Normally I’m a very casual facebook user. My tweets are posted automatically and I check up on what my friends have posted. I don’t belong to every page with a cutsie name and I’d have said my requirements were minimal.

Then I decided to use it to do something funky and the whole thing falls over.

Scenario #1

We’re organising a weekend away to do a bike “race” and are sharing accommodation with friends and friends of theirs. The first facebook message comes out to all of us and if I reply it goes back to the same people.

But what if I want to forward the message on to someone? Or reply to just one of the people. Sorry, no can do.

How about if I want to know who has read their messages and who hasn’t (and therefore needs a phone call)? Can’t do that either.

Facebook messaging was heralded as the great alternative to email. Sorry fb, its not, not yet anyway.

Scenario #2

I’m heading off on a chearleader’s trip to LA and want to post photos and video for the parents back home. We’re talking pre-teens and early teens so I need to protect the girls privacy.

I don’t want to be friends of all those parents so a group is ideal to protect the girls and still share some info. I can create it, add my daughter and then let her add her team mates and they can add their parents. Simple.

Except that there aren’t albums within Groups and so my iPad uploader apps can’t post the photos to the right place and my iPad apps don’t allow me to post photos (which I wouldn’t want to do 1 by 1 anyway).

If I upload the photos to one of the albums on my profile I can restrict the access but its still very limited. I can choose friends, friends of friends or specific people. I can’t say “this group” and then give a link from the group to the album.