g1ant

One of the (many) things that pisses me off is the amount of bad advice and information that is dished out on British ex-pats Facebook groups.

You know if it happens on this forum that we have a resident sanctimonious prick who will be along within the hour to push the bullshit button.

Other groups.forums are not so lucky.

It seem particularly common when the subject is passports and dual nationality. If you have been here a while you will know that passport applications and renewals used to be sent to the UK Embassy in Washington. If you applied or renewed in the last couple of years you will know that you mail all your stuff off to Durham and DHL will bring your shiny new passport to you in a few weeks.

Which passport to use on exit and return if you have dual nationality is another great subject.

I found this gem on a FB group today.

"The only restrictions with passports, you have to leave the US with your American passport, and when you land in the UK show the kids American and the parent UK passport at the EU gates. If you travel around the EU use the UK passport.

If you leave with a UK passport and return with US passport.
They can refuse entry back on American soil"

Hmmmm.....

Bob

There is some crackingly bad advice out there....but what's amusing is the amount of people who keep posting it after someone has corrected the rubbish.

Pulaski

And some people who want to argue over their idiotic misunderstandings even when multiple people try to straighten them out, on matters such as "residence" for the purpose of needing a local (state) drivers license.

MsElui

and you can imagine them trying to say '' but facebook told me that.......' when faced with the real officals!

Pulaski

I was engaged in a discussion a few days ago, and when my advice didn't coincide with the OP's preconceived ideas, they backed up their arguments with a link to a blog, of very uncertain provenance.

Steerpike

I've avoided FB in general for the longest time, but recently my nieces in UK have coaxed me into joining. Fair to say I'm appalled in general, but it is a way for me to communicate with them.

I haven't figured out 'groups' yet. What is the general concept of a group in FB? Can you post to a 'group' and have those posts / discussions separated from your other 'friends'? My biggest oppo to FB in general is the fact that you have to tell 'everyone' stuff ... well, that and the unbelievable number of 'hallmark psychology' posts.

Can you post a link to a sample FB expats group perhaps?

Pollyana

You don't have to tell everyone everything, you can set up Lists, which contain certain friends and then you can do a post just to that list.
for instance I have a list of firends minus all my work colleagues/friends -there is a lot of family and out-of-work stuff I don't want them to see. I have another list for family, one for close friends, one for the people I want viewing the pics of my latest trip home, etc
Go to the Facebook Help and look for Lists, very easy to do.

If you are in a Group your friends may see your posts if it is an open group. If its closed, they won't.

AdobePinon

What she says. But in general, the rules of the Internet apply. If you post something expecting certain people to not see it, certain others (of your friends or otherwise) will make sure that they do.

quiltman

I belong to a couple of Expat FB groups here and they are all closed groups. You apply to join and once admitted, only other group members can see your posts. you can set up your own closed group on FB if you want, then you screen applicants and only allow them in if you're satisfied. Still, I assume anyone will be able to see my posts so I think before posting, just in case!

petitefrancaise

I was once part of an ex-pats FB group in France. OMG, mostly bored house-wives who hadn't bothered to learn french with nothing better to do than create trouble to liven up their boring little ex-pat lives. I left when a healthcare professional tried to make out she could work legally in France without registering there, oh and please pay cash.

I belong to a couple of FB groups and mostly they are entertaining and fun.

username.exe

Five years ago I was working full time and embarking on a Masters degree with our first born on the way.

I deactivated FB to concentrate on getting all the tasks completed that I needed to. I only planned for it to be a short term thing but I realized that I hadn't missed the drama one bit. I have yet to reactivate my account, and probably won't.

Steerpike

Thanks - I'll take a look at lists. If I 'share' a page, and /or 'like' something, can I restrict the scope of those actions?

Pollyana

Yep. you certainly can with Sharing, not so sure about Likes.
With Sharing - on an ipad you usually get two options - SHARE NOW (with Friends) or SHARE (as post) - if you choose Share as post it will open in a popup window, and once you have created the list you can change the default FRIENDS at the top to whatever the list is called.
On a laptop it opens in a pop up window and the optio to change your audience is a drop down menu at the bottom.

The attachment is from my laptop - I've clicked on SHARE, got the pop up, and you'll see I have a list called UK July 2015 entered at the bottom - that means this picture would only be shared by the people I put on that custom-made list.

Steerpike

Thank you so much! I will play later.

Pollyana

Good luck!

ou might also find this useful - on a laptop/pc,go to your own timeline page (not the home/newsfeed, but the your own home page). Above your updates you will see a box that says VIEW ACTIVITY LOG, and next to it a small box with a drop down menu.One option on that menu is VIEW AS......
Click on that and you will find a box appears at the top of your page, into which you can type the name of any one of your friends. You then get the ability to view your page as if you were that friend - so if you have posted things viewable only by a certain list of people, and that friend isn't on the list, you wll see that those posts are no longer visible.
Good way of ensuring that stuff is only viewable by selected people