[DeTomaso] POCA on Facebook

Ian Hannington ihannington286720mi at comcast.net
Thu Feb 18 18:14:52 EST 2016


Steve,

I installed Ghostery on my PC and it is awesome.  It makes you invisible while surfing the web.  The advertising companies can no longer track you and send you those "relevant to you" ads that are so annoying.  It will also speed up your browser big time.  Go to cnet.com and download the version for your browser.
http://www.cnet.com/search/?query=ghostery

Best of Luck,
Ian


-----Original Message----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf Of steven.liebenow at att.net
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2016 5:48 PM
To: Mailing List Detomaso
Subject: [DeTomaso] POCA on Facebook

OK, this topic seems to have tailed off....but because I have had to pull myself off of the web to keep up with other things......being 17 days or so behind the curve isn't too bad.......since I haven't been on the board in perhaps 6 months or so....   
     
MANY good points made by folks here, from all sorts of angles.
I just bought a transmission for a washing machine off of eBay a short while back.  I searched the web-over......and now, I get spam from every sales outlet on the web about "here's another transmission if you are still interested"...."Ahhh no! That was two months ago and the first one lasted 8 years or so! Get back to me in about 8 years....!"...... These folks are a little tooooo connected to me, for my comfort.  I could go on about all the discount cards at grocery stores, casinos, credit cards, etc that allow these companies to track your every purchase and compile data that they sell to advertisers and such but I won't.  Don't even ask me about putting my health records on the internet, "because we will make sure that companies would never use this data against you....."      (How is it that DMV knows my kid's insurance hasn't been paid, but the insurance agent/company doesn't let me know????)

I work for a high tech company and hear all the noise about our product needing to be at the center of all the new media hype.......and that you need to know what your friends, neighbors, enemies, co-workers blah blah are doing with all their spare time.........the first time (early 2000's) that an ex-coworker started emailing his every move once he got out of bed in the morning started my distaste for this trend..... he was listing what he ate, how many laps of various different strokes he swam at the pool and on and on and on........to who? Anyone that cared?????? WHO CARES!

I asked my late teen kids (now adults) if they would like to have an app on their TV that told them what your friends were watching and would let you communicate to them real time.........  (Someone actually thought this was a save all app for the company......it flopped....the guy still has his job....duh!) The kids basically said EW!........no, not interested at all.  "That's a stupid idea!"    My kids are fairly normal, albeit still living at home while working to get out of the house....  They now do "some" FB, but don't camp on it......   So I sort of took it as a good measure of social media.....  I think it is simply hyped WAY OUT OF PROPORTION by the very media companies that created the crap.  Sort of like 4K TV being pushed by chip component makers, to the TV makers, which are now pushing it out to the consumers, but it is inefficient to implement by the cable companies, so they have VERY little actual 4K programming (shows) on their wires, and basically never will for a while......until they phase out all their latest set top boxes (that don't do 4K!).....AND figure out how to squeeze more than 1 or 2  4K channels into a single channel space (remember old analog channels?).
So we have a classic case of the tail wagging the dog here.
I think that what is needed is a good compromise of media.....    You have old school like me that pretty much has an email account and a web browser, and not much need for anything else, then you have the hyperactive "just found my penis and am gonna play with it until it falls off" "new shiny rock" crowd......  "You need to join my network on this new app that is just gonna make your life great!"   No.  I don't. Call me if you want something....    What to do?

Make a web site.  Make it the best damned website on the planet.  Make sure is serves the needs of all the members well.     Now, use ancillary tech, like FB and others to drive traffic back to our website.   Just like all the advertisers do!!!  No need to waste core POCA time to service 32 flavors of FB.    If a chapter wants to maintain a FB presence, go for it!   Just don't expect the rest of the club to support it when your kids leave the house and your ability to comprehend how to maintain a FB page goes with them......and no one else in the chapter wants to take over.....

This way, you capture the new uber-excited (but probably broke....) tech-starved maniacs that troll the various social media sites, without the problems associated with having to go to FB etc to get your DeT news!  .....AND, you satisfy the needs of the old timers, tech-oblivious, and others that simply "choose not to" alike, without diverting club resources all over the place.
For all too many clubs created back since in the 70's,  that lived thru hand typed newsletters, paper mailings,and PC's to generate newsletters, only to come smashing face to face with the internet age, this very stuff is at issue!      How to migrate high tech to largely low tech folks?     In other another club that we belonged to, the fight to keep current was crazy!    It was a matter of searching to find some "kid" that knows about websites....to be able to put up a web page for the club......only to have the kid move off to college or elsewhere (he didn't even have a club type car!) and then everything went fallow......and membership dropped off....blah blah....and the club died a horrible but quiet and un-noticed death!
So my suggestion is to apply the KISS (Keep It Steve Simple) and have as few moving parts as possible......   Keep your website-workers very happy and well stocked with tech goodies, and let the FB people dance where they want to.....!
Enuf!
Ciao!
Steve
PS: As I sit here typing this, the Yahoo advertising page section of MY computer's display screen, is flashing up a set of Mangusta wheels that I looked at the other day, elsewhere on the web.   No problem with that......but it's the Model A wire wheels and other such.....that I DIDN"T look at that are popping up because someone figured that they could throw 80 year old car wheels at me because I looked at other old wheels at all.....that bothers me a bit.....!!!! Sheesh!







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