I am reluctant to join Facebook as I have heard others tell their negative experiences. I have a former co-worker who asked me to join so she could share photos. What is your experience with facebook?

well i was in it. my granddtr and my co-workers from an old job asked me to join. but if you aren't in there daily chatting you are pretty much ignored. i love email and do that daily but only got into facebook once a week. so i dropped out.
just be careful putting any personal info online-anywhere.

I joined facebook just to keep an eye on my kids. I find it a bunch of nonsense stuff. I would rather be on the QB.

I joined so I could see pictures of my grandchildren more quickly. I have no information available on my profile and I only make very general comments, usually. It is nice to be able to keep up with what everyone is doing. Just don't respond to every request to join a group or add a friend and you should be ok.

I liked Facebook at first because it seemed to be a great way to stay in touch with family and friends without making a gazillion phone calls.
It is a very good way to share photos and you can choose who you give permission to see the photos. That is a good thing.
I began to get discouraged because I seem to share few interest with many of the people that were on my friends list.
Then Facebook ?became more liberal? with their privacy policy, sharing more 'account holder' information with 3rd party ?vendors?. That is when I took all my personal information (other than my name and email) out of my facebook account and deleted the people from my list that I seem to share no interest with.
I seldom sign on.

I use it only to keep up with pictures of my family. They helped me set it up to only share info with them, and to block all other members and 3rd partys :D:D:D

It's a shame, really. People are meant to drift apart. My bf has hundreds of FB "friends." Most are a waste of time.

I use it to see what my kids post and more important, what their friends answer. Sometimes I have to tell them to delete an answer. Also, since so many people at my job lost their jobs (about 500 so far) we are using it to keep in touch and find out who is leaving the area, who is employed (not many so far) and what is going on. No personal information is exchanged.

My MIL is on facebook and gets into everyone's business. She would not understand that she is not my friend so as long as she lives I will not be on facebook. I have email and the QB - so I'm fine.

My MIL doesn't even know how to turn on a computer, so I am safe.

I sign into facebook every day. I follow my kids' (all adult) threads, and my nieces and nephews. I get to see all the current family pictures and hear little snippets of their lives. We post info about family gatherings, pray for each other, celebrate things I wouldn't even have heard of.

I am particular about what I post in my info. No contact info except email. A little about my hobbies.

I like the fb games and play them when I can't sleep. I "hide" the scores, etc., from games I don't play so I don't get 6,000 posts every day.

I am a BabyBoomer and a lot of my generation are using it. My kids and grandkids- on there all the time.

Once I learned how to "block" junk I didn't want, I enjoy it very much.

Ilove my facebook. I can keep up with people I went to school with and live far away from. I like to see what my kids and their families are doing and I have reconnected with three of my nieces I haven't seen in years. I also reconnected with a childhood friend I haven't seen in 30 years. He is a missionary in Manila. So I enjoy Facebook. I'm not super chatty but I do like to add my two cents in once in awhile. I like being to check on my friends and family and see what is going on in their lives. I also am on Twitter. Tho I don't add things to Twitter too often. Once in a while.

I love seeing photos on Facebook. I don't get into the games and such.

This is also the extent to my use of FB.

I was on facebook until I got hacked last year and the only info I had on it was my initial, lastname and photo. They got into family and friends used my photo and name and tried to extort money. The CA Sheriff, got involved. But shutting down my account was a nightmare. There is no phone number to call, and the hackers hijacked everything I was trying to send to facebooks security site through the internet. I wanted my account deleted not deactivated. I googled online until I found a personal office phone number for an employee. I did not get an answer but left a message I was going to the media. Once they got the message the account was shut down in minutes. But it took hours for me to find a phone number.

All my family is on facebook, but I am not willing to go back on it, even with all the new security measures they are adding.

I have every spyware, adaware, virus scan, doesn't matter they can still get by all that. I am also very computer savy.
The first person this happened to was a Microsoft Executive. If you do a search you should be able to find the article and interview he did last September. I got hacked about the same time.

I use it daily with no problems. Just don't put any personal info on it like first and last name, email address, birthday, etc. :thumbup:

I am on Facebook.. and like it to keep up with others ... I don't accept everyone as a friend though. I think you have to be careful. But they are turning into another MySpace.. too many advertisers trying to get into all your info :hunf:

I love it! I found old friends, keep track of my kids, keep relatives informed about events, etc. Actually, I think that is how I found this board!

I don't worry about someone stealing my identity. I have nothing. And if someone wants to steal your identity they will find a way. My husband is famous in his field so people can track us down if they want anyway.

You can change your privacy settings.

Like many others I am on FB to watch over kids (all adult) and what their friends post. I don't have but maybe two personal pics of myself and I won't accept anyone's invite that involves downloading an app nor a "friend" I don't know. I don't post anything in my status very often and when I do they are generally pretty generic comments or holiday greetings. Great way to see recent pics of grandkids quickly or keep in touch with family many miles away.

I agree with you . If someone is going to do bad things they will do it no matter what I do. I had forgotten but I also found the board by following links I saw on Facebook.

Facebook has only been positive for me as well.....a great way to keep in touch - find other fellow quilters, share ideas, photos.......it is a fun tool!

I only had one photo and no personal info. The only friends and family were the ones I knew personally, didn't matter. Still got hacked. Not worth the problems for me.

I don't trust any social sites except for this one for now. It only takes one time.

You might want to read this. This is exactly what happened to me the same month.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/01/post-1.html

I love it. In my opinion as long as your page is closed, as in you have to accecpt a frind request for them to see your page - it can be fun. I have gotten back in touch with many frineds from high school that I would not have otherwise.

I think you just have to be aware. :)

here is excerpt from the article:
"Rutberg isn't sure how criminals got his password, but he thinks he probably did fall for a phishing e-mail. Because Facebook regularly contacts its users through e-mail, and includes links in those e-mails to login pages, the format is ripe for phishers. It's easy to imitate Facebook e-mails and simply send users clicking to a look-a-like login page that steal passwords."

Facebook has never contacted me through email. There is always more to the story.

We just have to be vigilent. The people that perpetrate these scams must be brilliant. Why can't they just use that talent for GOOD?!!!! Amazes me.

I think one of the points is anyone can be hacked. Not only did he work for Microsoft he is a manager.

Whenever you are ask to friend someone that is coming through facebook and can be a way of phishing. I also was constantly receiving emails through facebook. I was a member for about 3 years before this happened to me and I only had an initial and a photo, nothing else. It came in through one of my family or friends all of who were familiar to me. I never friended anyone I did not know. It was two years before I even put up a photo and everyone laughed at me because I refused and also didn't use my name. The problems is the hackers actually take control of your account and you cannot get in to stop it or change your password. It is ugly.

Just be careful. And as far as facebook emailing you, I get them everyday asking me to sign back up. I delete them all.

And facebook will contact you for other things, it just depends on what you are signed up for. I only had immediate family and friends. I didn't use anything like the quilting group or any other interests. Also if you deactivate your account that does not remove the information. You have to contact them and ask them to delete your account. If you deactivate and sign back up everything comes back up as it was before. I know this because they must have ask me 4 or 5 times do you understand if we delete you, you will have to put in all your photos and info again. If we just deactivate you when you reactivate it will come back the way it was. They own your info.

I understand they are trying to make it safer. In fact it was on the news last night they are working set more security options. It will be a long time if ever before I trust them again.

How much for that doggy in the window? (avatar) Hes adorable!

I like it. I keep up with family and friends. I give very little info and I don't become friends with "strangers."