Add Friends to Group

That’s what it reads, in Facebook Groups

“Add…?”

In Facebook, why can we not “recommend” or “invite” friends to groups in which we are a member?

Why does no one blast the Zuck for this…? The only thing we can do – unless we take pains to first write people, ascertain their group interest and then use Facebook’s “Add Friends to Group” button… is to inflict groups upon our Facebook friends.

In LinkedIn, I can pre-approve people for easy entry to my groups – in case they elect to join. I can invite people as well, and if I do so, they are pre-approved and may join with a click of a button in the invitation message sent to them.

Case in point: The Danes, the Designing Danes.

Darling Danes, “why did you inject me into your group,” I’d like to know?

I opened Facebook one day to discover that I had been added to a group that:

1. Had no group description, no supporting documents to explain the nature of the group, what we should/can do with the group – or who had thrust the group upon me.

2. Would use a default setting to send me every possible update to my email – until I turned off those updates. (Hey, if you rope me into something that I never even hinted I’ be interested in, wouldn’t it make sense to anyone in their right mind – to use the least invasive contact setting for the default? This is where I really cry foul: as with everything, Facebook invokes its self-granted right to start you off with the most spammy, privacy-invasive and needless work-adding setting to change from. Each and every time something changes in Facebook, and when a group is thrust upon us.)

Why will Facebook not allow me a master privacy setting – “send NOTHING to my email” – to affect any groups I join (or am inflicted with…?)

Is any of this okay with you? Just wondering…

We tend to assume that most internet users can at least get by in English, right? (Well, not in Japan, but…)

I would not have thought that Danish had actually become prevalent as a world language, but look what I woke up to just a few days ago:

For my forty-fifth birthday, I somehow got plopped into what appeared to be (how would I know? no explanation, introduction, documents of any type…) all-Danish Facebook group. Ok, ok, Danish, English, whatever – were both Germanic languages, not too tough to make out. I immediately found that the group was for “de kreaktive sjæle og tanker.” Fair enough: while I rarely get “tanker-ed,” I like to consider myself kreaktive.

My one post, in the 11.finger Facebook Group

Hej! See any -gaard or -sen on my name? A hat with horns on my head, perhaps…? Wait, wait – See me post anything that’s got o’s with diagonal lines going through them? Well, this could just be ’cause I AIN’T A DANE, sorry! So, why invite me to this group…? (Its okay, I’m not offended. But after I share this with and I think I should leave this group. < But firstly, “god Friday og weekend”

Naturally, I do understand that the lady who invited me to the 11.finger group simply had not considered that the nature of the group was not self-explanatory, or that Facebook would swamp me with messages (until I turned them off, for the group). I also realize that some would not consider that the thoughtful thing to do would be to first ask people if they would like to be in the group, before inserting them into it. This would not be an issue, if group invites in Facebook were handled as they are in LinkedIn, of course. As such, I do need to make it clear that I have no problem with the lady who invited me (other Danes are “suspect,” haha), but rather with Facebook.

Hmm, and now, to categorize this post. My choices are Japanese or English, no Danish, alas…

About Saul Fleischman

Founder of emerging social media tool sites. Bootstrapping innovation with lean startup development teams. I do project management, user experience, PR, marketing and community development.

Related OsakaBentures Must-Reads