Wednesday, March 11, 2009

facebook vs ravelry

Both are online communities. But, while I enjoy reading the posts on Ravelry, Facebook tends to just... annoy me.

It helps that Ravelry is a more focused crafting community. Still, there are subgroups - and many of them involved here. When I find a group in Ravelry, I can check it out before I join it. I can read the posts, and I can check out projects made by people in that group. If I want to, I can go back to that group many times and never decide to join it. If I do decide to join, I don't have to spam all my friends to see if they want in too. Facebook? I feel like its main purpose is to cause you to create spam.

Oh, sure, I've had friends "write on my wall," on Facebook. I will say I've even touched base with someone who I'm happy to have touched base with, there. I hope she and I will talk more often. Still, the process seems... spammy. I get an e-mail, that someone has left a message on my wall. What they wrote is even in the e-mail... but I can't just hit reply. NO, I have to go to the site, enter my password, so some list of things that people want me to accept/do... although if I try to respond to any of it, it takes me through endless circles to create more annoying spam for my friends... people who you would think I would like to avoid spamming if I could. Don't others see it that way? Is it just me? Sigh. Mostly I just ignore that stuff. I hope I'm not hurting your feelings by doing that, but if I had to deal with all that go here, enter my name, enter my profile, provide X number of friends to send through this same torture... well, I probably would never log back on there again.

With Ravelry, if someone wants to send me a message, they can. Either they can happen upon my profile from a project I've posted or a comment I've made and reply in a thread, or to my mail box. When I log on, if someone's left me a message, it lets me know there is one waiting. More like my regular e-mail. I like it a whole lot better.

So, if you want to look for me, you can try Facebook. I'm there, somewhere, occasionally, but I'm not going to keep you posted on my every move... it would be waaayyyy to dull. I'm not going to poke you or pillow fight or give gifts... even though I like gifts, I don't like creating spam. Write on my wall, I'll probably answer. Look for me on Ravelry, though, if you want some real participation.

1 comment:

Fran said...

There are people who love Facebook, and I like being able to check in with friends, but I don't get the buzz from it that others do, and I don't play all the games.

Still, I've found out some things that I wouldn't have known about otherwise through Facebook.

But now I'm getting pressure to Twitter, and THAT makes me cranky.

Or maybe it's the flu.