Now (I know it’s been doing it a while) that Facebook sends the text of messages to your email, it really needs to do something whereby a read-receipt marks it as read in FB itself. Having to do that manually to messages I’ve read is just one more annoying thing that is meaning I use it less and less.

It’s understandable that companies want to use Facebook to promote stuff - it is after all very big - and with almost a half of BBC staff on there, it’s obvious that they should use it to promote services, programme and events.

What is annoying is when people who don’t understand social networking blunder in. Facebook has worked so far because of its “honesty” (real names, needing verified email addresses to become part of some networks) - it’s ceded to demand for entitites other than people by the creation of “fan” pages/profiles, and has for a long time had groups and events.

So it’s annoying to find our national broadcaster (or well-meaning, but ill-informed staff therin - they have to have verifiable BBC email adresses to be in the network they are) creating fake person profiles for services or other stuff. Here are just a few I’ve found by just a quick search (after I stumbled across a few in friends’ profiles):

When the Beeb gets the social web right (Backstage, Flickr stuff, plenty more I’m sure) it’s a great thing. Letting people think it’s okay to create all this “white noise” on the social web isn’t.

I’m sure many other organisations have done this too - I just think the Beeb should set an example.

Discalimer: I used to work for the BBC (although I’d have been just as annoyed about it when I worked there - and would of been able to tell the people more easily).

I’m doing a little bit to help the Black County’s bid for £50 million of lottery funding - encouraging people to vote in The People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway. The idea is that there’s an online and telephone vote, and one of four projects gets all the dosh - I’ve mentioned that I don’t much like the system, but if it has to be this way I think the Black Country could really do with the money.

As well as the website programmes will be shown on ITV 3-7 December 2007. Details of telephone voting will be announced during programmes.

I’ve made a very simple facebook app, that places a ‘vote here‘ button on your profile, and a website badge that does likewise.

Unfortunately the voting process isn’t very easy, you have to register, confirm your email address and then vote. There also isn’t a running total, which doesn’t make the vote much fun. So, how to get a bit more interest? Any ideas? Is Lol-blackcountry the way forward?

One of the reasons that Facebook has taken off so much recentley is that, I think at least, it’s a grown up social network. Even if a lot of the activity (throwing sheep, poking) is so childish the real names, real people ethos helps keep down spamming, trolling, and one hopes eventually racism.

So I wasn’t pleased to see that one of my local pubs has created a Facebook profile for itself, not a group, a profile under the name ‘Hare Hounds‘. While it’s good that they feel the web is a way to promote themselves, surely a group would have been much better - what with its discussion features, events and the like. While technology always evolves how it’s used rather than how it’s designed this is rather a blunt tool to use and I don’t really like it.

It’s the work of people that want to treat Facebook the way they treat myspace - and I hope that it won’t drive me off the site in the same way.

Support the Hare and Hounds, if you’re in the area, by visiting their website, myspace profile, or even going down for a pint, but don’t treat a pub as a person - you’ll have to start making excuses as to why you haven’t been recently.

At least two people I’ve spoken to - and a few others I’ve heard from - say that their facebook profiles have disappeared. They are unable to log in and their friends tell them that they’ve disappeared from contact lists and group memberships.

The problem with facebook being a data black hole (data goes in, it doesn’t come out) is that there’s no way to back-up any of the content that you’ve put in there.

FB carefully now.

UPDATE: Some of the original profiles are back, but people can’t login. This suggests a database failure and restore from back-up. I’ve not heard any communication ffrom FB on this.