Ugh, learn me faceache I guess

After 12.5 years away, I'm coming to the unfortunate decision that if I want to know anything going on locally BEFORE it happens instead of days later (thanks useless local "newspaper") or backup any of the mobile games I play, I'm going to need a faceache page.

I've run dummy accounts in the past, but the past few times I've started one, despite never making a status update or anything else just trying to backup a mobile game, they'd been shut down within 24 hours. 

So I have some questions. 

First and foremost, can I make an entirely new account at the email address my old account was tied to? I have no interest in being "friends" with any of those people, or seeing my old pictures/statuses. But I'm fairly sure I went with "deactivate" instead of "delete" when I shut it down. I have no berkeleying clue what the password was or might be. But for mobile backup purposes, it should probably be tied to my active email. I guess I could go through and delete everything and everyone, but that sounds like a lot of effort. 

Secondly, I don't want to be found. If you aren't one of the people I explicitly add as a friend, I don't want you to be able to find me, interact with me, or browse my page. Is that possible? Even more so, is that possible while still using marketplace? Mostly I don't want to see or hear from my scumberkeley uncle and his vajajayy family, as far as I'm concerned they're all dead already and I'd like it to stay that way. 

I have no intentions of installing the app on my phone and will only be accessing it through a laptop I don't use anymore because it's a slow antique, so that should limit most of the tracking horseE36 M3, aside from people tagging me in stuff. 

With all the meta cross platform garbage, would that automagically turn into an Instagram account too or would that be a separate pain in the ass?

I guess that's all my questions. I berkeleying hate it, but I think i hate missing out on festivals, food trucks, and soon to be cub Scout stuff even more. 

I feal your pain, but for now I'm still avoiding the book of faces.  I notice many of my luddite friends are crossing over to the dark side and joining.

In reply to RevRico :

They already follow you. Avoiding "being found" is officially impossible. 
 

That's why advertising and your news feeds seem to be targeted at you. They are. 

Why does it matter if they "find" you?

Fill out only the required fields, dont interact with anyone and effectively you are just a name in a list.  They aren't "finding" you any more than someone can be "found" in the phone book.  Only here they likely wont have your # or address.

Marketplace interactions have their own area in messenger and get purged at the end of a sale.  

In reply to SV reX :

Oh I'm aware all too well, between my old activity, my wife's current activity, and their shadow profiles. That was one of several reasons I left the platform back in 2011 to begin with. I'd still like to minimize exposure if possible if I return. 

Mostly I don't need the leeches, junkies, ex girlfriends, and E36 M3heads I used to know trying to get back in my life. While I fight against it tooth and nail, I understand there is no such thing as internet privacy because too many stupid people think "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" and just accept constant corporate and government surveillance, or worse, praise it as a good thing. 

Minimizing exposure is my current MO. I know there are settings to get there, I just don't know how, and would rather go into this from the getgo with everything as locked down as possible. 

ProDarwin said:

Why does it matter if they "find" you?

Fill out only the required fields, dont interact with anyone and effectively you are just a name in a list.  They aren't "finding" you any more than someone can be "found" in the phone book.  Only here they likely wont have your # or address.

Marketplace interactions have their own area in messenger and get purged at the end of a sale.  

Have you met me? I'm a misanthropic shiny happy person and I freely admit it.

We also have a very unique family name, so unique in fact there is only one other group of people in the country that share it that somehow we are not related to. Which means "people you may know" would give it away pretty damn quick. 

I just cannot drive home how much I truly hate my extended family and how little I ever want to see or interact with any of them ever again. 

I have several friends that run aliases on FB. Set all your E36 M3 to not searchable, run an alias, done deal? 

In reply to Mndsm :

Yea, how though? The last time I tried that, I used a not brand new email address, a Doug Wilson/John Smith common name, generic profile picture, and in less than 24 hours was getting "please upload a photo id for security reasons" prompt

In reply to RevRico :

I used a new email address on a domain I already owned.  I didn't use a common name but instead a twist on my name that no one would actually guess is me.  I also used a phone number that wasn't linked to anything else.  I only use facebook for marketplace.

RevRico said:

Have you met me? I'm a misanthropic shiny happy person and I freely admit it.

We also have a very unique family name, so unique in fact there is only one other group of people in the country that share it that somehow we are not related to. Which means "people you may know" would give it away pretty damn quick. 

I just cannot drive home how much I truly hate my extended family and how little I ever want to see or interact with any of them ever again. 

I guess my point was:  you don't need to interact with anyone.  All they can do is ask to send you a message, and if you don't accept, that's as far as they get.

RevRico said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Yea, how though? The last time I tried that, I used a not brand new email address, a Doug Wilson/John Smith common name, generic profile picture, and in less than 24 hours was getting "please upload a photo id for security reasons" prompt

Create a new email? I created my account years ago, when a profile picture wasn't necessary. I don't think I've actually used a real picture of myself in 8+ years, just memes.

Worst case, just start a new free email account strictly to satisfy Facebook. 

My Facebook is set so that only friends of friends can find me or search me out. No rando is gonna be bothering me that way. And if one of those friends of a friend does find me and sends me a request to be friends, I can just ignore or delete it. 

RevRico said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Yea, how though? The last time I tried that, I used a not brand new email address, a Doug Wilson/John Smith common name, generic profile picture, and in less than 24 hours was getting "please upload a photo id for security reasons" prompt

I have no idea, TBH. My FB was created in the before times. I know real pictures of me exist, but there sure as hell aren't any of me on said FB if I can help it. 

I turned my account "private" back in 2014 or so. No one can see it but me. Would that work for you?

Another tip: You don’t have to accept every friend request. 

David S. Wallens said:

Another tip: You don’t have to accept any friend request. 

Fixed.

I've recently added every known FB domain to my pihole network level adbocker. My work computer and my new laptop have never logged into the site. I know there's a shadow profile being built but I'm doing my best to knock it down. I used to use FB to keep in touch with family and friends, but these days it's nothing but advertising so the ROI has actually become negative.

In reply to matthewmcl :

Maybe. I logged back in 2 hours ago on my old account, and I've been cleaning up evidence of early 20s alcoholism and political cringe posting. 

Maybe it's just my laptop, but I've never seen such a slow, unresponsive website that buries and hides it's settings. Ever. 

Like my laptop can handle tinkercad and photodirector, but not faceache?

I think I'm too stupid for this. I can't make the feed chronological, I can't find people I know, I think I got the excursion listed for sale but I have no idea. 12 years has really made this place a E36 M3 show. 

https://www.facebook.com/settings/

Go there. stick with the left hand side, to audience and visibility. 

Change those to where you can only see your friends, freinds of friends can only add you. Limit your past posts. Turn off any option that shares anything, or allows people to find you. If your computer can't handle opening a website, I don't think the website is to blame. The settings aren't that buried. The chronologogical feed is annoying and everyone hates that, but if you're not using it to see what your friends are doing I dont understand why that matters.