Lighthearted Facebook Friends Could Make You Join NAMBLA Group

mykos writes "The Facebook groups feature is causing bit of a stir with its users. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington was allegedly added to a group about NAMBLA, and in turn, he added Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It's all in good (albeit tasteless) fun, except when a harmless joke goes awry and you find yourself being detained by customs when a friend decided to drag you into a mock terrorist group. Facebook representatives are aware of the matter, but are dismissive of it. A Facebook spokeswoman said, 'If you have a friend that is adding you to Groups you do not want to belong to, or they are behaving in a way that bothers you, you can tell them to stop doing it, block them or remove them as a friend — and they will no longer EVER have the ability to add you to any Group.' In somewhat related news, guillotines ensure you won't have dandruff on your shoulders anymore."

Comments

Yes, learn to grow up folks

[Etcetera]

If your "friends" refuse to respect your request, then they're not really your friends. If they're not really a friend, why are they a "friend"?

Facebook to users: We give you tools with which to communicate with people you trust. If you don't trust them, don't allow them to use those tools with you.

Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes the only way to get ahead with your farm is to say that you are a 13 year old boy who likes older men.

Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks

[PatHMV]

Well, no. I'm FB friends with my younger brothers. The youngest is in high school, and has the sense of humor one expects to find in bright, 16 year old boys... rather juvenile. I'm not going to de-friend my brother. I work at helping to teach him what's appropriate and what's inappropriate, but of course that's not always successful. If he were to add me to some group because of some childish whim of his, that doesn't mean he's not my friend... just that he's exercised some bad judgment.

Do you immediately ditch all your friends the instant they do something against your wishes? If so, I doubt you have many left. Most of us have at least a few friends who on occasion act a bit like an asshole, but are our friends nevertheless.

The REAL problem here is Facebook failing to let its users have control over what other users do to an aspect of our account. I can un-tag myself from pictures. I can turn off the ability of others to tag me in photos. Why can't I turn off the ability of other users to tag me in (i.e., make me a "member" of) groups? I should have complete control over all aspects of where my FB identity is linked in FB.

Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks

[morgan_greywolf]

Right. But lots of famous people will allow almost anyone to be their 'friend' so that they can hawk their latest book, CD, movie, coffee cup or whatever.

So, for example, you could friend, say Barack Obama, and then start a group called, say 'Friends of Osama Bin Laden' or 'the Al Qaeda United Terror Front' or whatever and hilarity then ensures.

Not that I'm suggesting anyone should do that.

Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks

[twidarkling]

spoken like someone who's never had to explain to someone why someone was removed from a friends list. People get pretty damned pissy at things like that, especially family, or if they think they were just kidding around, and you're taking it too seriously. So yes, removing a friend from a social network can have a detrimental effect on having them as friends in real life.

Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks

[Anonymous Coward]

The REAL problem here is Facebook failing to let its users have control over what other users do to an aspect of our account.

Funny, and my thought was that the problem is that you can be arrested or detained based on information gathered from a social network.

Wait.. WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have a friend that is adding you to Groups you do not want to belong to

That's how it works?
So, instead of inviting someone to join the group, you can just add them?

Dumb fucks.

Re:Wait.. WHAT?

[oldspewey]

It's almost as if Facebook is a gigantic sociological test lab. The idea is to make the whole thing incrementally more ridiculous and obnoxious, and then measure how far you can push people before they quit.

Re:Wait.. WHAT?

[PatHMV]

I know it's /., but please at least RTFS (read the f'ing SUMMARY), which explains that this is a NEW Facebook feature, which works DIFFERENTLY from the OLD Facebook feature. You've just described the OLD Facebook group feature. This one works differently.

Re:Wait.. WHAT?

[koreaman]

Looks like you're right -- I apologize for my ignorance.

Re:Wait.. WHAT?

[Seriousity]

.... Dude, he made a simple mistake, just a normal human misunderstanding. and he admitted fault - this is commendable. Even if his original post was slightly inflammatory, it hardly warrants such a malicious outburst. You're either trolling or incredibly stressed/angry about something else, and venting on this poor guy - not cool.

I think you should go outside, sit in the sun and try to find something to smile about - those facial muscles probably need a workout!

But it's so brilliant!

[Draconi]

I swear this is the standard response of any designer confronted, suddenly, with gaps in their thinking. "It can't be a serious problem, there is a workaround!"

NAMBLA

[niteice]

What's wrong with the National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes?

What?

[moeluv]

Why the hell would an option to do something like this even be added. I can see an invite system offering the ability to accept or deny an invite but being able to add someone automatically? Damn it was bad enough when my friends and I used to have junk mail wars and see who could get who on the worst mailing lists. This only ended when someone sent baby product catalogs to the wife of friend who was having trouble getting pregnant. I'm kind of surprised that guy survived. Perfect example of why this is a bad idea....someone always goes too far. Let's face it NAMBLA is pretty damn offensive.

Re:Non-issue

[hedwards]

Because in the meantime if you haven't mastered Facebook's privacy settings a stranger might think you actually belong to those groups. Which isn't a problem until said stranger is in the position of offering or not offering you a job. Or deciding whether to do a more thorough investigation prior to a lawsuit or charges being filed.

even close friends i don't trust with everything

[circletimessquare]

you are offering the absurd choice: trust your friends with everything or have no friends

no, i want friends, and i want to decide how much i trust each one. am i asking too much?

your understanding of what friendship means is crude and useless

This has to change

[Maxo-Texas]

Facebook can't be this stupid.

A friend should be able to SUGGEST that you join a group-- TO YOU so you make the decision.

I wasn't aware this was even a feature of facebook. So there is no way to disable this short of unfriending the person? (and then it's still on my record as being part of that group anyway!)

Re:yet another reason

[Austerity Empowers]

Happens a lot, not always with evil intent but ends up that way. Two of my coworkers have set up a sock puppet facebook account for a third coworker who is a relative technophobe but had recently acquired an iPhone. They found immense humor in his having the iPhone and felt that "facebook was the next logical step". They invited a lot of his friends, and made routine posts about his life that were factual although somewhat snarky. Anyone who knows the guy personally knew instantly that he wasn't operating the account. It was all in good fun, until someone posted something that was considered company confidential (by a petty piece of shit manager whose IQ may or may not exceed that of a 2x4). That got reported to the boss of the victimized coworker, said coworker of course has no idea what's going on, it stopped being funny at that point. The perpetrators did come forth and submit to their flogging, fortunately, but I can easily see facebook being damaging even if you avoid it.