FB just needs two friend levels. You see Level 1 friends' updates on your page. You don't see Level 1 friends' updates unless you prompt it. Nobody can tell which list they are on, they are just Friends. Problem solved?
@automata: CaptainFantastic was referring to what's shown on the default homepage feed, which is different... yes you can select the newsfeed to show particular groups, but most people don't want to waste the time separating everyone apart when there are hundreds and hundreds of people.
The graph is misleading. It looks like they had just partial day data after 3/19. Compete.com has data through 3/20 now and it doesn't look like the site traffic has decreased significantly.
My biggest hate for the redesign is the addition of the invisibility privacy factor. If I can't see my exes yet know they are there, how am I going to be able to internet-stalk them??! Sheesh.
(Besides that I never understood that kind of feature anyway, it's a NETWORKING SITE, why be on there if no one knows it?)
Voting against a redesign? This is what happens when you give people cheap broadband. This isn't an intellectual, classy adventure, this is a bar with stuck up undergrad twats trying to impress each other.
I want to see someone visit my geocities site and care to stay a second. These FB user's are dependent on that website like no other.
Facebook is a narcissistic, grandiose blackhole of a site, not just financially, but in the way it boasts a "I'm an establishment, You can't leave me" type attitude. This is a critical mistake, because this site *is* going to get old. It will die, it will wither. It will pop.
Everytime this happens, people swear "X will be around forever... It's revolutionary and connects us! Idiot!" Then 2 years later, I search their names and they're slithering away their trash on another site... You think you're a real deep person, you could write a book about yourself. Guess what, You're not.
Also, I wanted to let you know that you making a facebook profile doesn't help anyone but yourself. Go get a real job and get real success as opposed to having your idealized self on that web page. You're dreaming. You're a selfish seed.
I would also pay special attention to the FB not taking advantage of its current popularity. FB thinks its *active* users (not total users) will keep increasing. This is a critical mistake.
By the time Facebook reaches any sort of profitability and self-sufficiency* users will be:
1.) Tired of being new layouts and changes. "Another e-protest?"
2.) Find a superior alternative (i.e. possibly Gawker, but probably some other ridiculous VC-funded abomination)
* This is an example, this site has no hope for paying its own bills. Social networking != business.
Facebook is being funded as if it's an establishment. Facebook's time is ticking. Put the grandiose thinking aside, create a monthly fee of $10/month and get results. YOU HAVE THE POPULARITY, YOU HAVE DEPENDENT KIDS WITH $10 TO SPARE, USE IT.
Let me point out that out of the 175 million facebook users, 1 million of them have complained. Let's be generous and call that 1%.
1% of people would bitch if facebook sent every subscriber a $100 bill. I think it's safe to say that 1% of people just like to bitch. The aggregate polling ability of facebook turns this bitchy 1% into a bunch of squeaky wheels, but it doesn't mean the car is falling apart. Similarly, Owen can bitch especially loudly on a popular website, but this doesn't mean his opinion reflects that of the majority.
I like the new layout, as it is far more useful to me to see quickly what all my friends are doing. I also find myself responding to status messages or posts far more frequently. Anecdotal evidence? Yes. But since 99+% of facebook users apparently don't care enough about the change to complain, I feel safe in claiming the majority position.
@automata: Hmmmm ... because 99% of the other FB users haven't complained doesn't mean they don't like it. Take into account:
- Regular uses who haven't found time to weigh in / don't want to admit they care that much and haven't weighed in.
- New users who don't know what they were missing with previous versions.
- Infrequent users who may not like it but can't be bothered with complaining.
- Users who don't care either way.
- Users who like some of the new features, but not all of them (in varying degrees).
- Users who actually love it.
Just because the vast majority has not voted doesn't mean the majority doesn't have an opinion. Direct mail or direct online response programs rarely result in 100% feedback / input / opt in, if ever - it's not how the public behaves. Marketers know that and account for that when evaluating opinions such as these. Anyone would be foolhardy to ignore ONE MILLION people saying "pfft," but then again, this is the Interwebs, 20-something year-old execs (hahaha, that even FELT funny typing it) with a big slice of ego pie on the side.
@cellardoor: Yeah, I said exactly what you said. 1% of facebook users care enough to complain. The rest may or may not like it, but they don't care enough to complain. I agree that in a direct mail or online campaign, a 1% reaction would be significant, but facebook is different because it is so easy to bitch collectively on facebook. That is, people who hate the new layout are likely to search for outlets for their frustration, and (ironically) facebook makes it super easy to find a bunch of people who feel just like you do. Anyone remember when, in just over a week, 1 million facebook users joined a facebook group endorsing Stephen Colbert for President? [stephen-colbert-2008.blogspot.com] - far more than Obama's group? Yet for some reason Colbert stayed out of the race.
Facebook Inc. should not make business decisions based on the whims of less than 1% of its users. Especially since those million users aren't even voting with their feet, like sparkly below.
@automata: Yes but... it's the lack of positive feedback that's something they should be worried about. This redesign has been implemented long enough now that people should theoretically be getting used to it and stop whining, like last time. But that's not happening, and the overwhelming majority of people responding to this survey app are still very unhappy. I agree that any forum which promotes this kind of critical discussion will have overinflated negative feedback, but this particular ratio is just to much to ignore and blow off as the people who "just like to bitch".
The irony here, if we are to believe the assertion that Zuckerberg fears irrelevance at Twitter's hands:
Twitter has molded their service to accommodate how their users want to use it. @replies, for example, were invented by users and then rolled into the service because they were helpful.
Mark misses the mark. By ignoring his users and declaring he knows best based on, well, god knows what, he only makes Facebook weaker.
I pretty much have dropped facebook's status updates for twitter. The new redesign is almost too consuming and the font is crazy, crazy large for being a stream of useless updates. They should have made it tiny. And not my default page.
@trturnerjr: agreed! i can't even find my friends' actual status updates over the "The 5 Albums That Defined My Teenaged Years" quiz-thingee, so i just started downloading music instead.
oh, wait. you were talking about being productive......
@TableNine: I blame Zuckerberg for the collapsed comments here on Gawker. I post a picture and no one sees it to know I'm funny and then I don't get the virtual-validation that I so desperately crave.
The only good thing about the redesign is that it's making me spend less time on facebook. But, it also sucks because now I have to find other ways to dick around, or actually do my work. Luckily, the internet is full of wonderful and exciting things to waste my time.
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/24/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
(Besides that I never understood that kind of feature anyway, it's a NETWORKING SITE, why be on there if no one knows it?)
03/23/09
I want to see someone visit my geocities site and care to stay a second. These FB user's are dependent on that website like no other.
Facebook is a narcissistic, grandiose blackhole of a site, not just financially, but in the way it boasts a "I'm an establishment, You can't leave me" type attitude. This is a critical mistake, because this site *is* going to get old. It will die, it will wither. It will pop.
Everytime this happens, people swear "X will be around forever... It's revolutionary and connects us! Idiot!" Then 2 years later, I search their names and they're slithering away their trash on another site... You think you're a real deep person, you could write a book about yourself. Guess what, You're not.
Also, I wanted to let you know that you making a facebook profile doesn't help anyone but yourself. Go get a real job and get real success as opposed to having your idealized self on that web page. You're dreaming. You're a selfish seed.
03/23/09
I would also pay special attention to the FB not taking advantage of its current popularity. FB thinks its *active* users (not total users) will keep increasing. This is a critical mistake.
By the time Facebook reaches any sort of profitability and self-sufficiency* users will be:
1.) Tired of being new layouts and changes. "Another e-protest?"
2.) Find a superior alternative (i.e. possibly Gawker, but probably some other ridiculous VC-funded abomination)
* This is an example, this site has no hope for paying its own bills. Social networking != business.
Facebook is being funded as if it's an establishment. Facebook's time is ticking. Put the grandiose thinking aside, create a monthly fee of $10/month and get results. YOU HAVE THE POPULARITY, YOU HAVE DEPENDENT KIDS WITH $10 TO SPARE, USE IT.
03/23/09
Kinda feels like the other way around now.
03/23/09
1% of people would bitch if facebook sent every subscriber a $100 bill. I think it's safe to say that 1% of people just like to bitch. The aggregate polling ability of facebook turns this bitchy 1% into a bunch of squeaky wheels, but it doesn't mean the car is falling apart. Similarly, Owen can bitch especially loudly on a popular website, but this doesn't mean his opinion reflects that of the majority.
I like the new layout, as it is far more useful to me to see quickly what all my friends are doing. I also find myself responding to status messages or posts far more frequently. Anecdotal evidence? Yes. But since 99+% of facebook users apparently don't care enough about the change to complain, I feel safe in claiming the majority position.
03/23/09
- Regular uses who haven't found time to weigh in / don't want to admit they care that much and haven't weighed in.
- New users who don't know what they were missing with previous versions.
- Infrequent users who may not like it but can't be bothered with complaining.
- Users who don't care either way.
- Users who like some of the new features, but not all of them (in varying degrees).
- Users who actually love it.
Just because the vast majority has not voted doesn't mean the majority doesn't have an opinion. Direct mail or direct online response programs rarely result in 100% feedback / input / opt in, if ever - it's not how the public behaves. Marketers know that and account for that when evaluating opinions such as these. Anyone would be foolhardy to ignore ONE MILLION people saying "pfft," but then again, this is the Interwebs, 20-something year-old execs (hahaha, that even FELT funny typing it) with a big slice of ego pie on the side.
03/23/09
Facebook Inc. should not make business decisions based on the whims of less than 1% of its users. Especially since those million users aren't even voting with their feet, like sparkly below.
03/24/09
03/23/09
I'm just a simple caveman, your modern Facebook confuses and frightens me.
03/23/09
03/23/09
Twitter has molded their service to accommodate how their users want to use it. @replies, for example, were invented by users and then rolled into the service because they were helpful.
Mark misses the mark. By ignoring his users and declaring he knows best based on, well, god knows what, he only makes Facebook weaker.
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
oh, wait. you were talking about being productive......
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/24/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09
03/23/09