What are the Facebook groups that add value to your life?

May 20, 2019 7:22 AM

What Facebook groups do you love and find interesting/useful?

With all this talk about Facebook becoming more about groups, I'm curious what public or semi-public groups people recommend. What groups on Facebook do people particularly like?

posted by huskerdont to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

Family Cycling UK (great for info and tips about cycling with kids - bikes, cargo bikes, bike seats, trailers, etc).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:25 AM on May 20, 2019

I love my local Freecycle groups.
posted by 8603 at 7:42 AM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's incredibly niche, but I'm a member of puppet-building and puppeteer groups on FB.
posted by xingcat at 7:45 AM on May 20, 2019

I hate Fb but I do enjoy Traces of Texas which is just nice pictures of and occasionally cute if folksy-wolksy stories about Texas.
posted by Smearcase at 7:54 AM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I pretty much only use Facebook for keeping in touch with my niece & Groups.

I follow a decorating group as I'm doing up my house right now.

A motivational group or two.

Also ones that relate to my paticular hobbies of D&D, DMing D&D & painting minatures.

My MIL belongs to spinning & weaving groups and writes softcore fanfic in sort of an RPG style in a group online. (I wish I didn't know that but included it to show you the huge range of groups out there).

If you have any hobbies I'd suggest starting there.
posted by wwax at 8:16 AM on May 20, 2019

There is a FB group called "This Cat is C H O N K Y" that gives me LIFE. Cat photos, but also people posting about their pets / asking for support, humor, etc. It's like a herd of wholesome humanness and I love it.

There are a couple of secret feminist groups that I'm in that also give me life, if you are into that, PM me and I will tell you what they are; I don't want to mention them in the open since they are secret.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:18 AM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (better known as NUMTOT, and no, it's not actually just memes or just for teens) has turned me from a casual transit fan to a strong transit advocate.
posted by mosst at 8:58 AM on May 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

I work in the nonprofit industry and I really enjoy Nonprofit Happy Hour. It's pretty active and has given me a much broader view of the industry than I would otherwise have had, since I've worked for pretty similar orgs for my whole career.

Also, yeah, NUMTOTs is amazing.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:59 AM on May 20, 2019

The Backs of Cats' Heads, my local sewing group (I'm an admin), a crazy DC commuting group. Just like everyone above, it's the things that mean the most to me, so I get a lot of them. Also low to no political chatter.
posted by XtineHutch at 9:20 AM on May 20, 2019

I interact with a few:

- local "bulletin board" and local sale groups
- massive librarian group which I moderate (along with a few others) it's part trash fire and part professional development and it gets me close to a LOT of librarians and what's on their minds
- a few smaller librarian and archivist groups where we can have conversations
- an anti-fascist group for Vermont
- a librarian sale group to get rid of your librarian stuff

And I have a few I just look at

- Model T enthusiasts, I am not actually an enthusiast but an old timer from my town signed me up and I like seeing what they are up to it's so interesting
- random "weird shit I found at thrift stores" which is good for a laugh

I cull my groups mercilessly and do not spend a lot of time on FB but when I do it's usually in these groups.
posted by jessamyn at 9:52 AM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm in a couple that use the flylady method of home cleaning/organization. One big tenet is using a timer and breaking tasks into small increments. So we play games like "Say When By 15's" where one person will post a call at 15 minute increments and the players go do a task for 15 min them come back. Sounds goofy, but it is quite motivating to go do dishes or whatever, then hustle back to the computer to check in and announce what I'll be doing the next round.
posted by selfmedicating at 9:58 AM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Buy Nothing Project for my quadrant of my city. It's very location-specific.
This site has induced me to off-load household stuff and clothing to neighbors that need it, and made me some new friends in the process.
posted by BostonTerrier at 10:51 AM on May 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

I manage two pages myself (my knitting blog's page and my cat's page) and find I really enjoy that. It's fun to post what I like on a given topic and see how people react, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to just have a little creative fun with a topic they're interested in. You can post only as often as you feel like it.

I'm in a wedding shaming group -- a guilty pleasure, but I'm totally addicted to it. God, the unfortunate aesthetic choices, the logistical snafus, the psychodrama!
posted by orange swan at 2:31 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Orange Swan: now I want to know about the wedding shaming group!

Myself I like to follow some of my hobby groups (I like cemeteries, is that weird?), as well as an area of Maryland where I love to vacation and now have friends who live down there. But one of my favorite groups is "For The Love of Old Houses". They showcase old homes from around the USA, for sale, and it feeds my love of vintage homes as well as my curiosity.
posted by annieb at 2:47 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have found a few private groups incredibly helpful (in one case almost lifesaving) for a few things: specific to a medical procedure I was about to have—useful for knowing what questions to ask my doctor, what to expect from recovery, etc., a caregiver's group for people caring for someone with dementia, a decluttering group, a Buy Nothing group in my immediate area, other groups that are local to my town. I'm not part of many public groups.
posted by clone boulevard at 2:55 PM on May 20, 2019

I'm on one busy group where people post the weirdest stuff they find thrift shopping. The comments are often hilarious, and I genuinely love a lot of the weird stuff that is posted.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:53 PM on May 20, 2019

I like the groups that are for podcasts that I listen to. I usually join the official group but sometimes I find groups for fans of the same podcast but talking about something unrelated, like recipes instead of murder. In particular the group for the podcast Ologies is wonderful. People talk about the episodes but also bring up fascinating science facts or links to articles or silly pet stuff.

(Ologies is a podcast I highly recommend, Alie Ward interviews a different scientist each episode and it never fails to be entertaining and more interesting than I could have anticipated.)
posted by Miss Matheson at 7:41 PM on May 20, 2019

British Medieval History if you’re into that, although the comments can get... commenty.

Also a Folk Horror group that I think was recommended here on MeFi.

Inappropriate Bullet Journaling Inspiration can be fun.
posted by verbminx at 3:46 AM on May 22, 2019 [1 favorite]