Facebook Groups: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The article below explains the current issues with Facebook’s recently adapted groups feature. Facebook seems to be having some initial issues with this new feature, which, hopefully for their sake and everyone elses’ it will be solved.
This article was originally posted at http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/07/5252103-facebook-groups-glitchy-yes-evil-meh
Thanks to Facebook’s latest update, Groups, tech rock stars Mike Arrington (TechCrunch) and Jason Calacanis (Mahalo), now belong to NAMBLA — that’s the acronym most often associated with North American Man/Boy Love Association, or for “South Park Fans,” The North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes.
Here, however, it stands for little more than some clever code monkey’s attempt to out the failings of Facebook’s latest upgrade. As Calacanis points out via his blog, neither he nor Arrington asked to join this new Facebook group — they were simply added.
That’s the initial problem with this new group system — though it’s hardly the privacy invasion some may paint it to be. For example, Calacanis “friended” the joker who put him on this faux NAMBLA group — you can’t add someone to a group if they’re not already your Facebook friend. Does that mean you need to better monitor your friends? Well, yeah.
But is it evil? Well, we’ll try and break it down and you can decide.
New groups vs. old groups … wait … what?
Old groups: These are for anyone and everyone. You’ve probably been invited to or “Like” a bunch of old-timey groups you’ve long forgotten — just another member along with hundreds or thousands of people you don’t know, all of which gave the thumbs up icon to “Things Brittany From ‘Glee’ Says” or “FarmVille Link Trading of Rare Foals, Calves, Eggs, & 7-11 Codes.”
Anyone can join and anyone can suggest or invite you to join. Anyone can post on the group’s wall or forums and read what others are posting. There’s no real privacy, because, well, anybody can join. And even if they don’t join, Facebook friends can see by your profile what groups you belong to or “Like.”
New groups: You can either start a new club or get added by a Facebook friend who is a member. You can’t join an established new group without being added by a member, and you can’t see group activity if the group is marked “closed” or see who’s a member if the group is marked “secret.” Hence, the notion of added privacy.
Why should I even care about this “new” group thing?
This new-fangled Facebook group is like being on old-timey Facebook — that tiny pocket of online privacy that made you join in the first place. You know, before Facebook turned into MySpace (sans glitter gifs). Back then, the youngs joined to hang out with their close circle of friends and the olds, ever wary of the Interwebs, joined to see those pictures of their grandkids you were always saying you’d send but never did.
Then God (or Satan, whatevs) invented FarmVille and suddenly we friended everybody because we needed indentured servants to help till our virtual fields and adopt our orphaned purple calves.
Now we’re friends with perfectly nice people in, like, Australia who nonetheless we will never meet IRL and would rather not share delivery-room action shots of our recent childbirth.
New Facebook groups allows you to create a new group, keep it private and invite those three other family members with whom you’d like to share those intimate family photos. Other uses? Facebook suggests:
Create shared docs for a class project
Chat with all the members of your band at once
Chat privately
Control who sees what
Don’t other websites offer similar services?
Well, yes. But many of them cost money, and this is on Facebook. You’re already there. Now Facebook gives you less reason to log off than ever before. Convenient for you, great for Facebook. As for the rest of the Internet’s ecosystem…well, that’s a whole other “Oprah.”
Gotcha. So how do I start a Facebook group?
Go to www.facebook.com/groups
Click “Create group”
Decide whether your group is 1) Open: Anyone can see membership and activity 2) Closed: Non-group members can see membership, but not activity or 3) Secret: Membership and activity is not shared with nonmembers.
Invite friends by typing names into the invite prompt. (Again, you can only add current Facebook friends, but your friends can in turn invite their friends.)
Wait. “Invite” friends?
Oh, yeah. You don’t so much “invite” as “shanghai ” your Facebook friends, who automatically appear as members to your group, whether they want to be there or not — and will stay members until they actively make the effort to quit. (See NAMBLA example, above.) While group membership doesn’t seem to show up on the public version of user profiles, open group activity will show up on a member’s wall.
The quick lesson? If someone invites you to a group you don’t want to be in, quit as fast as you can. But make sure you really don’t want to belong.
Ok, I quit a group I was added too. Then I changed my mind. Can I join again?
No. Yes. Maybe. Here’s where things got glitchy — at least on our test run.
According to Facebook, once you turn down an “invite” (or rather “quit,” after your Facebook friend made you a member) your friend cannot add you again. You must contact Facebook for a second chance. (Yeah, good luck with that.)
Can I kick out a member I invited, then add that person again?
According to Facebook, no. I tried this on my own super secret group “People who like bunnies.” It got weird:
I added myself, deputy editor Wilson Rothman, and my boss.
I then deleted my boss — as a test, not because he necessarily does or doesn’t like bunnies.
Then I added my boss back to my “People who like bunnies” group, and contrary to what Facebook claimed, he added back just fine. But …
I attempted to delete my boss again, and even though I was quite clearly clicked the “X” under my boss’s name, I was deleted from my own group.
Wilson valiantly attempted to add me back and was not allowed. Through no fault of my own, I am now banned from the very “People who like bunnies” group I founded.
Groups is new, you’ve got to budget for glitches. And I do not have the kind of time or attention span often required to attempt any kind of response from Facebook’s customer service. (Ladies, am I right?)
Downsides? Certainly this new Groups thing has downsides!
Well, of course! What kind of world would this be if we couldn’t complain about Facebook? Besides the obvious (to everyone outside of The Facebook Corporation) that users should receive invites to groups instead of having to remove themselves from groups they didn’t join, there’s the spam potential. Think of all the e-mails and notifications you’ll now receive from all those groups you’ve “joined.” Yep. You’re probably going to unfriend a lot of people before all of this blows over.
What about my privacy?! My precious online privacy?!
If you’re still suffering under the illusion that you actually have it, Facebook is attempting to play along at this juncture.
Can fellow group members who are not my Facebook friends actually see my private info?
Non-friend group members can see your group activity, obviously. But if they try to view your profile, they’ll get the same “public” page that anyone and everyone can see.
So, aside from being forced to “join” groups without first being asked, what can go wrong?
Well, plenty if you’re the kind of person who “friends” Facebook jokers looking to add you to faux NAMBLA groups designated as “open.”
Also, despite recent public contrition, Facebook does have that dubious history of making private things public with little or no notice to its users.
There’s also the perpetual possibility of some conflagration of unfortunate circumstances that ends up opening your most personal online stuff to the public through no human or computer malevolence whatsoever … just Mercury in retrograde doin’ what it does best.
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