DIY

This seems to be an extremely useful group. Threads on the discussion board include 'Stretch your own shoes :)', 'Tire sandals.', 'Home-made External Hard Drive', 'Old House key crafts/art', 'Make your own hand creme' ,'Make your own martini' and 'Does anyone know how to deal with pigeon poo?!' The gallery showcases some completed projects. In wall posts, you will find links to useful websites, video tutorials and also advice on tools, etc. This is still a fairly small group (less than 1000 members), but it has great potential.

What's great about this group: there's lots of useful information.

Update (18 April 2024)

I'm not sure whether this group is still active, but it seems not.

Chocolate

I have been sorely tempted to feature one of those protest groups that inevitably mushroom into existence whenever Facebook adjusts its format, as their latest changes seem designed to thwart my attempts to continue to find new and unusual groups. As you may have discovered, it is no longer possible to simply browse for groups at random. By trial and error, though, I have discovered that you could still search for groups using a specific keyword. Here's how you do it. Go to http://www.facebook.com/search/? and type in your keyword. However, in order to search for groups, you must then also click on 'groups' on the left hand of the screen.

As tomorrow is Valentine's and lots of people will be seeing too much chocolate, I might be forgiven for compromising a few diets with today's group. Threads on the discussion board include 'The most you've EVER eaten?', 'Which is ur fav. choc?????', 'Making chocolate at home' and 'Chocolate web sites'. On the information page, you will find links to various individual chocolate manufacturers. The gallery features very yummy pictures, including some of unusual chocolate sculptures.

What's great about this group: Share your sweet tooth.

Update (18 April 2024)

There is a large (103.7k members) group named Chocolate, which is still active, but seems to attract a large amount of spam, promotional or non-relevant posts. It does have the occasional chocolate post. Visit at your own risk. 

If 65 Million People join, God will bring back the dinosaurs!

I can appreciate a little irreverence on occasion and the outrageous statement this group makes with its name gets to me. Firstly, are there even sixty-five million users on Facebook? (Sorry, I'm not up to date on the exact numbers). Secondly, can Facebook even support a group with that many users? Thirdly, will God listen to the dictates of a Facebook petition? One wonders. On the other hand, this past week a friend and I were speculating what fun and mayhem could result were one of our favorite bands to inflict their uniquely black humor to a number of non-humorous songs. We posted a thread on their group, and they replied that they were indeed thinking along those lines. One never knows. Back to the dinosaurs, though. On the discussion board, you will find threads such as 'Which dinosaur would you get as a pet?', 'Interesting information, facts you'd like to share about dinosaurs!', 'why extinction, where did they go?' and 'What if?' The gallery includes various cartoons poking fun and dinosaurs and extinctions and also more than a few featuring well-known religious images 'saurified'.

What's great about this group: The title pokes fun at all sorts of things, including Facebook groups.

A word of caution: Some images in the gallery may give offence to deeply religious people.

There are several Facebook Groups with similar names, but they are all tiny, with less than 30 members. 

The Venus Project

Some time ago, I featured the Facebook group of one South African who will attempt to live without money for five years. Today's Facebook group is for anyone who embraces the ideas of Jacque Fresco, who advocates a society that rejects the concept of money as a measurement of worth, focusing instead on the abundance of true resources. Threads on the discussion board include 'Problems, Implications, & Solutions', 'Could we all just move to a island and start the venus project?', 'sport & Venus Project', 'Will religion be banned?', 'Population Reduction', 'Errors with this project that lead to it failing' and, of course 'money'. There are also links to other resources. Even if you cannot imagine a world without money, the concept is still worth exploring.

What's great about this group: It makes you think.

Update (18 April 2024)

It's fourteen years later and we need something like the Venus Project more than ever. There are numerous regional groups for the Venus project, as well as one international group which is private. There are two small and mostly inactive groups that could possibly be the original group. They can be found here and here. 

Syria in Pictures

The name says it all. This is another group that is a visual delight, show-casing more than 2,600 photographic images of Syria in the gallery. Included are snowy landscapes, flowers in spring, picturesque street scenes, cars, bicycles, horse-carts and children at play. Any place can be beautiful, if rendered through the eyes of those took pleasure in the time they spend there. Take the time to explore a wealth of breath-takingly beautiful images. The group also includes over 80 video clips. Most wall posts and much of the descriptions are in Arabic.

What's great about this group: The photographs are beautiful

Update (29 October 2023)

There is a private Facebook group called Pictures from Syria, which has about 74,000 members. 

10 reasons to GET OFF Facebook

Facebook addiction? If you show an interest in this blog of mine, then probably you do spend a considerable amount of time on Facebook. If you want to be reminded of what you are missing, check it out. On the discussion board, you will find threads such as 'You know you're addicted to facebook when...', '11th reason:', 'Before there was face book I......' and 'I'd add a few more'. In the gallery, you might find some cartoons and other images poking fun at Facebook addiction. Obviously, despite its intentions, the group is still 'behind enemy lines' so to speak.

What's great about this group: Take a few moments to reflect on what life was like before Facebook.

Update (22 April 2024)

The only group I could find with the same name (but different capitalization - so probably not the same group) has exactly one member. I suspect that this group no longer exists. 

AWKWARD TURTLE

Some months ago, I featured a facebook group about awkward episodes. Today's group has a similar theme, but in this case, it uses the awkward turtle sign as identifying symbol. If you haven't heard of the 'awkward turtle' before, you can find images portraying this distinctive hand gesture by a variety of members in the gallery. You can also look out for a photograph of a completely different type of awkward turtle, one with two heads. On the discussion board, various 'awkward turtle' moments are shared in 'Awkward stories' and other threads include 'Different awkwards', 'Where does the Awkward Turtle originate from??', 'Variants of "Awkward Turtle"' and 'Other Awkward Animals...'

What's great about this group: Everybody has an awkward moment once in a while.

Update (22 April 2024)

There are so many groups named Awkward Turtle, I lost count at around 70. Most groups have single digit member figures. I think the largest had 62 members.