Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1099266Everyone is allowed to find out what FB is really like on their own. Chin up, and all that. If you're a Democrat, you'll fit in seamlessly.

But it is kind of odd that you are asking people how to make your social networking work. Like it's something an IT guy can fix for you, after Googling it.

No actually that is not at all what I was asking. I have found RPG FB groups specifically odd, and was wondering if others where seeing the same.

I don't recall ever being denied membership of an FB group, and the public one I admin (a small D&D group for my Meetup) I only turn down memberships from spammers/bots. But I have had to (voluntarily) leave every American-based RPG group because of the toxic culture war crap. So the only public RPG group I'm in now is https://www.facebook.com/groups/dungeonsdragonuk/ which is great, great admins and pretty well no culture war stuff - they do individual approval on posts, plus UK gamers aren't in quite the same state of frothing hysteria* as many US posters. I've seen other people there comment on how the atmosphere is much better than in the US D&D Facebook groups too.

*In Britain there are many top-down attempts to whip up hysteria from the authorities, but most people just shrug and ignore it. Except for Brexit, that really is a toxic subject. But luckily has nothing to do with D&D.

If I have been accepted so can you, Toadmaster. I'm a member of two CoC groups (one English with 13522 members, one Swedish for the upcoming translation), a FB group for the upcoming Swedish Chill and some other shit too.

What rpg groups are you having problems with?

Quote from: Toadmaster;1099267No actually that is not at all what I was asking. I have found RPG FB groups specifically odd, and was wondering if others where seeing the same.

I am one of the people FuckYouBook randomly screwed over in one of their so called "social experiments" and have not been back since. But from all I saw it may not be so much political as it may be elitist attitudes or security measures that the group expects you to psychically know.

It is in no way limited to RPGs. But it RPG FB groups probably see alot more SJW nuttery.

A non gaming group I was part of on YahooGroups moved over to FB and in the process cut off all the "undesirables" that they deemed such. And I quit the group. And we saw similar problems on YG wayyyyy back. FB in many ways mirrors YGs worst behavior. Though I have not heard of any covert group purges on FB so there is that. And YahooGroups was absolutely infested with spambots and harvesters and I guess they have started migrating to FB.

I use FB less and less - the only things that hold me there is most of my childhood friends are out of state or country , so it's a necessary evil . also my gaming groups, I've found more friendships through gaming. but I'm not PC in any way and I don't make any apologies for being a knuckle dragging Neanderthal - it's how I am and I'm too old to pretend otherwise. but a few things pissed me off with FB, my dad was a WW2 combat vet and I posted a photo of him coming home from the war in 1945 he was hit by a German Mortor round and lived in England as a American Postman ( helping the UK get back on it's feet from the b*ombing etc.  anyway.... someone said my photo of my dad in uniform at our families farm was hateful and he was a N*tzi . FB censored my photographs and put me in their Jail ..... what ever..... I grew up without computers I didn't give a Sh*t ... but it bothered me that someone called my dad that....  so I don't really use it much now since someone is keeping their eye on me..

I think that the admin people have a tough time picking people for in the groups. walking on hot coals not trying to piss people off etc.  I came here to the RPG site because I feel comfortable and can still talk gaming without someone trying to  jump you for any reason.  for myself I wish people would get past getting fired up at every little thing. and I don't think that people need to announce to the world who they go to bed with - or gender pronouns etc. to me it's just dumb. and it seems that those people are unhappy so they have to knock your toys down because they don't get the attention they think they deserve. we'd all be much better off without FB in my opinion, it started out as fun , sitting around with friends watching music videos and cracking jokes with your friends, but it's become a platform for the LOOK AT ME crowd ... I miss those old days just like the old gaming days of my youth ... oh well.  keep trying to get into the groups or ask around to folks here " can anyone recommend me for the group e.g. Dungeons and Dragons first ed. " or message the mods so they know you're legitimate and not a spammer or a bot.

The last time I looked at Facebook was at least a year ago to change my status from "dating" to "engaged" (I still haven't gotten around to setting it as "married" yet); and years again, before that.

While I can say definitively I have had no RPG-related experiences on FB, I can say that what I imagine it would be like is absolutely the worst and completely toxic to any rational or valuable conversation.

Then again, what with the fact I've never bothered dipping a toe and that so many here speaking to the contrary of my purely imaginary experience, I guess I must be the irrational one!:p

I must not be paying close enough attention or am in the wrong groups because I haven't noticed a problem.

I guess I have well tuned blinders.

I don't use FB much for anything, but I have been accepted to three Finnish speaking RPG-related FB groups. My profile there has an obviously fake name, a clown-face pic, and it says that I live in Antarctica

Edit - Actually more than 3 groups. 6 altogether I think, if including one of my gaming groups, one convention group, and one guild group.

Quote from: Antiquation!;1099301Then again, what with the fact I've never bothered dipping a toe and that so many here speaking to the contrary of my purely imaginary experience, I guess I must be the irrational one!:p

Generally it is considered irrational to give your imagined reality more validity than the one folks are actually experiencing... yeah... but since when has that stopped anyone with an axe to grind?

I'm sure there are some crappy RPG groups on YT, but I generally look before I leap and none of the ones I've joined have any discernible political leanings.
Now, there was a non-gaming scifi group that I left because they couldn't stop complaining about certain other groups... but that's it for the drama I've seen.

I believe all were US based, although really hard to say, I mean Pundit is in Uruguay(?) so is this place US or Uruguay based? Ultimately does it even matter beyond being English language focused. At least one was a large CoC group, and the rest of a more general nature. None were OSR or D&D specific simply because I don't have a enough interest there to want only content of that variety.

Mostly just found it odd that the half dozen or so RPG groups seem to have such high gate keeping compared to all of my other diverse interests. The fact RPGs are not the forum desert found in many of my other interests kept in it on a back burner, but curiosity finally got the better of me. Seems so odd to have an 80%+ denial rate for RPGs and a 95%+ approval rate everywhere else.

It has been quite a while since my last rejection letter, maybe time to fish for another.
 

Quote from: Antiquation!;1099301The last time I looked at Facebook was at least a year ago to change my status from "dating" to "engaged" (I still haven't gotten around to setting it as "married" yet); and years again, before that.

While I can say definitively I have had no RPG-related experiences on FB, I can say that what I imagine it would be like is absolutely the worst and completely toxic to any rational or valuable conversation.

Then again, what with the fact I've never bothered dipping a toe and that so many here speaking to the contrary of my purely imaginary experience, I guess I must be the irrational one!:p

I was pretty much the same way, and still am in regards to FB as a whole. FB groups though has largely replaced yahoo groups / forums in many areas. While I wish there were more alternatives, FB groups does provide an easy way for niche groups to form. Great way to trade info on some of my more esoteric interests.

Quote from: Toadmaster;1099322FB groups though has largely replaced yahoo groups / forums in many areas. While I wish there were more alternatives, FB groups does provide an easy way for niche groups to form. Great way to trade info on some of my more esoteric interests.

The trouble with FB is that it is hard to track down interesting posts you saw a while back... everything is on a conveyor belt.
At least on Forums and Yahoo Groups and blogs the content remains relatively available/searchable.
For me FB is for hobby news and light discussion... but NOT for anything I might want to easily access at a later date.

Quote from: Simlasa;1099327The trouble with FB is that it is hard to track down interesting posts you saw a while back... everything is on a conveyor belt.
At least on Forums and Yahoo Groups and blogs the content remains relatively available/searchable.
For me FB is for hobby news and light discussion... but NOT for anything I might want to easily access at a later date.

Yes, my biggest complaint. It is great for quick info, but terrible as an archive of information. Of course much the same can be said for the hopelessly outdated Yahoo groups format. It is theoretically searchable, but not like a forum.

That is pretty much how I use it to, light entertainment and current information. It works for a lot of the technical groups I'm in, because an old post on a forum could be out of date and since you can't pull up those posts there is less of that use Google, or use the search push back.

Quote from: Toadmaster;1099322Seems so odd to have an 80%+ denial rate for RPGs and a 95%+ approval rate everywhere else.

That actually makes sense to me.

The RPG group mods are looking for specific identifiers for who they want in their groups. The other groups are looking for members and only deny when there are obvious red flags.

And considering how the RPG hobby online has been grotesquely poisoned, it doesn't surprise me FB group mods would be keeping high gates to only bring in "the right people" for their groups (searching for whatever identifiers key to what they consider the right people).

I am on Facebook two to three times a day - it seems like over 50% of my friends sort of 'live' on Facebook via their smart phones

I still have a flip phone.

So far I haven't joined a FB Role playing group....yet

Wait, does the local Pathfinder Society FB page count? I joined them because they meet at our store.

- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;1099342Wait, does the local Pathfinder Society FB page count? I joined them because they meet at our store.

- Ed C.

Sure, those are the gateway drugs that lure people in.

My wife got a FB account because the roller derby team she was on used FB page exclusively to communicate among team members, post training schedules, date of the bouts etc. I got a FB account to follow my wife and sporadically other FB pages, particularly as companies started to update more regularly through FB rather than traditional websites.

It truly is an insidious plot that they have developed.