Question about deactivating Facebook/Twitter, please.

[UTUSN]

Can I keep my same e-mail-addy? Iow, once I'm deactivated, will my ex-FB/Twitter account show up on the "People You Might Know" that was triggered by my e-addy? Or, it would be way easier to keep my e-addy and not update all of the dozen or so places where I have it logged.


PROBLEM: I do not post into FB/Twitter, but *did* open accounts there to lurk and keep a modicum up with the modern world. But it's irritating to be faced with umpteen "People You Might Know" based on having had e-mail contact with some of them or with people I never contacted but who are apparently linked through those I *did* have contact with.

So I thought I would completely ditch my e-addy and get a new one. This means updating my actual friends/relatives AND re-doing the Windows Mail link (which I will have to re-study) AND updating the dozen business places I use.

So it occurred to me that if FB/Twitter stop listing me into other people's "People You Might Know" thing when I deactivate, then I wouldn't have to change my e-addy? Will my old/current e-addy STOP being linked by FB/Twitter when I deactivate? Although this means I wouldn't be able to open new accounts with the same/current e-addy.

[Richardo]

1. I set up a gmail account for FB only and I'm not inundated with 'PYMK'

I get some, but it must be based on mutual "friends". :shrug:

[UTUSN]

2. I just checked back and apparently FB does not let go

My log-in e-addy was in the log-in box, this after I had deactivated, and I entered the password, expecting to see an error message telling me to open a new account. Well, guess what, I logged right in swimmingly, as if nothing had happened. And now, a few hours later, there's a new e-mail saying, "Welcome back to FB. Your account has been reactivated. If you are not the person who reactivated, go to this Help page."

Apparently there is no escape. I still wonder whether, in deactivated mode, the e-addy links to everybody.

[Kali]

5. I think logging in reactivates it.

remove anything you can and deactivate again - then don't log in again

I think it eventually "closes" after some months - pretty sure the instructions are in there somewhere

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Are you saying that you get emails telling you about PYMK?

I have a FB account, and that does not happen to me, although I do not know what setting I have that is stopping it. I do see all that shit when I go on FB, which is rarely, but I can ignore that just like all the other ads on all the sites.

[UTUSN]

4. No, not e-mails. Just the pictures in my page of people linked to me by my e-addy

or, I guess, 2nd or 3rd or who knows how many degrees away of people directly contacted with me who contacted other people. Iow, I had contact with person A, so I'm linked with that one, but then person B is linked to "A" so now "B" shows up linked to me?

I *did* get an e-mail request to follow me on Twitter. This is inexplicable to me, since I don't post there at all and have a blank profile, so why would somebody approach a total stranger with a blank profile?

Anyway, I'm getting the feeling that the e-addy I used on FB and Twitter will always be there, whether the account is closed or not, and that it will continue to link?

[Curmudgeoness]

6. That whole situation is really creepy, if you ask me.

I regret the day that I signed up for FB, but except for the occasional email telling me that I have not visited lately (like I don't know that), FB is not really an issue.

I do think that the six degrees of separatation that you mention is even worse than any of it, since it shows just how much FB knows about you and everyone else who is there. I am really sorry to hear that we cannot ever cleanse ourselves from FB once we sign up without abandoning our email address. On the bright side, I have learned to ignore all the ads and things that look like ads on all online sites, so after the initial stomach-sinking feeling of what they were doing with all my info, I can forget that exists.

One good thing that came from FB is that an old friend found me, and that was really pleasant.

I am not on Twitter, so don't know how that request you got would have happened. Hell, it could be some spam-type thing.

[KamaAina]

7. You want to hear creepy?

More than once it's put up a Person I Might Know who has been dead since last August.

Now it's doing the same thing with someone else who died in December. :scared:

[Curmudgeoness]

8. GOOSEBUMPS!!!!

I guess you should friend them. You never know what they might have to say.

[InvisibleTouch]

9. I'd still prefer that to...

...the constant suggestions of people whom I absolutely loathe, but who happen to share numerous common friends with me. (Who have questionable powers of discernment, it would seem.) People that I never want to think about again, who keep getting thrown in my face.

[UTUSN]

10. You nailed my whole gripe. n/t

[Petrushka]

11. Go in and change the privacy settings on FB: Click on your account (upper right side of your page)

click on privacy settings
scroll down to "customize settings"
scroll down to "contact information"
choose "only me"

Then, scroll back up to "preview my profile" (upper right side of page) to see what the general public sees . . . and, then, type in the name of one of your "friends" to see what your friends see.

While you're in there, you might want to review and change some of the other information that's available to the public. I had problems similar to yours until I changed most of my privacy settings.

Good luck!