Facebook - Game Player or not?

Parent Cafe
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<p>One time through the Poisonwood Bible was enough for me. :D</p>

<p>I did the bra color thing, but not the status pics. I don’t do quizzes; they’re just inane. I have a very lovely farm, thank you, and my cafe is pretty busy… and I’m a level 200-something pirate, my favorite of all. Other games, I block (no bejeweled blitzes, farkles, pillow fights, or sparkly hearts here). I filter most of my game announcements so that only my fellow players will see them, and I’m careful not to send gifts to friends who don’t play. (@abasket: You can just ignore the gifts – or better, block the application. Odds are, the friend who sent the gift or neighbor request has sent it to everyone on his list and won’t take it personally at all if you don’t respond).</p>

<p>I got my son onto Facebook last summer so he could meet other Mudders and get to know them before he hit the campus (smash success). He became FB friends with his younger HS friends, and they got him started on FarmVille. I joined because he wanted another neighbor, then found I liked it. And I could gauge how busy his week was by looking in on his farm and seeing what kind of crops he’d planted (4-day crops meant do not disturb!). Until he quit playing, which I applauded because I knew he was getting more serious about his classes.</p>

<p>I joined games because my friends needed neighbors. The games were a way to pass the time while I waited for my son to pop in on Facebook and possibly open a chat window with me (the main way we communicated last semester). He’s happy now that I spend more time pirating than stalking him. In fact, over the Christmas break, he tried to introduce me to Mafia Wars. ;)</p>

<p>I have about 200 friends (pirate crewmates) I’ve never met, and some of them are people I’d really enjoy in real life. I’ve noticed that a lot of my pirating friends (especially the very high level ones) seem to be cancer survivors or coping with some disability or other. Not all – plenty are working stiffs like me, and a few have just returned from deployment in the sandbox. I have friends in DC, SFO, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK… pretty much all over the place. I met them all while playing games. Their world views and interests run the gamut, which makes for some lively wall threads and interesting discussions. They’re a much more diverse crowd than CC, and generally very open to a range of perspectives. And the games themselves are an interesting window on social behavior; I think there’s a really good dissertation in there somewhere.</p>

<p>There’s nobody from my high school in my friends list, nor will there ever be. I’m just not interested in going back to high school. But oddly enough, I’m friends with several kids from my son’s high school!</p>

<p>ETA: How I justify the time for all those games… I spend less time on CC. :D</p>

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<p>Can someone give a step-by-step on how to block an application (I tried the hovering over thing - maybe I’m hovering over the wrong thing?)</p>

<p>Much appreciated.</p>

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<p>I have a very intricate facebook set-up and do play some of the games. I’ll admit I was sucked into Mafia Wars but anyone that I friended for that purpose, or friended me for that purpose, is on a separate list and they are blocked from all my personal info, my statuses, my photos, etc. I have hidden just about every application I don’t play, and all quizzes, etc that clutter my newsfeed although you can also click to just see “status updates” instead of “news feed.” But I rarely if ever post my progress in the game and I too get irritated by the constant updates from those who do!</p>

<p>I don’t friend any of my kids or their friends but they all friended me and many of their friends did too but I also coached soccer for about 8 years and volunteer regularly in the kids’ lives so many of their friends know me. So my policy is I’ll accept if they extend the friend request but I won’t make the first move.</p>

<p>I have reconnected with many old friends I had lost touch with which seems to happen more often as women change names, etc. Also I connected with my 1/2 brother and 1/2 sister which has been really neat! My work is on FB, as are many casual acquaintances so many are blocked from statuses and or specific other personal items. So it really just depends. I also rarely update my status but at least when I do I know only those that I’d actually share it with will see it.</p>

<p>FB has become the main form of communication for some of the kids’ sports or school events and it’s been a great way to stay in touch with people without having to make more of an effort than I would regularly (read I’m lousy at staying in touch so this saves me from myself, LOL).</p>

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<p>I, too, would feel awkward friending my kids, like some weird nosy mother, except my DDs will friend me as a limited profile, the same one they use for coaches, profs, old aunties, etc. I can then see how that is working and let them know if anything inappropriate is making it though. With the way FB keeps having privacy changes, it is nice to have a backstop for protection.</p>

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<p>I used to be able to do this but now I have the “new” homepage and can’t see anywhere to design your own news feed. I had one for close friends and family only.
The only thing I would suggest for people who do play a lot of games is to delete the posts after an hour or so - the bonus is gone by then so there’s no need to keep the notice on your profile! My friends dont seem to know how to remove a post - even leaving those really embarrassing question things on their profile. My favorite is a friend who always forgets to sign out of her facebook and her middle school son updates her status with comments about her digestive system which she never goes back to remove.<br>
Parents - if you are going to use facebook at least understand how it works!!</p>

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<p>I play a couple of Facebook games, but I no longer send the “suggested” notifications to anyone. I do send gifts/requests to other FB friends who play those two games, since they are helpful if you are a game player, but not to anyone else.</p>

<p>It is very easy to hide notifications from games you aren’t interested in. Mafia Wars, Vampires, et al I’ve hidden. No big deal.</p>

<p>I have not friended my kid or my H. I want to have a private life! <g></g></p>

<p>BTW, Farm Town is vastly superior to Farmville, and Cafe World, although it runs SLOWLY, is seriously munchy-inducing.</p>

27

<p>To hide the posts about games, but not your friends’ regular posts, hover over the upper right-hand corner. A rectangle with the word “Hide” will appear. Click it, and you’ll get the choice to hide that friend entirely, or only their game/application-related posts.</p>

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<p>Right - If it says Louise threw a snowball at you, you have the choice to either block everything from Louise or block snowballs (block any time anyone throws a snowball at you). I know I have blocked snowballs and pillows thrown in my direction. :)</p>

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<p>Thanks Harriet!!!</p>

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<p>No problem, abasket. (And no fennec foxes, either. :wink: )</p>

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<p>The only game game I play is Scrabble. Sometimes I boast about making a Bingo to everyone, but mostly I don’t. I did the bra thing. I used to quizzes from time to time. I like it when things like favorite books lists, or movie lists go viral. I’m on mostly to keep in touch with my sil and because I love her brother’s status updates. He’s a stitch. The rest of my family all belong, (even my Mom), but don’t post that regularly. I’m not friends with my kids.</p>

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<p>I don’t play any games , nor do I send the “gifts”…I have however changed my profile picture for retro week…it was a pic of me from kindergarden…since i was digging thru old pictures, I found some fun ones from my childhood and teen years and it really was fun to see the comments and connections from the people in those pics. A lot more fun that seeing odd little cartoon charectors from adults collecting farm animals…
One profile pic thing I found amusing was the one to post a pic of someone famous that supposedly looks like you…for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine who that celebrity would be, so I put up a pic of Marty Feldman …some of my " friends" think very highly of themselves and imagine that they look like Kevin Costner, Kate Hudson, Valerie Bertinelli, Alicia Sliverstone, George Clooney and a few others</p>

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<p>lje- it was supposed to be celebs people have TOLD you you looked like, not your own inflated opinion! ;)</p>