Facebook has infiltrated many corners of our lives, quickly becoming the go-to platform for selling stuff, finding friends and reviewing restaurants and other businesses. It has also been a convenient way to gather people from a certain community to discuss common issues. To name a few, I’ve been part of “Class of 201X” groups for school, a group for roller derby “fresh meat” around the world, and a group for Ledyard and Gales Ferry residents.

Like any community, forums allow people to utilize the knowledge and skills of others. I’m full of seemingly useless information, so during the summer of 2013, I became an unofficial moderator of the Class of 2017 page at Ithaca, and I joined the 2018 group the following year. Need to know when the bus comes? Which route goes to Wegmans? How do I find out what textbooks I need for this class? I got you covered. On the international derby groups, people can share information about training referees, passing a certain skill, or what leagues are in a given city where you want to go on vacation. If you don’t know the answer, chances are someone else in the group does.

These kinds of groups are good for solidarity. By definition, they’re full of people with a similar interest. Posting a question or situation often gets you the right answer at some point, but even if it doesn’t, you’ll also find other people who have also never used public transportation before or who also can’t skate 27 laps in five minutes yet. Or maybe you’re having a bad day and you didn’t know you needed that silly dog video that someone else posted an hour ago. They look out for you.

Forums often have running jokes, too. In Ledyard, the rollover from one trash pickup contractor to another, including the switch to recycling every other week, started a huge flurry of posts. At least once a week, there are comments asking whether it’s recycling week or whether a route missed someone else’s house too. It’s gotten to the point where unrelated posts will have comments from snarky citizens asking whether trash pickup will be affected. Posts about giant spiders, including some neat Halloween decorations that would scare the pants off any arachnophobe, and “What was that loud noise?” are also common.

The Facebook groups also have their downfalls, the first of which is the upkeep. Even the “no rules” groups still have rules because otherwise it would turn into a free-for-all of spammy posts and nasty comments. Then, someone has to enforce those rules. Do you want to do that job? I sure wouldn’t. Telling people they can’t sell stuff on a non-sale page or complain about their neighbors is not my idea of fun.

Some of the rule-abiding posts are more facepalm-worthy than the rule-breaking ones. I was in Ecuador and Argentina for most of the summer of 2014, so I wasn’t on the Class of 2018 page a whole lot, but I would try to keep tabs on questions the new freshmen had and link to appropriate pages. I lost track of how many times I sent kids the link to the bookstore website, but it was definitely into the 20s by the time I came back to the states. They often retorted that they “didn’t have time to search.” I’m abroad with spotty internet and magically I can find the information.

When I joined the Ledyard group, I expected adults to be more likely to take issues into their own hands and then ask as a last resort. Our wonderful moderator has had to close dozens of threads because someone asked the same question two days ago, or because there’s an entire file of such information on the page itself. I know it’s not a group made entirely of kids raised in the Internet age, and maybe expecting everyone to know how to use the Facebook group search function is a stretch, but I would have liked to think that most people know how to use Google.

Search functions aside, I think the forums serve their purpose well. But in the event that I broke the “no complaining about neighbors” rule, I’ll be hunkered down at home with my M&Ms.

Amanda Hutchinson is a 2015 graduate of Ithaca College, a resident of Ledyard, and the assistant community editor for The Times. Read more of her work at amandalhutchinson.wordpress.com.