Facebook

I've been taking a long hard look at Facebook.

Though I have a presence there, I don't use it.

Mind, you, just about everyone I know does, including my family. 'Er 'Indoors practically lives on it.

The biggest problem I had was the constant fiddling and twiddling with the privacy controls. Far too many people I'd rather avoid kept popping up and being a nuisance - How many different ways can you say to someone "If I've avoided you for the last 15 years, there's a darn good reason for it". But nope, stick some people behind a keyboard and they lose brain cells.

Trust me, I know about losing brain cells...

I recognise the value of been part of the social networking scene, so though I had a Facebook page, if I needed to use Facebook, I used 'Er 'Indoors.

But what's clinched it for me was the comments of Facebooks founder.

Sometime in 2004, it transpires, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, was chatting online with a friend about the beginnings of the site.

He said "“I have over 4,000 e-mails, pictures, addresses,” he wrote, showing off. “People just submitted it. I don’t know why. They ‘trust me’.” Then he wrote: “Dumb f***s.”

I'm sure he was trying to be funny. But some of us remember a certain Mr. Ratner, who joked that his multi-million pound jewellery business "sold crap". He was out of a job, sharpish. An unguarded remark bit him on the bum. Mr Zuckerberg, I suspect, has 'Done a Ratner'.

'Doing a Zuckerberg' hardly has the same ring to it.

So I'm outa there.

I wanted somewhere that has much the same facilities as Facebook, where the privacy controls are easy to use, and ideally, no chuffin' targeted advertising. And I think I've found it.

Hope to see you around here ;- http://www.folkdirect.com/