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Academics - shall we set up a facebook group?

(52 Posts)
Kathyis12feethighandbites Wed 18-Nov-09 14:15:27

....as we discussed in the CAWK thread, since private rooms didn't actually happen?

dontrunwithscissors Wed 18-Nov-09 20:47:54

I must confess to never having used facebook (would I be visible to students?), but I'm certainly open to joining the 21st century if it's a way of being able to discuss work issues more openly than on MN grin.

peppapighastakenovermylife Fri 20-Nov-09 08:16:56

Yes great idea.

WilfSell Fri 20-Nov-09 08:39:58

Yes. Just set up privacy controls. I think you can register in different names but not 100% sure... If so, you can join with a MN name presumably if you want to remain anonymous. A group can be moderated by it's administrators so we will need to have someone (Kathy?) doing this and perhaps some way of confirming people are from MN? Or am I being too Moldieish cliquey here? grin

I'm up for it: let me know what to search for...

GoGoHamster Fri 20-Nov-09 10:38:21

Face Book scares me ..... I've only just learnt to text properly. [wimp]

GoGoHamster Fri 20-Nov-09 10:38:39

I will try though [being brave]

peppapighastakenovermylife Fri 20-Nov-09 12:48:46

I will hold your hand smile.

It would be a great idea - even possibly some collaborations to get management off our backs!

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:11:06

OK I will try and work out how to do it - I am newish to FB too so will need to do a lot of learning first (but what with being on maternity leave etc rather than embroiled in the busiest term of the year, I am happy to have a go smile).

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:25:18

Do we want to be secret or closed?

descriptions here:

'This group is closed.
Admins must approve requests for new members to join. Anyone can see the group description, but only members can see the Wall, discussion board and photos.

This group is secret.
The group will not appear in search results or in the Profiles of its members. Membership is by invitation only, and only members can see the group information and content. '

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:26:36

I'm thinking secret so it doesn't appear in anyone's profiles - I'll go ahead and put that, shall I - I'm sure we can always tweak it later.

peppapighastakenovermylife Fri 20-Nov-09 13:29:28

I dont think it makes much difference. Possibly best to keep it secret just in case anyone reads our profiles, sees it and joins - and we have written awful things grin

We are all wandering around muttering 'Week 8. We've finished week 8'...

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:29:58

.... or maybe it would be too hard to join people up if it's secret - it would probably mean you sending me an email or message with your FB identity and then I would send you an invitation? Though actually that would be easy enough to do via the MN CAT system.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:34:30

OK it now exists and is secret and has no members grin

If you want to join, send me a CAT with your FB id or your email (or post it on here if you have an email address you don't mind being visible). I don't think you can keep your identity separate from other group members unless you set up a whole new FB identity to use. Now I will go and set up a special email address just for this, which I will post on here for anyone who doesn't have CATs enabled.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 13:54:31

here we go.
mumsnetcawk@yahoo.com

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 20-Nov-09 16:06:49

OK, a snag.... It seems I can only invite FB friends to join the group, so anyone wanting to join would have to also be my FB friend (not sure how this works if there is more than one Admin). Is that ok with everyone?! Or does it compromise security too much?

peppapighastakenovermylife Fri 20-Nov-09 17:19:51

fine with me - I doubt you really are my infuriating line manager!

skiffler Fri 20-Nov-09 17:33:09

Is it just you, or do we all have to be friends with each other as well? (I'm sure you're all lovely, but you know what I mean wink)

I think it's possible to have different privacy settings for different friends, so I could, for example, make it so that other CAWKers can't actually see any of my photos or get inundated with the trivia of my life...

Some details here:
mashable.com/2009/04/28/facebook-privacy-settings/

Magicglassesfairy Fri 20-Nov-09 18:30:07

Have sent an email and managed to find my facebook page (that's an achievement in itself)

Oh no!

You will keep posting here as well won't you? I'll miss you if you don't!

Essie3 Fri 20-Nov-09 21:15:02

Hello, I've so far not really been heavily involved in the other thread, but I'm keen to be! Mumsnet has really come up trumps for me with my academic job troubles.
Will e-mail.

WilfSell Fri 20-Nov-09 21:18:00

Of course we will BIWI. The facebook thing is just so we can bitch about our bosses collaborate...

I can share my Chinese homework with you if you like?

<hopeful>

Kathyis12feethighandbites Sat 21-Nov-09 12:06:28

Hi all
So far 2 people have been sent invitations to The Group and I've just sent out 2 more friend requests to people who have sent me their emails smile

This is very exciting.

Skiffler's link is great - it explains how to use the 'lists' function to do separate privacy settings, so you won't need to share anything you don't want to with strange CAWKers. Alternatively you can just use the 'hide' function so you don't get my domestic trivia cluttering up your space.

I don't think you will need to be friends with all the whole CAWK group, but we'll see.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Sat 21-Nov-09 12:07:13

btw Peppa I promise I am not your line manager wink

gonnabehappy Sat 21-Nov-09 15:21:27

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Magicglassesfairy Sat 21-Nov-09 17:49:12

Kathy
Thanks for the friend request - I only usually get those from people I don't know. It is exciting!
I wonder how many of us will find our line managers/ PhD students/ supervisors on here?

Kathyis12feethighandbites Sat 21-Nov-09 18:35:00

Please do join in Gonnabehappy! We are not trying to create a clique & clearly you would fit right in!

And people definitely don't need to be 'proper' Academics With Jobs - I think probably quite a lot of CAWKers will be at the PhD stage or even earlier.

Just email me at the address below with the email address you use on Facebook (or if you're not on there yet, any email and can send you an invitation that is an invite to both be my friend and join FB).

Once the group actually has members I wonder what threads people are going to start....

kazookazoo Sun 22-Nov-09 11:24:25

hi all

another lurker/infrequent contributor to the CAWK thread here

i'm on mat leave at the moment but going in to the uni next week to discuss my research plans for the REF! argh!

anyway i've emailed, please sign me up to the fb group. sorry for the short message, i'm typing 1-handed w DS in other…

cheers

Kathyis12feethighandbites Sun 22-Nov-09 12:02:11

Have sent you an Facebook friend request Kazoo.
Sorry it is a bit of a roundabout process due to it being a secret group - I have to send you a friend request and then when you've accepted it I send you a group invite which you then need to accept (I think).

3 people should have had group invites now but AFAIK they haven't accepted yet - let me know if this is wrong.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Sun 22-Nov-09 12:26:02

Cool, we have 2 members now!

peppapighastakenovermylife Sun 22-Nov-09 20:49:47

Good good wink

peppapighastakenovermylife Sun 22-Nov-09 20:51:11

And done smile

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 10:28:02

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WilfSell Tue 24-Nov-09 10:34:57

I am going to join - soon! Just need to get through coupla batches of marking and other stuff first...

Kathyis12feethighandbites Tue 24-Nov-09 11:16:29

Gonnabehappy - have you tried clicking the 'groups' icon (ie the tiny little blue and black heads) on the bottom left of your screen in Facebook? This should bring up all the groups you're in.
Not sure whether bookmarking works or not - maybe not.

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 12:14:40

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Tue 24-Nov-09 12:17:02

Have you had a friend request from me and accepted the request and then had an invite to the group? Sorry I've got muddled up about which email matches with which MNer. I thought everyone who had asked so far was on it but perhaps I've missed you out?

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 12:30:04

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 12:43:55

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Tue 24-Nov-09 13:00:39

Does it not even show up when you click 'my groups' on the top left after clicking the groups logo in the bottom left?

Magicglassesfairy Tue 24-Nov-09 13:28:40

I had same problem - I found it by searching in the search box at top right of screen- as soon as I typed in m - the whole MumsnetCawkers thing came up and I clicked on it.
I think it is so secret it is even secret from those who are in it.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Tue 24-Nov-09 13:50:35

oh dear, that's pretty secret....
It's funny - it appears in mine quite normally.

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 14:35:29

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gonnabehappy Tue 24-Nov-09 14:36:39

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Tue 24-Nov-09 14:38:11

Phew!

Magicglassesfairy Tue 24-Nov-09 18:54:10

Woo-hoo - I know something about facebook - not scared of it anymore.

dontrunwithscissors Wed 25-Nov-09 21:09:12

Kathy, I've sent an email to the CAWK address - hope I've done that right....

dontrun

Essie3 Wed 25-Nov-09 21:21:16

OK, I think I may be too stupid to join this! grin
How do I find my groups on facebook??

Also, what does CAWK stand for??

Kathyis12feethighandbites Thu 26-Nov-09 10:36:36

aaargh, Yahoo Mail isn't letting me sign in.
having one of those days - have just posted a rant on the Facebook group about my grant application too.
double aarrgh.
Sorry Dontrun - will deal with it as soon as I can get in there!

CAWK originally stood for Crap Academics With Kids (someone on the thread suggested we set up a group of that name) but obviously the 'Crap' bit isn't very affirming so we can imagine it standing for something much more positive, eg 'competent' academics (or 'capable' since the research capability proceedings thing was what sparked this whole thing off.)
Dh thinks 'career academics with kids' would be good.

Essie, your groups should appear when you click the icon with two heads on the bottom left, but from what other people have said it appears they don't always. Have you tried searching like Magicglassesfairy suggests?
Failing that, presumably you got a message at some point when I sent the invite to join the group? Maybe there's a link in that?

hth!

Kathyis12feethighandbites Thu 26-Nov-09 10:57:57

Oh, this is funny Dontrun - I can see your name but not get into the email itself.
Therefore by searching on Facebook I have come up with various people with your name.
Are you:
1. a spaniel
2. a blonde teenager with big hoop earrings
3. a small boy
4. two people
5. a normal-looking person?

dontrunwithscissors Thu 26-Nov-09 16:30:19

I'm the spaniel! Woof, woof.

OK, I'm the one result without a photograph, assuming you have searched under my name (didn't know that would be visible from my strange email address.) I'll try sending another email to confirm.

Kathyis12feethighandbites Fri 27-Nov-09 11:14:50

have emailed you Dontrun.

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