I'm about the last guy that would be considered a social media advocate ....no cell , no texter , on Facebook but rarely converse , but I have joined about 20 old car and truck related ( mostly Ford ) groups .
My interest in model railroading has been along the lines of industrial settings , particularly steel mills , so I joined the Steel Modelers Facebook Group . Now Facebook Groups of any sort can be an administrative and moderators nightmare with the seemingly large number of idiots to banish so there is a downside .but .........

....here's where I'm going with this . There is also a new HO Model Railroader Group and it would appear to have a lot of novices on it judging by the many pics of " plywood central " , but it's nice to see a number of young people getting into or reacquainting themselves with the hobby . I'm most encouraged by the number of posts I see and the questions they are asking .

T

It is nice to know there are young people getting into the hobby. Myself I stay as far away from "anti-social media" as I can.

Like Mike I stayed away from Facebook for a long time, then about 3 years ago my cousin started posting historical pictures of my hometown from the historical society's collection. If you wanted to see them you had to join the group and to do that you had to join Facebook.
Since that time I have seen many pictures of my hometown and discovered groups that have helped me get pictures of trains with the heads up, as well as many groups on local history. I have also met some very nice young people who model and railfan that are not idiots.
Of course you have to be careful. It would be foolish to post your address and say "come steal everything I have" It is just like meeting someone at a cafe' or a workplace, you get to know them before you bring them home.
I have a friend that won't touch FB but he doesn't hesitate to contact me for a heads up if something interesting is out on the local rails and he needs information, but sometimes I am already trackside and I don't get his message until too late. I have told him how to get the info directly but he is dead set against FB.
You can join FB as Donald Duck 987989 (might have to add a few numbers) and enjoy lots of stuff that does not have a thing to do with grannies dirty underwear, and many of the groups are private so you have to join.
You have privacy settings for your profile and posts too.
I share my pictures there the same as I do here, and so do many others.
Charlie

I joined FB some years ago when I discovered lots of railroad and model railroad groups. I am using a fake name, address and some dates and places to convince FB. Otherwise is my profile closed and I do not use it for chat or communication. No "FB friends" etc. I am periodically using a VPN connection to look like a local US user.

My use is restricted to railroad and model railroad groups only. There is virtually no spam mail etc. and it became a nice source of information. It is also useful to "like" the brands you are interested on. You get information about new models right away.

It is a recommended source of hobby related information if you stay strictly within the boundaries of our hobby.

I admit it is a typical german behavior to be very picky with sharing private information in the internet. There are tons of honorable US model railroads that share a lot of their privat live with photos of houses (outside and inside), cars, pets, spouse and kids.

It got me to thinking so I looked up my profile on FB for my "friends page " , 9 family or old friends from school . I only converse by email . I haven't gone to the clandestine face names , cities like a couple of yooz guyz but I've set the FB parameters very tight . No issues .

I was happy to help out a young guy today or HO facebook , ...put him on to Carl Arendt's small layout site because the kid had very little space to build his layout ( probably in an apartment )

I have to tell this FB story, it's a good one. I was searching for old friends by name on google a couple years ago and came across an obituary of a lady that was a friends girl friends mother (this was a teen romance from 59).
She was a Canadian and we all met as teens when fishing in Ontario. The OB listed her married name and noted she was widowed. I asked to friend her on FB and the message was ignored for over a year. May (2013) My friends wife died suddenly. He was devastated. I was talking with him on the phone the following September and mentioned I had found this girl on FB, and he was so against contacting her because he was concerned about his wife's memory.
I told him he really should try to friend her on FB and that I had tried a year earlier and been ignored. After lots of persuasion he did send a request, and in less than an hour she replied. She also replied to my request too. It turned out it was her daughter that put her on FB and showed her how to use it but she wasn't using it because she was uncomfortable. It just happened that the night my friend posted her daughter was there and told her to check her page. She said the minute she saw our names it changed her life. She has been battling Cancer for 10 years. Now for 2 years we have been corresponding and she and my friend have been fishing in Ontario a couple of times last summer and this summer. She came to the states with him in September and they stopped and visited with my wife and I on their way to Virginia, and she is flying to Virginia to visit with him and his daughter over Thanksgiving.
So, there are good things to be told about Facebook as well as bad.
Regards
Charlie

What a " fish story " that was !

Yep, one of the best. I will be joining up with them on the Mississippi Lake next summer if everything goes well.
Regards
Charlie

I nice story supporting real names.

It's good to know there are useful things that Facebook is used for - more than just gossip and time wasting. I still won't join, however...

My Facebook story:

About 4-5 years ago, a co-worker of mine told me that our former boss had a very strange Facebook page. Of course, I could not see the page unless I had an account. I decided I was curious enough that I would create a fake account. Soooo.... I went to yahoo and created a new email address. Fake name, birthday, age, the whole 9 yards. Then I used the fake email address to create a fake Facebook profile. Again, every bit of information I provided was fake. I got to the last step, where it asked me to add friends. If gave me a list of suggested friends - AND ALL WERE PEOPLE THAT I ACTUALLY KNEW!!!

How did it know? I immediately switched my computer off. Didn't log off, just switched off and unplugged. And I am not a paranoid person! I finally figured it out - Facebook mined my Outlook contact list and cross referenced that to their database. That was enough for me to steer clear ever since.

nacho man Wrote:..... Facebook mined my Outlook contact list and cross referenced that to their database. That was enough for me to steer clear ever since.

That is a known extreme nasty behavior of FB. But you must have misinterpreted one of the many questions during the registration. You are asked for permission to access your address books. It is hidden behind a sweet question about your friends. FB uses that address to contact them and ask them to join FB too if they are no FB member or ask them to become your friend if they are already FB members.
I watched my wife closely when she created her fake FB account to make sure she does not grant read access to her address book.

That was a nice story Charlie, here's hoping things turn out well.

As for Facebook I am still in two minds about joining.

Reinhard, such suspicious behaviour, your not a spy are you?
Just kidding Reinhard.
Mark

I use Facebook a lot. Its allowed me keep in touch with friends who have moved away (and when I say away, I mean the other side of the world), meant that I met up with people in real life that I would probably have never seen again and also got to be good friends with people I knew slightly a long time ago who I have now realised that I have a lot in common with.
If it wasn't for Facebook, I would probably not have dragged my wife and kids to a wedding in rural Norway.
What I don't use it for is hobby stuff..

Hi,

I managed to get my Dad to sign up to Facebook last week. My next job is to get him to sign up to this forum, he's a very private man but is passionate about trains and models.
I will pick out some good posts to get him warmed up. :hey:

And a big welcome to the forum Trainwebguy. Check out anything threads here and you will find some of the finest modeling any where on the web and you will never find a bunch of better people.
Regards
Charlie