Warning About "Class of 2014" Facebook Groups

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I posted the following as a comment on a blog site and I thought it might be useful if I let some people know as well:</p>

<p>"I’m a freshman at Clemson University and I was an administrator of the Class Of 2013 facebook group last year. I’m highly aware of what happened with FacebookGate as the group I was initially in was deleted by facebook because of the college ******* incident.</p>

<p>(PS if anybody wasn’t aware of what happened last year read this: [SquaredPeg</a> Blog Archive There’s something going down on Facebook. Pay attention.](<a href=“http://squaredpeg.com/index.php/2008/12/18/facebook-pay-attention/]SquaredPeg”>http://squaredpeg.com/index.php/2008/12/18/facebook-pay-attention/))</p>

<p>This year, someone from Los Angeles who I at first assumed was an accepted student to Clemson approached me with helping me create a group for the Class of 2014. I agree and he promoted the group saying that I ran the group last year and was very knowledgeable about Clemson stuff. The group expanded. One day I logged onto facebook to find that I had been kicked out as the administrator of the 2014 group and had been replaced by 4 people who did not yet have any posts or interactions with the facebook group.</p>

<p>Shortly afterwards, all sort of posts appeared people (who weren’t necessarily administrators) saying that they had filled out this great survey on URoomSurf and encouraged everybody to join the same. I had a feeling what was going on but was powerless to do anything.</p>

<p>Yesterday was the final straw for me. I noticed that all the roommate surveys that students had started had been deleted by the administrators and in their place was a new discussion board topic telling everybody to join URoomSurf. I decided to end my involvement with this group and created my own 2014 group where only me and people I know that are legit students here would be the administrators. I’ve also contacted the admissions office to see if anybody in their office would like to help with their effort. However, many incoming students do not know about what happened with the facebook groups and refuse to believe what I am saying about them (since one of the administrators sent out a message to the group members apologizing for deleting the roommate surveys). Also, once I posted something in the group directing people to the new facebook group, I received lots of comments telling me to “chill out” and that they see no problem with what’s going on in the group either (many with suspicious accounts as well). Anyways, that’s what’s going on with the Clemson facebook groups. The administrators have since switched from yesterday and now there’s a whole new group of administrators who have never had any contact with the facebook group (no wall posts, no interaction) yet are not friends with each other."</p>

<p>Anyways, there’s no problem with URoomSurf using Facebook as a marketing tool in my opinion but when they’re using a supposedly school facebook group to do that and using some sort of deception (making people think they’re affiliated with the school), I have a problem with that. So parents, if your kid joins any Class of 2014 facebook group, make sure to check the administrators and make sure that their profiles have some sort of credibility (like you can add them as a friend, they have joined the college’s facebook network since you need a school email to do that and if they are active facebook-ers).</p>

2

<p>What a shame. Thanks for the warning. It never occurred to me that this could happen, but now that I think about it, Facebook really is ripe for this kind of abuse.</p>

3

<p>Well I talked with the URoomSurf people and they apparently say that they have nothing to do with what happened in the Clemson group. Also the Clemson group seems to be “fixed” (new administrators, URoomSurf stuff removed from group).</p>

<p>Regardless, still be on the lookout for anything.</p>

4

<p>wow that must be what it’s like to suffer a coup</p>