I want to connect with people on Facebook

[ifrakhaliq]

Hello there!

I am sure this is not a crazy idea of mine. I just want to connect with people (who are here on this forum) on Facebook. I am mostly logged in there and it's my place to get news and views of people.

So, just type away your Facebook username or simply the URL to your profile in the reply :D

Hoping to see you there :)

Here is mine: https://www.facebook.com/ifra.khaliq

 

[anart]

Hello there!

I am sure this is not a crazy idea of mine. I just want to connect with people (who are here on this forum) on Facebook. I am mostly logged in there and it's my place to get news and views of people.

So, just type away your Facebook username or simply the URL to your profile in the reply :D

Hoping to see you there :)

Here is mine: https://www.facebook.com/ifra.khaliq

Hi ifrakhaliq, I don't think there is any reason for everyone to type out their personal facebook username here on the public forum. If you'd like to connect with people, the easiest way to find them on facebook is to go to Laura's fb page and make a friend request and then look through her friend list to find more people who are on the forum (some of her friends are and some of them aren't).

 

[mcb]

Ifra,

Do also be aware that many FaceBook apps that you approve will "mine" your friend list and send various solicitations to them on your behalf, without telling you. I accepted your friend request and received one such message almost immediately.

It's not just you -- several other people from here seem to be sending them out as well.

I don't know of any solution to this other than to just not use Apps. There may be a few "trusted" ones that provide services directly to you and that are OK. I have one from Apple, for example, that lets me upload photos from Aperture. Hopefully it is not impersonating me. If I find out that it is, I will shut it off in an instant!

The impersonations could show up in your activity log, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were entirely hidden.

 

[mcb]

By the way, it's not all due to apps rummaging through your friend list. You will also be sending out various other advertisements to your friends unless you turn the ads off, which I would highly recommend. You can find the opt-out under Settings -> Apps & Friends. Click "Edit," select "No one," and save.

 

[Guardian]

I don't know of any solution to this other than to just not use Apps.

There ya go! Disable Facebook apps entirely as they are ALL spyware in a pretty package.

 

[Nawd]

I don't know of any solution to this other than to just not use Apps.

There ya go! Disable Facebook apps entirely as they are ALL spyware in a pretty package.

Agreed! I'm glad I've never downloaded any Apps. I won't even use my real name or any pictures of myself or my children on there. No trust at all. :)

 

[ifrakhaliq]

Ifra,

Do also be aware that many FaceBook apps that you approve will "mine" your friend list and send various solicitations to them on your behalf, without telling you. I accepted your friend request and received one such message almost immediately.

It's not just you -- several other people from here seem to be sending them out as well.

I don't know of any solution to this other than to just not use Apps. There may be a few "trusted" ones that provide services directly to you and that are OK. I have one from Apple, for example, that lets me upload photos from Aperture. Hopefully it is not impersonating me. If I find out that it is, I will shut it off in an instant!

The impersonations could show up in your activity log, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were entirely hidden.

Megan, I didn't know this is happening as I generally do not use any such app there. But I will check the settings today to make sure that I do not causing annoyance.

I don't know of any solution to this other than to just not use Apps.

There ya go! Disable Facebook apps entirely as they are ALL spyware in a pretty package.

And I don't seem to find a way to disable these apps. There is appearing this "turn off platform' button in the Apps under settings. But it's not serving the purpose.
How to disable them entirely?

 

[mcb]

I am not exactly sure what to do either. It seems to get worse every time they change it. If you go to Settings -> Apps -> "Apps you use", you should see the list of apps you have authorized. Remove anything that doesn't belong, or that you don't know that you can trust not to impersonate you.

I have about four of them, and I specifically decided to allow them access. If you don't have any at all, then that is just one less thing to be concerned about, although you should perhaps also check "Ads others use" and make sure that all of those are off as well.

In any case, also check the Ads & Friends setting that I mentioned above.

 

[ifrakhaliq]

Couldn't do anything permanently but removed all unnecessary apps. That 'turn off platform' button just isn't getting turned off

 

[mcb]

Great! I haven't turned off the 'platform apps' option either, since I do use a few apps that I believe are well-behaved.

 

[Laura]

I turned off the platform and don't deal with apps at all. And if people post nonsense on my page, they are gonzerooni.

 

[mcb]

I turned off the platform and don't deal with apps at all. And if people post nonsense on my page, they are gonzerooni.

That is the best option, if you don't use any apps at all.

It can be hard to tell if you have an app that is abusing its privileges, so it might be helpful to drop a "hint" to those in this group from which we receive product endorsements and such. Most FB spam that I receive is via my other friends outside this group, and I simply tolerate that unless they want to know how to stop it (which some of them do).

But I keep seeing endorsements for products like "Paleo Bread" from somebody in this group -- I forget who -- and other things like that. If we don't tell them then they don't know to do anything about it.

When I say "FB spam," by the way, I mean actual posts (sponsored, I think) that are not part of my expected news feed. There are also the ads in the right-hand column, but I generally ignore those and treat them as a cost of using a "free" service. There was one the other day from one of my local, non-forum friends that was actually of interest (for the local TEDx group). It can happen.

 

[Nienna]

I turned off the platform and don't deal with apps at all. And if people post nonsense on my page, they are gonzerooni.

I turned off the platform apps this morning and facebook wouldn't let me like articles on sott. I turned the apps back on and it still wouldn't let me like articles on sott.

I just now tried to like an article on sott and it is working now. Has anyone else done this and not been able to like articles on any particular site? I could like stuff on facebook at the time.

 

[mcb]

I turned off the platform and don't deal with apps at all. And if people post nonsense on my page, they are gonzerooni.

I turned off the platform apps this morning and facebook wouldn't let me like articles on sott. I turned the apps back on and it still wouldn't let me like articles on sott.

I just now tried to like an article on sott and it is working now. Has anyone else done this and not been able to like articles on any particular site? I could like stuff on facebook at the time.

Some changes may need some time to "take." I know that if you are publishing app changes as a developer, there may be a delay.

 

[mcb]

...But I keep seeing endorsements for products like "Paleo Bread" from somebody in this group -- I forget who -- and other things like that. If we don't tell them then they don't know to do anything about it...

I didn't have to wait long for that one to come around. It's not an endorsement or an app, but merely a "like" for the Paleo Bread web page, by Jason Glass, that must generate at least several "Jason Glass likes Paleo Bread" posts in my news feed per week. That's what you can expect if you don't turn off the Ads & Friends "feature." As far as I know it doesn't inform the person that clicked "Like." It will do it if you don't dig down into your settings and opt out.

Of course I don't know for sure that it isn't going to send those messages even if you DO turn off the feature. I just know that these "like" messages appear frequently in my news feed, but only from certain people. So it sounds like an option.

One of my non-forum friends, a former coworker, generates a steady stream of requests to authorize some "birthday" app, which I ignore. That one IS an app that is doing it, and definitely one to avoid. I don't think she is even aware of it. I have also seen those particular requests come from at least one friend from the forum. I will have to wait for it to come around again to see who it is. (Oops, never mind -- I just found it in the pending app requests -- Brian Billings, along with seven other non-forum friends. It must be very popular.)