My kids and I were sniffling as we prepared to move. The dust hesitated in the air, and like a swarming mob crowded into the crevices of our sinuses. That made the task of prepping to move more and more miserable by the moment. Then at the height of my misery, I came across a picture that rescued forgotten memories long missing in action tucked irretrievably just outside my consciousness.

I chuckled at rogue roommates, silly siblings and funny friends. The grunge of basement grit covering me was overpowered by the satisfaction of revisiting beautiful people, wonderful places and wondrous things. I had the proof to tell the stories. So, how to share in a post Kodak mindset? I could post these pics to the Kodak gallery, load them on flicker, create a PowerPoint presentation or . . .?

Or, I could use them as the beginning salvos in the greatest Facebook picture war known to mankind. Of course my flair for the dramatic may overstate my aims just a tad, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to shoot for the stars. The more I pondered, the more I realized we needed a Geneva Convention of sorts on how to war fairly. I do believe in fair war, so what follows is a delineation of the rules of combat for a well executed honorable Facebook war that will leave friends and family just that, friends and family.

Rules of Engagement

1 – Know your subject well enough before posting:

Do not post pictures of someone as the main subject if you do not know them well. This is in poor taste. As a rule of thumb, if your response to randomly spotting them in the mall is a lukewarm hand gesture, chances are, you two are NOT not on it like that. No pictures for you.

If, on the other hand, you knock an elderly person to the ground while making a bee line to greet them, you’re good. Post away. If there are others in the picture who are not the main focus of the pic and you a.) don’t know their name, or b.) don’t care what their name is, fa-get-about-it. We call these folks fb pic war collateral damage. It’s expected that a certain number of these folks will get trapped on your Facebook page.

2- No pictures of children whom you are not related to:

On a serious note, protecting others should always be in the forefront of our minds when posting online. To this end, be mindful of posting pics of children whom you are not related to because some parents are extremely protective of their children’s privacy. Many of them have good reason to be.

3- Be mindful of relationship status prior to posting:

You know when your significant other asks the question, “did you have a xxxxxx with so and such?” By not posting previous relationship pics, you uphold their answer, regardless of their answer. Other folks simply have a tremendous amount of pride, and if they see who their significant other has dated in the past, they may be extremely insulted and terminate the relationship on the spot!!

4- No compromising photos:

It’s important to recognize that people grow. We all are hopefully smarter and wiser than we were during earlier periods of our lives. It’s mean spirited and calamitous to knowingly post photos of others in situations or scenes that would jeopardize their relationship, their job or their security. I know posting a compromising pic of your ex seems like an equitable way to repay them for that wonderful gift they left you with, but, you will appear as the villain and you can’t undue what you’ve done. This also applies to posting ugly pics of models and could even extend to posting pics of people you know who are now “famous.” When in doubt, refer to rule #1.

5- Move when asked to remove:

Be responsible for the pics you post. If the person whom you have added or tagged requests that you remove their picture, do it promptly. Now be mindful some folks are a little bashful and some are hard of hearing, so depending on which side you fall you may need to request harder or BS better.

6- Post with a sincere heart:

The cardinal rule of thumb is to post in love and appreciation. Be mindful, your FB Pic War has the potential to touch, move and inspire!! How great is it to share with others the beautiful people whom your life has been blessed with? Isn’t it also motivating to reflect on where your life has taken you? At the end of the day, your FB Pic War should be about bringing family and friends closer. Keep this in your heart and win lose or draw, your war will have been worth it.

Every now and again I hear that soul stirring emotional gripe, “my Facebook account has been hacked.”  Or, maybe you are one of the unfortunate individuals to whom this has happened. My condolences.

I was skeptical at first. Not because I didn’t believe it could happen,  but because many computer problems are affectionately known by techies as a PEBCACs (Problem Exists Between Chair and Computer). After seeing more and more posts about the hacks on various sites, I looked a little deeper and was moderately interested in what I found.

Getting your Facebook, or any other social media account, hacked can and does happen. For individual low profile folks out there, access is typically gained through poor password selection or installation of rogue applications. Low profile meaning NOT Sara Palin or Barrack Obama.

When it comes to generating passwords, despite knowing better, most Americans are just not that creative when it comes to creating a password. This is the lament issued by a collection of high school teachers on their blog, “Teaching High School Psychology.” They go on to list some of the most common reasons that hackers are able to guess passwords for general user accounts.

• 16% used their own first name or that of one of their children
• 14% used simple keyboard combinations such as “123456789″ or “QWERTY”
• 5% of the passwords were of television shows, famous names, etc. such as “Hannah,” “Matrix,” or “Ironman”
• 4% used the word “password” or a close variation “password1″
• 3% used phases such as “Idontcare,” “Whatever,” “Yes,” or “No.

What’s more, I bet quite a few folks reading this have a password or two residing on a dubious list entitled, “The Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time”.  If you see your password here, go straight to jail and do not pass go. But before you do that,  change your dang password to something not on the list. Keep in mind that any information in the public domain can and will be used against you by hackers. ANY piece of information (Read: Google yourself and see what information is out there about you, you might be surprised).

This means your dog’s name, your children’s name, your birthdate, your home state, your zip, your street address, your alma mater, everything is out there for the taking.  A hacker can assemble all of these items into a  list and begin running through the combinations to generate probable passwords.  That’s not good news.

Want to know how to choose a better password? Grab a small cup of joe and peruse the following link;  Click here to peruse. Yeah it’s boring and completely non-sexy, but at least you won’t have to send an email to everyone apologizing for the hee-bee-gee-bees you gave their pc (sorry, sorry. Or Mac). And remember to change your password at least 3 times a year.

The other predominate way to get hacked on Facebook in particular and other social sites in general is to continually install and allow random applications to access your information. Keep in mind, these applications ARE NOT, in general, built by Facebook and its development group. These are private groups and organizations with wild ideas and dreams of grandeur that assemble the applications.  Some have good intentions and others, not so much.  There is no verification process for developers putting together Facebook applications so installer beware.

On Facebook in particular, the applications will rifle through your user list sending random join messages to your unsuspecting friends. And bam, before you know it, cyber calamity. It’s ok to decline to allow applications access to your information. If they really need it, they’ll IM you.

Enough talk, go change your passwords and practice saying, “No, you can not have access to my information.”

Stay safe.