what the actual is that facebook like button doing there?

[CarolCervix]

has it always been there? or has it moved? and does that mean if someone 'likes' that thread it will be posted to their fb page?

[baubleybobbityhat]

ChippingIn
What happened on the Memoo thread you linked on this thread? I don't understand.

[StupidLikeButton]

Thanks Justine....I honestly think I'd rather leave FB than MN...so that's what I'm doing. I just won't be comfortable with it...but as I had already been thinking of ditching FB and am addicted to MN..then I may as well de-reg from FB...and then the button will mean nothing to me really...I know people could share threads which make me recognisable...but I will name change regularly...I do anyway...so....aas you say, FB has got a grip of the net and if it's do or die...I'll opt for a half life...an internet Zombie who isn't on FB.

[ImpOfThePerverse]

Does anyone think it's actually a good thing that there is now a number so you can see a thread has been linked? Before you had no way of knowing whether a thread had been linked to FB or not and now you know exactly how many times it's happened.

I do think people should be much more aware of managing their privacy online and if this is a wake up call for people to do that it can only be a good thing.

MN isn't a private, cosy chat space, it's a public forum read by millions of people. Most threads won't be linked to FB, or will only be linked a few times. Most people won't bother to read MN just because their friends did. Very few people who've just started using MN after following a link from FB immediately start doing advanced searches on individual posters. Plenty of people on MN, who've never used FB, might well put a few of your posts together and realise who you are if you don't do anything to preserve your anonymity.

Same as it ever was really.

[StupidLikeButton]

It's not a good thing as far as MN are concerned Imp I have been checking those numbers and it affects whether I post or what I post.

[QuintessentiallyFestive]

I think we did have this discussion last year. It is resurfacing because the buttons have changed location and design.

Personally, I dont mind. I am aware this is a public forum, I name change if i want advice on something sensitive. Otherwise I am just me. No made up online persona, or anything.

I doubt anybody is going to see something I say in a post, from somebodys faceook page and instantly click, OH, That is Mrs Festive from my dds school!

Or something. And if they do, I have nothing to hide. Not under this name...

[ImpOfThePerverse]

Just out of interest MsButton (it feels slightly more polite than calling you stupid, I'm happy to be Imp rather than MsPerverse although I'll answer to either) how many threads have you seen with 'likes', I've not really been looking but I think I've only seen 'likes' on threads about the like button...

[ChippingInLovesChristmasLights]

Quint - that's easy to say if you don't have a particularly 'different' life. We have posters who have lives which are very 'different' and are easy to 'spot'. Most of those people post here for support and their 'back story' is relevant to the support they get, so frequent name changing doesn't work.

Not sure if you saw this post or not - so I'll re-post it - it explains it well...

cat64Sat 17-Dec-11 16:44:08 Just adding my voice to 99% of other posters who don't want MN to be copied all over FB. I post a LOT too much on here, and, for some advice I've given, or for some help I've offered, and equally for all the help and advice I've received, I've often had to say quite a bit about my family for it to make sense. I'm OK with that as it is in the realms of a Parenting website - I'm unlikely to be read by my teenagers or their friends. On FB, that's another story altogether though. Please listen to your customers, and remove this button. I'm not a teenager, and therefore don't need to "like" things

People, especially those with children with SN, who post for support are far far more likely to be outed when their posts are linked to facebook so easily.

As I said, other than the fact it may change MN and some of my favourite posters may stop posting (quite a few have stopped already :( ) it doesn't directly affect me really, I am just upset that it has made people reluctant to post for support.

[QuintessentiallyFestive]

Chipping, very good point.

My view is possibly coloured by the fact that I dont use facebook much. I am rather "mature" about it, and rarely "like" things on facebook, and mostly see it as a teenage thing.

Could a compromise be reached by only allowing Like button in classics, or in Aibu, or the pramshed? (The pramshed must be perfect.....)

[ImpOfThePerverse]

I have about 5 teenagers on my FB (friends' DC and a few relatives) and none of them would follow a link to MN, even if I posted one with the most interesting title ever. It would just be too saaaad, it's a parenting forum, it's for losers (insert teenspeak of choice here).

[IAmFuckingPissedOff]

I agree absolutely with ChippingIn.

I have supported a lot of people who are at the absolute end of their tethers by sharing my problems and how I have dealt with them.

But a link from one of my threads to one of my teenager's facebook pages would be catastrophic.

And I'm not exaggerating.

I know people think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I really wish I was . I wish I had the type of life where being having all my posts read by my children, my dh or my friends wouldn't be a big deal. But for me, it is.

All I'm asking is that the button should be customisable to be invisible to me. And preferably not there on sensitive topics.

It isn't really that much to ask.

[MelanieLane]

Imp (20.58.20), I think in one way it is a good thing for posters that there is a number saying how many FB likes - ie links - have been done on a thread. Because - as you say - if it raises internet privacy awareness then that is great.

On the other hand if it inhibits posters, well that might make MN boring and less useful. So I am just hoping people stay uninhibited and name change more instead.

[MmeLindor.]

Chipping
good point.

I do think that in the main people can namechange, and stay unidentifiable. I couldn't, because as soon as I mention that I am in Switzerland with a German husband - people would recognise me. So I would have to change so many details, which I am hopeless at doing and would always out myself.

And those who need to post details of their (or their DC's) illness to access the info and advice, they cannot either.

At the same time, the "risk" has been here for a long time, just the location of the button has changed.

[JustineMumsnet]

@IAmFuckingPissedOff

I agree absolutely with ChippingIn.

I have supported a lot of people who are at the absolute end of their tethers by sharing my problems and how I have dealt with them.

But a link from one of my threads to one of my teenager's facebook pages would be catastrophic.

And I'm not exaggerating.

I know people think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I really wish I was . I wish I had the type of life where being having all my posts read by my children, my dh or my friends wouldn't be a big deal. But for me, it is.

All I'm asking is that the button should be customisable to be invisible to me. And preferably not there on sensitive topics.

It isn't really that much to ask.

I do understand that this would be catastrophic for you but

1. How likely is it that it would it happen - unless you like your own thread how likely is it that someone likes a particular thread of yours and your teens are their friends and get to see it?
   
2. It could easily happen already. There is a FB link button at the top of every thread now (save a few topics) as well as is the drop down when you scroll down (unless you've disabled it) and anyone could cut and past any url (with 2 clicks) to their facebook page.
   

As said we have had a pretty easy Facebook share button in place on threads for a while now and it has not resulted in people being exposed. Not ever that I can recall and we've had it there for a good year or so.

It's absolutely fair enough to think about your own privacy and how exposed you are via your mumsnet posts. I do hope everyone does because we are not here to make people's lives more complicated. But adding the facebook like doesn't increase your exposure. All we have done here is make very slightly easier something that is already very easy to do on Mumsnet.

[Thumbinnapuddingwitch]

Justine - are you noting the people who use touchscreen media and who may quite easily accidentally press the LIke button in its current placing, whether or not they want to? Has the auto-posting to the FB page now been resolved?

[MmeLindor.]

Cat
There are a lot of people who are really not bothered by the FB button and not even posting though.

The touchscreen thing is only an issue if the glitch truly does mean that one click would be enough to post on FB

[StupidLikeButton]

Justine I think the most important thing that has come of this is that many posters have had a wake up call...it has certainly woken me up. I have, under various names, posted some very personal problems and like others, my circumstances would make me very recognisable due to locations and family circumstances...I think this....the face of MN seems to be changing...and if it's not...then it's real face has become more visible.
Many are uncomfortable with it. Me included....your point about people sharing...

It could easily happen already. There is a FB link button at the top of every thread now (save a few topics) as well as is the drop down when you scroll down (unless you've disabled it) and anyone could cut and past any url (with 2 clicks) to their facebook page

Has reminded me that MN isn't a cosy home from home..a place to chat freely. So I may never feel safe here again...like many others I have been naieve and now this is a wakeup call. but I think I'm de-regging for sure. Goodbye all! It's been great...have a lovely Christmas and happy MNetting in theNew Year.

[LoremIpsum]

Cat, that's only the posters on this thread, and many of them have posted multiple times. There are clearly many more posters who either don't care, havent noticed or are fine with it. Otherwise they'd be posting too.

As someone who really can't see the problem and thinks that this is largely much ado about nothing, it would feel rude to keep on posting that so my voice is a quieter one in the debate. That doesn't mean it's a less valid or less popular POV.

The fears some have are really out of proportion. That doesn't mean it's not valid to feel that way, but it's surely not on to think that MNHQ should be bullied into doing something by a minority of posters whose reaction is disproportionate. BTW, if anyone ever accidentally presses like and sends it to Facebook, then open Facebook and delete the like post. Done in ten seconds. What fallout could there be?

[IAmFuckingPissedOff]

For me it's the very obvious position (right where your mouse would hover), coupled with the easy clickability, coupled with the glitch, which could easily be repeated.

It's the accidental clicking on my own thread that I'm most worried about. Which if I could custom my threads to have it not appear would not be a problem.

I have hidden the dangly-thingy. Why can't I disable the "like"?

[IAmFuckingPissedOff]

I can't open facebook and delete the link. I'm not on Facebook, I don't use it, I don't intend ever to use it .

[ImpOfThePerverse]

If you're not on FB then you have no wall to post to?

If your DC are kept logged in you can go into their FB and delete it.

If your DC aren't logged in a link can't post.

I'm not sure where the problem is?

[IAmFuckingPissedOff]

Because yesterday there was a glitch.

If you clicked on the like button it posted on your wall even if you weren't logged in.

It posted the next time you logged in.

I don't log in. My kids and my dh do on the same computer. So the next time they log in, there will be a thread of mine sitting nicely on their wall. And I know nothing about it.

As it is, I have to double check that no-one is logged in before I use mumsnet, because if I am, then it posts straight (yesterday, and possibly today, I don't know, it was a one-click action, with no chance of cancelling).

I haven't yet had a reassurance that the glitch they had yesterday has been absolutely and irrevocably fixed. I just don't trust it.

It is a real problem for me. Which I accept isn't a problem for 99% of mumsnetters, but it doesn't stop it being a real problem for me .

[BobbinRobin]

But once it's on your Wall (even momentarily) it's too late to stop it going on to your Friends' 'ticker feed' thing of what you're up to isn't it?

That would be the biggest concern to me, the accidental hitting of it, then that happening.

If there really is a failsafe two-stage process then it really MUST be failsafe and reliable even on a dodgy touchscreen.

[CrispLeCrisp]

It's just so bloody unnecessary and i hate it . Not convinced by Justine (Olivia & Rebecca's) arguments either .