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New Babbage Facebook Page?

Mr Hammerer’s thread brought up an interesting suggestion: should New Babbage have a Facebook page? A few arguments I’d open with:

  • We need more inworld interaction, not less. Yet *another* place to convene outside SL would be a huge distraction.
  • … on the other hand, the City needs to attract more visitors who may become residents, and expand our reach outside SL. We also need to find easier ways to stay in touch with current residents and keep them coming back. Facebook is intrinsic to many of our lives at this point, and would let us keep up with each other pretty effortlessly.

 

  • We already have a reasonably successful community on the Reader – another platform would be duplicative
  • … on the other hand, the Reader doesn’t do a lot of things Facebook does (like push messages to us/put them on our Walls), and doesn’t do certain things very well at all (like Friending, or private messages).

Also – I engage with New Babbage as my avatar (not my typist), and prefer to keep the two separate. I suppose we could all create Facebook profiles for our avatars and engage that way, but that sort of defeats the purpose.

(Just to reserve our place, I created a page anyway: http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-New-Babbage/191257060920977 We can shut it down at any point, of course, or use it just to point people back to the Reader.)

Thoughts?

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35 Comments

  1. Osric Worbridge Osric Worbridge May 11, 2011

    *Blushes* My typist, and my avatars already have FB accounts. So for me it would be easy. I understand the desire to keep things separate. Even if we used the Facebook page to point to this site, and the sim, it may attract some folks.

    I really do not have a strong opinion.

  2. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 11, 2011

    i don’t generally do the ‘my typist’ thing, my FB account has pretty much been liberally mixed with what I call ‘Live Action Grendel” SL Grendel, and old DnD characters.

    you could make a FB page for Babbage, if you do it more like a FB group or profile for an organization like some of them are, that people could ‘like’,  there’s also the option to advertise Babbage on the sidebar on FB, I’m not sure what that costs however, thought I’ve been seeing more and more SL ads there (usually going on about how you can be a vampire ).

    FB groups and non-individual profiles, seem to range from ones people regularly check and have conversations on, to ones that really only have special activity announcing an event, to pretty much no activity, but it shows as a like in your profile, still a good way to get word out possibly

  3. Edward Pearse Edward Pearse May 11, 2011

    Personally I keep Edward and his typist separate on the net. I know of several of my friends who have created Facebook pages under their SL names, but since Edward doesn’t have one, I’ve not friended any of them using my RL account. Edward has his own email account and blog but beyond that seems overkill. And since very few of my RL friends are in SL I don’t tend to wax lyrically about SL on my personal blog and facebook.

    Clear as mud?

    And just as a comparison, the Steamlander forums do have a Facebook page, but it currently only has 9 people who’ve liked it.

    • Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 11, 2011

      I do have a seperate FB account with real name and info, I rarely access it, and have maybe 3 friends, it’s mostly there for appearance

  4. Holocluck Henly Holocluck Henly May 11, 2011

    Well ditto except I have been on the Internet for 16 years, 11 of it as an EMH.  I’ve amassed a lot of contacts and lived several lifetimes as Holodoc. I practically need a separate profile. :)

    Added already.

  5. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 11, 2011

    since I use the name Grendel for any and all things outsde of business transactions and work, most my friends both online and in RL know and refer to me as ‘Grendel’, it’s never really phased me much, plus, Grendel at work and Grendel every other time are two completely different entities, with no real indication wich is the real one, these days, when the bossman can easily look you up on facebook, then decide to fire you as there’s a picture of you drinking beer from a paper cup at a party on your own time, it’s dumb to make it easy for them.

    think I may be coming down with multiple personatilitphrenia anxiety syndrome

     

     

     

    and liked 

  6. Kristos Sonnerstein Kristos Sonnerstein May 11, 2011

    ::clears his throat:: I ah.. have my own FB page apart from my typist’s.. Fairly recent though.

    • Emerson Lighthouse Emerson Lighthouse May 11, 2011

      ::passes you a lozenge::  um… I have a Twitter too.

      • Edward Pearse Edward Pearse May 11, 2011

        I don’t even have twitter for the RL me much less SL.

  7. Breezy Carver Breezy Carver May 11, 2011

    Interesting you liked the facebook idea ??

    but you can’t reply to relay for life information AE ???

    seems a tad .. bs to me

  8. Jedburgh30 Dagger Jedburgh30 Dagger May 11, 2011

    Jed has a blog, a plurk, and a forum here, not to mention the RL stuff the typist has (and neglects on a regular basis because the redhead has a much larger online profile than the meatspace component)

    Sorry, FB is too much extra right now.

  9. Breezy Carver Breezy Carver May 11, 2011

    Nods I agree  100% .. but there are  a great deal of new people we do not know On FaceBook ..

    It really would be social networking  to tap and perhaps  Spark New Babbage out there a bit more ..  to New folks we do not know yet ..    :)  mho ..   that is pretty nifty  quite often :)

  10. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 11, 2011

    well, are we talking facebook as another website for people already involved in NB to join up, or are we talking about it more as a way to promote NB  to people who may not know of it and maybe come check us out and stay awhile? before there ends up being the usual comments of ‘I don’t like it.’

  11. Holocluck Henly Holocluck Henly May 11, 2011

    I wonder if there is some Steampunk group or page where the New Babbage page could get liked and network to find interested folks. I’m sure Second Life wouldn’t mind that either actually.  

    I was thinking because my RL self belongs to the Way Station page.

  12. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 11, 2011

    and meant for that to go in the other thread…

  13. Marion Questi Marion Questi May 13, 2011

    Mr. Questi’s typist knows that he is in the minority here because he considers Facebook to be an abomination. Facebook is an even bigger threat to personal privacy and security than Google. While Google and other behavioral tracking firms collect information on the sly, it’s not hard to implement countermeasures against them; you don’t even have to be a systems person. Facebook, on the other hand, entices it’s victims to volunteer their information and it encourages their friends to supply even more. Opening a Facebook account is like leaving your car parked with the keys in ignition and engine running. Sorry if I offend anyone, but this comes from years of exposure to InfoSec and OSINT.

    Information security is like innocence; once lost, it can never be regained. Suffice it say, that neither Mr. Questi nor his typist will ever have a Facebook account.

  14. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 13, 2011

    still say, if you have any of your RL info on any site (other than paypal, bank, or work) then you’re crazy.  fake names, fake personas, it’s the internet

  15. Zaida Gearbox Zaida Gearbox May 13, 2011

    Typist all but freaking lives on Facebook.  If she didn’t she wouldn’t have any clue what was happening in the life of her son and the lives of her younger siblings.  However, creating a page for Zaida and flipping back and forth between the two would be a PITA, and I’m completely hostile to the idea of using my real name in connection with my Second Life.  Not only to protect myself from you all, but I don’t want a lot of the people I know IRL all up in my Second Life.  There are fewer than five people in SL who know my real name, and the only reason it’s that high is because I made the bombastically stupid mistake of friending a RL friend when we were thinking of using SL as a platform for getting together.  He told a couple of SL friends we held in common my real name.  On the flip side, there are fewere than five people in my Real Life who know Zaida’s name.  I’d like to keep it that way.

  16. Bookworm Hienrichs Bookworm Hienrichs May 13, 2011

    To chime in with my 1.25 cents worth:

     

    As I said before, I will not, as either typist or character, use Facebook.  I don’t like it.  (And I still haven’t seen an answer to my question on whether they’ve changed their stance about virtual characters…)

     

    BUT!

    ([as Pearl from ‘Finding Nemo’]: That’s a pretty big but.)

     

    I can definitely see using a New Babbage Facebook page as a very general welcome page for new folk.  The Babbage Aethernet Reader, and even the Wiki, are probably rather intimidating for folks entirely new to New Babbage–definite information overload.  On a Facebook page, though, we could have very basic explanations of:

    What is New Babbage?

    What is Steampunk?

    What is Second Life? (for those who find the page through general explorations)

     

    We could also list upcoming events that would likely appeal to new folk.  And provide links from there to the BAR, the Wiki, etc. for those who want more information.

     

    Since most people are familiar/comfortable with Facebook, I would bet they would be more willing to go to a Facebook page to get more info about us than to any other place.

     

    So to sum up, I’m not at all against the idea of New Babbage having a Facebook page.  I just don’t want to use it myself. *grin*

    • Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 14, 2011

      I answered you already Book, if my FB profile is anything to say about it, then yes, virtual profiles are now allowed, my entire internet presence is nothing BUT a virtual persona!

      • Bookworm Hienrichs Bookworm Hienrichs May 14, 2011

        Well, it could just mean they haven’t caught up to you yet. *grin*

        • Edward Pearse Edward Pearse May 14, 2011

          There was a new report recently over a woman named Catherine Middleton who had her account suspended, despite it showing her photo looked nothing like the Duchess of Cambridge or that she was in any way trying to impersonate the better known one.

          I think FB enforcement is ad-hoc at best. Though I’m sure if someone gets a bee in their bonnet about virtual people there will be another clampdown.

          Hell even my last email from Linden Labs is trying to convince me to put my RL details on my SL profile.

        • Orpheus Angkarn Orpheus Angkarn May 22, 2011

          That is unfortunate for anyone who was deleted. I guess that is why the Second Life facebook page was posting for people to create a page for their avatar, rather than a profile.

        • Grendel Footman Grendel Footman May 22, 2011

          meh, my FB page may be called Grendel, it may have a couple pictures of my avi in my albums, but I also go by Grendel in RL, have actual picures of live action Grendel, and at least my website is real even if my school info, birth date, etc aren’t.

          they delete me, i just means I won’t be on FB *shrugs*

        • Holocluck Henly Holocluck Henly May 23, 2011

          We dont know whether this was the case or some other occurrence.

          My friend’s account was suspended for other reasons (I believe they claimed he was carrying a trojan on his page when it was an ad of theirs to blame – that does sound like an excuse to act on it), but was reinstated a couple of months later. 

          They haven’t touched me or my alt’s pages, probably because both have redeemed gamecards (which means I invested real money for a couple of games – don’t ask), and that puts me in the “good customer” category.

          That I haven’t violated usage and I don’t claim to be *THE* Star Trek Voyager EMH or Robert Picardo.  I think either would be grounds for some sort of action. Fake profiles are overrated anyway. On MySpace Roger and Jessica Rabbit never approved my friend requests.

          btw if I saw events mirrored on Facebook I’d be less inclined to miss them.

  17. Aeolus Cleanslate Aeolus Cleanslate May 14, 2011

    So to sum up consensus, as I see it: Facebook would be tricky for current residents, but possibly useful in attracting new ones. I note that as of this writing our placeholder FB page has 10 fans, of which five are avatars. Perhaps we should look into improving our Reader to correct its flaws and expand its capabilities. (*goes to pound his head against the Drupal wall yet again*)

    • Mr Tenk Mr Tenk May 14, 2011

      Dr. Cyberusfaustus over in Clockhaven might be able to help you with that wall.

      • Dr. Cyberusfaustus Dr. Cyberusfaustus May 27, 2011

        /me holds up his virtual chisel and asks “where would you like me to start?”

        I have pretty decent experience with CMS’s, PHP and Drupal in particular. I could lend a hand here and there… drop by the Vrai Vert some time. We’ll commune with the fairy and see if she leads us to any answers.

         

  18. Enoch Harris Enoch Harris May 28, 2011

    I spend 3 hours on Wednesday with a social network consultant, and have spend two days since experimenting with it.

    I have reached the conclusion that Facebook and Twitter are full of pointless gossip and inane drivel. But who am I to fly in the face of public opinion? People seldom go broke giving people what they want.

    The trick is automate it so it gets done without having to do anything. As this website is already generating regular new content, you just have to produce a few RSS/XML feeds which  output in a format which can be displayed on a facebook, twitter or Tumblr page.

    You can either use 3rd party services to update your accounts, or update one account and then use the inbuilt apps to update other accounts — as most of these accounts can be linked together now.

    I see no reason why the Facebook status can’t be updated everytime somebody uploads a picture, complete with tumbnail.

    • Aeolus Cleanslate Aeolus Cleanslate May 28, 2011

      Excellent idea, Mr Harris. I plugged the Reader’s RSS feed in to our Facebook page (I think) – we’ll see how it works. The Facebook for Drupal modules seems to give us a number of options for projecting the Reader’s content into Facebook, without needing to duplicate anything. Should a simple RSS feed prove inadequate, it might make sense to look into that. I shall be interested to speak with you and Dr. Cyberfaustus further on the subject.

  19. Enoch Harris Enoch Harris May 28, 2011

    I’d suggest trying to get pictues on facebook. Users tend to spend a lot of time there clicking on people’s profiles and then going through their galleries. Flickr can update Facebook to say that new photos have been uploaded with a single thumbnail and a link. If the reader could do the same, that should work well.

    I know several sites that do well publishing new sign-ups to Twitter, they also ask new sign-ups if they have a @twitter id.

    Of course… if all you publish to Twitter/Facebook are automatically generated messages, it’s just spam. I think you need to publish at least the occassional personalized thing.

    Seeing as I’m socially inept – borderline sociopath, I gave the task to a couple of urchins that work for me. You can’t keep them off the iPhones anyway, so they might as well do something constructive!

    If you have somebody who you can rely on as a regular, and enjoys facebook, might I suggest you hand control over to them. You will of course have to agree a shared password so that in case they fall under a char-à-banc, you have some way of getting back in.

  20. Breezy Carver Breezy Carver May 28, 2011

    Greetings  all

    I am not a facebook person ((per say )) 

     But I do respect the social medium a great deal .

    there is an interesting  blog post here .. with a great solution and fix ie preventive for all avatars … from being deleted ..

    http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/05/facebook-deleting-second-life-avatar-profiles.html

    “Facebook is reportedly deleting numerous profiles of Second Life avatars on the social network. Among them is Angie Mornington, a well-known personality in SL, who recently received an email from The Facebook Platform Team, informing her that “Your personal account was recently disabled by Facebook.” The message included a link, Ms. Mornington told me, and after clicking it, “I wound up at a page that said that in order to restore my account, I have to scan and upload a government ID showing my real name and photo, with everything else blacked out (social security number, address, etc.) I refuse to do that.”

    As Linden Lab just recommended on its official Second Life Facebook page, “please consider starting a Facebook page for your avi instead. It’s simple to do and allows you to connect with other SL Residents on Facebook”, without violating the social network’s terms of service. To do so, scroll down to the bottom of your Facebook account and click “Create a Page” on the bottom right. As you can see above, the person behind Angie Mornington has already created a Facebook page for her avatar.

    • Vinter Tempest Vinter Tempest May 28, 2011

      All very well but I don’t want a page for my Avi on my RL account. I have been stalked in SL, one person managed to trace me through a small gif which was hotlinked from of my RL accounts. I want to keep RL and SL completely separate thanks. If facebook deletes my Avi’s account, then they lose my patronage. Screw ’em! 

  21. Breezy Carver Breezy Carver May 28, 2011

    smiles and nods Miss Tempest I fully agree and understand your point  .. This is just a suggestion .

    Please note on the other side of the coin .. I do know severalsl  avi’s that have had no problems  and have  not been deleted .. I think  it is about having a  rich  interactive  profile and the such …  just mho of course :) 

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