Starting with this post, the website will display the Facebook commenting system. Older posts have the old commenting system and will retain the old comments.

Why the change? 

Because Facebook has better moderation tools than are available through our old commenting system. Also, practically the whole universe has a Facebook account now and sites that use Facebook comments get more comments on stories.

Why not? Because it feels a little like giving into the Borg. "You will be assimilated."  

I think it's the right move now but we'll see.

Facebook has other projects in the works to help local publishers like me, mostly through the trade association I helped create, Local Independent Online News Publishers, that makes me a little less wary of Facebook.

So, we'll see. In business, if you're not trying new things, you're dying. So we try new things.

For the second year in a row, the Batavia Blue Devils boys outdoor track team captured the Section V title at the host school, Honeoye Falls Lima, yesterday evening. Batavia finished with 110 points over second place rival U-Prep, which scored 88 points.

Highlights of their success include junior Anthony Ray winning both the discus throw event at 43.81 meters and shot put at 16.54 meters, setting a new school shot put record. Senior Frederick Cunningham took third place in both the triple jump and high jump. Senior Andrew Mruczek took first in the long jump with 6.64 meters.

Boys relay teams placed third in both 4x100 and 4x400 and took second in the 4x8. Senior Campbell Anderson finished fourth in both the 800-meter run and pole vault and senior Sam Bartz took fifth in the pole vault. Julio Vazquez took second in the 110 meter hurdles and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. Eric Davis took took in both the 400-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash. Andrew Mruczek took second in the 200-meter dash.

Last year sectional winners Batavia girls outdoor track team finished last night in third place overall with 63 points. Iaya Franklin finished second place in the 100- and 400-meter dash and first in the 200-meter dash. Claire Zickl finshed fourth in the 800-meter run. Batavia girls took first in the 4x400-meter relay. Sophomore Lizzie Cohen placed first in the pole vault. Senior Tanner Kolb finished third in the discus. Edmarie Calderon-Torres finished fifth in the pentathlon.

This marks Batavia track and field with their 29th Sectional Championship in program history.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/139128306209804/

UPDATED 1:39 p.m.

For a brief time overnight and this morning, a page appeared on Facebook called "Batavia Fights," which promoted itself as a place for students to post videos of their friends and classmates fighting.

One video was posted of two girls reportedly at Batavia Middle School involved in a fight as classmates cheered them on.

Christopher Daily, assistant superintendent of the school district, said the district was aware of the page and video and were investigating possible student involvement.

"Obviously, we don't condone it," Daily told WBTA. "We will work with the authorities as well to make sure that our students' safety is of utmost concern."

The school district contacted Batavia PD this morning and according to Det. Todd Crossett, the PD used a special law enforcement phone number to contact Facebook and alert the social network to the page.

Crossett he didn't have information on whether Facebook removed the page or if the original poster removed it.

There's nothing criminal, Crossett said, about shooting or posting the video and the actual fight itself is a school disciplinary matter and at this point law enforcement isn't involved.

Comments on the video were mostly approving, calling it "cool" and "funny."

At the end of the video an adult appears to enter the shot and break up the fight.

The video appears to have been posted around 5 p.m., Thursday.

By 11:40 p.m., the page was no longer available on Facebook.

A screen shot and the video were saved by WBTA's Geoff Redick before the page disappeared. Redick blurred the video to make it harder to identify individuals in the shots.

On Tuesday, July 13, Lisa Gricius will show you how to set up an account, how to use and manage it, and games to play (or not). The program will begin at 7 p.m. and is open to all adults in the Batavia area. Registration is not required.

Please call the library at 343-9550 for more information.

I have always taken facebook’s privacy policy with a grain of salt....I have no expectation of privacy for anything I post or do on facebook and since I am not doing anything wrong, I didn’t really pay too much attention to their privacy policy. I think that a great majority of people feel the same way.

I decided to read their entire privacy policy - shame on me for not doing so before this.

This is the part that causes me concern and prompted me to send Facebook an email to clarify this privacy issue for me.

Access Device and Browser Information

. When you access Facebook from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.

This is not a matter of FB knowing what information you make available publicly on their site; so they can use that information to market products and services to you and your FB friends. This is much more sinister. You have no control over what information they collect or who they share/sell it to. Their privacy policy, specifically the clause that I have referenced above, removes any boundaries that might otherwise limit the information they are allowed to collect. Simply logging on to FB grants permission to have everything you do on-line become potentially public information. This is not something you can OPT-OUT of either, it is their marketing strategy.

I bank and make purchases on-line. Given the number of times hackers have invaded FB in the past, I don’t think they have the ability to adequately protect protect the information that they collect. Assuming, that is, that you knew what information was collected in the first place and had a means of verifying that it was still safe and secure.

Facebook has yet to respond to my email. I requested clarification on 2 specific questions:

1. Does facebook collect information about the pages I visit ONLY when I am connected to facebook or even when I am NOT connected to facebook?

2. Will logging off of facebook first, keep the websites I view PRIVATE?

Whether or not I remain on FB will depend upon how they answer these questions. In the meantime, I will be sure to log off of Facebook before I log on to a secure website. Hopefully, but by no means certainly, this will be a way to block Facebook from monitoring that which I do not want monitored.

I guess I miss the excitement of a different challenge every day and that nothing is ever static. 

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/11/30/9-top-companies-that-provide-facebook-page-management-tools/

My name is Bea and I am a Farm Town addict.

I'm not sure if it is because I'm in a rural area that living the farm life vicariously through this simulation or if it is the thrill of selling  produce for vast sums of money, but I'm stuck on it.

Thanks to a good batavian.com blogger (we don't name names, because some addicts don't want to become public)  who helped me harvest last night.  It worked out for both of us.

Just a hint to those of you who do farm and send stuff....I really, really, really need animals.  My farm just doesn't look right without them. hint, hint, hint.

I'm weaning my way out of the farm for the weekend by planting crops that take three days to ripen.  That way I won't need to be there all weekend long.  Think it will work?