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FB Annoyance; Feedback needed
Could someone please explain to me why my non-tech friends feel the need to comment on technical posts with silly comments like:
"I didn't understand any of that!"
"Whoah! Over my head!"
"Nerd alert! Haha! j/k 
"
If you don't understand it, I probably didn't post it for you. Just like if you post something related to finance or rap music or NASCAR that I don't understand, I just assume I wasn't the target audience.
I switched to Google+ because of the Circles, thinking I would solve this problem by targeting all of my posts to specific Circles. Most of my programming posts went to a circle of programmers. But then I realized that I had nothing showing up in my Public feed, and since I would like to build a better network of tech people, and a lot of them have strong online presences, I decided to start making more of my tech posts public.
Sure enough, this morning, one of my good friends from high school commented on a programming post that already had a reasonable list of comments/discussion from various friends/colleagues, saying "nerd alert! :P hahahah jk" Why?!
I think I need to send her a note saying, "I know you were joking, but I use that platform for professional contacts." But I don't know how to address the bigger problem (with all my other non-tech friends), and I don't know what drives it!
(edit) Why do people feel the need to post comments like this?
Any wisdom?
Re: FB Annoyance; Feedback needed
Why not just share the updates that you want for your tech friends with your tech friends only? Then the peeps that don't understand it won't even see it.
This is what I was doing at first, but the problem is that I want them visible to more than just my tech "friends." I also want them to be visible to tech "strangers," because I might meet someone at a conference or in an online tech discussion, and probably won't have added them yet.
My biggest question is just why people feel the need to make comments like this. It's an ongoing problem, and I just don't understand why they do it.
Yeh. I have "friends" that make stupid comments on things I post and it ruins the whole vibe of the post so I kind of get what you're saying. I don't understand the need to post on something you don't understand either.
Or if that doesn't work, can you create a circle of non-tech friends that you block from those comments? And criteria for being one of those people is making comments like that.
Totally agree with this. People have interests, and not all of your friends will share them. If you don't get the post, just skip it. I realize this wasn't at all helpful, but just saying I'm annoyed by that too.
Now jumping domestically.
Well that was a crazy couple of years.
I just tried this, and it seems there's currently no way to exclude people or Circles.
Now jumping domestically.
Well that was a crazy couple of years.
They should really have a way to block certain people. It doesn't work if you x out the friends circle when you post (or whatever circle you have them in)?
Was just looking at a recommended poster on G+ and at least I'm not the only one with this problem. So incredibly relevant:
You can completely block specific people. I can't figure out how to x out a Circle, though.
It seems G+ is very much going for an opt-in rather than opt-out style, but that's clashing with people's Public postings. (The above image came from a very interesting post on the subject if anyone else happens to be interested.)
They probalby don't realize that you are using FB for professional development. My only suggestion would be to post it only for one subset of your friends to see. Yes, this could decrease your networking contacts...but maybe if you select "friends of friends", then exclude non-tech friends from seeing a post, then you'll achieve the desired effect?
I usually skip over posts like that, that I know don't pertain to me. But I also wouldn't expect people to post professional stuff on FB -- that's not something that we do in my profession, so honestly it probalby just wouldn't occur to me.
I'm not on Google+ so I have no idea if it varies a lot from FB but I agree with the bolded statement above. I would never expect someone to make professional posts on FB, ever. So it would never occur to me not to come back with a snarky/teasing comment to someone. I know there are businesses on there but almost everyone I know who has their business on FB has a separate account and really keeps the two things separate. Maybe the solution would be to have a professional account and a personal account.
I agree with that, too.
So I guess the consensus is that since there's no distinction between professional and private accounts on Google+, I should just treat it like Facebook, and assume that it's only for vacation photos and funny videos of cats.
Oh well. At least I can still follow other people in my industry. I suppose I can contribute comments to things that those people post without inconveniencing my non-technical friends.
I have no idea about Google+ (I tried to see what it was like and was denied) so now I feel like one of the people you're annoyed by for responding to something I don't know anything about.
One thing I think that would be great with FB is to be able to select a group of people that you already have sorted as family, college friends, HS friends, etc. to share a post with instead of having to select each person individually when customizing a post.
And I don't think FB is only for videos of cats or those of who aren't making super intellectual posts every day. I just don't think, other than deleting comments like MrsBini suggested, you can really expect your friends to not make teasing comments now and then. I mean if the same person makes the same annoying comment every single time you post why even be friends with them on there?
I'm not sure how having multiple accounts would sit with Google+'s hotly-debated real-name policy, but it's definitely something to look into. And I've submitted a feedback request to be able to delete comments from your posts.
I guess I really am a nerd, because I still don't understand the point of the teasing comments, when it's about my profession. I'm clearly lacking in social skills! Haha!
Not understanding why people make annoying comments has nothing to do with you being a nerd or with your profession. NO ONE who is reading comments they find annoying knows why the poster felt they had to do it. And I'd hazard to guess that very few of the annoying posters know how much they are annoying you or anyone else who has lots of friends on fb who aren't always involved int he same interests/have the same beliefs/etc.
Social media does not encouage social skills, so you're not lacking, but the situation is different that what you are expecting, I think.
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