I guess I should post a semi-rational explanation on what my thoughts are relative to Facebook and the car communities. When our system here was in its early stages, I had ample opportunity to create an affiliated Facebook group for New Caprice as at that time the groups for PPV owners were both scarce and disorganized, but I decided not to do so. I very much echo the thoughts of a few previous posters in that Facebook information is difficult to access, index, and is unsure with regard to stability for future users down the road. Every time I, as a non-Facebook user try to look at information there on unlocked channels/groups, the system blocks out half my screen with enormous screams to JOIN!. Having a locked group is fine as long as you're communicating with members of your group only, but it doesn't readily lend itself to advancement of the discussion to other interested people outside the group.
About a year or so into our system, maybe a little less, I conducted a brief experiment to where I locked down the discussion forums (except for the general forum) for viewing by our system members only as incentive to increase system membership. After my head was politely severed, mounted, and handed back to me by many wise people in a VERY short period of time, I promptly reversed that position and opened up everything again. Our content is on search engines from here to Antarctica (yep, we get hits from down there - not much to do in the winter I guess!). Cars are a very homogeneous, unifying hobby for people from all walks of life, ages, professions, you name it. It doesn't make good sense to wall off the excellent technical information obtained via the collective, corporate knowledge of all of our owners from the outside world. This is what a "data silo" is. You pile up all this good car information/talk in a virtual grain silo. The informational content goes up, up, up on the system that houses the silo, but never spills out into the real world.
I have always maintained that if some enterprising individual(s) were to write a synchronization app between Facebook group posts and forum software (PHPBB, VBulletin, take your pick, etc...) that would take a Facebook post and dump it into a forum sub-board as a regular post, you could make a ton of money. Hopefully such an app would be bi-directional, meaning if we had a post in our forum "X" that was linked to the Facebook group, it'd create a post in the Facebook group by "NewCaprice" with the identical information that was posted on our system. BAM DONE, we have connectivity. However I'd bet it will never be allowed to happen, not by the good folks on non-corporate owned forum systems but by Facebook lawyers protecting their intellectual property.
Hell, even if the Yellowstone volcanic caldera erupts and our servers get melted in the rain of fire...... fire... yeah, FIRE
(SLAP!), the content from NewCaprice will still be available on the Wayback Machine for as long as it operates, we get routinely scanned as do a lot of other systems. I helped rescue some extremely valuable data last year for the Mercedes guys by using the Wayback Machine. One of their tech websites went Tango Uniform when the private owner pulled the plug, so I directed them how to get all their old posts back. I did the same thing with a group called the Revconeers, they killed their BBS which had a lot of good motorhome tech info on it. Yes, what gets posted here will be circulating for many years to come, not so on das Facebook as long as walls are in place.
Facebook as a interactional tool is fine as long as you're a member of the private club. Picture a clubhouse with no windows, one guarded door, and no cellphones or antennas allowed. I just read an article tonight linked from Drudge Report where some Facebook Australia execs were caught with their hand in the cookie jar researching alteration of the emotional states of some users to benefit advertisers, among other things. Machiavelli is alive & well in the digital age, believe me! I'm not EVEN going to start on discussion about what's being done to analyze your private metrics over there and to push your attitudinal and purchasing buttons accordingly... But anyway, those are just some of my thoughts for the little they're worth.
Eric