Facebook

Poor Rigoletto really walked into a mine field by starting this thread!

I do think that the replies reached a general consensus that stating
that you are a 'coin collector' on The Internet's Sewer System (aka 'Facebook') is a bad, bad idea!
(oh wait, I'm being too complimentary to Facebook by calling them a
'sewer system'; sewer systems perform a necessary function and keep
society healthy, unlike Facebook!)


Yeah, I got a little upset in my last post. My apologies! I just hate
it when people mention the 'eight-letter F-word' ('Facebook'), and
after I posted that, I logged off of CCF in disgust and kept myself
amused with reading pages of the Google results for 'Hate Facebook'.

I'll try to do a little bit better job of 'anger management' whenever
someone mentions NoPrivateDataAtAllBook in the future.

I've never harbored any illusions that anyone has ever had 'total
privacy' (even pre-Internet), but I will say that any of you on
DataMiningBook exercise caution, and pay close attention to the
frequent changes to the (non)Privacy Policy. Thanks, DNA

People are worried about security of their collections, yet We (yes myself included) love to brag and show off newest aquisitions and parts of our collections.
No matter where you post it, here or facebook, you are still opening up potential security risks.
Here may be less easy,but still the risk is here.
I used to be envolved with several online TCA Groups (Train collector association for those that don't know)
I stopped posting and participating completely because they require both first and last names on "all" post.
TCA has a registry with all member names, address, and phone numbers. If you think facebook paints a target on you...
Point is, no matter what you do, it is out there and can be connected back to you. Some places make it easier than others.

A safety deposit box is always a good idea. :-)

Here's a comment that I just e-mailed to a friend on the east coast whom I've never met, but we're linked by our love of old computers:

"I have something like 250 Fb Friends now, many of them former students whom I'm delighted to be able to keep up with, especially when they share info about their kids and accomplishments. It's all pretty positive there, and sometimes I have opportunities to post things that make my Friends laugh, so I'm able to brighten their days a bit - and even their Friends whom I don't know at all, many states away.

"One former student's little girl is in a hospital in Michigan with kidney problems. Another was having a tough time on her first outing with her soccer team in Mississippi. I posted something encouraging in response to their posts, and both responded that their little girls said to tell "the old guy" thanks. You can bet that made my day. My cousin's friend's mother died a couple of days ago, and I was able to offer her a short message of sympathy ... and I don't even know her except by a very tenuous connection through Fb and only because she happened to see a post by me in response to a post from my cousin. She lives in Cody, Wyoming.

"That's what Fb is all about, and it is what you make of it. You have to cultivate and weed it a bit, electronically speaking, just as you do any flesh-and-blood social relationships, as if you don't work at it, the spam and crud will overwhelm you, just as you mentioned. But it's well worth the effort."

Posts about your collections ... coin magazines sticking out of the mailbox ... a license plate that reads "RobMe" ... anything could incite a bad person to break into your house. But a little common sense and a good security system is enough to keep me on Facebook so that I can reap the rewards of being there and interacting with people.

Besides ... if you're collecting investment-grade coins, why do you keep them around the house, unless you have a fire-proof safe hidden behind a secret panel? Are you like King Midas and have to count them daily? The coins I have in my house all together might add up to a multiple-figure sum, but frankly by the time a robber found them and sorted out the foreign aluminum, brass, and copper-nickel coins, or brought in a front-loader to haul them off to be sorted later, he'd be staring into a spotlight and talking to Mr. Policeman.

Unlike a lot of the people here,im not paranoid...so I think the facebook idea is a good one!!Thanks for creating it

Paranoia, Frazzle. Paranoia. Facebook does not make its settings easy to adjust. And now they've been caught sharing personal information even though we might have adjusted privacy settings: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/c...n|dl1|link3|http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/c...ns/19485873/