[Sca-cooks] Use of FB for scholarly discussions and problems with FB groups

[Stefan li Rous]

Johnnae asked:
<<< There may be easy interaction via Facebook, but there's the problem of being able to effectively
search or find information easily. Try relocating a post or a link after a period of time. How easy is that? What is displayed or how it is ordered is often determined by device too and that
can be problematic. I know that what the iPad displays is different than the phone or the desktop; that can matter in terms of information.
And what about archives? Are the Facebook posts being gathered up and placed say in the Florilegium? >>>

Facebook postings are definitely problematic for me to save them in a coherent form for later reference. They tend to be mostly tiny snippets since most people don't seem to want to write multiple paragraphs to explain things in detail. I understand because I can't seem to make multiple paragraphs since hitting return sends the message. So I have problems formatting a message for clear reading, unless I write it first with an external editor and then copy that into FB.

FB message format also omits things that I like to save with a message, such as which group it came from and the date and time. Yes, FB may give a date, but that is often "today" and the next day that changes. So if I want to save the date, it takes a lot more manual work on my part. Also, the user's email address isn't given, so it is difficult for people to contact the author for more info or to ask questions.

At least on email and mail lists, folks can easily add their SCA name, even if their email is for their mundane name or even a fantasy name.

And most mail lists and newsgroups have archives, so a month or a year or five years in the future, you can do a search for previous messages on a topic. Maybe there isn't a need for something like the Florilegium with that, but I do tend to try to group info by subject and eliminate a lot of the fluff. FB postings seem to often disappear on some kind of arbitrary schedule and there is no archive kept, as far as I know. 

Now, I have had to make transitions before, from Fidonet postings to USENET newsgroups, to mailing lists. And some mailing lists do require me to add in things like the newsgroup name or the date by hand, just like FB but I could often "save" the messages and not be limited to copy and paste.

Also most people, in email lists, when referring back to a previous discussion will quote at least part of that discussion so that there is a context. It often occurs on the FB discussions that someone is referring back to something 4 or 10 or more comments back and they don't quote. I don't think that something can be quoted with out doing a copy and paste. So this requires me to go figure out what phrase may help give perspective to this comment and create my own quoted phrase. If I can. And that might mean copying pieces from multiple messages.

However, FB is not going away. :-( and I'm seeing a lot of interesting tidbits posted there that don't show up on the mail lists that I'm on, including things by such stalwarts as Master Cariadoc and Urtatim. So, I'm trying to save some things as I can, however this will involve fewer items because of the much greater overhead.

I've been talking about collecting info on FB. There are also problems in distributing information.

On FB, in the general SCA list, I was told that since the Florilegium site contained ads that I could only post one link to a Florilegium file per day. So, I've pretty much stopped posting, what I thought of as handy, useful links to info in the Florilegium that I thought would help answer questions that other folks had posted.

What bothered me even more, was that when I posted a message to try to explain that the Florilegium was not a commercial site (in fact, it is almost a total money sink since the ad income has dropped off to almost nothing) and that I try to post only links to files that I thought would help solve the questions asked or would be considered interesting info on similar subjects, that message was DELETED by the SCA list monitors within minutes after it was posted. So, I guess the SCA group monitors aren't open to any real discussion that in any way conflicts with their way of doing things. :-(

Are you on the FB SCA group and never saw my message? Then that is why. One or two people did see it before it disappeared and emailed me but I suspect the monitors succeeded in making sure my message wasn't seen. Oh yes, I didn't consider my message critical of the way the monitors were running things. I simply paraphrased what they sent me and why I didn't think it applied to what I had done.

It can take me minutes to tens of minutes to compose a message mentioning multiple files and include the links to those files. I'm not willing to do that if someone is going to delete my efforts within minutes after I post something. So I now seldom post useful links on the FB SCA group. And some of the discussions have been on period foods and SCA feasts. :-)

I've always tried to make it clear on this list, and others, that if you think I am being offensive by posting links to the Florilegium, or my monthly article, just let me know and I'll stop it or at least cut back. That still holds.

Thanks,
  Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****