Friday, February 27, 2009

My Facebook Mistake

Perhaps it is just as well that Facebook is taking a look at its own website and rules. I usually am careful about where I email and what I do online, having used computers for a long time.

Yesterday afternoon, I was adding my blog names to my Facebook page and clicked a button by mistake that sent mail to everyone on my address list asking if they want to be my Facebook friend. That list looks like it has about 300 addresses on it as it hadn't been cleaned up in some time.

That list includes addresses having to do with building our new swimming pool, having our gasoline tank remediated, our new septic system installed and more than a few lawyers and teachers, sales and information specialists, all ages of friends. Everyone got my email!

All of this happened because of one click that I didn't even notice until I started getting suspicious emails and went back to the Facebook site to check.

Anyway, as soon as I noticed this I deleted half the addresses and sent an apology to the other half. Of course, I should have sent the apology to everyone before I deleted the addresses, thus compounding the misery for everyone. So, I guess I should apologize again for making a mistake on top of a mistake.

One good outcome is that now I'm hearing from people I haven't heard from for years. I can tell whether their emails are current and find out what's going on with them, and I am getting a flood of emails.

Many of the photos I am seeing on Facebook friend sites are very funny (like my electrician and his buddies - who knew?). But some names on my email list made me positively squirm and some are never going to be updated. I am just hoping no one says that they don't want to be a Facebook friend or any other kind of friend to me.

Definitely, I would advise you to be very careful what you do on Facebook. Those photos, the keys to press, and what you say are less controllable than most websites at this time. On Facebook, your past can come back quickly as a shock!

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