I just hope we don't get trolls or beligerant idiots here. And if we do, don't let them silence us.

Sidenote: I've been practicing speaking up on the college campus I attend and allowing real humans to hear alternative viewpoints. It is a major source of anxiety but I feel it is necessary in today's academia.

I suspect a lot of people are doing the same.
Facebook is slowly becoming less and less relevant I feel. It is partly a victim of its own success, people have accepted so many 'friends' that whatever they say, they are bound to offend some of them. This is combined with the privacy settings being confusing and unreliable, so people are unsure who is listening and are afraid to say anything controversial.
Here in the UK, Brexit is so incredibly emotive and divisive that FB unfriending of those from the other side has become commonplace, heightening these issues even further.
So instead, it seems people are increasingly going elsewhere to have real discussions.

I'm going to make it a family forum, plus perhaps a few interests, sport, photography etc.
I've had a few discussions on there recently and on one occasion had content actually removed by Facebook ( gender issue).
I wasnt rude, bullying or hateful...just biologically factual.
Free speech is dead on that platform.

Unfortunately I feel the same way most of the time... But lately long time friends are posting things I do not align with. I will not read racist comments towards white people and not speak up. That shit is viral right now, incredibly divisive, and not okay. Worst case scenario: "friends" and myself realise we don't have as much in common as we thought and we part ways. Honestly, I'm at a point in my life where I'm cool with that. I don't want racist friends anyways. Buh-bye now

I use different platforms for different things:

• IDW is for intellectual discussions
• FB is for keeping up with friends and families
• IG is for bragging about my travels
• .... haven't found a good niche for Twitter yet

Same here. Facebook is fine for keeping up with the people in our lives, and that's about all. The jury's still out on this site. So far, I've only encountered one "discussion" that I had to disengage from.

Most people are nice but ones in a while we get that arsehole who is hated by everybody.

I don't typically last more than a week in FB without getting banned because of "community rules", so I hope this is a place where I can speak freely, and hear other people's free opinions!

Same here, there are people I need to keep up with over there, but none of them would like my political opinions, so here I find myself. The anonyous discussion of ideas is what a social network should be to my mind.

Good on you

And I'd wager that discussions here will be far less annoying and far more gentile

That is the present condition for most of us . My 4960 Facebook friends are slow in signing up here .