Question about Facebook Group

Hey All,

Not sure where to post this, so it's here.

The first thing I did when starting to look for anything about my Dad's war history online was to search on facebook. There was nothing there, so I googled and read and googled and finally came to this site. Which I am very pleased I found. It took some time though and was a bit frustrating.

So, I would like to start a facebook page for my dad's regiment - 46th Recce. Would that upset anyone on here? Don't want to do that.

I would like to do it partly because it might save other people time and frustration before getting to somewhere useful - like this site. I was thinking I could pin a post telling about this site? I would also like to do it in case anyone searches facebook, finds nothing, googles and gives up because its a bit daunting. I have learnt in the past few weeks how sparse the information can be and that as time goes on, more and more will get lost.

No idea if anyone will find the page, but I would like to try.

Thoughts/comments please.

Diane

 

I'm both for it.......and against it.

Any one searching with google will undoubtedly end up here in the end.

I've just tried it.......ww2talk comes up 5th on the list.

A fb site may get some hits but could dilute the information that would otherwise end up on this site

I believe it's better to have fewer larger site than more smaller ones.

 

Facebook is the last place that I would search for anything serious. It seems transient and populated by teenagers such as my daughters pulling pouty selfies....but it certainly wouldn't bother me. The more resources the merrier.

Perhaps one of the problems is that specialist forums are a little prone to jargon. The fact that my Google search terms lead me back here so often is probably proof of that.

 

I was going to point everyone here, Singeager. I just don't want to miss anyone looking on fb and not finding. Like I nearly did. Every newbie, like myself, is going to ask for help. I cant give it. You can.

 

Diane,

Setting up your own Facebook page is an excellent idea, as it would be far superior to the generic pages which one up based on information from Wikipedia like this: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Queens-Royal-Regiment/105508579482505?ref=ts&fref=ts. If your page also redirects people to further sources of information such as WW2Talk then all power to you.

In fact should you decide to, you could link the relevant posts from here to your Facebook page and vice versa.

Mark

 

There is always a big divide between pro and anti facebook. It has a lot of advantages, and it is a good way of "recruiting" people but there are an awful lot of people who are not on it.

If you are going to do something on Facebook, I would recommend a group rather than a page. It will allow more interaction. People see a page, might even like it, but then stop following and become disengaged. It is very much one way traffic. A group will start conversation. And at that make it a closed group - it allows people to post without being visible to the general public, yet unlike a "secret group" it can be found.

I set one up for Glider Pilot Family members and there is plenty of chat and interesting stuff posted, as opposed to one person posting all the time and others' comments getting lost.

Get lots of dodgy people trying to join, invariably with the aim of spamming, so it does take a bit of work and management.

Another downside, if you do get the interest, it can be difficult to find old posts when you are looking for something specific.

WW2Talk is built for this sort of thing, facebook is not!!! So there are pros and cons.

 

Thank you very much all. You have certainly given me food for thought..............its appreciated.

 

I set up a FB page for the 327 GIR. It compliments my book I wrote about it. It has almost 2000 members and there is plenty of activity. I strongly suggest NOT just randomly posting pics and docs, but make albums with general categories. I don't get much spam, but if I do, I ban them.

You can see what I've done here:

https://www.facebook.com/327-Glider-Infantry-Screaming-Eagle-109600119062869/

 

As already covered if you want a facebook page go ahead, we all store our stories in different ways. But is worth remembering not everyone uses facebook but I am sure this audience will increase over time.

Good Luck Brian

 

Absolutely not all use it. However, FB is a lot easier than maintaining a website. It is a lot easier to keep material coming. There is no cost unlike most web sites worth using. A key in using FB is to think about organization before setting it up.

 

The company I work for Makes Facebook games so I have to have a page to test out what I do on the Facebook servers. I do not have a personal Facebook page.

One point to remember about Facebook, Google+ and all the other "social" sites is that since they have a duty to remove any offensive, copyrighted ot disputed content without your permission, in their terms and condition is a little clause that allows them to do this. That all sounds reasonable and fair except that to remove it, they must own it.
That means that by posting an image or any content to Facebook you give them the copyright. Further on in the same document it states that they then have the right to re-use that content however they wish. And that includes selling it on to a third party.

As a male of a certain age, Facebook pushes adverts to my sidebar and it usually fills up with war games and dating sites. Since Facebook do not have the personpower or time to look through all these images, they use what is called a "scraping alghorythm" that looks for certain combinations of facial features. It makes a big list and the access to these images (still stored on Facebooks servers) are then sold on to other companies. About six months ago a local BBC news presenter had a fight with Facebook because one of her selfies ended up randomly placed on a dating site advert as if she were single and looking for dates. The woman is happily married and was not happy with Facebook

Mostly Facebook doesnt bother with what you put up, lets face it, a ton of other stuff goes up every hour, but this is just a cautionary tale to say "Only put up stuff you don't mind loosing control of"

 

It is a good question n that some of points raised are interesting. Slaphead has a point in that you have to be careful what you put on there. I use Facebook as I have set up a page to help me find relatives of local crashed air crew (https://www.facebook.com/Lesherostombealyonslaforet/?ref=hl) and it has proved helpful but Slaphead made the point about copyright issues. I don't see any problem with it but just beware of what you post.

 

It is a different demographic.

I've had great success through a varied net presence, and various FB groups have been of great use.

Oddly enough Twatter is near-useless for this, good for pictures but not much else.