Carcassonne Central

Anyone here on Facebook?  If you are, did you join the carc groups there?

Boo! Hiss! Facebook!

I'm sure Facebook is really a cool place. I just want nothing to do with it.  ;)

i'm not on facebook, and for sure never will!!!

I am completely anti-facebook, for a myriad of reasons.

Crikey, this is really turning into The League of Facebook-Haters. I'm almost (almost ;)) sorry I started it.

Seriously people. If anyone is on Facebook, I'm sure it would be good to let others know. Don't be worried that the cool people around here don't hang out there. We won't think any less of you if you admit to doing so.

Honest. :a4

I gave this some further thought, and noticed Matt's follow up.  One thing I want to add is that although I'm not a facebook person, that doesn't mean I'm against anyone else getting involved with it nor am I at all against any member mentioning Carc Central etc. I have no problem with it at all. In fact if someone wants to mention of site or refer people here, who am I to argue?  :D

I'm on Facebook, I haven't joined any groups based around the game.  But now that you mention it, maybe I could find some local players to play consistently with!

To all the Facebook-haters, I'd just like to know what your beef is with the website (aka, why do you dislike/avoid it?).

I do hope that everyone realises that my last post was trying to lighten the atmosphere  :)

Briefly, what do I dislike about Facebook?

• The whole set-up is too cloying for my taste. I don't like the tone of the place.
• The company is not exactly renowned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Controversy) for good business practice.
• Too many nice surprises like your mother's ex-husband trying to add you as a friend.
• It's a walled garden, as far as I can see. Looks nice, but difficult to get out of. And that's why it's so horrendously over-valued by the market—the users are considered to be a captive audience, and perfect targets for advertising.

Bear in mind that I have sworn repeatedly that I will never read or watch anything concerning Harry Potter.

So I'd be curious to hear from othe people too, to see if anyone has anything more specific than my general distaste.

I joined up on Facebook anout 2 weeks ago (I dont care Im not cool  :bt2) it is ok if you use it for what it is intended which is a contacts site. I have looked up and been looked up by old friends and have renewed a freindship that should never have slipped a few years back.

Yes I can see Matts standpoint, there are lots of advertising/marketing ploys on there, but if you know what you are doing then you wont get caught. And if your mates mum that you used to have a crush on does try to add you as a friend just dont accept it, simple really.

oh mother!

But, di facebook is a losind time devise, grinding keyboard & spam overwelm??

these few points looks so boring!

I will offer my middle of the road stance here. I am a member of facebook and I too have reconnected with friends from days of yore. Life happens and you lose touch with people. I have lived in four separate Canadian Provinces and when you move around, it easy to lose contact with some friends, especially when many of my moves pre-date wide spread use of the internet. It was not as simple as "getting someone's email address".

Some of my friends use this as their main communication hub, so it has become the most effective way to interact with them. Not my preference, but I respect their choices.

There are many things that irritate me about facebook. The spammy nature of some applications. I do not install Funwall, Superwall, this, that, the other thing, the kitchen sink. It has become bloated with poorly designed apps. I keep my installs rather simple. I also do not join a lot of groups. Many of the groups increase your profile's exposure to hacking and other privacy issues. When something becomes as popular as facebook, it garners the attention of Corporate interests and hackers alike. I think a middle ground approach is best. At least, that is what is best for me.

To close off, I don't really agree with an above posting that reconnecting and keeping in touch with friends "is boring". To me, facebook is not a way of life, it is simply a tool. A tool that enhances communications with real life friends. When used for that purpose, I think it is quite effective.

Whatever your stance is, enjoy. 

Regards,
Matt

I am a member, and I have one of the previous guys who said he does not have facebook on my friends list. So  :bt2

Facebook is great - it is up to you how you want to use it. I have quite a few friends in USA, and while I do not really talk to them it is nice to have some of them at hand if need (or want) arises.

It is easy to ignore features and people. And it is great to have groups of people to talk to about whatever interests you might have.

Besides, I save rainforest every day!

Hope you don't mean me. I never said I didn't have an account, I said I disliked it. Having been invited to sign up by a friend, I did so, then decided it wasn't for me. So if you have me as listed as a friend there, you're wasting your time, I'm afraid  ;)

I like inactive friends, they are not bothered by invites  ;D

Their privacy policy is a joke, and the safeguards for this information have proven multiple times to be ineffective. They are simply too cavalier with people's personal information. Thanks but no thanks. On the subject of staying in touch, people with whom I want to stay in touch with already have my telephone number and email address, those that don't aren't on that list. I don't need Facebook or Myspace to take the place of personal contact.

Well, to be honest - the whole idea with facebook is to not indulge in privacy. You are using your real name (most often) and your real phone number etc. You can mark your profile so no one but your friends can view the details though.

And, about pictures and such becoming their property - that is how it is pretty much everywhere.

I don't think it's that kind of privacy that Ganty means. Check this page on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Privacy_concerns), for example.

Clearly, the aim of Facebook and similar sites is social networking. That isn't the same as making your information available to all and sundry without your knowledge or consent—and in some cases, in against your will.

Incidentally, Tobias has spurred me to attempt to delete my Facebook account. Given that from within the account itself, I could only opt to deactivate it, I had to look elsewhere. So I found some advice here (http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account), which provided a link for permanently deleting my account using this link (http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account). Given that all this did was send an inquiry to Facebook, and I received an email in response telling me that they would "get back to me" soon, I'm curious to see what happens.

Edit: Facebook apparently closed my account at 01:13 on Friday 4 July.

Facebook - No not me. Really don't see the point.

Why would you even have a need to put up vital personal information in the first place?

Well, part of the point of such social networking sites is precisely not to follow the usual internet practice of using false information and/or avatars. How are you going to find old school friends if you do? Sure, I personally am fairly upfront about who I am. But how many people here know Gantry's real name? And what would be the point in him making a Facebook account as "Gantry"? No, he'll make an account as Michael Mustermann (no, that isn't Gantry's name). And what happens when some firm wants to check on a potential employee and finds his Facebook account, which he can't close down properly after he quits university, because Facebook won't let him? On top of which Facebook tracks your behaviour on its affiliate sites, even if you're logged out of Facebook at the time.

Just why do you think that all these advertising companies are quite so interested in Facebook, and its valuation is so high? It's because it presents them with a form of targeted advertising hitherto unseen on the net, with identified and tracked customers. And Facebook themselves seem perfectly happy to buy into this, even against their users' wishes. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook).

Edited for typos.

Spot on.

I don't think I've commented in this thread yet, but I agree with Matt.

Besides, there are lots of people I lost touch with on purpose and don't want them to be able to find me back.

Some of my friends and family encourage me to join Facebook, but it bothers me that they are too lazy to just send me an e-mail when they want to talk.

Okay, just so that no-one thinks I'm a huge hypocrite (fat chance!), a couple of days I re-opened a Facebook account. Why? Peer pressure, mostly. I moved recently, and almost everyone I know is on Facebook. It decided to give it another go, avoiding giving much personal information, and to see how it integrates with other services I use.

Not a hypocrite. Just have no backbone ;)

But there's even a larger outcry about the ToS recently.  I was watching about it on CNN...

Yes, I know. Ironic, really. But yesterday I read that they will now put any changes to the ToS to the vote of members. So maybe there's hope...

carcassonne on facebook, waht a #@$%$?&%??%#@ world, what more useless than facebook... phah

can a GAME, stay a GAME???????

@Deatheux:

But you could say the same about this website too, and the whole of BGG.

Also: no need to shout.

I have been feeling the pressure myself. Not only are many of my friends and relatives on Facebook, but also many of my co-workers. I remain undecided.

I caved in a few weeks back as both my daughter's and then my wife joined so did to see what the fuss was about... and I still can't see it. Is there a Carc group on it? Why is Deatheux yelling?  ??? Is he objecting to us talking about something that isn't Carcassonne? Strange.  ???

You would have to be a right plonker to put lots of personal info like mobile numbers etc. on any website that is not something official and extremely secure. Then again people who hide behind nom de plume's and say they arent joining anyhting like this tend to either have something to hide or nobody liked em when they were at school  ;D

Oh and whats realy funny to me is that Tobias and I are friends on FB and if you saw our profile pictures you would think we wouldnt be, I am a mod sitting on a scooter and he is a long haired grungy looking rocker (no offence mate)  ;D

face book looks to be for "friends" not "geek spaming", and, web sites is a info source for a given subject, or a tool. if you have to use it, go, of not... dismiss.

we are talking about a game, not a lifeline.

Most of my friends are nerds in some way (myself included) ;)

Back to the original question (sorry, Novelty!):
Any recommended groups? Or do you think we should set up an 'official' CarcassonneCentral group? Any takers?

Well, I have now found out that I am on Facebook thanks to my hotmail inbox (I can't remember creating an account though, lol).

Are there Carc groups then? I might as well make use of Facebook now :)

Just created a CarcassonneCentral group. Feel free to join, even if you're a member of another group. Let's see how it goes!

There are various Carc fan pages on FB, the largest has 7,500 members and can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carcassonne/29533592368?sid=b07f4d2f6ca4ad6c6f5ce70f349a30d2&ref=s (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carcassonne/29533592368?sid=b07f4d2f6ca4ad6c6f5ce70f349a30d2&ref=s) but it is a quiet page with not much going on. Do a search for Carcassonne and see how many come up.

Ah so thats what you look like Matt  ;D

Wow, if writing a Thesis makes one put on so much erm... "health", I think I'll stay away from any sort of Thesis ;D

So I joined the large group canadasteve linked to above. And the CarcassonneCentral group currently has 4 members—we're off!  8)

I'm not a FBer but I'm all for a CC group!

Oops! Mod on a scooter, not nerd. Ahem ... Reading comprehension 101, where are you?

Is there some thing we can post on the facebook group to get people to come over here to join the discussion?

What about - There's a second anniversary with prizes to win.  ;D ;D ;)

Yeah, but we don't want to increase the 1-post person count :)

I've been on facebook for a while now.  I recently became a fan of Carcassonne and joined the group "Get your Carcassonne".  It seems to be the biggest group so far.  I've left discussion threads there pointing people to this site. 

thanks CK!

Matt, how many people do we have now?

CK: Join up with Matt's if you haven't already. I'm curious to know if exposure on FB is worth pursuing.

Will do!




The following statement is included in this brief reply for the sole purpose of avoiding detection by the ever-lurking meeplebot: I'm not here, you can't see me...  {lk

Wow, meeplebot is a founding member.

And there isn't anything to do there at the moment, since most of the activity is here in this forum.  I'm not sure I want to or can spend too much time there.  I guess it's just a FB group to point people to here at the moment.

I think that's the implication.

So if you're already here, it's a bit redundant to go there...

Unless you can stir up some potential members

Hmm... that would be a great place to post the newsletter as well!