Barry
03-17-2009, 04:48 PM
March 16, 2009, 7:02 pm <!-- date updated --> <!-- <abbr class="updated" title="2009-03-17T16:38:55-04:00">— Updated: 4:38 pm</abbr> --> <!-- Title --> Facebook Changes Bring Inevitable Complaints
Facebook Changes Bring Inevitable Complaints - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com (https://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/facebook-changes-bring-inevitable-complaints/?partner=rss&emc=rss)
<!-- By line --> <address class="byline author vcard">By Paul Boutin (https://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/author/paul-boutin/)</address> <!-- Summary --> <!-- The Content --> https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/03/technology/personaltech/socialnetwork_75.gif
Over the last few days, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php) users have been gradually upgraded to a new layout for the fast-growing social network site. The company’s goals are twofold: First, simplify and expand the tools to manage the ever-increasing volume of friends’ messages, links, photos and videos. Second, experiment with new forms of advertising.
The overwhelming reaction from users is, “Ugh, you changed it!”
Just as newspaper readers are infuriated whenever their daily fish-wrap updates its layout, Facebook’s changes have brought down a hail of complaints from both light and heavy users.
The new design simplifies the layout of members’ profile pages. It seems unabashedly influenced by Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/): A single column of updates, newest at the top. To the right of this stream runs a strip of “Highlights” that mixes ads with suggested Facebook groups, applications, video clips and potential friends.
Needless to say, not everyone likes it. Here’s a sample of negative feedback from over the weekend:
“The real-time everything stream is much less useful than the old division of status, then posts, etc. …”
“Blocked applications can still post to your news feed.”
“Your OWN pic appears every time you post an article on your wall.”
“The images in the status feeds have rounded edges.”
“Frequent posters push everyone else’s updates off the newsfeed. I want to see at most two or three updates per person, like before.”
“I hate the ’share’ button. It’s so California.” Some are disappointed by the replacement of Facebook’s iconic “Paul is … ” prefix for status updates with a much more open-ended “What’s on your mind?” prompt. They worry the change will encourage members to forgo concrete action items (“Paul is late on a blog post for The New York Times”) in favor of unstructured rambling (“My editor is kind of a Nazi about deadlines. What’s up with that?”).
No. 1 gripe over the weekend was that Facebook no longer let users delete their own status updates. Making these often hastily typed messages permanent would “turn every ephemeral whim into a potential tombstone of humiliation,” Wired magazine writer Steve Silberman posted into my feed.
Good news, Steve: You can indeed delete your status updates. On Facebook, go to your Profile page. Find the embarrassing post. Position your mouse cursor over it, and a faint blue X will appear in the entry’s upper right corner. Click the X to make the post and any attached comments from other Facebook members disappear forever.
Facebook Changes Bring Inevitable Complaints - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com (https://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/facebook-changes-bring-inevitable-complaints/?partner=rss&emc=rss)
<!-- By line --> <address class="byline author vcard">By Paul Boutin (https://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/author/paul-boutin/)</address> <!-- Summary --> <!-- The Content --> https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/03/technology/personaltech/socialnetwork_75.gif
Over the last few days, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php) users have been gradually upgraded to a new layout for the fast-growing social network site. The company’s goals are twofold: First, simplify and expand the tools to manage the ever-increasing volume of friends’ messages, links, photos and videos. Second, experiment with new forms of advertising.
The overwhelming reaction from users is, “Ugh, you changed it!”
Just as newspaper readers are infuriated whenever their daily fish-wrap updates its layout, Facebook’s changes have brought down a hail of complaints from both light and heavy users.
The new design simplifies the layout of members’ profile pages. It seems unabashedly influenced by Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/): A single column of updates, newest at the top. To the right of this stream runs a strip of “Highlights” that mixes ads with suggested Facebook groups, applications, video clips and potential friends.
Needless to say, not everyone likes it. Here’s a sample of negative feedback from over the weekend:
“The real-time everything stream is much less useful than the old division of status, then posts, etc. …”
“Blocked applications can still post to your news feed.”
“Your OWN pic appears every time you post an article on your wall.”
“The images in the status feeds have rounded edges.”
“Frequent posters push everyone else’s updates off the newsfeed. I want to see at most two or three updates per person, like before.”
“I hate the ’share’ button. It’s so California.” Some are disappointed by the replacement of Facebook’s iconic “Paul is … ” prefix for status updates with a much more open-ended “What’s on your mind?” prompt. They worry the change will encourage members to forgo concrete action items (“Paul is late on a blog post for The New York Times”) in favor of unstructured rambling (“My editor is kind of a Nazi about deadlines. What’s up with that?”).
No. 1 gripe over the weekend was that Facebook no longer let users delete their own status updates. Making these often hastily typed messages permanent would “turn every ephemeral whim into a potential tombstone of humiliation,” Wired magazine writer Steve Silberman posted into my feed.
Good news, Steve: You can indeed delete your status updates. On Facebook, go to your Profile page. Find the embarrassing post. Position your mouse cursor over it, and a faint blue X will appear in the entry’s upper right corner. Click the X to make the post and any attached comments from other Facebook members disappear forever.