Facebook?
 

Hi all
Just me venting frustration regarding clubs using Facebook.

I may sound like im the odd one out but im pretty sure there are many like me. 'I HATE FACEBOOK!!!' and refuse to use it.

Yes Facebook is a great social media platform and has great coverage and massive subscription. I have been through several clubs in the oople section to find simple calender details etc, I found quite a few saying 'this page is no longer used' then a Facebook link below!. I am not a Facebook member so I can't view any of the details.

Unfortunately more and more clubs are restricting themselves to this media and not updating details and events on either Oople or even on thier own club websites. This makes non Facebook users unable to access a great deal of information about events going on.

This I am sure has a detrimental effect to some extent to clubs.

Call me old fashioned and outdated but why can't clubs use the sites accesible for all like Oople and more so thier own club websites instead of restricting to Facebook.

Please feel free to leave your comments, I would like to know if I am in lonely place?

Thanks for reading

I don't have facebook either

So you won't use a website provided by a multi billion dollar corporation, which is based in a country whose government puts many many (many) rules in place about how data is handled and stored. (And you can use Facebook with virtually no personal information, other than your name and ip address (which are easy to fake))

But you do put all your details onto a website run by a bloke in a house near Leeds.

I'd say it's an epic failure to understand how the internet works.

Fb
 

I would guess that fb is a preferred method to use, it's not limited to a closed network of users ( ie if your on oople your probably a racer anyway ) but fb offers greater visibility for attracting new blood to the sport, friends of friends can see how much fun were having ! 😃 fb has got to be a good thing I think. How about you sign up to fb lock down all the privacy settings and just use it to view the clubs fb pages that your interested in.

I agree that FB is a great platform but i feel clubs shouldn't lock themsleves to it.
E.G.
If they are updating calenders and venue details on FB then do it on thier own website too, maybe reverse the process. By this I mean that clubs have disabled thier website pages and tell you to look at thier FB page(which restricts visibilty to FB users), why not do everything on your website then provide the link on FB to your website, now this is open for ALL to view.

I can confidently say I know how the internet works.
My hatred for FB is from seeing what drivel goes through it and what i have seen going on between fellow friends and racers as a direct result.

I have never seen that level of rubbish happen here on Oople, my hat is off to the man near Leeds because I personnaly think he does an AWSOME job of running this website.

Oople :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'll second that jimmy :thumbsup: does an awesome job far better than other sites

I agree, I hate face book rest of my family are glued to it poxy thing. I am thinking of joining but turn all privacy settings up so I don't get all those messages etc about people I went to school with 20 years ago,and as has already been said all the crap that starts on there.But can see racing info as thats were it seems to be.
I have just run the 1st of the EOE regionals at my club, ended up having to ask another member for info as to what was going on as it was just about all going on on FB! sadly I have see a lot of activity leave oople in FB's direction:thumb down:

Yep really easy to know how the internet works, nothing is private!

We try as a club to use FB, oOple and our own website (still haven't really pushed Twitter).

You can never please everyone but we try.

We have members without email address!!

Fb
 

I agree that in an ideal world all clubs would have up to date ( modern ) websites designed well for easy access browsing etc along with fb and oople being updated, with a team of admins that can manage it all ... But the reality of the situation( I think) is that not all websites are the same, some websites can't be updated as easily as others, some websites will need an admin with a certain amount of technical knowledge ( that you will be reliant upon to update the site when he / she is not working ), some websites are just too old and need a complete re vamp, but this all costs money and time. When you have a free resource such as fb where info can be updated by almost any club member and viewers can view the info by simply opening their Fb app on their phone at any time quickly and easily it's hard to think of a good reason not to utilise the service. I agree there are always going to be trolls posting un interesting or even offensive stuff on fb, but it takes no more than 2 clicks on the mouse to block that user so you never have to see anything from them again.

I don't know what the issue is with Facebook??

As long as your uncheck 'following' on each friend/group then you don't get any unwanted stuff.

All my liked pages and groups are down the left hand side and it tells you if there's been any new posts etc...

I find it works just like a forum, you can read all the posts if you want to waste a day or just the ones you're interested in.


Easy eh?

Like it or not this is a minority hobby - compared to may other therefore the maximum exposure is the only way to go.

Yes Oople is great, no doubt. But When I started up a few years ago, I wouldn't have searched for something called Oople. A couple of years in and I still don't know the relevance of the name bar the iconography of it.

Facebook is word of mouth - the best form of advertising. Yes it's a labour at times as Surrey and Hants has a page and a group to keep updated as well as a forum here but it does attract nw members

Club websites - again useful and searchable, but anotehr thing to keep updated

Twitter - a handy broadcast medium again for word of mouth.

It's a lot of work for a club but if we want to grow we have to put the effort in.

Facebook every time Mr Muggle! Get with the times...

Same arguments when the mobile phone and email were invented...

You can't be ex directory anymore...

You don't have to use your real name on facebook.
Just open a new Hotmail account then join under any name you want and use it for race events.

Really?
I don't get to see any drivel, anyone who drivels gets ignored, or blocked/deleted. It's very easy to deal with.
I haveYeah, it's a good site, but didn't he recently get ripped off and lose a load of images, via the internet. Nasty place.

FWIW my main use of fb is to keep up on news from friends and family back in the UK. But it also gives people access to ready made websites, photos, forums, calendars, event organising software. Pretty much for free. What's not to like?

Unless you let yourself be drawn into the drivel.

The club I attend seems to be run on Facebook tbh. I personally don't like Facebook as I see it as a public argument. I think it's a shame that some people practically live their lives on it but these are the times we live in I suppose.

Mattr, yes FB is great to keep in touch with people.

I appreciate all your comments and as I said in my first post I may be the odd one out, however the post is here to find peoples views of clubs basing the majority of info on FB rather than their club website or racing forums.

It's not about me using FB,

I would rather log onto Oople and find everything(majority) info related under one roof so to speak

Surely this post is just an echo of the thing you are damming facebook for?

If you don't write personal thoughts, feelings, events or otherwise...Facebook can be used in an extremely effective way to gain a much wider audience that this hobby could never hope to reach before.

Facebook is free. There are many small clubs out there that simple can't afford to run a domain name of their own, or that know anyone with the skill to make up their own website.

I'm part of the Mendip RC Raceway committee and find that writing up the club results and race day events gets a much greater response and audience than any other platform. When a club creates a page on FB, they can see how many people the post has reached, how many have clicked the post, shared it among fellow racers etc, etc.....

I love oOple and will always hold this site in a very high regard (Thanks Jimmy) but, the difference is this..... One post on here gets viewed, at most a couple hundred times...... One post on Facebook, viewed over a thousand times, in less than an hour. The result of FB for our club has been that we get a much wider audience, a better turn out at club events and ultimately more members. Not only that, but the younger racers have family members that can see their progress and will support them. Giving praise etc.... How many people have family members on oOple, that see their race results? I doubt there would be many.

Rather than damn a free enterprise that gives millions access to a whole host of different events, sports and many other things, why not sign up, set your privacy settings to maximum (as I have) so you don't get any randoms from years ago having a look at your personal info and do your best not to join the Jeremy Kyle show by posting every life event on there. You may find it is more of a help than anything else.

Just my two pence worth :)

Long live oOple! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Yes, keep it to the club web site one place to look

No, I don't use a website that is required by the US Government to send it's complete server-based details of all posts to it every seven days. That same US Government that is now railing against Apple and Google for implementing encryption that the FBI and CIA can't hack and trying to get the Law changed so that they have a backdoor into any encryption. And that's before we start on our own GCHQ how are looking at all our data with no reference to Government or the Law. Frankly my data is better off with a bloke in Leeds...

That's the best reason I ever seen or heard for using FB - well argued and a very good point...

Yup! :thumbsup:

+1 ;)

There is a good reason to put in that effort. A lot of people who take up racing are over 35 and they are not on FB. They search the internet in different ways and searching for clubs is one of them.

Recent research shows that teenagers are deserting FB in their droves because it has become the favourite haunt of their parents, and they don't want to be on anything their parents think is cool.

Multiple platforms work best, so club websites and Oople and others are worth the effort.

Yay! :D :D

Unless you live completely off the grid, the government already holds far more interesting data about you than which tyres you are going to use at the regionals.

And they still don't give a toss one way or the other, mini pins or mini spikes.

I personally like Facebook.

BUT, you are 100% correct!!! Clubs and shops should use more than just FB.
It doesn't take long to copy and paste things to many places!

You continue to stand up for what you believe in and don't let rubbish get you down!!!:thumbsup:

A little niave if you think its only facebook being watched, start a thread on here on how to build a home made bomb, and wait...

LOL fair point Mark!

We started a club 12 months ago; to be perfectly honest without FB we'd have struggled.

I hate it on a personal level, I use twitter massively for work and LOVE it, just cannot get on with FB...BUT it's reach is undeniable.

We now have close to 400 likes on FB, and organised our very first open night via FB; 38 drivers came down and tried our facilities; we're now attracting that number on a fortnightly basis.

We run an open profile which I believe means anyone can view it, even non members? Please do try and see for us?

https://www.facebook.com/1066racing

Having said all that I asked Jimmy for a club section on here too, as it's the best source of specialist info in the UK. We've gained one member via Oople, so it's a useful tool too.

We'd love a website for basic info such as dates/contact/location, but doubt we'd have the man hours to add photos/results etc as we do on FB.

In summary; FB a useful tool, but I don't use it for personal use at all.

Nice one :lol:

:D True, and lots of it through your loyalty cards, credit cards, bank transactions, Paypal, etc. as well as your internet activity. Although tyre choice isn't that interesting to HMG!!

I didn't say that it was only Facebook. To turn your usual reply back on you, Mark, read my post! I said I didn't want to be on A company that shares its data with the USG. It is any company registered in America that processes data on an industrial scale - Amazon, Google, Apple, Yahoo, MS, etc, etc. who has to turn their server access over to the American Government. I have given up using Google too...!

But I quite like the idea of having a false name and a hotmail account to get on to FB. At least I would be spared being contacted by all sorts of people I never wanted to meet again!! ;)

This is a very interesting thread, especially to see many peoples response to FB and clubs that have their own websites.
If no one in the club is able or have the time to produce a website then it is quite costly to have someone else produce and maintain the site. Even if this can be done in house there are still costs involved. This is money that clubs either don't have or can be used in a more constructive way.
Our website has had the Google analytics from the last three months show some interesting things. We've had very few hits in the last three months, and nearly all visits to the site are for the results page. The pages that people have spent hours producing are hardly ever seen, even when links are posted on oOple. And our website is one if the more professional and complete ones out there.

Facebook is a very convient free platform for clubs to communicate with racers and to reach out to the general public in a way that dedicated websites and oOple cannot do. Reviews, pictures and race reports can be quickly uploaded in a user friendly interface and much easier and convinient than Wordpress for most.
At the end of the day the world we live in today is used to having information that is very easy to access and in your face, many people will not search for it but expect everything they want to find in a central location.

What I see is Facebook is a dry useful tool to advertise our club and keep racers updated with our events and news.

And your false name will get you banned and removed from the gt12 page......life's a bitch lol