Discussions on FB instead of here?
From one discussion I learned that some time ago, a discussion was held about the future developments of CC - but not here. Instead, this discussion was done on Facebook. WHY? A discussion like that should definitely happen here, not on another platform. Especially not on something like Facebook in the first place.
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And as any company that wants to be successful, ProFantasy needs to engage with their customers where they are. And that means engaging with all available platforms, including both Facebook and their own forums. ProFantasy generally do this using a sometimes here, sometimes there stance.
Personally, I am not very fond of FaceBook, but I can see why ProFantasy feels the need to keep a presence and engage on that platform too, there are a lot of people preferring to communicate using that platform.
The way I see it nowadays having the two forums is like having a house with two rooms instead of just one, and I agree with Remy that PF would have been mad not to engage with the 'extended family' of users that seem to pool over on the FB Group page.
This forum is where you will get your really tricky issues solved and get to talk to most of the real experts. The PF Group is where you can find out just how popular a new style might be and hold the most visible polls.
Or you could see it the other way - that by joining both you get everything instead of just half.
Here's the most recent article for my non-political reason for feeling the way I do.
Facebook treated user data as a bargaining chip with external app developers
Happy mapping to all!
I was wondering where you had gotten to.
I still check both forums throughout the day, but unless there is someone asking for help, showing a map, or I have something to ask or show for myself, I'm not really all that visible.
I miss the way it used to be.
Has anyone seen Dogtag lately?
Sue, Dogtag last visited the Forum on Nov 2 this year.
It would probably take a couple of hours just to find it again.
I miss Dogtag.
I think the reason I feel relatively safe is that I don't go anywhere else but the group and my own home page, and I don't have anything there (on FB) that is really all that personal. The only data they could have of mine is who my mapping friends are, because they are the only reason I'm there in the first place. I'm not talking about anything Earth-shatteringly important with any of them, unless a CC3 map will one day save the Earth, so there's no point in them even monitoring my private messages etc. If someone gets that task they've fallen out of favour with the boss and are doomed to spend many hours trying not to fall asleep reading my chit-chat.
I also have a seriously retrograde phone that doesn't 'do' data at all. It doesn't take pictures, and you can't trace me by it. Its a 20 year old phone that does what it says on the can - it makes and receives phone calls and that's just about it. There's no personal data stored on it at all. The stated reason they want a phone number is to have a way to communicate with you if you lock yourself out of your FB account - access code texts and so on. I've used it myself when I changed computer and couldn't remember my password. Another reason they want quite a lot of detail about you is to try and reduce the number of multiple account holders - people who register as if they are many people to try and avoid detection for any number of dubious reasons.
Anyway. It was nice to hear from you after so long away
Facebook is indeed quite scary. I was already well aware of the events the article referenced, and it certainly don't help FB endear itself to me. But that is what you get when you deal with a company whose primary business model is to sell personal data. I just wish the idea of giving away personal data for free wasn't so appealing to most people.
Privacy issues asides, I just plain don't like how facebook works, making me really never want to visit the thing.
Back when ProFantasy first moved from the Yahoo email group there were users that refused to make the transition from email to the forum. Now there are some who refuse to make the transition from the forum to facebook. People will do what they are comfortable with for their own personal reasons. ProFantasy, like any business, will go where the customers are, just as they should. This doesn't change my love for this company and doesn't change my intentions to buy everything that they put out.
If facebook did not have the litany of privacy violations that it has had since its beginning, I wouldn't mind the transition. Of course, we all know that it tracks us even when we aren't registered users via the websites that have facebook links, so any sense of online privacy protection from facebook is hopeless. Still, my only means of protest is to refuse to give them any personal information and to bog down my browser with as many script blockers and privacy extensions that let me limit the facebook intrusions. But this isn't the proper venue for this topic so I'll leave it at that. If online privacy is an interest of yours I'd be glad to share links to advocacy groups who are challenging facebook and other violators via forum whispers.
Take care and happy mapping to all!
On the other hand, FB gets to many more people, and increases the interest being sustained in ProFantasy. It is also as friendly a forum as this is, but not with anywhere the same expertise (apart from Sue's comments). I wish more of them would visit this forum, but there it is. By having both, we get heaps more interest.
Personally, I prefer the forum, but visit the FB page about 5xweek. here - multiple times a day.
And I so wish Dogtag would enter the conversations more - a great sense of humour, wit and wisdom, and a great critique of maps - I know he has helped me in my mapping a lot. I miss him.
I've been a bit busy working on making handmade resin dice and getting a little etsy shop up and running. I'm hoping to incorporate some maps and dice into a "kit" of sorts for gamers eventually, but for now i'll settle with selling dice and/or maps on their own
@Dogtag.....where are you, old buddy????
Remy, your simple request made me realize how much I enjoy everyone here and how much I've missed seeing everyone's current project. I've always come because of my love of maps and stayed because of the kind and wonderful people. So, I'll ignore the fact that FB is getting most of the activity these days and just post with those who are still here.
@Dogtag - Please come back, even if it just to say hello. You are missed.
I always keep thinking of those people, and wonder where are they now, and what are they doing?
Hi folks,
Thank you for the kind words. I'm genuinely touched. I miss you all, too. I'm sorry I've been absent/silent for such a long time. I was unexpectedly slammed with one personal challenge or tragedy after another for the last year, and especially the last few months, and I haven't made the time I should for pleasant pursuits. I'm hoping to rejoin you all here on this forum soon.
Cheers,
~Dogtag
Wooot!
Hellooooooo
I hope you start having a better time soon
It's good to see you here too Scott and Lorelei. This feels like old times.
@Shessar. Facebooks best kept open secret is that it is a continuation of a program the CIA started called " Lifelog". The existence of lifelogs closing was reported in an online tech website. The exact same day lifelong was shut down, facebook started. And many of the CIA employees who worked on lifelog were subsequently hired by facebook.
Let's face it, if a government agency wants to know stuff it will find a way anyway. If you shut FB down it would just find something else - your mobile apps for instance. That's why I keep an antique phone that doesn't have any of that stuff.
We are all possessions of our respective governments the day we are born anyway. That's why we have birth certificates and tax numbers - like ear tags in cattle.
The only thing you can do in life to feel less like an object is to ignore it and just get on with living.
Hi Tony - seems all the old characters are out to play - so great to hear from you all.
@Dogtag...so glad to hear from you! Hope things start getting better for you....and we see more of you on the forums. Your advice was paramount to my learning experience with this program!!
Not too fond of FB aswell.
And oh, Dogtag, you have been missed! Cheers and welcome back!
I personally find Facebook to be a very disingenuous place - people behave more like peacocks there and not themselves at all. Any serious discussion is heavily moderated or censored to suit the platform’s owners and renders the service neuter.
Did I see mention of a 64-bit version of CC3+? I am interested in knowing more about that...