F:AT@facebook

The King in Yellow wrote:

Why does this seem like a trick? An attempt by someone who enjoys acting borderline retarded to fool himself into thinking that he has friends?

Argh no, the sad truth about my wretched existence has been revealed for all to see. My facebook photo albums are just stolen from random googles, and my gaming stats at BGG are all made up too. I have nothing more to live for now that my years of lies on the internet have finally been exposed.

Why does this seem like a trick? An attempt by someone who enjoys acting borderline retarded to fool himself into thinking that he has friends?

Thats my usual strategy for life in general...

Steve"Special"Avery

I am a Facebook user, so this isn't a criticism of Facebook, however, I question the need for a F:AT group on Facebook. When I want F:AT news, I come to the Fort. When I want to talk to F:ATties, I come to the Fort. What purpose does the F:AT group on Facebook serve that the Fort does not?

Death and Taxis wrote:

I am a Facebook user, so this isn't a criticism of Facebook, however, I question the need for a F:AT group on Facebook. When I want F:AT news, I come to the Fort. When I want to talk to F:ATties, I come to the Fort. What purpose does the F:AT group on Facebook serve that the Fort does not?

Good question ("and one which in recent weeks has been much on my mind"). I'm not 100% sure myself to be honest, because I'm new to using facebook myself. I signed up to facebook some time ago because Matt Forbeck blogged that he was doing so, so I thought I'd see what he was up to there. But I didn't do anything with it really.

Since then, it was only when I was thinking about committing myself to GM'ing a Combat Commander tournament at UK Games Expo'09 that I began to wonder if facebook could help me, both as a support network, and to round up participants. That's what got me started trying to do things with facebook, which was why I thought it was worth seeing what use facebook could be to F:AT'ers (BGG and CSW are both represented). And that's it really.

Fair enough. I will sit on the fence on this one and digest the feedback after it has been running for a couple months.

Death and Taxis wrote:

I am a Facebook user, so this isn't a criticism of Facebook, however, I question the need for a F:AT group on Facebook. When I want F:AT news, I come to the Fort. When I want to talk to F:ATties, I come to the Fort. What purpose does the F:AT group on Facebook serve that the Fort does not?

This is a legitimate question. The answer, sadly, is "not much."

By way of example: Two years ago, I started the first Cosmic Encounter group at Facebook. I stuffed it full of news, links, a few photos, and anything else I thought was interesting. The response was basically crickets. Other than people joining, nothing really happens. And these are the same people I talk with all the time at CE Online, the FFG boards, etc. Frankly, the whole thing teeters on the edge of being a big waste of time.

Death and Taxis wrote:

I am a Facebook user, so this isn't a criticism of Facebook, however, I question the need for a F:AT group on Facebook. When I want F:AT news, I come to the Fort. When I want to talk to F:ATties, I come to the Fort. What purpose does the F:AT group on Facebook serve that the Fort does not?

You can bitch on the boards there when an admin bans you from here.

You can go there when we smash our CPU usage again.

Free advertising.

You can see who has Aldie as a friend.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

You can bitch on the boards there when an admin bans you from here.

That's never gonna happen - your skin is just too thick.

You can go there when we smash our CPU usage again.

This has some merit. Although a temp message telling us things have gone very baaaad is adequate enough for me.

Free advertising.

Good thinking.

You can see who has Aldie as a friend.

Self-defeating. You have to be his friend to see if he has any other friends.

Death and Taxis wrote:

Self-defeating. You have to be his friend to see if he has any other friends.

Nah, not the way most people do their privacy settings over there. The default allows you to view anyone's friends.

I just checked out ol' Aldie, in fact ... and so can you! Woot!

www.facebook.com/home.php?#/friends/?id=502610142

Yes, you're right. I must have been thinking of the actual profile which isn't usually open to all (as is the case with Aldie). Aldie has indeed collected a large gathering of friends.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

You can see who has Aldie as a friend.

Busted! I'm friends with Derk too.

And Steve Avery. OMG, what have I done?!

TheDukester wrote:

Death and Taxis wrote:
Nah, not the way most people do their privacy settings over there. The default allows you to view anyone's friends.

I just checked out ol' Aldie, in fact ... and so can you! Woot!

www.facebook.com/home.php?#/friends/?id=502610142

Why in the hell isn't Barnes listed?

SusanR wrote:

Busted! I'm friends with Derk too.

And Steve Avery. OMG, what have I done?!

And if you try and drop any one of them off your friends list, you know they'll cyber-stalk you...

I am a Facebook user, so this isn't a criticism of Facebook, however, I question the need for a F:AT group on Facebook. When I want F:AT news, I come to the Fort. When I want to talk to F:ATties, I come to the Fort. What purpose does the F:AT group on Facebook serve that the Fort does not?

I see it as free advertising for F:AT. I joined principally in order to stick my flag in the ground (I don't belong to the BGG Group, and never will, as it's populated by Christian Missionary Family Gamer Agricola Arse Hats). As a result, I notice that my brother and my co-writer have joined, and as far as I am aware, neither of them have a presence on this message board. It's a way of reaching a larger audience.

Everyone must join us here, eventually. So say we all.