Tag: Facebook

Articles

Facebook Adding QR Codes To Android App, Directing Scanners To Users’ Profiles? – AllFacebook

Facebook Adds QR Codes To Android App | 2D Code

My Comments

You are at the party or favourite bar and you have started to chat with someone very well. But you mention that you are on Facebook and they say that they are also on that same social network. You ask if it is OK to “friend them” on Facebook and they agree.

The next thing you do is ask for their name to search for them in your Facebook mobile app. This can be very difficult in a noisy environment or if they have a name that has a particular spelling or is one of many common names. Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick – you have found that person and are sending a “Friend Request”to them.

Now Facebook have improved on this for the latest version of their Android mobile client by using the QR code to simplify the profile-sharing process. Here, you bring up “Friends” in the drop-down menu. Then you tap “Find Friends” which shows the “People You May Know” list. Touch the “QR Code” button on the top right of your display to show a QR code that represents a link to your Profile.

If you are adding your companion to your Friends list, you then tap “Scan Code” and point your Android phone’s camera at the QR code that your companion is showing on their Android phone’s screen using this same client. This takes you to their Timeline which would have any “public” posts that are on it as well as the option to add them as a Friend.

I don’t see this as a controversial feature for Facebook because you have to be pulling up your Facebook Profile’s QR code in the presence of your companion who then has to use their device running the client app to scan that code – you are not intending to “friend them” behind their back.

This function could be taken further for businesses who have Facebook Pages or people who use Facebook Pages as a way to maintain a sanitised “public” profile. As well, if a person maintains a Page for their business or blog along with their personal Profile, the QR code could lead the user to a screen with an option to go to the Page which you then “like” to follow or the Profile with an option to “subscribe” (see only public Posts and Photos) or “add Friend” (be seen as a Facebook Friend with standard privileges).

Similarly, other social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn could implement this technology to allow people to attract followers or connections. NFC technology can also be exploited to achieve the same functionality as these QR codes for “there-and-then” access to contact profiles.

Article

INFOGRAPHIC: Suicide Prevention Resources On Facebook – AllFacebook

My Comments

I have previously covered the issue of Facebook in relation to the difficult topic of suicide and self-harm with an article about some incidents where a Facebook user sought assistance to handle a suicide attempt across the other side of the world; as well as another drawing attention to teenagers using this service as a counselling resource to reach out to other at-risk teens.

Now Facebook have taken it upon themselves to provide resources to help users worried about a person who is at risk of self-harm or suicide. This is more so where a Facebook status update becomes something to vent one’s feelings as I have seen before many times.

Here, they have exposed these resources and what they can do by showing an infographic flow-chart (PDF) about what they can do to help the user who is worried about their friend. They are exposing this flow-chart using a series of public-service announcements that appear across the Website so everyone who is using Facebook is aware of the resource.

This is in addition to partnering with organisations like Lifeline and Samaritans as well as implementing protocols and procedures to handle these situations especially where it happens in another country. One of the actions can include Facebook drawing the affected person’s attention to their local resources as well as keeping the concerned friend “in the loop” through a special Web dashboard.

As well, they have made a “one-touch” reference list of these organisations in their online help so that anyone across the Internet can be aware of these resources.

What I see of this is that Facebook, due to the sheer number of regular users, has done the right thing to handle this situation and this could open up questions amongst Internet-based online communities about how to handle situations where a person expresses a desire to harm themselves through these communities.

Articles

Locked Out Of Your Facebook Account? Trusted Contacts Will Save You | Gizmodo Australia

Facebook puts account security in the hands of your friends |CNet

My Comments

Commonly most of us leave a set of keys for our home with someone else that we trust like a close friend or neighbour. This is to allow us to get back in to our home if we lock ourselves out, which can be easily done if you can lock that front door without the need for a key typically by flicking a thumbturn or pressing a button.

Facebook has taken this practice to their account-security procedures by allowing us to work with a “trusted person” to gain access to our accounts. Here, you let Facebook know the contact details of the three to five trusted people and if a lockout occurs, Facebook would send the codes to these people and you contact these people preferably via phone or SMS for these codes. This can come in handy with older people who forget their Facebook credentials or if someone’s account was hacked and the password was changed.

Facebook are in a position to do this not just because of them being a highly-popular social network but users are using their Facebook parameters to sign in to a large number of consumer-oriented Websites and mobile apps. I wouldn’t put it past Microsoft or Google to implement this in to their account systems, especially more so with Microsoft using the Web-hosted credentials as the key to our Windows 8 computers.

Windows users have been able to use the Facebook Messenger as a desktop option for gaining access to Facebook’s chat and messaging features. Similarly, users of the iOS and Android mobile platforms have benefited from having access to the Facebook Messenger app as a dedicated path to this same service.

But how can you gain full-time access to the Facebook chat and messaging functionality on your Apple Macintosh without the need to open your Web browser? You can when you use the iChat software that is integrated with the Mac OS X operating system.

Here, the Mac has to be equipped with iChat AV 3 or later which is part of the operating system from 10.4 Tiger to 10.7 Lion. It will provide an “always-live” messaging and “green-dot” presence feature that you would expect with the Web-driven Facebook messaging interface.

1. To set this up, you click on the “Preferences” item in the iChat menu.
2. Click on the “Accounts” option in this window, then click the + icon at the bottom of this window as if you are adding a new iChat account.
3. Select “Jabber” as the account type.
4. Supply the credentials as:
   Screen Name: <Your_Facebook_User_Name>@chat.facebook.com
   Password:<Your_Facebook_Password>
5. For the Server Options, make sure that “Automatically find server name and port” option is checked. If this doesn’t work, you may have to fill in “chat.facebook.com” in the Name and 5222 in the Port for the Server details
6. Then click Done to add the account.

For this acoount to work automatically, you have to select the “Enable this account” and “Log in Automatically” options for it to log in and show you as online when you use your Mac. Here, you will see the list of all the Facebook Friends who are currently online with that green dot.

Articles

Twitter, Facebook must be more diligent | Technology | BigPond News

Expert says Dawson broke the first rule of social media: don’t feed the trolls | Sydney Morning Herald

My Comments

The Charlotte Dawson saga that has been over the Australian news media over the last week has become a wake-up call regarding the nature of the Social Web and the Internet in general when it comes to the ability to leave unverified irrational comments against people or organisations.

This is where social networks, bulletin boards, forums and similar services are used as a platform to launch an attack against a person. Here, it can manifest in ways such as a caustic remark left on a Facebook profile or a forum; through a barrage of tweets or instant messages of abuse fired at a person or, at worst, a Facebook Page, YouTube video or something similar can be set up to pillory that person.

Even before the Social Web became mainstream, there was the issue of free Web hosts and the “export to HTML” function in recent word processors and affordable desktop-publishing software being used to quickly set up defamatory Web sites against people. This situation was then underscored by the use of cost-effective camera-equipped mobile phones to create distasteful videos to appear on these sites or to send across to others via email or MMS.

Some press articles raised the issue of how easier it has become to leave improper comments on the Social Web, Web-hosted forums and the like without being traced back easily. This is even though most of these services have mechanisms for the Webmaster or others in charge to control scurrilous behaviour, including a reporting mechanism for others who are aggrieved by the behaviour to let those in charge know. As well, these mechanisms are underscored by the terms and conditions that users have to assent to when they become a member of these services.

Even before the rise of the Internet, there was common advice that was offered regarding nuisance phone calls and similar behaviour involving communications services/ For example, one was advised to simply to hang up on a nuisance call and, if the activity persisted, to report the matter to the telecommunications company and the police.

This was also underscored by most countries having laws in place that proscribes the use of a “common carriage service” to harrass, menace or threaten others. The reference to the “common carriage service” is a legal term used to describe telephone, post or similar services used by everyone as a communications tool.

What can you do

What most of us have to be aware of is not to satisfy the cyber-bully’s wants by leaving responses to the caustic remarks or passing on the comments in the common space that the platform offers.

If the behaviour persists, we have to know how to “block” or “unfriend” the troublemakers in the case of social media. There is the ability to report the matter to the social-media platform’s “report this” option where it draws the behaviour to the attention of the platform’s administrators.

In the case of forums, blogs or wikis, you should contact the site owner or administrator through the contact options that exist on the site. There will usually be a “Contact Us” link somewhere on the forum, usually on the login screen.

The only situation that can be difficult is a Website that is hastily built up to pillory another person. It may be difficult to track down the owner of the domain name if the domain name isn’t an obvious hosting domain like wordpress.com associated with a particular Web host. Here, you may have to do “whois” searches oh the domain and locate the entity owning the domain. In the case of a subdomain of a hosting domain, you may have to go the the “www” site of that hosting domain to track down who is operating the site.

Aggrieved people should also be aware of local support services especially where there is a risk of depression being brought on by this activity. Some of these services focus particularly on the cyber-bullying menace and provide online or telephone-based advice.  Of course, your friends or family whom you trust can help out with these situations.

Introduction

Some of you may have dabbled in Facebook or other social networks but then find that you are “sick and tired” of operating them. Then what you end up doing is ceasing to log in to your account. Your friends or followers hear nothing from you and you don’t follow up on activity from the people who are or could be in the social network.

You may even tie your account to an email account that you subsequently cease to use like one associated with your previous ISP or employer; or a Webmail account that you have forgotten about.

These accounts end up with a “pile-up” of friend requests and other people using the social network end up thinking you’re not there. The potential friends may even be considered “spammy” by the social network as they end up with many pending friend requests.

But some of you may want to keep the account alive for such efforts as “keeping in the loop” while travelling or keeping in contact with distant family and friends.

There are some people who may think that it is an act of sacrilege to engage with Facebook, MySpace or Twitter when they have broken off from the network as a statement of their beliefs or actions. The people who I am targeting this post at are the ones who simply abandon these accounts after a fair bit of seasonal activity.

Leave an off-the-air post

When you think that you will be going “off the air” with the social network, write up a public post that says that you will be scaling back your presence on the social network. This lets everyone know that you are OK but won’t be appearing as regularly as you would have done.

Set up notifications

A good practice is to make use of the notification function that the social network has. Here, you could set up your social network’s notification function to send you a summary email post of notifications concerning your account;s activity.

In this arrangement, you should know if someone sends you a direct message, adds you as a friend or follower or confirms a friend request that you instigated. If the social network supports a suggestion framework, you could be notified if someone suggests a member or page for you to link up with on the platform.

Similarly, you can set the email notification to notify you of friends’ birthdays and if your posts or photos have been tagged or someone has tagged you in a post or photo.

When you set the email address, set it to the current email inbox that you are using on a regular basis and keep these email addresses registered with the social network up to date.

Regular “drop in” to your social network

Once a month to once every two / three months, log in and post something or leave a comment on a post or photo so people know you’re “there”.

If you have something for sale, login to Facebook or your other social networks and post a public post with a picture of the item for sale and / or a link to the eBay or “online mart” page you are using to advertising it so your Facebook Friends and others on the network can know it’s for sale.

Here, you don’t forget the login parameters for your account and know that it still exists. This can come in handy if you do want to operate you account frequently like as part of a special trip or event.

It is also worth knowing that some social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can work as an anchor to a “single-sign-on” mechanism. Here, people can use the credentials associated with these social networks to enrol with and log in to forums, blogs and similar services. If you do have an opportunity to do so, use one of these social-networks that you are enrolled in as credentials for a forum that you are joining in.

Conclusion

Keeping regular tabs on a social network that you had participated in frequently before is a way of knowing that you still exist on it and that people don’t think you have fallen off the earth if you have deserted it.

A common task that I have had to help people with lately is when they use an instant messaging service or the messaging function in a social-network service to send a message that is to be handled further. This is more so with people who rely heavily on Facebook as their online communications medium and start to forget their email address.

For example, it may be a message that is to be sent to somebody by email or to be printed out in order to be signed then sent by postal mail or fax. This includes messages that contain “boilerplate text” that is to be modified with further information before being sent or printed out.

Most instant-messaging or social-network messaging user interfaces don’t have a way of allowing you to print out or select the text of a particular message. This is typically frustrated by the “conversation” view that these user interfaces show the messages in, and this problem can be made worse by hard-to-manipulate user interfaces like laptop trackpads or touchscreens.

What do you do?

Here, it would be preferable that if you are talking with a correspondent via a service like Facebook, make sure that each of you know each other’s email address, not just the “handle” or member-name for these messaging services.

Then, send the message that is to be “taken further” to the correspondent using email rather than the message system. Infact you compose the message to be taken further using your email software or Webmail user interface. The correspondent can then print out that message or copy it to their word-processing software for modification and printing out.