Surge in Facebook membership requests

[Scruffydog777]

Me and Bamagirl are admins in our FB group and page. We've seen a real surge in membership requests lately, which is great if they are all legit, but we're wondering if it could be something else?

When someone posts spam or anything out of line for that matter there are members who usually report it, but we're wondering if they might be spamming other members without using our pages?

When someone asks to join our group, we usually look at where they are from. If they don't post that, usually we look at their friends and if they have their locations in FB, it's quickly available.

We also look to see what videos and music they have listed. If it doesn't include Alizée, it raises a red flag.

Other times, there's very little info list with some new applicants and we just use our judgement but again we are wondering if by joining our group, it's allowing them to use our members in some way that won't show up in our FB group or page?

[Bamagirl]

I definitely agree it is a concern. It’s gone from a few new member requests per week to over 100 so far this month. Many appear to be legitimate fans. But many have only joined FB recently, and yet have thousands of “friends” and belong to hundreds of other FB groups. They are from a wide variety of countries, so I don’t see how this could be a coordinated thing. But it is puzzling and does cause us to wonder the best way to handle it.
I am wondering if we should make the group private. That way, we can still set it so people can find the group and request to join. But only members would be able to see who the other members are.
Any thoughts any of you have are welcome!

[Scruffydog777]

I definitely agree it is a concern. It’s gone from a few new member requests per week to over 100 so far this month. Many appear to be legitimate fans. But many have only joined FB recently, and yet have thousands of “friends” and belong to hundreds of other FB groups. They are from a wide variety of countries, so I don’t see how this could be a coordinated thing. But it is puzzling and does cause us to wonder the best way to handle it.
I am wondering if we should make the group private. That way, we can still set it so people can find the group and request to join. But only members would be able to see who the other members are.
Any thoughts any of you have are welcome!

I would think CleverCowboy would have some thoughts on this.

[CleverCowboy]

I would think CleverCowboy would have some thoughts on this.

I do have some thoughts on this.

As you two should know by now, I am scarce on FaceBook. If it weren't for family and close friends, I would have closed it long ago. I have no Twitter account and the only reason I have an Instagram account is because of Alizee :)

Social media used to be interesting and fun, but it has turned into a hostile place and the targeted marketing is annoying. I have a lot of privacy concerns with social media as well.

That being said, I still follow the news surrounding social media and have read articles about the increasing number of fake FB accounts attacking FB groups. Bots. It's mainly for spamming and profile harvesting so it's not overtly destructive, but managing the requests have to be time consuming.

I like Bamagirl's idea of going private. I did request access to a private group on FB (Ohio fishing group). It asked me why I am interested in joining the group and a place to checkmark if I agree with the group regulations. This simple exercise is similar to what we do on AAm, asking a new member to request being fully activated in the chat box. It quickly filters out the bots.

[Bamagirl]

That being said, I still follow the news surrounding social media and have read articles about the increasing number of fake FB accounts attacking FB groups. Bots. It's mainly for spamming and profile harvesting so it's not overtly destructive, but managing the requests have to be time consuming.

I like Bamagirl's idea of going private. I did request access to a private group on FB (Ohio fishing group). It asked me why I am interested in joining the group and a place to checkmark if I agree with the group regulations. This simple exercise is similar to what we do on AAm, asking a new member to request being fully activated in the chat box. It quickly filters out the bots.

We can easily require people asking to join the group to answer a few basic questions. I belong to a few FB groups (for sports and also some history and literature groups) and most of them do that. Are we all in agreement to set this up? I’ll be glad to do it.

[Alizée-Nederland]

Asking a very simple question or even a question which contains the answer keeps out most spam bots.

[Scruffydog777]

I'm all in favor of changes that would make our FB group more secure, but the word private worries me. Would it make our site less discoverable to fans?

[Bamagirl]

I'm all in favor of changes that would make our FB group more secure, but the word private worries me. Would it make our site less discoverable to fans?

Anyone can find and post on our FB page. The FB group can be be set to be a little bit more secure.

According to FB, the difference between public and private is that in private groups only group members can see who is a member and what they post.
Groups can be either "hidden" or "visible." Here are screen shots of the explanations from FB:


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[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Private is both good and bad. :13:

It has pros and cons.

Some just don’t apply to join and avoid the place if the place is private.

For example, if this AA were closed and private so that messages are not visible to visitors, it would reduce the number of users

On the other hand, it also reduces precisely those unwanted users.

[Bamagirl]

Private is both good and bad. :13:

It has pros and cons.

Some just don’t apply to join and avoid the place if the place is private.

For example, if this AA were closed and private so that messages are not visible to visitors, it would reduce the number of users

On the other hand, it also reduces precisely those unwanted users.

You make good points!
When it comes to FB, I think the negative aspects of private depend largely on the subject of the group. For example, if a group is about movies, that is a sufficiently broad topic that potential members might have no idea if the discussions or posts would interest them unless they can check them out first. In our case, though, the group is about one performer—Alizée—so I think it could be presumed that fans would feel it was likely that posts would be quite specific—relevant to her—and therefore of interest to them. So, they might not need to be able to see what has been posted in order to decide to join.

We still also have the FB page, which is open to all. I think making the FB group a bit more secure or selective would not be a bad thing.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

You make good points!
When it comes to FB, I think the negative aspects of private depend largely on the subject of the group. For example, if a group is about movies, that is a sufficiently broad topic that potential members might have no idea if the discussions or posts would interest them unless they can check them out first. In our case, though, the group is about one performer—Alizée—so I think it could be presumed that fans would feel it was likely that posts would be quite specific—relevant to her—and therefore of interest to them. So, they might not need to be able to see what has been posted in order to decide to join.

We still also have the FB page, which is open to all. I think making the FB group a bit more secure or selective would not be a bad thing.

That's true... :thumb: though... :13:

As I sometimes comment, there are really a lot of different Alizee fan groups on Facebook, :bow::fear:and if many of them are open, they can attract more people than closed / private groups.

On the other hand, does it matter even as long as the fans are in one or as many groups as possible!:agree::dance:

[Scruffydog777]

Private is both good and bad. :13:

.........For example, if this AA were closed and private so that messages are not visible to visitors, it would reduce the number of users

.

That's very true, but this forum and FB are two different animals. While it would have a big effect on our forum, I think it would have a negligible effect on FB. We could give something a try for let's say 30 days and see what happens and find out what members think.

[Alizée-Nederland]

'Do or do not, there is no try.'
-Yoda

https://www.facebook.com/help/286027304749263/

Changing Public Group Privacy
Public groups can change to private. If an admin schedules the privacy setting to change, they have 3 days to cancel if they’d like to. Once a group changes from public to private, the change is permanent.

Changing Private Group Privacy
Private groups can't change to public to protect the privacy of group members.

[Bamagirl]

Since we have this Forum, as well as the FB page and the FB group, I don't see a problem with making the FB group Private, as long as it also remains visible. It will still be easy to find, and anyone who is truly interested in joining can easily make the request.

The surge in requests to join by many people who are questionable as far as being Alizée fans makes me feel like it is necessary to do this too protect the integrity of the group and the privacy, as far as possible, of the members. Being private just means that only members can read the posts and see who else is a member. It does not stop anyone from finding the group or making the join request.

I can't help but fear that the way it is going now is that the huge numbers of new members is not an indication of people interested in Alizée, but rather interested in being members of as many FB groups as possible for who-knows-what reason(s).

When I see membership requests by people (mostly men) who joined FB 6 weeks ago, and yet have 4000 FB friends and also belong to 1000 FB groups, I have to admit I have my suspicions. When I check their profiles and find out that most (or all) of their hundreds or thousands of friends are young, attractive women who work for "Facebook App" I am even more suspicious that these people requesting membership are not only not legitimate fans of Alizée, but possible not even the profiles of real people.

Edit:

This shows the surge in FB group membership.

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