As a companion to the existing Facebook Page for Clarkesworld, I’ve created a Facebook Group for Clarkesworld. There seems to be advantages to both, but I keep finding myself thinking that Facebook would have been wiser to combine the two. For example, Pages would benefit from the invitation system and Groups could benefit by having the ability to add applications, like RSS feeds. Anyhow, my little experiment continues and you are all invited to join:
Clarkesworld Magazine Facebook Group (created 24 hours ago and already over 50 members)
Clarkesworld Magazine Facebook Page (created a few weeks ago and only has about 35 members)
So, what do you think of these things? I’m definitely finding it a better place than Myspace, despite the fact that over there, we have just under 500 friends. Facebook just seems to have potential.
catsparx
Facebook drives me batty. I call it Inyerfacebook because its choked with people throwing sheep at me, setting their vampires onto my werewolves and clogging my aquarium with virtual Xmas gifts. To me, it seems like a time waster for the post-content generation, and yet it’s been fantastic for one thing: getting in contact with friends whose email addys I lost track of years ago.
wyrmadmin
Oh thank God someone else feels that way about the vampires, werewolves, and other annoying widget of the day. That said, there are some useful apps and the framework has potential for some good if we can survive all the goofy stuff. 🙂
I’ve found a few old friends through Facebook too. Definitely more than any of the other sites I’m on… and unlike Classmates.com, I’m not expected to pay money to hear from them.
catsparx
I ignore everything in it except written messages and personal photos, eg, pics of peoples kids & pets & selves. I hate how impersonal all the werewolf & etc stuff is. When I get sent something, I know it has also been sent to 20 other people in one hit via checkbox. It’s like having your own personal spam factory at your fingertips.
If I took the time I might find other useful stuff in there. But I’m too busy!!! However, I will join Clarkesworld on Facebook in the hope that *you* can make something good out of it. 🙂
wyrmadmin
A personal spam factory. 🙂 Well put.
Thanks. I hope I can make something out of this. It should be an interesting experiment anyway.
ericmarin
I hope it brings lots of new readers to Clarkeworld Magazine! (I’m going to try it out as well.)
ericmarin
Er, Clarkesworld Magazine. (It certainly would be nice to be able to edit LJ comments.)
david_de_beer
Facebook still confused me a lot as well. The handiest app I found on there is the iread one; that’s kinda cool, listing what you’ve read, are reading, what people are saying about it, and you can send you recs to people and also chuck books at them which is fun for about a day.
oh, and you have to update your booklist which I’m very lazy with, but I like to look at what other people have on their shelves.
Still a little dazed and confused as to exactly how the app works, like most Facebook apps, but it’ll come if I make an effort I suppose.
One thing about Iread that might be of benefit to you, is the bookclub idea. Create your own bookclub. How that will differ from the fan page I don’t know, but is an idea.
david_de_beer
hmm, took a quick peek and I tend to agree that the page and group functions should have been combined.