[LINK] Maintaining the link list - Facebook page?

[Robin Whittle]

Short version:  For many folks now, Facebook is their central
                electronic communication aggregation system -
                whereas for me and I think many other Linkoids,
                email performs this function.

                A Link Facebook page could in some way form
                a bridge between the two systems - in terms of
                awareness of Link, if not the actual
                discussions.

Hi George,

Thanks for your suggestion:

> That said, I reckon we could at least have a facebook page invented to
> mark Link's transition to this new era. It should point to the web
> archive, and give some nice instructions for getting on/off the
> mailing list.  I don't think the discussions should be moved to
> facebook.

At first, I thought dimly of this, since I don't have a Facebook
account and don't want to get one, since it would inevitably drag me
into another form of communication and involve decisions about who was
my Facebook "friend" or not.  Likewise, I avoid Linkdin or whatever.

That said, I think that Facebook has become such an important form of
communication for many people, that perhaps it is worth doing this.
Link and the whole concept of mailing lists belongs to an entirely
pre-Facebook, pre-Myspace, pre-web-forum era of the Internet.

The people growing up now (I am a 1955 model, and I started using the
Net in 1993 or so) using email, IM, SMS, Twitter, Facebook and web
forums all at the same time probably don't have the same focus on
email as a central tool that I and some other Link people have.  It
seems that Facebook has now taken on this role.

I know of someone who got a Facebook account simply because he found
himself, without it, being left out of the local (rural NSW) flow of
social contact and coordination which previously occurred solely by
phone, email and in-person communication.

Maybe some brave Link soul with a foot in both eras could establish a
Facebook page, like some kind of outpost on the new frontier (from my
point of view).  This would appear be like a gateway into the past for
the Facebook generation!

Perhaps, if they, or several people, took the trouble to do occasional
(once every week or two?) Status Updates on the Link Facebook page,
mentioning discussions they thought were interesting, with links into
the Link archive, then this would appear on the News Feed page of
everyone who "friended" Link.

Then, folks for whom Facebook was their primary mechanism of
communication, just as email probably is for Linkoids, can see "there
is another system" and might be tempted to read or participate in Link
discussions.  This could lead to a separate commentary on Link  on
Facebook, which would be entirely in tune with how more and more
people use the Net today.

  - Robin