Help me be a Facebook stalker!
September 4, 2008 3:47 AM Subscribe
I know nothing about Facebook and need a bit of help.
Believe it or not, I have never been interested in joining Facebook. Recently, though, a friend pressured me into opening an account so I did, not intending to really do anything with it. I looked at her page and saw that many of her "friends" are people we knew in college, and their pages are full of other "friends" that I haven't seen in years.
This might be a silly question, but if I click on people's pictures from my friend's page to enlarge them so I can see them better, will those people know I clicked on their picture, even though it's not on their actual page? If I DO go to their page (just to look without leaving any sort of message), will they know that? Obviously, I don't want them to know that I'm looking at their pictures/pages. I just want to look anonymously and then go away :-) Is this possible?
Even though I'd like to see what these people are doing now/what they look like now, I still don't want to get into the whole Facebook world. Strange, but true.
Believe it or not, I have never been interested in joining Facebook. Recently, though, a friend pressured me into opening an account so I did, not intending to really do anything with it. I looked at her page and saw that many of her "friends" are people we knew in college, and their pages are full of other "friends" that I haven't seen in years.
This might be a silly question, but if I click on people's pictures from my friend's page to enlarge them so I can see them better, will those people know I clicked on their picture, even though it's not on their actual page? If I DO go to their page (just to look without leaving any sort of message), will they know that? Obviously, I don't want them to know that I'm looking at their pictures/pages. I just want to look anonymously and then go away :-) Is this possible?
Even though I'd like to see what these people are doing now/what they look like now, I still don't want to get into the whole Facebook world. Strange, but true.
No, people can't tell who have been viewing their profile. I think there's an app you can get that will tell you, but the viewer has to click a button for it to register. There's also an app called trakzor, but that can only identify you if you are also signed up with it.
posted by Sparx at 3:55 AM on September 4, 2008
posted by Sparx at 3:55 AM on September 4, 2008
No they will not know, there is no issue with clicking on their picture, they will only know if you then ask them to be your friend. Most of the time you can't go through to their page unless you are their friend....even then people don't know when you've visited their page, go 100 times a day if you feel like it.
posted by DOUBLE A SIDE at 3:56 AM on September 4, 2008
posted by DOUBLE A SIDE at 3:56 AM on September 4, 2008
It's not really a facebook world. It's just a self-updating rolodex. With some optional applications in it.
posted by Hildegarde at 4:24 AM on September 4, 2008 [4 favorites]
posted by Hildegarde at 4:24 AM on September 4, 2008 [4 favorites]
Here's something I learnt after a week that you might be glad to know. If you belong to the same network as these people, you can see their profile, and if they know about you, they can see yours, unless you set your privacy levels higher. Also, anything you write on your friends wall will be visible to these people.
(I just finished an assignment on Facebook and now I'm reading a textbook about social networks that has an interview with mathowie from around 2001 - these days, he says, the site gets 15-20 discussion threads a day with at least 5 to 10 comments in them... there are over 2000 members now.) Design for Community, Derek M Powazek
posted by b33j at 5:09 AM on September 4, 2008
(I just finished an assignment on Facebook and now I'm reading a textbook about social networks that has an interview with mathowie from around 2001 - these days, he says, the site gets 15-20 discussion threads a day with at least 5 to 10 comments in them... there are over 2000 members now.) Design for Community, Derek M Powazek
posted by b33j at 5:09 AM on September 4, 2008
I've also been asked to join up.
Can you have more than one network that are separate from each other? For example, a friends network and an old-classmates network? Or, a personal network and a business network?
It wouldn't be right for business contacts to receive messages I send to friends, for example.
posted by JimN2TAW at 6:47 AM on September 4, 2008
Can you have more than one network that are separate from each other? For example, a friends network and an old-classmates network? Or, a personal network and a business network?
It wouldn't be right for business contacts to receive messages I send to friends, for example.
posted by JimN2TAW at 6:47 AM on September 4, 2008
Can you have more than one network that are separate from each other? For example, a friends network and an old-classmates network? Or, a personal network and a business network?
Networks are defined by Facebook itself, not by the users. They are generally created along three lines: regional ("New York, NY"), academic ("Cornell University"), or business ("Google").
There are restrictions: You can only be in one regional network, and can't change it more than twice every 60 days. To join an academic network, you have to provide your email address affiliated with that school. To join a business network, you have to provide your email address for that company.
If you're looking to divide your friends up into sections (for filtering and messaging), you want to instead use lists:
posted by Remy at 7:16 AM on September 4, 2008
Networks are defined by Facebook itself, not by the users. They are generally created along three lines: regional ("New York, NY"), academic ("Cornell University"), or business ("Google").
There are restrictions: You can only be in one regional network, and can't change it more than twice every 60 days. To join an academic network, you have to provide your email address affiliated with that school. To join a business network, you have to provide your email address for that company.
If you're looking to divide your friends up into sections (for filtering and messaging), you want to instead use lists:
Friend Lists allow you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.These can be made from the friends page, in the left hand column.
posted by Remy at 7:16 AM on September 4, 2008
It wouldn't be right for business contacts to receive messages I send to friends, for example.
Messages you send to individuals aren't shared with anyone but that individual. On default settings, though, anyone can see the "Wall" on your page. You can change it so that only some networks and/or some friends from those networks can see it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:18 AM on September 4, 2008 [2 favorites]
Messages you send to individuals aren't shared with anyone but that individual. On default settings, though, anyone can see the "Wall" on your page. You can change it so that only some networks and/or some friends from those networks can see it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:18 AM on September 4, 2008 [2 favorites]
Facebook recently introduced friend lists to make it easier to separate groups of friends -- they work like Outlook mailing groups except you can use them throughout the site. For example, if you import your blog onto your profile you can set it so that only people you add to the "Personal" list can read it. That sort of thing.
posted by katrielalex at 7:35 AM on September 4, 2008
posted by katrielalex at 7:35 AM on September 4, 2008
Lock up your facebook profile's privacy settings ultra tight.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:56 PM on September 4, 2008
posted by jeffburdges at 1:56 PM on September 4, 2008
Just to repeat above answers with a direct quote from Facebook:
Facebook currently does not provide an application that allows users to track profile views or statistics on the views of any specific user content. Third party developers, however, may offer applications that provide some of this functionality. Please keep a few things in mind for these applications:posted by qvtqht at 3:26 PM on September 4, 2008
Applications CANNOT track profile visits for users who simply go to another person's profile; Facebook has made this technically impossible .
In order to be tracked by an application, you will need to specifically agree to allow the application to track your actions.
Adding an application that provides this functionality is purely optional. If you do not want to participate, please do not add the application to your account.
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pupdog at 3:53 AM on September 4, 2008