[matthew]

I deleted my Facebook account today.

I'm happy to have done it - but now how will I say 'happy birthday' to my fifteen-year-old niece?
(I think I have her email address around here somewhere...)

[shuttertalk]

Wow... Any particular reason?

[Irma]

I don't have any account there, and I think I am not missing anything.

[NT73]

I joined facebook two years ago to keep in touch with a family member. After going round the bend trying to find things, I attempted to delete my account. That took longer to do, than joining. They don't want you to go do they?
You are not missing anything Irma except friends and relatives drivel. "One man's meat is another man's poison."

[EnglishBob]

With living in the US and all my family and friends in the UK, I do find it a very useful tool... that said, I have the privacy set to maximum so nobobody can send me anything unless they are already on my friends list, and your only on my friends list if I actually know you!

[Toad]

I have no time for social networking sites beyond what I already do. I don't have a facebook or twitter account and will likely leave it that way.

[Irma]

You are not missing anything Irma except friends and relatives drivel.

True that is NT.

My sister sent me a mail telling me that she had already taken me as a contact... She added..." the only thing you have to do now is to open an account and take me as a contact"....

Mail back said... Could you explain that again, please ? :|

I understand that for some people like Craig could be a great tool... I also think that keeping all in private is the best...

[shuttertalk]

Maybe the usefulness it comes down to whether your friends and family use it or not - all of mine do so for me it's a great way to stay up to date with everyone and vice versa. I use it daily and it would be a very big step for me to give it up...

And yes, I use the privacy settings as well.

[matthew]

Facebook can be great for some things, I'm sure - but I got tired of the battle with their privacy settings. It's not something I'd invested any of my time in, since I knew from the outset that FB has a policy of "all your information are belong to us" and wouldn't put anything I valued on it.

I was online last night because I needed to opt out from their new 'instant personalization' feature. "When you and your friends visit an instantly personalized site, the partner can use your public Facebook information, which includes your name, profile picture, gender, and connections." (my emphasis.) So to stop my information from being shared with other sites, all of my 'friends' would also need to opt out, which would never, ever happen.

Then, once I was done opting out of that, Facebook told me that unless I joined five different public groups - that they selected based on information that was only visible to friends - then that information would be deleted from my account. I wasn't allowed to say what my home town is without literally telling it to every facebook user, and every member website that any of my 'friends' visit.

And yes, all of my 'privacy' settings were already at their most restrictive settings.

So I logged in to my account, pasted "http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account" into the browser address bar, answered their captcha, and now my account will be deleted as long as I don't log in again within two weeks.

[NT73]

You got it in a nutshell Matthew. If I/we have anything interesting to say to any of my brothers or friends, then I/we usually phone, or individually e-mail. A personal visit is much better though.

I don't need the world to know anything, other than I am the biggest star on the planet. But they already know that.

[shuttertalk]

I locked down my facebook privacy settings even more today, thanks Matthew. I was able to uncheck the Instant Personalisation thing without any problems, and also further restrict various other privacy settings without any hassle... wonder why it gave you so much grief...

[Don Schaeffer]

Facebook is much too complicated for me.

[shuttertalk]

By the way, found this tool to query what the people outside can see about you:
http://zesty.ca/facebook/

For me, it only shows my profile picture. Hooray!

[matthew]

Thanks for the link, Jules - apparently I no longer exist, which is the result I was hoping for. Don't miss their disclaimer, though, that facebook applications can see more than that; they should be adding 'partner websites' as well, but that's a recent development.

Here's a bit from the EFF about how to remove yourself from Facebook's latest feature:

Simply unchecking the "Allow" box is not sufficient. As Facebook explains, "if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application." Nor can you go to the Block Applications setting to block these partner sites. This setting is only for showing which applications and sites are blocked, and unblocking them.

So, to opt out of this fully, you also need to go each page for Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelp and push the Block Application button. If Facebook adds another partner site to the program, you will need to block that as well, so be sure to check back often.

eff.org

(my emphasis)

I know a lot of people really enjoy facebook, and are happy with the way the service is run. I'm just not one of them.

[Pavel]

what is Facebook?

[NT73]

what is Facebook?

Flickr without pictures.!

[matthew]

what is Facebook?

Flickr without pictures.!

Myspace without the bands?

[shuttertalk]

Hey Matthew, looks like your decision is vindicated...
http://gizmodo.com/5530178/top-ten-reaso...t-facebook

[nia]

I don't have it too... By the way, it is funny, a few months ago I sent some real letters (with post office) to some of my friends and then they sent me, ah, still I've been waiting for these letters! I think Post offices are almost gone!

Anyway, I'm happy without facebook, etc.

with my love,
nia

[matthew]

Julian, try pasting this into a google search some time:

facebook site:theresigster.co.uk

The Register is a website that I've kept up with even though I haven't worked in tech/computer companies for years - I like their sense of humour, and sometimes they have good stuff that I don't see elsewhere. They're not huge fans of Facebook, though.