Big Announcement: BYC & Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Partnership - BeakBook - April fool's 2013

[Nifty-Chicken]

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This is some amazing news that has been in the works for the past 7 months. We’re excited to finally announce it to our community!!!

Starting today, BYC will be partnering directly with Facebook’s very own Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to help establish the idea of raising backyard chickens to the same level as raising a dog or cat.





Some Background:


About two years ago, news broke that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder / CEO of Facebook, had decided to only eat animals that he, himself, had killed. For more details on this, see here: http://mashable.com/2011/05/27/mark-zuckerberg-eats-kills/

We’re not sure, but we suspect that some of Mark’s earlier experiences with chickens (if you’ve seen the movie “The Social Network” about the creation of Facebook you’ll know to what we’re referring) have helped shape some of his views and ideas on raising chickens.

Because of these and many other factors, Mark has become even more familiar with the many benefits of raising backyard chickens and is a huge proponent of the growing trend. With last year’s IPO of Facebook and the company being flushed with cash, Mark knew it was time to really put some resources behind some very worthy causes. He first stumbled on our huge BYC Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/raisingbackyardchickens) and then found our community here on BYC. Mark was impressed by the amazing group of individuals we have here and the incredible passion our members have for the proper care of backyard chickens.

Around July of last year, we were contacted by Mark and have since been working quietly together to find ways to really promote chickens as “the new dog”.

(Note: we hope that the presence of pictures on the internet of Mark holding a chicken precariously does not detract from his desire to show his support of this movement: https://www.google.com/search?q=mark+zuckerberg+chicken )

The Plan:


The specific details of the new partnership are still being worked out, but we have a few ideas on how we’ll be able to bring raising backyard chickens fully into the mainstream. One of the most exciting ideas that came together during a late night brainstorming session was a mashup of BYC and Facebook called “BeakBook”. Again, the details are still being ironed out, and we can’t share too much information because new and potentially HUGE game-changing ideas are so quickly stolen and copied on the internet… but expect “BeakBook” to be core to the execution of our strategy!

We’re sorry we can’t share more details with you all, but we felt it was more important to share this wonderful news sooner than later, especially so we can get your ideas and feedback.
Here’s what we need from you, reply with:

1. What do you think about this new partnership?
2. Do you “Like” our Facebook Page with over 43,000 likes?
3. How do you like the name “BeakBook”
4. If you were going to combine the best of FaceBook and the best of BYC, what would you like to see?
5. What other ideas do you have to help get the idea of raising backyard chickens even more solidified in the consciousness of the general public?

We look forward to your thoughts, ideas, and comments!

• 2007 - BYC Expanding - BackYardCows.com
• 2008 - BYC Hacked!
• 2009 - Server Upgrade Good News / Bad News: Post Counts Lost
• 2010 - New BYC Store Product - The EggCell!
• 2011 - NEW BYC Program & Partnership - Sell Your Extra Eggs!
• 2012 - New Forum Section - Exotic Backyard Animals
• 2013 - Big Announcement: BYC & Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Partnership - BeakBook

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I think its great! I have used FB to connect to people for over 3 years now. Excited to see where this will go! Thumbs up to this project

 

[ElitePoultry]

Very cool you guys!!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Thanks for the support! We're SUPER SUPER excited about what this means for BYC and for the raising backyard chickens trend in general!

 

[Chic7]

I like it the way it is :/ No offense. The only thing I would change is:

1 Adding a live chat stream.
2 Adding automatic thread refresh so when someone posts it automatically shows up almost like a chat stream.

But so far google, bing, and word of mouth have gotten plenty of attention for the site. That and having a FB page with a link to the site is good too. There are already tons of guests who read the articles and threads as well.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Great feedback! Please keep it coming.

We want to do everything we can to make raising backyard chickens as normal and common as raising dogs or cats!!!


A chicken in every yard!!!

 

[Chambertin]

I like the idea as long as the content doesnt get slumped into the pit of privacy doom that facebook has.
Just let me keep some control of the photo instead of handing it to the highest bidder. That's may face and my chickens beak.
Be careful what you agree to is something always mentioned in business.

Other than that I fully support using what tools there are to gain more suppor for raising the image and tolerance of chickens.
Good luck and I wish you the best.

 

[pastryman]

..... .....

 

[cluckcluckluke]

A chicken in every yard!!!

How could I sell my eggs then? The money coming in from me selling eggs is one of the main causes for me being able to keep them.
It would be very hard for me to keep my chickens if everyone had their own chickens.

I'm sorry but I Like BYC how it is now. It is already very good. Facebook is a very very BIG site, with MANY different kinds of people. There are also some, for use of a better word some "creepy" people on there, this would open BYC upto all of this. I am not saying BYC has some of those people on it, every site does but it just opens BYC upto to more of all that. Also much more maintenance and updates would be needed, that means....less time on BYC, which no one wants.lol.
Facebook is also open up to many other sites which BYC would then be exposed to.

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks it isn't the best idea and that I'm not being party pooper.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Thanks for those great comments! We definitely understand your concerns and we want to be sensitive to those types of issues as things progress.

Don't worry though, we think you'll be VERY VERY pleasantly surprised by what we have in store.

In fact, keep you eyes peeled for some really interesting updates before the end of the day!