Or in my case, when traveling to / from work, as well as reading (MRH amongst other publications), I can peruse Facebook, so to me it's not time wasting.

Brian

These days, no one thinks twice about spending a couple hours in front of the tube in an evening.

Heh, just goes to show that I am not 'no one' ... I don't watch TV ... have a 50" TV and have not turned it on in over 2 years now.  My wife and kids don't watch TV either; have 3 of them in the house.

I have a FB account, signed up when it was still relatively new, lucky if I go to it even once a month these days.  Wife and daughters use it more often (mainly to keep tabs on overseas family); but even for them it is perhaps only every couple of days for half an hour or so.

Time is such a valuable resource, that one must be very selective in how it is spent.  We'd rather visit the beach or watch a movie than spend time watching TV or updating FB.  My kids were really into the mobile connectivity -- was crazy doing things with them as they always had their phones out and were reading or typing texts ... but, then, all of a sudden like, they just stopped doing it and started paying attention to what was happening around them and engaging in the company of those they were with.

Not arguing that FB is popular, I know that it is ... just pointing out that not 'every one' is an addict. 

Thanks to this thread, I now have another great modeling themed podcast to listen too.

I hope to be more active on the FB page from now on as well. I find it so much easier to post pictures and give short updates on those pages.

Thanks for being so internet savvy and friendly MRH

Thomas G

I have never been on Twitter and only on FB once or twice when some link took me there; I have little use for those tsunamis of social sewage.

Dave

I have never been on Twitter and only on FB once or twice when some link took me there; I have little use for those tsunamis of social sewage.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course, but you're very much in the minority. With now 1.3 billion members worldwide, if Facebook were a country, it would be the second largest on the planet. Only China is larger.

You can't fight facts: MRH's number one source of new readers is Facebook. To not have a strong FB presence is to ignore the single largest internet market there is. It would be a very dumb business move.

... 'members' with 'users'.  There very well may be 1.3 billion worldwide members of FaceBook (which is very much the minority of the world's estimated 7 billion people by the way); however, many, many people have more than one FB account ... I have three of them (and FB won't remove the two that I never use, despite multiple requests for them to do so); and my one 'active' account sees very low activity ... certainly do not visit sites such as MRH on FB, pretty much just family and close friends.

FB 'gamers' often have dozens or even hundreds of accounts as most social games reward players whose 'friends' also play ... easiest if your 'friends' are really just alternate accounts that you control.  I would not place too much credit on the number of individuals who USE FB based upon the number of registered users of FB..

FB gamers do not create dozens or hundreds of separate accounts for game use. Every game has many sites where users can request friends for gaming purposes. They're called "add me's". Here's one:

http://gamersunite.coolchaser.com/games/candy-crush-saga/addmes

Although against Facebook's TOS (Terms of Service) there are many people who do create multiple accounts for business, marketing, or like you just by accident. Facebook estimates 4.8% of it's registered users have created multiple accounts and those extra accounts are not included in their total figures.

Like MRH, Facebook is a free service. With 1.3 billion people using Facebook you can't expect them to do anything for you. If you want to delete those accounts you need to delete them yourself.

Log into the account you want to delete and go to your account settings. Once there click on "security" where you will find a link that says "deactivate your account". You need to follow the instructions and not log in or use that particular account for 14 days. If you get curious and click on that account during that time you will have to start all over. 

I hope this helps.

Facebook warns that if they detect you are making multiple accounts, you may be subject to disciplinary action. One account per person is their guideline.

And regardless of multiple accounts or otherwise, you can't ignore the fact MRH's number one source of new readers is Facebook.

Like many things, FB can be a time sink if you don't manage your presence there. But I must say I've connected with more long lost friends through Facebook than any other way, and it's a superb way to post up-to-the-moment event happenings from a mobile device. We use our FB page a lot for posts like that, and you don't need to be a member to read these posts - but you do need to be a member to comment.

 I doubt that they are serious readers though. When I do a google search for model railroad I don't get any facebook link till the 11th page of the results with lots of more interesting stuff including MRH it's self before facebook. Add beginner to the search and one facebook link moves up to the third page but still behind other more interesting links. My guess is the facebook numbers are just folks directed here by their facebook connections and they take a look and move on? I  can't really see model railroaders being interested in the facebook culture or in assisting Zuckerberg's agenda? We as a group seem to be social in a more positive way and not an exploitive way? ...DaveB

While I'm not a big fan of Facebook, I know dozens of people that are, and they come from all walks of life.  Sure, the demographic on Facebook may be skewed somewhat to the younger folk, but there are more and more seniors on Facebook all the time.  My parents, in their mid-70s, spend at least an hour a day or more on Facebook, whether it's looking at pictures of the grandkids, chatting with their relatives that they likely won't see anymore because of health restrictions of travel, to even playing a few games.  My Mom even sent out invitations to their 50th Anniversary party on Facebook because virtually everyone she wanted to invite were her friends on there.

It's pretty judgmental to suggest that people on Facebook would just take a quick peek and move on.  What Joe is talking about is people are coming here and downloading the magazine - that's where strong readership numbers are coming from.  It may not be your cup of tea (nor is it mine), but I'm not going to segment people who do use it and view all those users in a negative light.