7.1. What’s a Group?

There are two kinds of Groups on Facebook:

• New Groups. A new Group is a handful (or more) of Facebook friends who share a reason for keeping in regular touch with each other. Examples of good Group candidates include families who want to share photos of the kids; study buddies who want to exchange stuff they’ve found on the Web; former classmates planning a reunion; and support groups who want to share tips, advice, and encouragement. Groups don’t have to be 100% virtual, either: Lots of groups that meet in person use Facebook Groups to keep in touch between meetings.

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  Tip:

  Group-related Events make it super easy for Facebook members to organize face-to-face meetings; see Chapter 8 for details.

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  Whoever starts a Group gets to decide who the original members are. Once you’re a member of a Group, you get to do things like post messages and pictures on the Group’s bulletin board, add more Group members, create and attend Group-related events, and chat in real-time with fellow Group members.

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  Note:

  It may seem weird that someone else can decide, willy-nilly, that you’re in a Group. (It’s not so weird if you think of the new Groups as a souped-up version of the seldom-used Friend Lists described on Section 4.6.) But just because someone taps you for membership in a Group doesn’t mean you have to participate. You can turn off Group Notifications (Section 7.3.1) so that you don’t have to hear about any of the Group’s goings-on, or you can leave the Group altogether (Section 7.3.2).

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• Old Groups. Old Groups are left over from the days when Groups looked and acted more like Facebook Pages. Members of old Groups can’t chat together, send email to the entire group, or jot notes on the same scratch pad document the way members of new Groups can. If you’re a member of an old Group, you can write to the Group’s Wall, but that’s about it.