The Around Dublin Team created the Around Dublin Facebook Group on October 12, 2008, to facilitate interaction among readers who would like to take a more active role in our community. The Around Dublin Team wanted to leverage Facebook’s social networking capabilities to promote more resident involvement in our city governance and empower like-minded readers to engage in their own actions.

Unfortunately, the Around Dublin Facebook Group has not lived up to the high expectations the Around Dublin Team had for it. The one most glaring deficiency of a Facebook Group is that it cannot host applications. A Facebook Fan Page, on the other hand, can fully support rich media and interactive applications like an RSS reader and a photo album to engage visitors and fans. An RSS reader is important, because it provides another venue for the Around Dublin Blog to serve its content. The photo album application is essential, because pictures can now be organized into logical categories; this basic feature is not available to a Group Page. A Fan Page also allows the page administrator to maintain a personal/professional distinction on Facebook, while a Group Page does not. The Around Dublin Team prefers that all content posting on Facebook appear as coming from the Around Dublin brand and not from any particular individual who happens to be the Group administrator. Finally, a Fan Page allows the Around Dublin Team to send non-obtrusive Facebook Updates to our growing community, while the only option for direct communication via the Group Page is mass emailing, a solution that is extremely unappealing on many levels. The Around Dublin Team would like to thank Adriel Hampton and his blog post titled Facebook Pages are Better than Groups for motivating us toward the better solution that is the Fan Page.

In summary, the Around Dublin Fan Page offers everything the Group Page does and so much more. We at the Around Dublin Team apologize for any inconvenience this move to the new Fan Page may have caused. We appreciate your understanding and are looking forward to seeing everyone there soon. Thank again for your continued support.