After more than a year-and-a-half, Facebook.com is still gaining momentum – and members.

“Everyone I knew was talking about it, and I wanted to be on it, too,” said Kellie Henning, sophomore in apparel, merchandising, design and production, who joined Facebook on Nov. 11, 2004.

According to Facebook’s Web site, it “is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools.”

Since its inception, Facebook has attracted many college students to create accounts.

The fad has manifested itself in some unusual ways – a Facebook member at Southern Indiana University, Taylor Hannan, made T-shirts last month that read “Facebook Me!”

“I borrowed an iron from my neighbors and used my kitchen counter as the ironing board to iron on the letters,” said Hannan, who has more than 1,100 friends at more than 150 schools.

He said he made 30 shirts and sold them from $5 to $8, depending on how well he knew the buyer.

“There have been hundreds of requests, but a lot of people from across the nation ask for them through Facebook. Unfortunately, I can’t ship shirts across the nation, it would cost too much, so I tell them how to make the shirts,” Hannan said.

He said he doesn’t plan to make any more shirts because of his class schedule.

“I may get a hard class where I actually have to do work,” he said.

A member can request to add another member at any school as a friend.

A confirmation e-mail is then sent. Only when both parties agree to be friends are they added to the other person’s profile.

A member can see the full profiles of anyone at his or her school and confirmed friends at other schools.

Sometimes members add themselves as a friend to someone they don’t know, said Alex Sornchai, sophomore in health and human performance.

“I usually accept them,” Sornchai said.

“I don’t know why, maybe I have met them before and didn’t remember them or to get to know them.”

Henning said she has added people she’s never met.

“I thought they seemed cool through their profile,” she said. “I looked at the profile first to see if they seem like someone I would like in person.”

For privacy reasons, members can edit how much of their profiles can be seen by whom.

For example, a member can decide whether to allow his last login, upcoming parties or courses to be visible.

Members can also join groups. Groups vary from similar interests, such as political affiliation or religion, to groups to make people laugh, such as “Years of Cookie Dough and I’m Still Not Dead From Salmonella Poisoning, Take That Mom! (ISU Chapter).”

“I don’t really know what the point of a group is. I think it’s to get to know more people,” Henning said.

Still, Facebook hasn’t reached every student.

“I don’t really have any reason to be on … I know everyone in my classes already,” said Jason Junge, senior in civil engineering. Junge said he has been invited to join several times by his friends and roommates.

“I have enough friends at Iowa State without getting more on the Facebook,” he said.