This post details some of the steps I have to take both before and after the actual deletion of my account. They are in the order I thought of them while writing this post.
- Not all my friends that I would like to read this blog. I’d doubt if three of ‘em do. So I’m going to link to Part I of this three-part post on facebook itself. However, rather than put it in a note, I’m going to put it in a group for a few reasons.
- It will be searchable on facebook. That way, when somebody searches for “Scott Caplan” on facebook, in addition to finding other Scott Caplans there, they will find a group titled “Scott Caplan is quitting facebook” that will point them to this post. In an ideal world, people could just google me (after all, I am result #2 on a Google search for my name), but I don’t think people will think of that for a while. By the way, if you’re reading this and your name is Scott Caplan, you should check this page out.
- I like the comparison to those obnoxious “Hey, I lost my phone number” groups. For a good protest group, see here.
- A note loses its feed audience after its posted. A group gets advertised every time somebody joins it. Hint: if you’ve read this far, and you’re on facebook, join it! You don’t have to quit facebook in order to let your friends (some of which are probably also my friends) know that I’m quitting facebook.
- Hand over groups of which I’m an administrator to friends who are staying on the closed network.
- Copy down all the contact information I want to keep. Note: if you want mine, you should write it down now. Once I delete my account, you’ll have to email me. In the long run, I want to set up a private page that’s password-protected/openID-enabled for my contact info, but that won’t be for a while I’m guessing.
- Get openID working on this blog. I don’t know if I want to abolish the anonymous commenting. In the meantime, though very few people comment. Indeed, most of the commenters here are spambots, and deleting their “comments” is a bit of a pain. I don’t think it exists yet (probably because facebook doesn’t let you play around with their headers), but it would be an awesome app and/or improvement to facebook if you could use your facebook profile page as an openID…
- I will yank the plug on my account some time before classes start on September 5th.
- Actively search for ways to make the open social web a reality, and continue to participate in the
revolutionconversation.
I like facebook but its all kids. Linkedin is a static archive of resumes and they charge you to contact people you dont know. If you want a site that you’ll actually find useful and use it for networking. Try a site called congoo.com. To me, its way better then the other two.
Thanks for the comment Trevor, but I think you’ve missed Part I. My problem isn’t with facebook itself. If I wanted to stay in a social network site, it’d probably be facebook. Until they can communicate with one another, I’m going to stay out of the social bookmarking arena.
I added you to my bloglines … don’t disappoint.
The deed is done. Facebook doesn’t actually delete your account (although I’m sure if I emailed them and asked them to delete all of my info, they would, since I’m pretty sure they’re legally required to). What they do instead is deactivate it, which actually works better in case one day either 1) I stop caring about open standards and interoperability or come to realize this is stupid, or 2) fb actually changes for the better.
Anyway, they ask you why you’re deactivating. I checked other, and left the following note:
I would rejoin in a heartbeat (and feel free to keep my email address and let me know if/when it happens) if key facebook features became interoperable with other social networking sites, and ideally via some sort of open standard. A nice start would be making profile pages also work as openID. This may already be doable with facebook apps, but I don’t know how to do it, and the last time I checked, nobody had written it.