Official Facebook thread

[medussa]

I thought I'd start a thread where we can ask general questions about FB and people can share tips for navigating the monster that is Facebook.

This morning I noticed a wall-to-wall conversation on my Live Feed. Lots of my friends have conversations and I don't see them. Is there a privacy setting that these two women aren't aware of? As far as I know, my wall-to-wall communications are private but I'm not sure how I did it.

[wild~hair]

I honestly don't know the answer to this.

I do know that if you really want something to private, you should use the messaging feature. That's the only way to be certain what you say will remain private from all.

[medussa]

I rarely do status updates for myself and I rarely write on people's walls. I mostly just respond to my FBF's status updates. Anything that is private I will do via email or private messaging, as you mentioned.

[SarcasmIsBeauty]

You can't hide wall to wall communication from people any more unless you hit remove after you post it:

Whether we display a story on your profile is now controlled by the privacy of the content itself, rather than an additional setting. For example, only people who can see both your Wall, and the Wall to which you posted would be able to see a story about you writing on a friend’s Wall. You cannot completely turn off recent activity stories anymore. However, if you want to remove a particular story that currently shows up, simply click the “Remove” button that appears to the right of the story after you move your mouse over it. Learn more about privacy here.

I used to have it so that my posts wouldn't show up in the news feed but now they do. It's annoying and a bit stalker-ish in my opinion. I miss the 2006 FB.

[wild~hair]

Originally Posted by SarcasmIsBeauty

I used to have it so that my posts wouldn't show up in the news feed but now they do. It's annoying and a bit stalker-ish in my opinion. I miss the 2006 FB.

It doesn't bother me. The way I see it, FB is quite public. It's like being out in the town square. You want privacy, you have to be deliberate about it [that is, use the messaging function].

And I guess I don't really see the point of trying to be private on someone's wall, where people can see it by just visiting their profile.

The whole point of FB is to encourage interaction. With most things going into the live/news feeds, it achieves that end.

Just yesterday a couple friends were doing a wall-to-wall conversation and a couple of us glommed on and it was really funny. It was a total hijacking [or guano as we call it here, and no, the OP totally didn't mind! ].

[CurlyCurlies]

Yep. If person A posts a message on person B's wall & you are friends with both of them, you'll be able to see it.

If you haven't already, check your privacy settings and make sure that everything is set to your satisfaction. I mainly just use facebook for CafeWorld and Farmville, but I was still really suprised to find that they had changed my default settings to 'everyone' & 'friend of friend' when the new changes were put in place.

[medussa]

I saw two wall-to-walls just now on my Live Feed. Two members from here where discussing a show that was on last night and I cannot figure out why I'm seeing their conversation.

One of the conversations looked like this:

Jane Doe > Mary Smith: Hi Mary! It's so great to hear from you after all of these years! Where are you living now?

Then right below I see:

Comment Like See Wall-to-Wall

If I click on wall-to-wall, I can see the entire exchange. Why is that an option for some friends and not others? I'm trying to figure out what controls that setting.

[wild~hair]

Originally Posted by medussa

I saw two wall-to-walls just now on my Live Feed. Two members from here where discussing a show that was on last night and I cannot figure out why I'm seeing their conversation.

One of the conversations looked like this:

Jane Doe > Mary Smith: Hi Mary! It's so great to hear from you after all of these years! Where are you living now?

Then right below I see:

Comment Like See Wall-to-Wall

If I click on wall-to-wall, I can see the entire exchange. Why is that an option for some friends and not others? I'm trying to figure out what controls that setting.

You need to be FB friends with both people for it to show up in your feed and to view the entire wall-to-wall exchange. Maybe that's the difference?

[medussa]

Originally Posted by wild~hair

You need to be FB friends with both people for it to show up in your feed and to view the entire wall-to-wall exchange. Maybe that's the difference?

You and CurlyCurlies are right. That's what it is. It's not something I see on my Live Feed a lot.

[reeni]

Here's my don't understand thing.. whatr's the difference between 'Live feed" and "news feed"? They're all notes from someone, just in a different order. At least on my page.
I get so confused on FB!

[medussa]

Live Feed is everything your friends are doing...what they become fans of and who they just became friends with. Those are the two most obvious to me.

[wild~hair]

My understanding of it is:

- Live Feed contains everything, in chronological order,

- while News Feed contains the things that are getting comments. The more comments, the more something bubbles to the top of the News Feed.

Sometimes I will load one or the other and get something strange. Like it will just be status updates and nothing else. It strikes me as another FB bug.

The top thing to understand about FB is that it's extremely buggy. I see things go wrong on that site almost every day.

This, and the way they change things up constantly, are both good reasons not to entrust FB with anything private or important.

[MichelleBFT]

Also, the news fee shows you updates from groups you're in and things you're a fan of. Live feed does not.

I agree with the assessment that FB is a public place and you have to be cautious of what you put out there. Assume everyone can see it, or find it if they want to, if it isn't in a message.

[wild~hair]

Originally Posted by MichelleBFT

Also, the news fee shows you updates from groups you're in and things you're a fan of. Live feed does not.

I have those things in both feeds. Everything is in my live feed, and the ones that have a lot of comments are showing up in my news feed.

For example …

A post from Frostie the Dancing Cockatoo was made about an hour ago, and has a dozen comments and several "likes." It shows up in both feeds, sort of in the middle of the page.

Meanwhile, there's a post about health care reform from a political page that's hopping, with over a hundred comments. It's almost at the top of the news feed, well above the Frostie one. It was originally posted last night and has completely fallen off the page in the live feed [but it's still there if I load more of the feed.]

[reeni]

Thanks, I not quite as confused.

[xcptnl]

Does anyone know why FB is asking for your email for Farmville and Cafe World? Will we no longer be putting things on our wall in those application - it will go by email???

[sew and sew]

I've noticed that if I'm on a friend's profile and view a comment they posted to a friend...even if their friend is not a contact of mine, I can see their friend's status update to which my friend commented. However that same friend of theirs has their settings on 'friends only' as far as who can view their stuff.

If independently of my friend's action to their page, I want to view their wall, I would be limited from doing that.

If someone is not friends with both people (like myself in that instance) I don't think facebook should allow that person to see the content their non-friend posted. The exchange doesn't show up on any home feed because it's not between two mutual contacts, but it's still viewable off profiles.

[SarcasmIsBeauty]

Originally Posted by wild~hair

It doesn't bother me. The way I see it, FB is quite public. It's like being out in the town square. You want privacy, you have to be deliberate about it [that is, use the messaging function].

And I guess I don't really see the point of trying to be private on someone's wall, where people can see it by just visiting their profile.

The whole point of FB is to encourage interaction. With most things going into the live/news feeds, it achieves that end.

Just yesterday a couple friends were doing a wall-to-wall conversation and a couple of us glommed on and it was really funny. It was a total hijacking [or guano as we call it here, and no, the OP totally didn't mind! ].

Oh I don't post anything too personal or outrageous, I just think it's annoying and liked it better when we could hide it. FB circa 2006 was much better than it is now IMO

[Spiralli]

medussa, thank you so much for starting this thread!

I am very new to FB. I have younger cousins -- adults, 40-ish -- who post stupid alcohol-related comments. Like I give a flying flip about what they are drinking and how many more they want???? This shows up on my News Feed or Live Feed. Does anyone know if there is any way for me to block seeing that cr^p?

[medussa]

Originally Posted by curls2grow

medussa, thank you so much for starting this thread!

I am very new to FB. I have younger cousins -- adults, 40-ish -- who post stupid alcohol-related comments. Like I give a flying flip about what they are drinking and how many more they want???? This shows up on my News Feed or Live Feed. Does anyone know if there is any way for me to block seeing that cr^p?

You're welcome.

As far as not seeing that stuff, you can hide these individuals by scrolling over their comments and clicking to the far right on "hide." I did that with my BIL, who was posting eleventy billion Mafia Wars requests daily. I don't see him on either of my feeds now but he's still able to post comments on any pictures I post or to the occasional status update. It was the perfect solution for me.