If facebook is like twitter in that regard, I mostly wouldn’t expect you to get feedback about an article having been read—but I’d also not expect an especially high probability that the intended person actually read it, either. What I meant was more along the lines of emailing/IMing them individually with the relevant link. (Obviously this doesn’t work too well if you know a whole lot of people who you think should read a particular article. I can’t advise about that situation—my social circle is too small for me to run into it.)
It wasn’t actually on account of this discussion that I introduced my friend to LW (since I didn’t read Swimmer and Adelene’s comments till afterward)- I just posted the reaction here because it was funny and relevant.
I don’t know what Twitter is like, but the function on Facebook that I prefer to use (private messages) is almost like email and seems to be replacing email among much of my social circle. I will preferentially send my friends FB messages instead of emails, since I usually get a reply faster.
Writing on someone’s wall is public, and might result in a slower reply because it seems less urgent. But it’s still directed at a particular person, and it would be considered rude not to reply at all. But when I post an article or link, the reply I often get is “thanks, looks neat, I’ll read that later.”
If facebook is like twitter in that regard, I mostly wouldn’t expect you to get feedback about an article having been read—but I’d also not expect an especially high probability that the intended person actually read it, either. What I meant was more along the lines of emailing/IMing them individually with the relevant link. (Obviously this doesn’t work too well if you know a whole lot of people who you think should read a particular article. I can’t advise about that situation—my social circle is too small for me to run into it.)
I, uh, just did that, and received this reply half an hour later:
I think that counts as a success.
Upvotes to you for trying something instead of defaulting to doing nothing.
It wasn’t actually on account of this discussion that I introduced my friend to LW (since I didn’t read Swimmer and Adelene’s comments till afterward)- I just posted the reaction here because it was funny and relevant.
Sorry for the delayed reply...
I don’t know what Twitter is like, but the function on Facebook that I prefer to use (private messages) is almost like email and seems to be replacing email among much of my social circle. I will preferentially send my friends FB messages instead of emails, since I usually get a reply faster.
Writing on someone’s wall is public, and might result in a slower reply because it seems less urgent. But it’s still directed at a particular person, and it would be considered rude not to reply at all. But when I post an article or link, the reply I often get is “thanks, looks neat, I’ll read that later.”