Been chucked out of CAMC facebook group

Been a member of CAMC Facebook group for a couple of years, found got occasional useful info re sites, but lots of moaning about the club. Yesterday morning someone posted about being surprised that CAMC had taken balance of their site fees overnight prior to their arrival and did anyone else know about this and how disappointed they were as they liked to pay cash.

Anyway I replied, quite politely I thought, that this had been well discussed on the group and inquired if they had not seen the posts, also added that the situation re taking payment was well documented in CAMC booking t&Cs and during online booking process.

Outcome is I have been removed from group with no explanation of what rule I have transgressed, nor I have i been informed of the sanction but group no longer appears in my Facebook list of groups and I can't access it using search.

Ho hum. So much for trying to be helpful. Will now need to learn how to cope without my feed being full of whinging about CMC

I don't know if it's new FB algorithms or over-zealous admin trying not to upset anyone, but I've been excluded from two FB groups over the last few weeks. No explanation given. Like you, my comments were quite innocuous. For instance a member of a motorcycle FB group put up a photo of his highly modified bike and invited comments on his work. I replied to the effect that I'm not a lover of loud straight-through exhausts and that the lack of rear suspension would wreck his back.
Bang, I was removed!
Al.

As Grouch Marx said: "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."

Cymro

IanH wrote:I'm immune, don't do or ever would use FB

Ditto. 

Cymro

For some of the more obscure interests, an FB group of like minded folk can be a great source of information. You just have to learn to spot the trolls and ignore them.
Al.

No FB for me either.

I’m not a FB person either. OH joined to use Marketplace but it seemed too intrusive and the account was immediately closed again.

Out of interest has anyone here got a smart speaker in the house?
 I'm on FB mainly because it's handy for keeping in touch with far flung family, but I wouldn't have a smart speaker in the house.
Al.

Too paranoid for a smart speaker, Prof. Hannah Fry took one to bits for TV program last year and looked at the tech, very intrusive and always listening. At least with phone I can customise settings, even then adverts do appear on FB soon after talking about related topics when phone is allegedly off and in my pocket.

Yes she is called Liz and I am married too her!

When we stayed at our daughter's house in NZ earlier this year, we were wary of talking about anything when inside because we knew my wife's ipad and my laptop would be inundated with related ads as soon as we switched them on!
Al.

Smart speaker - no way! I worry about the smart TV……

I don't subscribe to Facebook either or have a smart speaker. Neither do we have a smart meter but our electricity supplier keeps badgering us by mail, email and telephone to take one.

Tinwheeler wrote:Smart speaker - no way! I worry about the smart TV……

I suspect you might have cause to worry. I've often wondered why modern smart TV's have no OFF switch on the actual TV, they're designed to be on permanent standby. You actually have to switch off at the plug if you want peace of mind.
We don't use the voice command option, but who is to say the internal mic isn't on all the time.
Al.

Exactly, Al!

I’m not paranoid but that doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me 

I cancelled my membership to CAMC a while ago and all there emails go in to my spam folder, they keep sending me postal mail with forms to renew my membership and a prepaid envelope, I write in big letters on the form that they are no longer a members club with the site prices that they are charging and are far too dear and post it back to them in the prepaid envelope, they then get charged for the pleasure

I don't use faecesbook, twerper, myface, instanut, or any of those so-shall meeja things. I'm more an antisocial network kinda guy.

Interesting comment about smart meters. The guy that used to come and read our meter before ovotold me that where we live a smart meter wouldn't work, and we'd constantly get estimated bills. Plus, getting one did him out of a job!

I'm considering leavin the camc, as they are too expensive. Though, the CLs are useful.

I see smart meters in same vein as self-service tills in supermarkets,  both have taken away jobs.

During lockdown we had a Portal to keep in touch with sons family, you could close the camera but the microphone was always on and every so often it would light up, sold it on ebay last week. We have a smart TV but it doesn't have built in Alexa or Google Assistant and we don't have Alexa in house .

I do use Facebook though., but only within closed groups.

I wonder about forming a new group... misanthropes united.

Hmmm. Not going to work, is it?

FreelanderUK wrote:Post a reply I cancelled my membership to CAMC a while ago and all there emails go in to my spam folder, they keep sending me postal mail with forms to renew my membership and a prepaid envelope, I write in big letters on the form that they are no longer a members club with the site prices that they are charging and are far too dear and post it  back to them in the prepaid envelope, they then get charged for the pleasure

They’ll get the message eventually. I left 12 months ago but I still have a bit of fun on their forum spotting which newcomer is a doppelgänger of a recently banned poster 

Unfortunately Facebook is invaluable as a source of up-to-date info for some subjects, and there seems to be no subsititute - so I've found recently that I have no choice but to use it occasionally. IMO all you can do is to minimise the amount of personal info you reveal about yourself when posting in those groups, and to use one of the browser plugin/extensions that prevent Facebook from tracking your activity (I use "Facebook Container" for Firefox, which prevents Facebook from monitoring you activities while you are not using FB itself).

Smart meters are also a necessary evil in some cases. I've just bought a secondhand EV, and I can charge that at a quarter of my daytime electricity rate if I have a smart meter - so that is a big saving.

On being watched, I am not too worried as I have nothing to hide but one thing that does concern me is the way modern vehicles have tracking built in. The command system in mine knows where I am and if I have an accident will message me and if I didn't respond call the emergency services. Know doubt a similar system exists on most of our vans. Great, but, if this can be hacked anyone would know your van is travelling around France, where it normally lives and chances are the house will be ripe for burglary.

 Give me simple please.