Southern to stop using Facebook

[route:oxford]

Twitter and Facebook are great - I used to use them to keep an eye on individuals who were company directors of firms who were problem payers or in financial difficulty (and their families).

Sometimes it helped to find where they are and some people are really stupid about what they publish.

(Couldn't see anything they didn't choose let the world to see).

 

[bicbasher]

None of that is actually true (from the second paragraph, obviously).

Anyway, Twitter doesn't have any problems - just idiots using it from time to time, but from my experience it attracts a better class of idiot than Facebook.

Oh but it does. Try blocking an idiot from stalking you. You can block and they can still see you. Go private and it defeats the objective of using the platform.

I agree otherwise about the class of idiot.

 

[Chrisgr31]

I never knew Southern had a Facebook page however I am a follower of them on Twitter, indeed its about all I use twitter for. I admit its not ideal as they don't warn of short formed trains although that's an advantage on the 18.08 LBG to UCK!

Last week on Monday with the chaos at both London Bridge and Victoria a friend and I were most amused at the reply given to someone asking about how to get to Oxted. They asked is it better to go to London Bridge or Victoria to get the reply "Neither", I guess the reply should of been go to the pub for a couple of hours!

The railways really seem to struggle when it goes wrong like last Monday, th National Rail website was advising that the 18.08 LBG to Uck was running on time from LBG, but it never had a platform, and as far as I know didnt run or started from East Croydon.

Southerns email service used to be excellent, but then they stopped it and joined the national system and its crap and seems to have stopped altogether, mainly I suspect because they send an email asking you to confirm the subscrition should continue and my work PC (emails to work address) fails to access the link.

Anyway Twitter works really well for reporting air con issues. Constant reporting of an issue with the onboard passenger information system on the Class 171s (and reporting it at the Meet the Managers sessions) finally got it fixed. Mind you the fix is only to use a single line of comment instead of both lines.

 

[1e10]

Indeed, but it's still used for conversations.

A member of this forum tried to ask Scotrail if they honour itineraries given by booking sites for travel, but it proved almost impossible to communicate to them in 140 characters*. Scotrail kept mis-understanding what he was saying, and in the end just referred him to customer services. Using Twitter was a complete and total utter waste of time in that case. (Oh, and for the record, if anyone is curious, answer was that Scotrail don't want to honour tickets being used in accordance with the itinerary provided by their booking confirmation, which is of course against ATOC's own guidance on the matter)

* I'd be tempted to 'cheat', by writing a properly and putting "..." at the end of the first tweet, and "..." at the start of the next, so they can see it's the same sentence continuing from one to the next. Anyone remember when you used to have to do that with text messages?

Many companies add a [1/2] to the end of their messages which allows for simple and clear breakdown of a lengthy message.

Another way around that would be to use twitlonger which looks a bit tidier than using multiple tweets for the same message. However, I haven't tried using twitlonger on mobile yet, so can't verify whether that works or not.

Thanks for bring this website to my attention. Until now I had been writing my message into word and then taking a screen shot to upload onto Twitter.

 

[ex-railwayman]

You don't have to have an account to view tweets though, only to follow or interact with an account (and then you can get an anonymous account, unlike Facebook where you're supposed to use your real name).

Correct, and on FB you're also required to give your mobile phone number, which is checked, and they obtain the name & address to which the device is registered, so, unless your real name is Captain Pugwash, for example, they know who you are......

I set up a twitter account only last week, it's easy and unintrusive.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[1e10]

Correct, and on FB you're also required to give your mobile phone number, which is checked, and they obtain the name & address to which the device is registered, so, unless your real name is Captain Pugwash, for example, they know who you are......

I set up a twitter account only last week, it's easy and unintrusive.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

I don't think they'd be able to identify your name from your mobile number when you first signup, there would be majore privacy issues with that. They'd definitely be able to pass your number to Police should you involve your account in any crimes such as sending threatning messages etc, the Police will be able to track the details for the number if they're available. Not all PAYG SIMs will be registered details for them.

 

[DeeGee]

I like to tweet companies. The response time is quicker, especially for a complaint. You're airing your dirty linen in public, see!

 

[Muzer]

Oh but it does. Try blocking an idiot from stalking you. You can block and they can still see you. Go private and it defeats the objective of using the platform.

And how would you propose to resolve that, given that any user not logged in can see anyone's tweets (a very good feature in comparison to Facebook that should not be lost)?

Again, if people are stalking you due to what you say on Twitter - you're saying the wrong things on Twitter, end of. It's like complaining that you can't block people from seeing your posts on Rail UK.

 

[telstarbox]

Again, if people are stalking you due to what you say on Twitter - you're saying the wrong things on Twitter, end of.

Not necessarily the case, as recent cases have demonstrated. Luckily the government and police seem to be taking this sort of horrendous abuse more seriously.

 

[Muzer]

That's hardly stalking - more people being morons. Aside from making it easier to report people, I can hardly see a way around that aside from ignoring it or (if the threats actually seem credible) reporting to the police.

People will always receive hatemail in some form - some people just get far too carried away when writing, and I don't think that has ever been different - just that now it's slightly easier given you don't even have to bother finding someone's address/email address. Fortunately, I expect most of these people have no intention to actually do what they write.

I agree it can be a bit of a problem and become hard to ignore. But it's worlds away from stalking.

 

[kieron]

Correct, and on FB you're also required to give your mobile phone number, which is checked, and they obtain the name & address to which the device is registered, so, unless your real name is Captain Pugwash, for example, they know who you are......

Does it demand a telephone number now? When I look at my own settings in Facebook, it only says that I need to give them a 'phone number which can receive text mesages before I can change my username. I've never actually tried to send a text message to a phonebox, though.

They do have an e-mail address which could be used to trace me, but so do Twitter. Would a 'phone company really give any of my personal details to a third party which happens to know my number?

 

[TUC]

Why not set up a separate Twitter account with a totally different user name and password to others that you use, and don't use it for posting anything, just for linking to Southern and any other companies you want to see updates from.

 

[bicbasher]

That's hardly stalking - more people being morons. Aside from making it easier to report people, I can hardly see a way around that aside from ignoring it or (if the threats actually seem credible) reporting to the police.

People will always receive hatemail in some form - some people just get far too carried away when writing, and I don't think that has ever been different - just that now it's slightly easier given you don't even have to bother finding someone's address/email address. Fortunately, I expect most of these people have no intention to actually do what they write.

I agree it can be a bit of a problem and become hard to ignore. But it's worlds away from stalking.

Become a victim of stalking yourself and you may change your naive opinion.

Does it demand a telephone number now? When I look at my own settings in Facebook, it only says that I need to give them a 'phone number which can receive text mesages before I can change my username. I've never actually tried to send a text message to a phonebox, though.

FB have asked for SMS numbers but you DON'T have to give it to them. There are other ways FB can contact you to reset passwords or regain your account.

 

[Muzer]

Become a victim of stalking yourself and you may change your naive opinion.

Er... my "naïve opinion" that what you described cannot in any way be called stalking? Illegal? In most cases, probably yes. Wrong? Definitely yes. Stalking? No.

 

[bicbasher]

Er... my "naïve opinion" that what you described cannot in any way be called stalking? Illegal? In most cases, probably yes. Wrong? Definitely yes. Stalking? No.

You don't know me or my situation, so you can't generalise.

 

[Muzer]

Apologies - just looked up, it was telstarbox who gave the examples to which I was referring, not you.


I still, however, believe that if you use Twitter appropriately for the situation it would make such things practically impossible, at least no moreso than sending threatening emails or letters. Don't reveal your real name or any personal information, and if people start harassing you, report them and don't use that account any more.


It's not like Facebook where anyone who manages to view your profile then knows a whole load of things about you - it only takes one weird "friend of a friend" or, with more strict privacy settings, one compromised account.

 

[1e10]

Does it demand a telephone number now? When I look at my own settings in Facebook, it only says that I need to give them a 'phone number which can receive text mesages before I can change my username. I've never actually tried to send a text message to a phonebox, though.

They do have an e-mail address which could be used to trace me, but so do Twitter. Would a 'phone company really give any of my personal details to a third party which happens to know my number?

No they would not.

If a crime had been committed that was linked to the Facebook account then the authorities could request the number from Facebook and then would be legally obliged to provide the mobile number (and any other details requested). The authorities would then be able to contact the mobile network for which the number is registered with and request any details that they may have held for that account.

 

[mm333]

Another thing is Facebook is starting to limit what you can do with a Company page without paying. Twitter Messages will at least get through without having to pay £10-15 per post.

Would you pay £10 per post to ensure more then a few percent of the companies followers can see it.

I understand why they would come off FB. The likelihood of a message posted by a company on FB coming up in a user's timeline (or newsfeed) is based on the number of comments, likes and shares the message has. My job involves running a FB page with over 24,000 followers, and even though I've worked hard on adding content which is likely to get comments, likes and shares, only around half of the followers see what we post at best. If we want a wider audience, FB want some of our cash.

Posting "The 1944 train to Smalville has been cancelled" many get you a lot of comments, but very few likes or shares. So the percentage of people following them on FB who will be seeing their messages will be very small. Might as well use Twitter where (at the time being at least) everything that everyone you follow posts appears in your timeline.

 

[sarahj]

Twitter. grrr. I've seen this on twitter.

I'm on the 1715* Gatwick express and the coach is hot, the air con is not working.

Answer. Speak to the train staff and they will sort it.

Real life. Nothing I can do to fix the air con on a 442 except open the windows at the doors and stop the inner sliding doors from closing to provide a little breeze. I can then put in a fault report to get it fixed, later.

 

[jon0844]

That sounds like you sorting it!

Odd to see that advice given though as some TOCs will actually ask for a carriage number (and say how to find it) to log a fault directly, but if there are staff on the train I guess saying to them first is easier.