Of shoes and string and Facebook algorithms ....

We may love or hate Facebook - but do we understand the mysteries behind it? Well, I certainly don't. This is why I am including in my blog and linking on Facebook to this post.  

Clearly, the original poster was frustrated and angst-ridden. The response below the post explains what happens behind the scenes in Facebook-land

HOW IT FEELS WHEN SOME OF OUR BETTER VIDEO POSTS GO UNACKNOWLEDGED BY THE VAST MAJORITY, IF NOT ALL, OUR PAGE...
Posted by Church of the Working Class on Thursday, 10 March 2016

Laurence Brown Facebook delivers posts according to an algorithm, which they keep largely secret. They do this, because if they showed people every post, from every friend and page, then we'd just have too many in our news feeds. It's clear that things like youtube videos (which do not auto play) and external links, are often given a lower priority, compared to videos, photos and other content hosted directly on facebook. Other things like 'trending topics' also give posts a boost. These algorithms do get changed periodically, so the skills you need, to compose a successful post, have to be constantly updated. This is just what I've learnt from running several pages on here. I'm thinking that perhaps, criticising the inaction of your subscribers, isn't the best way to encourage them. 

The Dunera Boys and how Nicholas Gruen made my day on Facebook.

I had a most heart-warming experience on Facebook yesterday.  The original post is heart-rending if you go to the link and listen to the testimony of this particular woman and what she faced as a girl in state care in NSW.  She was imprisoned at Hay.  As well as re-posting the original post in the hope that people would become more aware of what has happened to this nation's children in the past, I asked the question if the prison at Hay could be the same place that the Dunera Boys were sent to in 1940.  

I often cite the Dunera Boys when speaking of the way refugees and asylum seekers have been treated by successive Australian Governments since the 1990s. Australian Governments and large sections of the Australian population have shown across decades that they dislike receiving people fleeing from all manner of hardship and life-threatening situations.  

The Dunera Boys were people who had sought refuge in England from the vicissitudes of Hitler's Europe.  They were a mixed bunch. Many of them were Jewish. Many of them were well educated.  Australia finished up being well blessed by those who came on the HMT Dunera when eventually the evacuees were settled into the broad Australian society and made lives for themselves.

Portrait of Fred Gruen

by Erwin Fabian.

Erwin Fabian, like Fred,

is a 'Dunera Boy'.

I always cite Fred Gruen. Fred Gruen became a great and influential economist.  His son Nicholas Gruen, is one of Australia's leading health economists. The blessing continues.

....and so it was that when I was sounding off once again on Facebook and did the usual mention of the Gruens - Nicholas himself entered the conversation and inserted links to material he had written about his father.  

For me, this was yet another warm social blessing brought about by social media.

  

Thank you, Nicholas Gruen for making my day.

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh

15 hrs · AddThis Sharing · 

Cruelty, exploitation and hardship was not only the province of Christian organisations - as this recording makes clear.

Royal Commission: Damning testimony from former inmate of Hay Institution for Girls - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

ABC.NET.AU

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Eileen MacLean · Friends with Vicki Jones

What an awful story!

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 14 hrs

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh And all when so many of us were sleeping comfortably in our beds. I was wondering. Have you ever read the story of the Dunera boys. They were men that Churchill shipped to Australia not long before WW11 ended. Europeans (including Jews) who had escaped to England. As the Nazis got closer to the English Channel, Churchill got twitchy in case there were any enemy aliens in the refugees. So we got a share of them. They were sent to a detention camp out back of Hay and I wondered if this facility was the same place or a different one. As for the Dunera boys, Australia scored one of best economists, FredGruen, was a Dunera Boy and his son,Nicholas Gruen, is a leading health economist. Wonder what we might be missing out on as we turn back the boats.

Like · Reply · 14 hrs

Eileen MacLean · Friends with Vicki Jones

I haven't heard of the 'Duneral boys', interesting to read your post.

Like · Reply · 13 hrs

Nicholas Gruen Thanks Brigid. I wrote about Dad and the Dunera when sponsoring some Hazara kids on TPVs on a soccer around NSW and Queensland here.

http://clubtroppo.com.au/.../fighting-them-on-the.../ and here

http://clubtroppo.com.au/.../a-speech-at-the-unveiling.../

Fighting them on the beaches - and in the detention camps *

CLUBTROPPO.COM.AU

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 13 hrs

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh Eileen, here's a whole pile of links you can explore re the Dunera Boys. It makes interesting reading. Our govt wasn't all that keen on having them ... and we find echoes of that with refugees and asylum seekers to-day.

Like · Reply · 13 hrs

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh Nicholas Gruen Thank you for your response, Nicholas. I use the example of the Dunera boys and their treatment by a government which, even historically, has great respect. I tell people that our govt wasn't keen on them coming here, but Churchill had sent them. And more than 70 years later and quite a few influxes of refugees since, it seems we are still not keen on receiving those seeking protection.

Like · Reply · 13 hrs · Edited

Nicholas Gruen Yep, goes on and on. As I mention in my post, I expected the Hazara kids to be different to the Jews of the Dunera. I expected them to be of 'peasant stock' (not that there's anything wrong with that). But something about Hazara culture (about which I...See more

Like · Reply · 13 hrs

Eileen MacLean ''Dunera boys' sorry, Facebook corrected my typing and I didn't notice it.Thank you for your second post, I will explore further.

Like · Reply · 13 hrs

Public book launch for THE INTERVENTION - AN ANTHOLOGY edited by Rosie Soctt and Anita Heiss

Georgina Gartland posted 6 updates.

11MAR

Interested

The Intervention an Anthology - Geelong book launch Invitation - 11 March 2016

Fri 14:00 · Wesley Centre, 100 Yarra Street, Geelong, 3220

Cheryl Kaulfuss invited you

• 

  ‎Georgina Gartland‎ to Brigid O'Carroll Walsh

  14 hrs · 

  FYI & Victorian networks.This will be a significant book launch and meeting, Consider attending & listening to both Yingiya Mark Guyula book contributor and (of the Yolŋu Nations Assembly , Arnhem land) and Terry Mason (of the the Awabakal language group and Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University) on TREATY. If unable to attend Geelong, perhaps consider the,
  Melbourne 12th forum the following day, to hear from Yingiya Mark Guyula, Adam Frogley (Taungerong man) and Jon Altman.

  
  See also,
  1) Treaty, Yeah! The Undeniable Case For A National Settlement With Australia’s First Peoples. (5th March 2016)https://newmatilda.com/…/treaty-yeah-the-undeniable-case-f…/

  2) Indigenous leaders praise Victoria's commitment to talk about treaty, (3rd March 2015) http://www.theguardian.com/…/indigenous-leaders-praise-vict…

  3)The Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, NT, Australia, need a treaty asap. They need their law respected by governments and they need a space of their own that honours their way of life.

  If you are unable to attend one of the forums,Yingyia can be heard in brief at http://www.yingiya.net/english.html
  Donate to help us act! www.chuffed.org/project/ymgfortreaty

  Sydney forum important : TIME FOR TREATIES Public Forum “Men speak out for Treaty” This follows last year's women speak out for treaty . More at https://www.facebook.com/events/1525090637795711/

  Other interstate forum at
  https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/…/12805996_10154032452…

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  ‎Georgina Gartland‎ to Irene Bolger

  15 hrs · 

  For Victorian networks . This will be a significant book launch and meeting. Geelong 11th: Listen to both Yingiya Mark Guyula (of the Yolŋu Nations Assembly -Arnhem land) and Terry Mason (of the the Awabakal language group and Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University). Or, consider Melbourne 12th- forum the following day- hear from Yingiya Mark Guyula, Adam Frogley (Taungerong man) and Jon Altman.
  See also,
  1) Treaty, ...

  See more