So I just joined Facebook....

Ah! But think of the advances since then! Now, simply being French is un-american.

Such progress in such a short time!!!

How do u find them?
I imagine that Facebook probably has 100s of people on it.

If u befriend people,
then u will have them for friends;
(referring to the real world; I know nothing about Facebook).

U can join social groups -- maybe volunteer for an institution
that has your good will (e.g., a museum) n do people some favors.
I have discovered that throwing money around is fast and very, very effective.





David

Since its named "Facebook" I guess u have to give them your face, right ?

I am always leery about joining any of the quizzes. Apparently, becoming involved in them compromises your privacy, I think. I also saw something that if I become involved, it would cost me so much and so much a month. Certainly don't want that! Have I got that straight???

No. The only cost to the many applications and quizzes (unless you intentionally request a premium version of them) is the annoyance factor from all the announcements and notifications anytime someone farts, burps or scratches their arse while using one of the applications.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to teaching people how to tame the annoyance factor and turn off all the application notifications.

Here's a link to the group's detailed instructions on how to do it for your own profile if you are interested:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=71679408178

Millions, actually

no, you don't have to book your face... if you're shy, they give you the generic avatar -->

So my uncle just showed up in the "people you may know" column. Cool! He's someone I have virtually no contact with, though I'd like to have more. Do I friend him? Hmm. I have to figure out the different groupings thing more thoroughly I think.

Amazing "people you may know" story -- a friend of mine was raised by a single mom, knew the name of her dad but just that. Never had any contact with him. That name (bio-dad) appeared in "people you may know" and she realized that was him. Only the first part of the story, though. She's an only child, and in researching him further found some other guy with the same name who is much younger -- turned out this guy was Biodad Jr. Contacted that guy (half-brother), and found out a) they're both gay, b) there are twelve OTHER kids out there who share the same dad!! So she went from being an only child to one of fourteen kids, biologically-speaking anyway.

I just joined this weekend after avoiding it for as long as I could.

So, how do you avoid spending all of your time responding to "friend" requests of people you barely know or don't know at all? I just hope it slows down after a while.

My biggest fear is one of them may be H2OMan and then he will know when I mow my lawn.

My first smile of the day. I found this extremely funny. Kinda scary at the same time.

i've gotten more than one friend suggestion because two of my friends have already friended a particular person.

but it's hard to believe that both of my friends know the person, because of their differing personalities, or where they live, whatever...

I've seen that happen a couple of times. When I've asked (of course I ask!), it turns out they share some obscure interest (railroad memorabilia or some such thing) and are part of the same online/real-life group, or it turns out that they took a photography course together 20 years ago.

Real-life can be very six-degrees-of-separation as well. You just don't "see" it as easily as you can on social networking sites. This is one of the reasons I like to occasionally re-do the Friend Wheel application.

This aspect and figuring out the friend/wheel thing is part of my continuing avoidance of facebook, plus that I've been searched out in real life by an old friend I'd hoped to never hear from again (a cling-on - not to be mean, but really - from decades ago), wooo. At the same time, if I actually got into it, I might enjoy facebook. So.. weeks turn into months, and I put it off. Will be interested in how you like it, Parados.

It's easy to block contact by people you don't want to "see" you on Facebook. But <shrug> social networking's not to everyone's taste.

I was very happy the other day to get back in touch with my Tucson Abuzz get-together roomie, Jeanne de Seattle, and to hear of her most recent travel adventures with a former Abuzzer (Pyewhacket). Other people might not have been pleased or interested.

Not everyone has to try it. Not everyone is going to like it.

My feeling about Myspace is much like others' feelings about Facebook. We all find our own poisons.

You can block specific people from ever being able to locate you on facebook.

Thanks, Intrepid and ehBeth. I somewhat knew that, but it seems like a task monitoring the friend thing. I should just be quiet and try it. I'm also interested in whether I'll like flickr, facebook, or picasa for most photos - maybe a combo, maybe along with specific subject type photo websites. Oy vey.

Flickr limits the numbers of photos you can show before paying for an upgrade.
Picasa is problematic when you're on dial-up (as I still am).

I've found webshots and facebook easiest to upload to.

I like Shutterfly for photos, and will like Facebook more if I eventually get a better computer. (I'll like Shutterfly better too, as they have an iPhoto thingie that won't work with my now-ancient computer.)

Thanks, both of you - that saves me some search time.