How does Facebook work?

[Grall]

I'm helping someone set up a Facebook account since I know more about computers than her. I don't know ANYthing about Facebook though, lol...

What I need to know is what you're allowed to post there. My friend likes to write naughty stories for adults, and would like a place of her own to show them off - are you allowed to do that (assuming you give fair warning etc), or is that considered a violation of their policies, period? I could read the EULA I guess, but these tend to be very very long and dense and difficult to understand, so if someone here knows the rough boundaries of what's OK or not, that would really help.

Assuming you have something that IS allowed to post up, how do you make a suitable sub-section so you can separate different stories and chapters from each other and stuff and maybe flag them so they become Friends-only etc? I've looked around some, but it's kinda cryptic to me really...

I guess the "Wall" thingy is too general - it doesn't seem very flexible. Just like a simple blog-like pour-out-whatever's-on-your-mind-right-now type stuff. It doesn't even seem to offer keyword sorting or anything, and would therefore be totally unsuitable...

To me, Facebook's an incomprehensible, overrated hype-bandwagon type dealie and I've no desire for myself to know anything about it or understand how it works, heh, but I promised to help, so I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place here...

If anyone could offer some help and guidance me and my friend would be deeply grateful, thank you!

 

[flynn]

I thought you were going to ask how Facebook runs its operations, that can be seen here:

Now to answer your question, Facebook is a social network, either you like it or not. For me it has been useful to get back in contact with people I had lost contact with since high school.

IMHO what your friend needs is a blog to post her stories, not a Facebook account. There are several free blog options she can use. I know Blogger allows you to post adult content which will be flagged as such, Wordpress might allow you to do the same.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

She could probably do that in a group, where she controls who are allowed access. Ie. she invites people to the group, but if any one else want to join, they have to request access. She can then allow/deny them.
That gives her a "forum"/discussion area where she can post new stories and people can comment on them.

Possibly she could also do it through some "fan-page" thingy, but never bothered to check out what that is.

 

[Grall]

I thought you were going to ask how Facebook runs its operations, that can be seen here:

Hmmm... Interesting presentation, but at 40+ minutes too long for me to watch right now.

Facebook is a social network, either you like it or not. For me it has been useful to get back in contact with people I had lost contact with since high school.

But how do you DO that? What does it all do, I just don't get it?!?!?!? All these people who you hear are "Facebook addicted" and stuff...what do they all DO there? To me, it just seems like a boring place to put up your pictures and play farmville (which is another thing I just don't get, dammit!)

IMHO what your friend needs is a blog to post her stories, not a Facebook account.

I said the same thing, but all I got in response was like, "gotta have Facebook, everybody is on Facebook now"... *sigh* Women!

Here's the dealie...she's got this thing in her head about 'writing for the modern liberated young woman' (not her words, my interpretation of her ramblings), but she's too embarrassed about it all to just put her stuff up for public view on a blog, where you can't control access. She knows you can flag stuff to just be for friends on Facebook, which was why this kooky idea was born...

Oh well.

She could probably do that in a group, where she controls who are allowed access.

Hmmm... How do you make these groups, is it hidden away really well? I've poked around a bit but not found it. Maybe I can't find anything because I'm allergic to all of these so-called "new media" type things (social networking, "casual gaming", twitter, so on and so forth), or maybe I'm just blind, or stupid...or both.

I'm under some pressure here to produce results, lol... If I don't get this stuff set up for her soon I'm going to catch heat about it from now until roughly the end of all time. Thanks for your help though, both of you.

 

[flynn]

But how do you DO that? What does it all do, I just don't get it?!?!?!? All these people who you hear are "Facebook addicted" and stuff...what do they all DO there? To me, it just seems like a boring place to put up your pictures and play farmville (which is another thing I just don't get, dammit!)

How do you use it? You can search for people by name. There are pages for universities and schools where you find old classmates. People who are married usually use Facebook to post pictures of their kids while other people waste time with Farmville. Don't try to get Farmville or Mafia Wars

I think people just like to waste time and Facebook provides that. But like I said it can still be useful to get in touch with people you were friends with years ago.

Here's the dealie...she's got this thing in her head about 'writing for the modern liberated young woman' (not her words, my interpretation of her ramblings), but she's too embarrassed about it all to just put her stuff up for public view on a blog, where you can't control access. She knows you can flag stuff to just be for friends on Facebook, which was why this kooky idea was born...

Maybe she could create a page. You can restrict access and mark it 18+ and unpublished. Then she can invite people over there. Link to create a page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Hmmm... How do you make these groups, is it hidden away really well? I've poked around a bit but not found it. Maybe I can't find anything because I'm allergic to all of these so-called "new media" type things (social networking, "casual gaming", twitter, so on and so forth), or maybe I'm just blind, or stupid...or both.

I'm under some pressure here to produce results, lol... If I don't get this stuff set up for her soon I'm going to catch heat about it from now until roughly the end of all time. Thanks for your help though, both of you.

Group access seems to be restricted on a per network basis. If she can get 10 people interested she could ask for a new network to be created for her. To create a new group you go to the groups menu and click on "Create a Group".

How long are those stories anyway? There's a limit on how long the posts on pages and groups can be. I still think a private blog would be a better option. She could setup a page/group in Facebook and post links to the blog in there.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Group access seems to be restricted on a per network basis. If she can get 10 people interested she could ask for a new network to be created for her. To create a new group you go to the groups menu and click on "Create a Group".

No, you can still control it on a per person basis, it just needs to be linked to a network in some way. Easiest to do Global, then at the next page either Secret or Closed.

Grall, if you have a problem finding the groups, it's listed under Applications -> "More".
But a page might be just as good an idea. Never really used them, only used groups to coordinate with friends.

 

[Grall]

Righto, I actually found the groups myself a while ago - Help feature FTW! - and I think we're rockin' and rollin' now. It might still all blow up in our faces though (and then it'll be my fault, meh). I still don't know what Facebook's policy is on what you're allowed to post on their groups, I haven't found that yet...but I'm at least making progress now.

Thanks for the input so far!

 

[_xxx_]

Spend A LOT of time in the menues for privacy settings and make sure it's all airtight. That's the biggest problem of Facebook, your privacy is not protected in any way.

Also don't link any other of your other services/accounts to FB (they'll be nagging you about it all the time).

Be careful when allowing access for any apps or games (most of them require you to allow access to your account). When you allow it, many of them just harvest your data. There are mostly valid apps and games of course, but many are just harvesters.

 

[Grall]

Thankfully it won't be me using that account, so any privacy issues won't be my concern...

I'm not even involved anymore, I got it all set up for her and showed her how it works (or rather how I think it works, which may or may not be the same thing since I hate these damn social network sites and don't want to know how they work ) she then changed the password so now it's no longer my headache.

Thanks for your help, all.