The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

We are moving to MeWe

I've mentioned several times the problems that we've had with Facebook. I got into detail about it in a blog post titled Facebook has some big problems, and I've mentioned a couple of updates recently about our ongoing issues with them.

What Facebook now offers is not the same as the Facebook we signed up for ten years ago. At that time, what you saw in your newsfeed was what you wanted to see. If I "followed" a page or a group, it's because I was interested in it. Now, Facebooks algorithms only show me what it thinks I should see. Along with hundreds of advertisements.

Now, advertisements are a necessary evil if you want to keep a site free. After all, you see them here. I would gladly get rid of them if I thought there were enough people who would pay on a regular basis to read what we write.

Facebook doesn't treat its members like customers. It's the advertisers who pay them, so they treat the advertisers like customers. They have forgotten that without members, there are no advertisers.

But the main issue we have with Facebook is how they want to control your use of the site. And for that reason, we are done with it.

I used to think there weren't any alternatives. After all, we enjoyed Facebook as an easy way to keep in touch with family and friends, and to follow groups with comments and interaction with people who have the same interests that you do.

I can't believe we had never heard of MeWe!

Once you get used to a slightly different format, it's almost exactly the same as Facebook... with a few very noticeable differences. The most major difference? There is no advertising. Zero. Once you get to the point where you have a few friends and you like a few pages and groups you notice another big difference. You are in control of what you see.

MeWe is free, but they have some paid options. For example, we have to pay a very small fee ($1.99 per month) to keep our MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p/travelwithkevinandruth You do not pay anything to access it though.

They also have some pay options for users who wish to have some extras like voice and video calling, and cloud storage. They have a MeWe premium service for $5.99 per month that includes everything. You can try it out with a free 30 day subscription. Remember, there is no advertising, so this is what supports them. They say they only need 3% of all members to pay the Premium fee for them to do fine financially.

MeWe is growing in leaps and bounds. They expect to have 40 million members by the end of this year, and they say that 30,000 people per day are signing up. We think there are millions of people who feel the same way about Facebook as we do.

And so, we are going to wean ourselves off Facebook. For now, we will continue to post daily to our Travel with Kevin and Ruth Facebook page until most of you have made the migration to MeWe. And for those who don't, if you're interested in us, you'll find a way to make sure you still read our daily posts anyhow.

Today is a travel day! We are headed about 200 kms (124 miles) west to the coastal town of Güzelçamlı, located south of the cruise ship port of Kuşadası, and right beside a huge national park.

We're surprised at how much we enjoyed our stay here in the big city. There's a lot more to see and do in the area, so we've saved some of it for when we might return in a motorhome. We never made it up the teleferik (cable car) that goes up the mountain behind Denizli, and we never made it to the caves at Kaklik, or the beautiful waters of Salda Lake!

Next post coming from the coast!

Check out the deals at our webpage at www.campingandrvgeardeals.com


21 comments:

  1. Funny that you mention MeWe. I JUST discovered it as well. I was signed up and now I am happy to follow you there!

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    1. We can't believe that we had not heard about MeWe until the other day! We think we are going to like it, as you get to choose what you want to follow. It will take a little getting used to but the more we use it the better we are understanding it and it really isn't all that hard. :-)

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  2. I've been hearing a lot about that new service lately. A lot of my folks are jumping over. Now if I can just get my family on board... Travel safe!

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    1. Facebook has become very authoritative and is starting to block/close accounts of people without any kind of explanation at all and people are getting very tired of this. It has been a month now that Kevin hasn't been able to access his account and he still has no idea what he did wrong! Plus the ads on facebook are getting crazy!

      We are slowing getting friends and family to move over. Change is hard for some and using this new format is a little different but after only a few days on it we are starting to get the hang of it. If you decide not to sign up you can still get our blog through your browser, just bookmark www.travelwithkevinandruth.com to your bookmarks bar and all you have to do is click that icon each morning to get your new post. :-)

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  3. Oh, gosh, I'm going to miss you guys on FB. I have too many friends and family (and pictures) on FB to abandon it now, but I'll go take a peek at MeWe (still can't get into Instragram either lol). Safe travels!

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    1. This is Tina by the way...not sure why my name didn't come up. Ugh, technology! LOL

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    2. If you don't want to sign up to MeWe you can still access our blog through your browser, just bookmark www.travelwithkevinandruth.com to your bookmarks bar and all you have to do is click that icon each morning to get your new post. :-)

      I think that shortly many of your friends and family will start switching over to MeWe as they find out about it. We think Facebooks numbers are starting to dropoff as they are starting to sensor too much and we are hearing about more people getting blocked and/or restricted on their accounts and many have no idea why, just like Kevin. It is very frustrating.

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  4. Hi guys - I have moved to MeWe and will check it out. Will your historical posts still be available?
    Loving your adventures.

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    1. The posts here on the blog itself will always be available. Historical posts on FB will eventually be gone. After the way I have been treated, I have no more use for FB.

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  5. Am happy to see you give FB the boot for many reasons I won't go into here. I never joined in the first place, so I don't need to quit!

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    1. We are happy to give them the boot too! Our transition over to MeWe will be gradual we aren't going to stop it immediately but the time will soon come when we won't post on facebook anymore. Looks like you were smart not to start, ;-)

      Glad that you will still be following us on the blog. :-)

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  6. I quit FB over 10 years ago and have not looked back once. Another great decision have you and Ruth made.

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    1. Up until recently we have loved the ease of communication that we have with fans/readers through facebook but in time that will also happen with MeWe as people slowly move over. We are glad that you won't have any troubles continuing to follow us on our blog, as it will not be a change for you. :-)

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  7. Will you still post your deals on the page www.campingandrvgeardeals.com ? Thanks for all the work you both do!!!

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    1. Yes, Kevin is going to continue with our www.campingandrvgeardeals.com, at least for now he will. :-)

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  8. I’ll try to get used to MeWe enough to enjoy it as much as FB. But I always read your posts on the blog, and I’m glad that won’t change!

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    1. Thank you for giving it a try Armande.

      We are glad that no matter what you will always be able to get our blog, that will never change. :-)

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  9. I don't know what things are like in Turkey, but be really careful guys. I don't know how much communication you have from home, but Covid is exploding back here. Nearly 1500 new cases in Ontario today they are having to lock down. As far as facebook is concerned I agree, I got a month in the park for next to nothing, they seem to have bots going crazy.

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    1. Things are fine here in Turkey and we always try to be careful!

      We communicate all the time with our family at home and they are all doing well.

      Facebook has gone too far with all it's new "censorship" crap and we aren't sticking around for it!

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  10. Never heard of MeWe until this post. I’ve been disappointed and dissatisfied with FB for a while so I’ll check into MeWe. Thanks again for all the thorough research you always do in everything that you do .....always a good source of trusted and reliable information for me! More power to you and safe travels.

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    1. We hadn't heard of it either until a few days ago. It takes a little getting used to but that is the way with any new program. We are playing with it and learning as we go and we have already found that it really isn't that difficult to navigate. I think I remember feeling like that when I first started using Facebook.

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