All this "grinch" talk about Facebook reminds me of the early days of cell phones. I recall vividly cell phone sales people coming to my door trying to get me to buy a cell phone.

"Just think, people could find you if you're in the supermarket or on the road ..."

To which I replied ...

"I don't want people to track me down in the supermarket or on the road! No thanks!" And I meant it too - what an intrusion!

But my wife is what made me change - she started using a cell phone to keep in contact with our kids, and she got me one so she could find me. Reluctantly, I took it.

Then my wife would be at the hardware store and sending me photos ... "what do you think of *this one* ..." I mean, c'mon, I just want a phone, for crying out loud!

Next, they sucked me into texting ... now the grandkids are texting me!

The smartphone finally made the phone into essentially a handheld personal media and web computer - and that's when it finally clicked for me and I've never looked back.

So I do sympathize with us *old tarts* not liking all this new-fangled technology, but I've decided to roll with it instead of being so anti. It makes me a lot more popular with our kids and grandkids, I can tell you that! They're regularly texting me.

And really, with all the concerns about how we're losing the next generation in the hobby - all this new tech and social media sites are where they live - if we're going to have any chance of getting them engaged in the hobby, we need to be where they're going. So if for nothing else, at least agree if that's where the next generation is, for the sake of the hobby's future, we need to be going there as well.

I  can't really see model railroaders being interested in the facebook culture or in assisting Zuckerberg's agenda? 

Way to throw us under the bus, bro.  I'm an active FB user and connected to a lot more modelers who are too.  There are numerous user groups where we share modeling and prototype photos.  I belong to ones on freight car modeling, diesel detailing, weathering, Western Pacific prototype and modeling, fans of the NEB&W (the layout at the Rensselear Polytechnic Institute) and others.  There are individual modelers who use FB for blogging like the NEB&W people do.  Some of the group pages see more activity than the MRH forum, and most of the ones I belong to see regular posts from serious modelers.

I'm not viewing the users in a negative light, I'm viewing face book and Zuckerburg in a negative light for sucking money out of society by taking a cut when folks communicate. I'm all for commnication but one doesn't need to support face book to do it. Call up or email your friends and relatives and you get the same results without supporting facebook. .....DaveB 

What am I missing here?  Isn't Facebook free?  How is he "sucking money out of society" ?

Facebook is experimenting with charging money to message famous people, and they claim it's an attempt to reduce spam. Otherwise, Facebook just as evil as MRH, mostly being support by ad revenue. Facebook does make money from people playing games, as well. All these ways are voluntary - no one is forcing you to pay money to use Facebook - only for "value added" services just like any "free" business does.

I get amused by the contention that legitimate tech businesses "suck money" out of society. They use the money to fund operations, which means paying for servers, developer time, support engineers - all people that have families to support and put food on the table. I fail to see how generating income to pay 3,500 people's salaries is "sucking money out of society".

1.  I was an FB gamer.  I know of many, many people with dozens of accounts.  One of my 'friends' had 500 accounts ... he could do most anything on his own (and was a great guy to have on your side when you needed clicks fast).  Yes, there are groups for getting 'clicks', but the majority of players that I know had multiple accounts ... just easier that way.

Furthermore social games only allow one 'toon' per account,  Most gamers like to try different play styles, so multiple accounts.

2.. You can't delete your own account, you can only request it.  After going through the deletion process, the account is still there and you can log back into it any time.  It has been over 3 years, the accounts are still there (can still see them from my 'main account').   Been there, have tried to do that.

3. 'Estimates' is a key word used here.  I KNOW what I have seen; I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

4. Yes it is against FB ToS, but that does not stop it.  The only 'policing' of the policy is by the game developers who make an attempt to remove multiple accounts from their games when detected, FB does nothing that I am aware of.  (Many, many gamers have tried to get FB to assist in removing 'multies' from their favorite games ... FB does nothing.)

4. Agree with Dave B.  You likely are counting 'hits' as 'readers'.  FB is undoubtedly a good source for clicks ... but how many of those clickers stick around for more?  There are 'companies' in Bangladesh (other countries too I am sure) who will get you millions of clicks if you pay them ....

Many games track their user database by "daily users" (folks who sign on at least once per day); "weekly users" (those who sign on at least once per week); and "monthly users" (those who sign on at least once per month).  That type of breakdown is far more useful than the number of 'unique' clicks each month.

Not arguing that FB is not BIG (it really is).  My argument is against the 1.3 billion users comment (and the claim that if you are not one, you are in the minority) ... both statements are inaccurate.  Dave O

All that high income and inflated stock price came from some one else's pockets. Users can get a free service but it's not really free, someone some where is paying for it. I guess you could say that it's still in the 1% of society but I'd rather see the 99% keep it for more practical future needs. Over rewarding one segment of society at the expense of the masses leads to an unstable country, without a strong middle class( which is shrinking as things like facebook grow) we'd be having the same problems Mexico or other highly stratified societies have......... DaveB

I find benefits from each source. FB has provided our local modelers with an outlet to,post pictures of their layouts and projects thru a fan page. The podcast all have their own pages and fans. Twitter allows me to see when my favorite YouTube producers have posted another video, and stay in contact with rail fans and modelers in many continents.
FB allows easier picture posting ( I know you are working on this Joe F. )
Trainorders is a pay site, but the resources and nostalgia pictures make it worth it for anyone who is doing research.
Ebay could also be considered a community, as I have made great contacts with power sellers in the model railroading section and have asked if they have certain models that they could offer.

Bring on the new technology. I too went from never wanting a cell phone, to using it for work only , ( being on call for the railroad, it was more of an electronic leash) to having my current I Phone be my lifeline to my family, work and play.

Thomas Gasior

DaveB, I don't understand what you're saying.

Maybe you can clarify because you never explained how Mark Zuckerberg is sucking money out of society. Everyone is benefiting from what he created. Does that mean that Joe Fugate and his advertisers are sucking money out of society too? I'm benefiting from what Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Fugate created and I didn't lift a finger or spend any money. I'm grateful to them!

What did you mean by "I'd rather see the 99% keep it for more practical needs". Keep what? I haven't spent a dime on Facebook or my monthly MRH subscription.

Please explain!

All that high income and inflated stock price came from some one else's pockets. Users can get a free service but it's not really free, someone some where is paying for it. I guess you could say that it's still in the 1% of society but I'd rather see the 99% keep it for more practical future needs. Over rewarding one segment of society at the expense of the masses leads to an unstable country, without a strong middle class( which is shrinking as things like facebook grow) we'd be having the same problems Mexico or other highly stratified societies have

Ok, FB stock dropped as soon as it IPO'd. It took months to get back to the IPO price, so it's certainly not inflated. The price of stock is based purely on supply & demand, the free market system that everyone has a chance to work with. Yes, I work in that industry. The people who bought FB stock did so by choice. No one held a gun to their heads, so I don't see how your comment explains how FB or it's CEO are sucking the money out of society.

The free market rewards those who work hard, or are inventive. FB was inventive, something new. It picked up on the fact that people want to form groups and socialize (Even in the computer age), just as these forums do. This fact made FB a huge success long before stock was offered.

I don't really get Twitter, except as an announcement platform "Come to my website and read my new blog post/picture/product". I could care less what my friends are eating right now, but FB does have huge numbers of users, and so it's only natural that it would be used as a marketing platform. I really dislike the new format where ads look like status updates, but I'm not on there all that often anyway.

If you don't like social media, you have the right not to use it, but you're going to have a really hard time using it as an example to explain your political ideologies.