Facebook

[Remini]

LOOL!! Thanks jjake, I almost got a cramp from this one:

Michaela **** is eternally bonded by the seas with Norbert *****. aka They're in a relationship I think I'll be visiting FB more often the following few days, just for the laughs 

[Vinita]

Question: Are messages on FB searchable?

Met up with an old friend on FB who won't use messages because he thinks they are searchable, because they can be archived.  Anyone know if this is true?  I haven't been able to find info one way or the other.

Thanks.

[Dil Bert]

Question: Are messages on FB searchable?

What does this person mean by searchable?

Within the FB system, the messages aren't searchable by the general public through Google or Bing.  But they are something FB administrators could search through if necessary and FB could turn them over to the government in response to a search warrant.

Perhaps this person doesn't realize that data sent over the Internet passes through many devices, each of which could be set up to save off copies of that data.  Internet chat sessions, for example, could be archived by any party to that chat as well as any device the chat passes through.

[James]

Maybe what they're referring to is when the security on status updates, etc., are set such that anyone can see them, regardless of whether you're a friend with the individual or not on facebook? In that case, you could easily search a person's profile status updates/messages using a search engine, and perhaps google, etc., would save a copy of it to a cache or something like that?

If that's the concern, it's pretty easy to fix.

[los angeles]

I'm having Facebook problems once more (what's new ]
They've changed their privacy settings again in the last few days and my account never holds on well when they upgrade.
In the language section, I keep trying to type "Hindi, English and Punjabi" and it won't save that properly. It goes blank after I type  it (I spent way too much time trying to put that in the other day
And for religion, I had originally put Hindu but then it puts a huge gigantic red swastika on my profile, and who needs that?!! So I changed it to "Hindu Girl" and it keeps changing that to "Hindu Girl College" for some reason [I've no idea why]
I typed in "Hindu Girl" and saved it only to find "Hindu Girl College" there about fifteen times, which was driving me up the wall. So now I changed it to "Hindu Princess" [ ] and we'll see if that stays. I'll probably log in tomorrow to find it reads "Hindu Peapod" or something else. Who knows.
Is anyone else having these wacko issues?
My account finally no longer randomly drops people off my friends list, now my settings just migrate all over the place and change every time I log in. Good times!! [Omg so annoying ]

Edited To Add: I also--every time I log in--get FB ads for "Meet Christian Single Men" with some smiling Mid-Western guy in  a baseball cap.
Why would they keep suggesting that for a Hindu girl in LA?
[I've no problem to date a Christian guy but it just seems like an odd advertisement based on my profile info. Rather cornfuzed over here ]

[Dil Bert]

Edited To Add: I also--every time I log in--get FB ads for "Meet Christian Single Men" with some smiling Mid-Western guy in  a baseball cap.
Why would they keep suggesting that for a Hindu girl in LA?
[I've no problem to date a Christian guy but it just seems like an odd advertisement based on my profile info. Rather cornfuzed over here ]

They show up because you met other criteria. 

IIRC, you can delete an ad from your page (hover over the ad and click the X that appears) temporarily.  Once you do that, I think there's a way to indicate if an ad is not something you want to see.

[los angeles]

I had my profile set to "female" and "interested in men."

And FB kept changing it to "interested in women." [I happen to be straight.]

I kept fixing it to "men" and it kept changing it back to "interested in women." Which I'm not.

Finally I left the option blank and it still showed "interested in women" but then after four more logins, it now doesn't show anything at all (thank goodness.)

My FB account is so so weird you guys. It's just all around WTH most of the time...srsly.

[purplecowmoo]

HAHAHAAH your struggles with FB crack me up so much. I have no idea why it does this; I haven't changed my details in years and they seem to be sticking. You're right, though, it does shove a swastika there when you're Hindu - why does it feel the need to do that?

[LinKarish]

 - Hindu and swastika - My guess is that it has to do with Facebook's India operations.  A few years ago Facebook lagged behind Orkut, and no doubt even before they got an office they had Indians working on various things that had to do with India.  And from the Indian offices probably came the chosen symbol for Hindu.

[los angeles]

HAHAHAAH your struggles with FB crack me up so much.

I know, right?!!:D So ridiculous, who knows what is going on here hehe:p

I have no idea why it does this; I haven't changed my details in years and they seem to be sticking. You're right, though, it does shove a swastika there when you're Hindu - why does it feel the need to do that?

- Hindu and swastika - My guess is that it has to do with Facebook's India operations.  A few years ago Facebook lagged behind Orkut, and no doubt even before they got an office they had Indians working on various things that had to do with India.  And from the Indian offices probably came the chosen symbol for Hindu.

Oh I see, okay, that makes sense then.
In America, in my experience, some folks know about the actual origins of this symbol, but the majority of people don't seem to know and will think I'm some kind of reverse-confused inside out racist of some sort (like that movie The Believer or something.)
Anyway, my profile says "Hindu Princess" for now which sounds like I'm brain-dead babydoll at 37 but still better than swastika...and better than that weird "Hindu Girl College" which would show a silhouette of a girl in a graduation cap ...and at least it's no longer saying I'm interested in the ladies for romance, as of this morning anyway

[Ms. Chandni]

For those of you who don't like the new ticker on the right side of your feed - and I feel like a stalker just seeing all the comments from friends of friends - this article has a very simple suggestion:

"If you don't want your actions broadcast to everyone via the ticker/News Feed please set your privacy to "Friends" and ask your friends to do the same.  Pass it on."

This seems much easier than the "unsubscribe me" requests that a lot of people are posting.

[James]

When typing a post to your own or someone else's status update and mentioning the name of a person on facebook, a little drop down menu shows with the full name of the person in question. If you click on it, then they'll get notified when they log in and see your post.

I'm curious, though- I've noticed people I don't know personally somehow manage to activate that function without putting in the whole name of the person in question. How do you do that?

So to take an example, if you're friends with Amitabh Bachchan, people can say just 'Amitabh' and it links to his profile. How do you do that?

[tanya]

I'm curious, though- I've noticed people I don't know personally somehow manage to activate that function without putting in the whole name of the person in question. How do you do that?

So to take an example, if you're friends with Amitabh Bachchan, people can say just 'Amitabh' and it links to his profile. How do you do that?

When I've included someone in a post with only their first name, I've done it after activating the function and letting the whole name pop in, then I just delete the last name and the first name remains active. Hope that makes sense and answers your question 

[James]

Hey Tanya, thanks for responding. I did try that, but for some reason it doesn't remain an active link for me thereafter. Hmm. I'll try it again next time I have the chance.

[etu]

Hey Tanya, thanks for responding. I did try that, but for some reason it doesn't remain an active link for me thereafter. Hmm. I'll try it again next time I have the chance.

They might be fans of Amitabh's page, and are linking to that. Could that be?

[Remini]

Need an advice My sister can't log into facebook, it's asking her for confirmation that they've sent to her cell phone - but that number doesn't exist anymore! I can't find how to contact the facebook people, or how to help her log in 

[Moot]

Need an advice My sister can't log into facebook, it's asking her for confirmation that they've sent to her cell phone - but that number doesn't exist anymore! I can't find how to contact the facebook people, or how to help her log in 

From Facebook Help :-
"I can’t log in to my account because I can't remember my mobile phone number or email address, or my mobile number or email changed.
If you can't remember your login email address or the mobile number on your account, or one or both of these recently changed:

    Try logging in using your username and password. If you added a username to your account, you can use this to log in. A username is your personalized Facebook URL (web address) and appears in the location bar of your browser after "http://www.facebook.com/" when you view your profile (timeline).

    Try logging in using any email addresses or mobile numbers you might have added to your account. If you confirmed a mobile number onto your account, you can log in with your mobile number and password. Start with the country code and remove any leading zeroes and symbols.

    Ask one of your Facebook friends to view your profile (timeline) and send you the email address listed on your account. To get to your email address, have your friend:

        Go to your profile (timeline) and click on the Info
        Scroll down to Contact Information and copy down your email address

    If you still can't get into your account after trying the suggestions above, try locating your account on the password reset page.

After logging in, visit the Account Settings page to find the email address linked to your Facebook account or update your mobile phone number. "

Hope this helps

[jjake61]

I had posted this on my FB page a while ago but thought others might benefit:

Some of your messages may be hidden. Click on messages on the side bar and you will see a category called "other". Click on that and messages from non friends and fan pages etc...will show up.  I had messages from family and friends trying to locate me that I didn't know about for months.

[Remini]

From Facebook Help :-
"I can’t log in to my account because I can't remember my mobile phone number or email address, or my mobile number or email changed.
If you can't remember your login email address or the mobile number on your account, or one or both of these recently changed:

Hope this helps

Thanks for you help Manturo  , but it doesn't work!! She CAN log in, but as soon as she does she's redirected to a page that demands that she puts in a code that they've sent to her mobile number We've tried changing the password, but it didn't help.

 Anyways, I've finally found the contact form and I've sent them a message about this issue. Hopefully they'll resolve it

[purplecowmoo]

So annoyed at Facebook...changed my name on Facebook so potential college interviewers couldn't find me - nothing particularly scandalous on my profile or anything; id just rather they didn't come to the interview with preconceptions of what I'll be like. However, when you google me, my profile still comes up, just with my changed name, and Google Chrome offers to display a 'cached copy' of the page with my real name. My profile pictures come up on Google Images too.

This never used to happen with Facebook and it creeps me out. Despite their supposedly making their privacy settings more convenient, I now find the process VERY opaque. I can't seem to control what a stranger who gets to my page via google can see: I'd like to be able to limit my picture, but can't seem to find where to do that. I'm young, have been on Facebook for some time, and am usually tech-savvy, so can only believe that Facebook make these constant changes in order to keep people sharing as much info as possible for their advertisers and the world and keep people dependent on Facebook. So sick of it all, will probably take myself off, or cull about half my friends list, before college!

Does anyone know how to change one's facebook URL? As in facebook.com/(yourname)?

[Simran_Singh]

However, when you google me, my profile still comes up, just with my changed name, and Google Chrome offers to display a 'cached copy' of the page with my real name. My profile pictures come up on Google Images too.

I don't know if this will help, but have you turned off the 'Public search' under your 'Privacy settings'?

[NewLaura]

I can't seem to control what a stranger who gets to my page via google can see: I'd like to be able to limit my picture, but can't seem to find where to do that.

There used to be an option that let you control who saw your profile picture, but at some point they took it away.  As far as I know, they haven't given that option back yet.  I think the only thing you can do is not have your photo as your profile picture.      I don't like it, either.

[los angeles]

Does anyone know how to change one's facebook URL? As in facebook.com/(yourname)?

^ Hey sweets, if you go under "Account Settings" from that drop-down menu option on the right, you should find "Username" which is your URL at Facebook, and you can select "Edit."
They allow you to change it once only (I changed mine once.)

So annoyed at Facebook...changed my name on Facebook so potential college interviewers couldn't find me - nothing particularly scandalous on my profile or anything; id just rather they didn't come to the interview with preconceptions of what I'll be like. However, when you google me, my profile still comes up, just with my changed name, and Google Chrome offers to display a 'cached copy' of the page with my real name. My profile pictures come up on Google Images too.

This never used to happen with Facebook and it creeps me out. Despite their supposedly making their privacy settings more convenient, I now find the process VERY opaque. I can't seem to control what a stranger who gets to my page via google can see: I'd like to be able to limit my picture, but can't seem to find where to do that. I'm young, have been on Facebook for some time, and am usually tech-savvy, so can only believe that Facebook make these constant changes in order to keep people sharing as much info as possible for their advertisers and the world and keep people dependent on Facebook. So sick of it all, will probably take myself off, or cull about half my friends list, before college!

^ Totally know where you're coming from!

If you go again to that drop-down menu on the upper right corner of the screen, instead of going to "Account Settings" you can go to "Privacy Settings" and there is an option under something like "How YOu Connect" and it says "Who can look you up by name or profile?" I think you can choose "Friends" which makes it so that only folks you've friended on there can look you up or see you in search results.

The other thing you can do is just start over on Facebook with a totally fake name? And re-build your friends list from square one. [The second time I added you and everyone else on here back, that's what I did except not with a fake name, actually with my real name.]

Anyway, hope you can fix your security/privacy issues soon!!

[James]

They might be fans of Amitabh's page, and are linking to that. Could that be?

I don't *think* so because it looks like that automatic blue hyperlink connecting to the profile of the person you're talking about when you write a post with their name on it in facebook. But then I could be wrong.  

There used to be an option that let you control who saw your profile picture, but at some point they took it away.  As far as I know, they haven't given that option back yet.  I think the only thing you can do is not have your photo as your profile picture.     I don't like it, either.

If you have the new timeline, it seems that not only is your facebook profile picture public, but so is your 'cover' pic. FYI in case others didn't realize that. I'm not sure of all the ramifications of that: is it 'public' and therefore visible to other facebook users? public to search engines? I don't seem to show up when I google my facebook profile, so how 'public' is it really? Just to friends of friends on facebook? Perhaps they haven't figured that out fully yet.

[filmifan]

All of your cover pics and your current profile pic is public to any FB member, I think. I have a fake account set up (under my dog's name ) that I use to then check what is visible on my profile. And what's visible now is my profile pic, my current cover pic, and--further down on the timeline--my first cover pic and below that, the date I joined FB.