ‘online friends’ then facebook is not the place to be…am I right?

Doesn’t do much for me at all either. It is boring, but I don’t really see how it’s supposed to be fun, it’s just for communicating, right? Maybe it would be a bit more entertaining with friends who post a lot of fun stuff?

I can’t stand when people put their entire life on it or mySpace, tell everyone they are “going to bed now”, or say “I’m bored!” IMHO, if you’re bored, and looking for a cure online, you need to get offline, get a hobby and a life!

lollipop, that’s my assessment, yes. i’m sure there are at least a few people out there that make online friends through facebook, but I never accept anyone I don’t know in real life. There’s way too much personal information. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with it.

forestGeek, I mean, I could tell you checking my e-mail is boring, or that I have a boring life. If no one sends you a message, pokes you, gives you any gifts, invites you to any parties, or posts anything you find interesting, then yeah it’s boring, just like in the real world if no one writes you any letters or emails, says hi to you gives you any gifts, or shows you any interesting videos or newspaper articles, then your life is boring. See the analogy?

@La_chica_gomela – I do see the analogy, and I can actually see the appeal to Facebook and mySpace. I do have both accounts, and use them mostly to keep in contact with distant friends and see when bands are playing. I guess I just feel that nurturing real life and real life relationships are more rewarding for me. I have too much going offline, so I don’t need either of them for entertainment, which must be why it’s boring to me. Nothing at all personal, to anyone who really enjoys the online experiences.

WHOT WHOT you tell him La_chica_ hahahaha.

I really believe the UI could be dramatically improved. In my opinion it pretty much has everything and is probably be the best social network in the world right now but they really need to hire better designers.

@PIXEL: For the most part, I think the UI is brilliant. It’s forward thinking and packs a lot of power into a relatively intuitive interface.

@forestGeek:

“I guess I just feel that nurturing real life and real life relationships are more rewarding for me.”

I disagree completely, Facebook has nothing to do with online relationships. Most of the people you have on there will be your friends, people you know from schools, your work, from nights out, events, gigs and parties. It’s not MySpace; it’s not about random people adding you. Just like the phone, it’s a supplement to the relationships you already have.

It’s fun to be able to share photos and short messages with people you know that normally would have been sent by SMS or email. Plus other people you know can join in the discussion too.

I have a facebook because of the few people who I wouldn’t be able to contact otherwise, and because if there’s a picture of me on the internet I like to know about it. I don’t use it much, because if I need to contact someone there are usually other ways to do it. Since the format changed I haven’t used it much at all, I don’t have the time to bother figuring out where things are.

i hated facebook. the little games and prize stuff. it was a waste of my time.

@deaddolly: I ignore the apps, the games, .etc. As a staying in touch and sharing photos utility, it’s great.

@richardh I found it hard to talk to ppl on there. And it seemed to be very juvenile. My fave site is vampirefreaks; always was, always will be.

rh, i liked the interface before the “new” facebook. at first i thought i just needed to get used to this one, but it’s been a couple of months now, and i still hate it…

and yeah, i also opted out of the apps. ppl complain because they can’t send me drinks or bumper stickers and whatnot. to me, that stuff is a waste of time. if you’re going to buy me a drink, let’s go to valhalla, and you can buy a drink, and i’ll drink it.

I enjoy Facebook as a way of keeping up with real-life friends. It serves a completely different purpose for me than Fluther or Askville.

I guess I should have done more investigating of facebook before I decided to join. I can see it being a benefit for people that have relatives and friends that also use a computer and can be a way to communicate with them. But if you are wanting to communicate with others you have only met ‘online’ and made friends that way, then facebook is not the site to be on. I am not a ‘game’ type person and from what I see it all revolves around the games and ‘prize’s you can send/receive other than keeping in contact with ‘real friends’. I also find it very frustrating dealing with all the ‘commercial’ ads on there. It reminds of an internet dial up service I had a few years ago and just to get online you had to ‘deal’ with all the ads and it was a ‘pain in the butt’! I think they could make it easier to send/receive things w/o having those ‘ads’ right in the middle of what you are trying to do.

Thanks for everyone’s opinions and answers you have really cleared up a little of the confusion I did have about facebook and I would suppose ‘myspace’ is the same….

actually myspace is different. i don’t use it anymore, so i couldn’t really tell you, but i do get the impression that people meet each other online a lot more on myspace. you might ask a question about it if you’re still curious.

Once I decided to ignore Facebook’s “gifts”, etc., I liked it much better. I mainly use it to post messages to friends, check out photos, etc., and as a feeble attempt to keep in touch with some of my friends.

I think Facebook might be a good site to keep in touch with ‘relatives’ that live away from you, or friends you don’t see regularly. But for a site that you only know them as ‘online’ friends I don’t think that is the site. Other than the ‘games’ or ‘gifts’ there isn’t too much else to do for communicating like a db’s or questions, that I have found anyway and the gifts get ‘old’ real quick. Plus you can get ‘overloaded’ or overwhelmed with all the ‘reply’ or responses you have to do. They don’t seem to date or time stamp so it isn’t too easy.

I think the ‘gifts’ or games are somewhat confusing and they also ‘send spam’ to your personal email more frequently than not! That I don’t like. I also don’t like that it isn’t very ‘clear’ and easy to figure out certain aspects of the site.

lollipop, you can change the settings on what they e-mail you. just go to ‘my account’. i have mine set in spanish, so i can’t really walk you through it, but it should be pretty straight-forward after you go to ‘my account’.

I use it to keep in touch with people but I don’t spend a lot of time on it like some people I know. It’s useful, but besides the games, it’s just like Myspace, which can never make a comeback I believe. I like Fluther better. After you check your notifications on FB, there’s nothing left to do.