I am grateful to Fluther:
1) to be able to ask a question and get feedback before I make any comments/questions on Facebook an possibly offend someone
2) To receive honest candid answers, and not just a ‘like’ action or read a trivial ‘I hear ya’ response.
3) to learn to take myself a little less seriously a give myself a few degrees of ‘Course Correction’ in this journey called Life

Anonymity (until I blew it on FB) and the quality of the responses.

I doubt the intelligence of fecesbook users.

Being on Facebook is like being on a billboard.

Anonymity
This is the purpose of this site.

Not to sound pretentious or anything, but I doubt most people on facebook could provide me with the answers and debate I need.

Facebook and other sites like that aren’t geared toward asking a specific question and herding interested parties to answer that question. Facebook is more like a big banquet hall where everyone is standing around in cliques of “friends” talking about nothing in particular, and there’s no way for people looking for answers to a specific question to get their question before the people who can answer it, and no way for people interested in a specific topic to find people talking about that topic.

Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends and all, but if you have a burning question that you want to discuss with people interested in that question, FB is useless.

I check in on F/B once every day or so and still haven’t figured out its purpose

Some people seem to use it to broadcast their activities hourly, as if anyone really cared.

Some people share their pillow talk that, to me, should really remain private.

Some people send photos of cheeseburgers or mixed drinks or blurred stuff taken when drunk, to what purpose that escapes me. Or dozens of shots of their kids eating sugary products.

Perhaps I would find it useful if fluther were not in existence.

@Ranimi23 I use it for the same reasons that you do.

I don’t say a word on FB for 2 reasons- 1. I’m a teacher and anything I say can be restructured, misconstrued and used against me, and 2. Most of my family, both on my mother’s and father’s sides are far-right of right wing uber-fundamentalist religious tunnel-visioned conservatives. So not worth the battle.

There are actual moderators on Fluther. Makes a huge difference IMHO.

I like the objectivity I get from fluther. I have facebook friends who just wouldn’t understand.
Actually, someone on facebook started arguing with me and I was thinking about bringing the wuestion here for rebuttle ideas. It must be a fox news recent buzz term that I have to look up, but she keeps saying, “confirmation bias.”

Facebook is not for questions. It’s for social networking. The exigencies of building ties to people make it difficult for people to be honest. Also, since you may know noone who has the expertise to answer a question, Facebook is much more likely to give you garbage for an answer.

Fluther is a specialized tool. It is for answering questions. It is about building relationships secondarily. Fluther provides anonymity so people can ask any kind of question and the jeers and sneers will not get back to them in real life. You can have many logins on fluther. Only one on Facebook (according to terms of service).

Facebook is good for sharing pictures and videos and news about yourself. It is good for light conversation. It is not so good for serious stuff.

Fluther has the kind of people you can’t find in highschool. :)

I really don’t get Facebook either..but man! The people I’ve reconnected with from my past. People I went to HS with and almost forgot about!

@AshLeigh Wonderful point. And can’t find at work :)

@Dutchess_III No one from my past has found me via Facebook. Perhaps because I have a very common name. Like John Smith. Almost. Actually, it’s good for anonymity in public, now that I think about it. In any case, there are so many people with my name out there, that I have been unable to find myself by going through page after page of a google search on my name. I guess it’s the same on Facebook.

@AshLeigh, great answer.

I get a different pool of people. For example, if I wanted to ask, “Does anyone have a spare mobile phone I can borrow?” I might post it on my wall. So things that are local, or I want my friends to take personal action upon, I would ask there. Also, if the question involves images, for example, this one; it is more convenient for me to share with FB.

(Come to think of it, this might actually be a feature fluther could consider… allowing the preview of images.. right now we can add with links but it requires other users to take that extra step of clicking in.)

I know if I launch a question into the tide pool, my demographic is more likely to be an international, English speaking audience, and so I’m aware of it. But frankly, I’m actually more likely to answer questions than ask them, so that’s why I hang around fluther.. to expand my knowledge, and to get stimulation from other sources beyond what I get in my other interactions.

I once lost my cell phone. Didn’t have a landline. It was late in the evening at home and I was alone. I posted “Someone who has my number call me!!!” No response from Facebook. LillyCoyote stepped up, though. Where the hell is she, anyway?

fb is just for fun.
I feel fluther is a place for getting questions answered more technically somehow.

I don’t think any of my FB friends (except for the ones I met here and at Askville) get into answering questions. So I don’t ask.

I also think Facebook is more like a family holiday gathering. I like to keep things light and fluffy. Even with my friends from question sites, I notices that we try to make a point not to talk about politics, religion or other debate topics on FB. It’s not an official rule, but it seems to be one everyone accepts without saying anything.

I wouldn’t trade you guys for those smug assholes on Facebook for the world. ‘Nuff said.

I tend to ask personal questions here (even though I haven’t been around in a long time), things I wouldn’t feel comfortable with everyone knowing about me or things I know others wouldn’t know how to answer because they know me too well – there is a certain type of objectivity in advice you get when the person isn’t your best friend.

And FB is not great for back-and-forth discussion between multiple people, not on serious topics anyway.

Finally, as someone with Asperger’s, I find it difficult to “read” the complicated social structure of facebook, so I tend to be very conservative in my use of it. For example, I tend to see more in friendship requests than there really is, so I’ve found it safer to be a bit distant with FB.

I’ve actually stopped asking questions here and now turn to Facebook and another site I belong to to ask questions. If I have a mommy/parenting question I go to a site that is just for moms; if I have a question I think my friends or family can help with I go to Facebook.

I’ve stopped asking questions just because I can. I only ask if I really need help with something. I like to ask where I know I’ll get an answer from someone who walks in my shoes or from someone who actually knows me irl. Don’t get me wrong, I like to answer questions and help here at Fluther, but if I need to know something I go elsewhere.

@Blackberry You don’t sound full of yourself at all. :P

I see Fluther as a one stop Q and A shop and then a social media type of place. Facebook seems like a social hang out first, and then it goes off into different tangents. It’s more focused here that’s for sure. I’m on my 4th account here and with Facebook you get mostly one, with your name, and that’s hard to change if you “fuck” up a lot on your social media. At least here you can start all over new name new outlook etc.

I don’t want any of my friends on facebook to think I’m weird. Plus, I know all of them outside of facebook as well. Most likely, I will never meet any of the Fluther users.

Fluther seems to have a more mature group of users than any other site I’ve been to. Most of them are kind and don’t judge you the way some users on other sites do. I can usually count on getting a response on here, regardless if it’s accurate or true. I think there have been only one or two questions where no one responded.

Fluther has been my only choice to ask questions.

My Facebook is composed of people who aren’t particularly as intelligent as some people here are. Plus, I only personally talk to 2% of the people here, so the anonimity is nice.

Personally for me I have no use for social networking sites since I’m way too introverted, and I’m the type of person that does not care to be bothered, except on my own terms. I only post on fluther because of the philosophical discussions on here that I could never have with most other people that I know. I also don’t mind helping people out when I can occasionally on fluther, especially if the issue is about something that I’ve come across myself through life experience.