He's on ignore. Nothing real important shows up if you type my name. Lindy - I didn't know if you sent a message the person had access to seeing you page. Interesting. Both my myspace and facebook are all private. I find it interesting if a friend of mine comments on someone else's photo that that person isn't on my friend list, I can still click on that nonfriend's pic. It will show up along the side saying "so and so commented on so and so's photo". You can go through that person's full album. I'm sure there's settings but I every time I think I have them figured out someone tags me or something. I give up. I don't like that people can tag me in a photo. I thought I changed the settings so it couldn't be done but my aunt had some real doozie pics of me she tagged and then anyone on your list gets to see them. I mean I looked horrible in these photos. Wowzers. I deleted them but I'm sure they were already seen!! As far as the friend request thing, I thought you actually had to hit "friend request" . FB is always showing friend suggestions or people you might know but I would have to click on them to actually have them as a "friend".. Haha if you don't have a FB account and are reading all this you probably think we don't have lives! Cooper - Ha my Dad and two Aunts have FB. Dad recently wrote something all gushy parent like on my wall. "I'm very proud of you..blah, blah.." :) He even throws some nick names around that I'd rather other people not know. Ah, well. While we're admitting to FB, how many of you guys take the quizzes? Or take the time to do the cow farm thing or mafia wars. I don't understand the point of either but my sister and bil do the farm thing at times. lol Once in a blue moon I'll take a quiz.

It's not that I ever say/write something on GW I regret sharing here...it's that I have a relative out there somewhere that I don't want to EVER contact me again. Some of you understand why. I know they participate on Facebook & I stay away from Facebook to avoid any potential contact. I consider them dangerous to my safety & they have physically harmed me in the past. Now sure, I could hide from the Internet entirely. But, I don't figure they would ever have an interest that would draw them to GW. I don't know how Facebook works since I don't participate. I don't want to go to bed every night worrying that tomorrow might bring that person back into my life. It's the not knowing part I don't think I can live with & still feel safe. /tricia

Right now I just skim past -- consider the source and move on to the next post. Although it got a bit hairy on there after the Paris bombings. But I'd rather know that someone thinks a certain way -- they can bundle their thoughts and opinions up into some stupid meme, cherry picking their points. I do end up thinking a lot less of them as people. I avoid posting about politics or religion, myself -- but of course there are those observations that I don't consider political, but others might. I do value FB -- while I've learned some of my friends and relatives are shallow, I've learned that others have nuanced viewpoints and can express themselves very well, and I'd simply can't wait to travel the physical miles to just hang out and chat with them, over tea or wine. (And no, our viewpoints don't always match.) I also value seeing my cousin's renovations of the small church across the road from her original house -- she and her husband have done marvelous things with it, and have just finished adding a kitchen -- I think they're truly ready to move in and sell their original house. She also has my dream job -- she works for the Smithsonian, travelling around the world, bringing back artifacts, and setting up displays in DC. Without FB, I'd not be able to follow her like I am, now. I value getting back in touch with another cousin, two weeks younger than myself, whom I hadn't seen in person since we were fifteen -- her life diverged markedly when she vanished around age 16 to a troubled couple of decades apart from any of her relatives. FB helped re-unite her with myself and a few others of her relatives. I also re-connected with a good college roomie from back in the day. I valued getting updates from the daughter of a friend in a state over, who'd fallen, had a concussion, went into a coma. The daughter had access to her mother's account and shared information on my friend's recovery process to everyone. So, for all the ucky memes out there, and the vast overabundance of sharing of things that the writer did not create or write him or her self, there's gold at least among most of my FB friends. And I'll NEVER re-post/share something someone tells me I HAVE to share on my wall. No matter how well-meaning. Because I'm not the sort of person to "demand" it of others. PS: I have called people out on offensive posts. I really have it in for the cherry pickers who only pick the examples that buttress their "case", by pointing out other examples of such and such. I don't do it all the time, because sometimes I just can't be bothered.

Rhizo, I was one of your followers (at least I think) and am not offended. Happened by accident before I even looked at the Kitchen Table. You were always helping identifying caterpillars and bugs in the Butterfly Garden. Sometimes when I hit the notification bell icon, instead of getting to the thread I accidentally land on the profile of whoever posted last (iPad). What does the following even do? I never got any notifications about anybody I am following (and there are some more accidental butterfly people). Never bothered to unfollow anybody for that reason.