Some “regular” Facebook practices that irritate me, or, “Would you do that in real life?”

So, this week, some random things happened on Fb, and that’s where THIS post is coming from, well, in part. It’s kind of  a musing of how things have evolved as “ok to do” on facebook, and some wondering where that shit came from… let’s begin…

One  morning, I started off with my post for my page. I do it every day, sometimes with a picture of my current work in progress, sometimes a picture of Brainy, it just depends on what’s going on.  I noticed that my number of “likes” had gone down a few people.  Normally, that doesn’t bother me too much. I really only want my folks who actually like my work to like my page,  and  DON’T  like it if you only want me to like yours back (I’ll be getting to THIS  a bit later on).  So, while that was a bit of a bummer, it was ok…

A bit later on, I posted a picture by Michael Kvium on my personal page

If you know me at all, even from my yarny page, you now I love creepy things, the creepier the better.   This picture makes me smile.  A friend of a friend got all up in my shit about why would I post this, it wasn’t beautiful, what good was it… BLAH BLAH BLAH  I was really nice about it, I said that obviously he had never been to visit my page before, but on my page, creepy is king. I thought that might be a nice way to explain to this guy that I like creepy things, and this picture made me happy.  Later on though, he STILL wanted to know why I posted it, it wasn’t beautiful… I didn’t want to tell him off, he’s not MY friend, BUT WHAT THE HELL! DON”T GO TO SOMEONE’S PERSONAL PAGE AND QUESTION THEIR ART CHOICE, JUST DON’T CLICK THE LIKE BUTTON!

     This brings me to  “the something” that happened… it was  nothing horrible, but I do wonder what the real life of this person is like… I posted a new cover photo to my page, I’ve recently found a photo editing site that lets me make collages easily, no signing in or anything… and I’ve wanted to do a collage on my page, but not being very computer savvy, and having no software, I felt like a dolt asking someone to make one for me. Here’s my cover

I love it… Not long after I’d posted it, someone who will remain nameless commented “Oh no, don’t like those” with a frowny face… WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!  I played it off on my page, though I have since deleted the comment.  Whatever happened to “if you you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything?”  PLENTY of Fb pages post pictures of things I’m not fond of, but I don’t have to click “like” on every picture, I only “like” the ones I actually like.  But I also don’t feel the need to post on the picture “I don’t like that,”  ESPECIALLY if it’s someone’s art… WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!  Really.  All kinds of things ran through my head initially, something between “well, we don’t all like the same stuff” to “awesome, I don’t care what you like,” along with some less than nice things, which I won’t post, but I’m sure you get the idea.   Bottom line, if you don’t like my work, click “unlike” and get the hell on with it, because I”m not trying to make everyone happy.  Happily, my friend T posted a video that made me feel better, and giggle.

 

I was singing this all day long!  I was also wondering if I was “being a dick” about the lady not liking my work and being open about it…then I decided no… you wouldn’t walk into a store, look at something and proclaim to the owner, and possibly creator, “Oh no I don’t like that.”  Or at the least, I would not do that. Apparently this lady thinks that’s acceptable behavior, but does she do this in real life?  Are there things I/you/people do on Facebook we’d not do in real life? well duh,… then I started thinking about all the things folks do on Fb that they hopefully wouldn’t do in real life…

About a year ago, a former  Fb friend from another country posted a video on her page, a 10 minute long video about her home land. I don’t watch videos as a rule. If you can’t give me your info in written form with a few pictures, I don’t want to see it. She posted some nonsense about if people were her real friends they’d watch the video. She didn’t make it, she just decided to obligate “real” friends to watching it. I was online and she asked why I hadn’t watched it.  I told her, I don’t watch videos, and THIS one was 10 minutes long, I had stuff to get to… She went on a tirade about how shallow I was, and I should watch her dumb video…and unfriended me… meh.  DON’T obligate “real friends” to perform actions against what they want just to prove something… you’ll be disappointed in the end.  Guess I wasn’t a real friend…  So then, in real life does she demand everyone like what she likes? That’s got to be completely boring!   Are her real friends that disposable?

So, as I promised, a bit of jabber about the folks who click the like button and add a post about where they found me and where they’re from.  This happens a lot on Fb.  It’s about promotion, I understand.  When I first started my page, I have to admit, I did some shameless promotion on every venue I could.  I joined tagging circles, where a post is created, everyone tags their business and then with their personal profile, goes to each business page and likes it.  I joined pages and did this, they call it “cruising” on some pages… I stopped it long ago.  The pages that frequent those pages, and activities, don’t fall into the same category as my page.  Most of those pages were full of baby stuff, and bows, and dresses and hair stuff… None of it was creepy, I didn’t really fit in. AND, I’m not a mum, not going to be. I have short hair, love blue jeans, and I wasn’t really their target audience.  So, now, having my own page, folks find me and post on my page’s timeline something akin to “Hi I like your creations! Sending love from MY PAGE!”  Some even  go as far as saying the words “like my page back.”  Here’s the thing: I get notifications from my page when someone clicks like on a picture or post, and so many of those folks who post that they like my work didn’t actually click like, or comment on anything.  Some of them even post “Ooooh creepy but interesting! I found you on ______,  Here’s my page blahblahblah.com.  I don’t like the pages of someone who doesn’t really like mine, they’re just looking for another tally mark.  I can, however, tell when someone likes my work…suddenly there are comments on my pictures, and I get like 34 notificiations about pictures that were liked (yes, that is an actual number from one day).  IF you feel the need to try to get someone to pop back over to your page, make it apparent that you like their work! Go through and like or comment on posts and/or pictures, and when you post on their page, trying to get them to visit your shop, don’t say “like me back,”  *shudder*  Tell them that what you like about their work, talk about a favorite piece, perhaps  tell them how you found their page and that you’re so glad. and then, you can add, “I’d really appreciate it if you popped by my page, __________. Thanks, and have a good day!” or something like that. But actually make your presence known, it will be known,if you don’t.  I do visit the pages that folks ask me to. and I do look through pictures, and try to find stuff I like.  If it’s not my cup of blood, then I don’t “like” the page, and I can usually tell that within a week, they weren’t real fans of my page either, because they’re gone from my list of fans…… whatever.

One last short bit, it doesn’t bother me so much anymore, I just ignore it for the most part.  Crochet folks, probably knitting folks too,  want patterns for everything.  There are some groups of hookers who just as soon as someone posts a picture of what they’ve made, immediately ask if there’s a pattern to be shared.  This used to be so weird to me… it happens all the time, apparently its cool to do in the community.    I don’t work from patterns, hate following patterns, in fact, I almost never do, even if I have a pattern for something.  If I need to make a hat, I choose color, stitch, measure the head, do a gauge swatch, and then make the hat from that…I don’t follow patterns.   I may look at a pattern, but I never make it as is…I change the yarn, the hook size , the stitch, decrease a few stitches here and there because I don’t like the way something happens… I don’t like to make anything exactly like a pattern says…which means I also don’t write patterns.   I do what I do by looking at a picture, and making the yarn do what I want it to do. But if I had to take time to write that down,  and make sure it made sense, all the happiness is gone.  Also, you have to add in the fact that I’m a lefty, so then the pattern has to be checked over by someone who is right handed… and, finally, and this sounds shitty in my head, and I can’t seem to work out how not to sound this way, but I don’t want everyone  making what I make.   I want folks to want to come up with their own zombie or monster designs, not copy mine. These are my visions of what I create………see, sounds kind of shitty, I could probably come up with a nicer way to say that:  for every person there is a unique way to create a monster, and I’d prefer to see what you come up with rather than copy someone else’s,  that takes away some of your creativity… and while that is true, the first one is true too… Does that make me a dick, or a bitch, about it? Maybe,but in all truth, I’d rather spend my time creating monsters, not patterns.    You might be interested to know that I might be trying to figure out how to create a pattern for one of my most loved characters…I’m toying with the idea of writing down instructions for my most asked for character, but it will read more like a conversation on how I create him, not a pattern……give you a hint…

It will probably take much of the year to get around to doing it, and it probably won’t be a free pattern, but it won’t be much, and I promise it won’t be expensive… but don’t bug me about, I dislike that kind of pressure.

The less than great part about all this, about the negative comments I should have just deleted in the first place since my page  IS Kimland… is that I doubted myself for a second.  I wondered, am I too creepy? Should I take a step back and readjust my work? Do I care what those people think?…….. THE ANSWER IS A RESOUNDING NO!!! I like my work. I’m happy with my style, with the creatures I create, my yarnspawn,  and if you don’t like it you can scroll up to the top of my page and click “unlike” unceremoniously, thank you very bloody much!  There is no real need to tell me you don’t like my creations… THOSE WEREN’T FOR YOU!  And, as I’ve never had someone tell me they were unhappy with what they received, I think my creepiness level is JUST FINE!  Which is pretty much, also what my friends T and S were telling me, they’re quite wonderful!  🙂  

So that’s pretty much it…I’ve spent much of this week working on a bag that looks like Frankenstein’s monster

This isn’t my original idea/pattern. I didn’t buy the pattern, but my customer told me he was cool with me coming up with my own version.  The strap is done, I found a great pattern for a chain link  strap  http://speckless.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/crochet-pattern-chain-link/  I did knit the face, the back of the head, and the gusset, I’m sewing that together today.   There will be pictures on my Fb page, and maybe one here, just as a “look what mine looked like…”

Anyway…um…thanks for reading my rant, like it or not…  just remember not to be a dick about the things you don’t like…and, as always, KEEP IT CREEPY!!!

Brainy got an Easter Bunny in the mail from CraftDee Creations http://www.facebook.com/CraftDeeCreations?ref=ts&fref=ts