Facebook is changing. Again.

[Young Drachma]

Starting next Thursday, your profile will look...different. Facebook unveiled Facebook Timeline today at the F8 developers conference.

Introducing Facebook Timeline. (http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline)

Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need To Know (http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/)

As we predicted, Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at the f8 conference in San Francisco Thursday introduced some of the most profound changes seen on Facebook since its inception. So many changes, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track. So here’s a handy-dandy guide.

1. You’re going to get a Timeline — a scrapbook of your life. In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. This is a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

The further back in Timeline you go, the more Facebook will compress the information so that you’re only seeing the most interesting parts of your history. You can customize this by clicking on a star next to a status, say, or enlarging a picture.

Timeline is in beta now, and will be opt-in to start. In the long run, it will become the new default profile page.

2. You don’t have to just Like something — now you can [verb] any [noun]. Remember when all you could do to something on Facebook — a video, a comment, a product, a person — was Like it? Pretty soon that’s going to seem laughably antiquated. The social network has launched Facebook Gestures, which means that Facebook’s partners and developers can turn any verb into a button.

So you’ll start seeing the option to tell the world you’re Reading a particular book, for example, or Watching a given movie, or Listening to a certain tune. In turn, as many observers have pointed out, this is likely to lead to an explosion of oversharing — and far more information on your friends’ activities showing up in your news feed than you probably cared to know.

3. Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf. Although not as big a deal as the Timeline, this tweak may be one of the more controversial. Previously, apps had to ask every time they shared information about you in your profile. Now, the first time you authorize the app, it will tell you what it’s going to share about you. If you’re cool with that, the app never has to ask you again.

But you don’t have to worry about this app stuff clogging your news feed, because …

4. All “lightweight” information is going to the Ticker. Status updates, photos from a wedding or a vacation, changes in relationship status: these are the kinds of things you want to see from your friends when you look at your news feed. Who killed whom in Mafia Wars? Who planted what in FarmVille? Not so much. So that kind of trivial detail has been banished to the Ticker, a real-time list of things your friends are posting now that scrolls down the side of your screen.

5. You can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook. Starting today, thanks to a whole bunch of partnerships, there are a lot more things you can do without ever having to leave Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Yahoo News (or Mashable, via the Washington Post‘s Social Read app). The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading, allowing you to share the experience with them by clicking on a link.

The upshot: a brand-new kind of media-based peer pressure. On stage, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — a launch partner — revealed that he had only just decided to watch Breaking Bad because Facebook’s Ticker told him a colleague was watching it. Netflix’s own algorithm had been recommending the show to him for years, but that was never reason enough for Hastings.

6. Facebook has more users and more engagement than ever. We got two interesting nuggets of information out of Zuckerberg (and the Zuckerberg-impersonating Andy Samberg): Facebook has hit 800 million users, and most of them are active. The social network just saw a new record for the most visitors in one day: an eye-popping 500 million.

Indeed, the whole impression left by the event was that of a confident, fast-evolving company that is becoming ever more professional, and Zuckerberg’s stage show bore more than a little resemblance to an Apple keynote. It’s going to be interesting to see what Google+ can do to keep up.

[Young Drachma]

So far, I don't absolutely hate it. I mean, I actually sort of like it. It was sensory overload at first and I think there will a lot of confusion once it launches because there's vestiges of stuff in the lower parts of the timeline that folks won't want dredged up.

But I think going forward, it could be an interesting tool. We'll see how it goes once it rolls out and naturally what changes they make after that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

#4 on that list will be the end of the games, looks like they finally found a way to kill them. Most items barely survive on my wall long enough to be seen as it is, I've already killed the ticker & no chance I'd bring it back.

And without the games (which I've almost entirely stopped over the last couple of months with the exception of obliging requests for items from friends) traffic will quickly bottom out on my wall.

Turns FB from an all day thing to a maybe once or twice a day thing. And that inevitably leads to a once or twice a week thing. And you know what follows that.

[Young Drachma]

I think you need to see it in action to really get a sense of how it'll work. Because I watched the video on the FB intro to timeline link and then I started using it sometime this afternoon and I think it's a big difference between how they presented it to a degree and actually using it.

There are warts, but it doesn't fundamentally alter the way you use Facebook. It just shifts things around. Now mind you, I don't use it the same way that other people do. So I don't deny any of what you're saying. I'm just saying that the new changes are probably the most thoughtful of the redesigns they've made.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I don't use facebook enough to really notice any difference. It's confusing, but it was confusing last week when i went to it.

[Young Drachma]

This change will be obvious, it's a huge departure from how your profile looks now. But it's still a week away for most users.

[Ksyrup]

I guess none of this will really bother me because I only visit FB from my phone and ipod. I haven't seen my profile page in months. For once, it appears having a blackberry is a good thing, since I seem to still be getting the most recent status updates and not top stories. Of course, I can't tell if I'm getting all recent updates, or just the ones FB wants me to see. But based on when they are posted, I can tell I'm not getting some from 5 hours ago, some from a few minutes ago, etc., in a jumbled mess.

If/when they update BB's FB app, I think I'll decline the download.

[Comey]

Looks okay to me. Will probably opt-in from the start.

[CrimsonFox]

everyone i know has bitched about the streaming and new format off to the side. And ya know? They can get over it. It isn't that bad. It wasn't changed THAT much.

And they can get off the computer and make some REAL friends if they hate it that much.

[Radii]

And they can get off the computer and make some REAL friends if they hate it that much.

Ahhh, its the "LOL INTERNET LOSER YOU HAVE NO LIFE" argument. I thought the general population at FOFC was above this.

[CrimsonFox]

okay fine. but really the amount of petty bitching about FACEBOOK while they are ON facebook is just silly.

[Radii]

okay fine. but really the amount of petty bitching about FACEBOOK while they are ON facebook is just silly.

That I agree completely with :)

[wade moore]

I think the top right box is silly, otherwise the current changes don't bother me.

I'm thinking the timeline has the potential to be really neat, so I look forward to checking that out.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And they can get off the computer and make some REAL friends if they hate it that much.

Y'know, some of us have "real friends" that are hundreds to thousands of miles away & have found that FB has offered a valuable forum in which to not only renew but maintain relationships that are quite enjoyable.

Of just over 300 people on my list, there's only a half dozen that I've known for less than a year (each one a friend-of-a-friend that for various reasons I made an exception & accepted their request). By contrast over half (closer to 2/3rds) the people on my list I've known for at least 20 years, most of those for 30 years or more ... and no small number that I've known for either all of their lives or all of my life.

I know their parents, their children or both. Most of them I've either celebrated with, grieved with, prayed for & doubtless been remembered in prayer by.

If those friends aren't "real" enough to suit someone I'd say that's their problem, not mine

[Matthean]

#4 on that list will be the end of the games, looks like they finally found a way to kill them. Most items barely survive on my wall long enough to be seen as it is, I've already killed the ticker & no chance I'd bring it back.

Since you can block all gaming news from people, I don't think putting it to the side is going to change anything.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Since you can block all gaming news from people, I don't think putting it to the side is going to change anything.

Somewhere around 1/3rd of my list are active gamers, blocking those is the last thing I'd want to do. However moving them into the (fucking annoying) side scroll - especially with all the new content that's being force fed - will have those posts flying off so fast that they'll rarely been seen, even by those who haven't already blocked the ticker.

[Ksyrup]

I still have no interest in seeing an update for every song you happen to be streaming, though. This is likely going to require spending time on the site to fix, and that's what I don't like. If something's that "improved," I shouldn't have to spend time to figure out how to make it the way it was before.

[JonInMiddleGA]

If something's that "improved," I shouldn't have to spend time to figure out how to make it the way it was before.

The next thing FB "improves" that doesn't create this problem will be the first in quite a while.

They're eventually going to "improve" themselves to death & honestly I don't think it could happen to a more deserving group of people.

[Autumn]

Somewhere around 1/3rd of my list are active gamers, blocking those is the last thing I'd want to do. However moving them into the (fucking annoying) side scroll - especially with all the new content that's being force fed - will have those posts flying off so fast that they'll rarely been seen, even by those who haven't already blocked the ticker.

You don't have to block the people, you just block the app. If you're seeing game updates you don't want to, you just need to tweak your settings. That's been true for a long time. I haven't seen any sort of game update on my newsfeed since the games first came out.

[Ksyrup]

It's funny - I check out FB a lot, but I don't actively participate on it. I rarely post updates, I don't use it for messages all that often, etc. And I don't visit the site. The only value I got out of it was seeing a stream of updates from people I know to get a general sense of what's going on in their lives, and if there's something interesting, I might react to it. That's it. I don't really care what movies you watch, what games you play, or what FB thinks is important or not. Just give me the stream of content and let me decide what I want to read or not.

I guess spending so much time on twitter just reading and not participating, that's kinda what I want my FB experience to be. But they want it to be a much bigger part of our lives, and I'm not really interested in that.

[Autumn]

And actually I'm finding I have way more control over what I see from people. Just hover over someone's name, hover over Subscribed and you get to choose what kind of posts you get from poeple. Now my friend who posts dozens of video links an hour, I can see his status updates but not his TV channel. That's great.

[JonInMiddleGA]

You don't have to block the people, you just block the app. If you're seeing game updates you don't want to, you just need to tweak your settings. That's been true for a long time. I haven't seen any sort of game update on my newsfeed since the games first came out.

{scratches head} I think there's some confusion here.

I don't want the gaming apps blocked, that's pretty much the only app's I want to see anything from.

My comment about those referred to how shunting them to the ticker (which I removed entirely from view within the first hour of its debut, as had a surprisingly high number of even my non-techie friends) will be the death of the game apps because (according to the summary that started this thread) they're being removed from the main wall entirely.

Even for those who leave it visible the ticker is already flying at an unmanageable speed, something that's only going to get worse as they roll out apps designed specifically to spam the ticker.

[CrimsonFox]

{scratches head} I think there's some confusion here.

I don't want the gaming apps blocked, that's pretty much the only app's I want to see anything from.


Then you are the ONLY one. :)

[Autumn]

Lol, wow, yeah that is a surprise/confusion JIMGA. I'm pretty sure yo'ure in control still of whether games are in the newsfeed or not. I see Games listed among the things you can subscribe to. But as I said I've got them all blocked so I'm not sure that that's true.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Then you are the ONLY one. :)

Zynga would beg to differ ;)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm pretty sure yo'ure in control still of whether games are in the newsfeed or not.

I would have hoped so but I've seen several references (including the summary in this thread) that indicate otherwise.

That would be consistent with other changes FB has made over the past year or so, they've systematically tried to shove the games further & further out of sight (irrational though that may be).

[ISiddiqui]

Um... I really like the right sidebar... *runs*

[sterlingice]

The next thing FB "improves" that doesn't create this problem will be the first in quite a while.

They're eventually going to "improve" themselves to death & honestly I don't think it could happen to a more deserving group of people.

Yeah, but just like anything on the internet- staying stagnant is also a slow death, too.

Not saying what they are doing is right, but you probably understand this more than anyone- it's all about getting people to spend more time on the site, and not going to Yahoo or Netflix or Pandora or wherever. And that equals even more $$$ for Lord Zuckerbeast (http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/state_web_winter/facebook.jpg).

SI

[Young Drachma]

You can control what's in your news feed. It hasn't changed what notifications come up and if you don't alter the subscriptions you have of people, you still get all of that <s>noise</s> valuable information as you wish.

[RomaGoth]

Y'know, some of us have "real friends" that are hundreds to thousands of miles away & have found that FB has offered a valuable forum in which to not only renew but maintain relationships that are quite enjoyable.

Of just over 300 people on my list, there's only a half dozen that I've known for less than a year (each one a friend-of-a-friend that for various reasons I made an exception & accepted their request). By contrast over half (closer to 2/3rds) the people on my list I've known for at least 20 years, most of those for 30 years or more ... and no small number that I've known for either all of their lives or all of my life.

I know their parents, their children or both. Most of them I've either celebrated with, grieved with, prayed for & doubtless been remembered in prayer by.

If those friends aren't "real" enough to suit someone I'd say that's their problem, not mine

The next thing FB "improves" that doesn't create this problem will be the first in quite a while.

They're eventually going to "improve" themselves to death & honestly I don't think it could happen to a more deserving group of people.

I am confused. Do you or do you not like FB? :confused:

[JonInMiddleGA]

I am confused. Do you or do you not like FB? :confused:

In spite of, rather than because of, the inane way it's run.

I can't think of a better example of something that has been successful in spite of itself. There's no company in the world, not even Netflix, that would benefit more from having its CEO step in front of a bus.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah, but just like anything on the internet- staying stagnant is also a slow death, too.

Except that FB's audience more closely resembles CBS at this point than it does the internet in general. It had already reached a median age of 44 this time last year (haven't seen an updated figure in a while).

it's all about getting people to spend more time on the site, and not going to Yahoo or Netflix or Pandora or wherever.

Which is why doing things that drive people away, such as a persistent refusal to allow users to control their experience, makes so little sense. Before you can worry about Time Spent you have to worry about Visits (unless of course you've unable to handle the traffic).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Darned good, almost shockingly good, column on why FB's attempt to integrate music seems likely to flop. Way more insight into the average user, expressed simply, than I'm used to seeing from Techland.
Will Facebook Music Actually Work? - Techland - TIME.com (http://techland.time.com/2011/09/23/will-facebook-music-actually-work/)

[Young Drachma]

Darned good, almost shockingly good, column on why FB's attempt to integrate music seems likely to flop. Way more insight into the average user, expressed simply, than I'm used to seeing from Techland.
Will Facebook Music Actually Work? - Techland - TIME.com (http://techland.time.com/2011/09/23/will-facebook-music-actually-work/)

It's working nicely, actually. I don't think it'll flop for the people who already use those streaming services. I think what that article ignores is how many people have friends who have likeminded music tastes. It won't necessarily have mass-market appeal from the outset, but for people already using streaming services and for the services themselves, it's long overdue to offer this feature.

I think hype machine was a good comparison. It'll be like hypemachine (http://www.hypem.com) for the non-tastemaker set. But I'm already using Timeline since yesterday and it's a radically different, but general step forward in the fb profile evolution.

[Neon_Chaos]

Facebook Timeline replaces your Facebook Profile.

Your homepage stays as it is now, I think.

edit:

I was able to activate Timeline too.

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/

[Chief Rum]

In spite of, rather than because of, the inane way it's run.

I can't think of a better example of something that has been successful in spite of itself. There's no company in the world, not even Netflix, that would benefit more from having its CEO step in front of a bus.

Raiders.

[Chief Rum]

And the Clippers.

[Young Drachma]

Facebook Timeline replaces your Facebook Profile.

Your homepage stays as it is now, I think.

edit:

I was able to activate Timeline too.

How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW (http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/)

If you have timeline, you can see other people's, but people without it won't be able to see your profile until they have it too. But it changes your profile view of your own profile immediately with no reversion. And it's still a bit clunky getting from profile view to feed views, etc.

I imagine they'll have some kinks to work out between now and live launch.

[ISiddiqui]

The timeline is.... interesting? Not sure if its really better.

[Neon_Chaos]

If you have timeline, you can see other people's, but people without it won't be able to see your profile until they have it too. But it changes your profile view of your own profile immediately with no reversion. And it's still a bit clunky getting from profile view to feed views, etc.

I imagine they'll have some kinks to work out between now and live launch.

My profile view is already Timeline.

My feed view is still the old one.

[DanGarion]

Somewhere around 1/3rd of my list are active gamers, blocking those is the last thing I'd want to do. However moving them into the (fucking annoying) side scroll - especially with all the new content that's being force fed - will have those posts flying off so fast that they'll rarely been seen, even by those who haven't already blocked the ticker.

Games? I stopped playing games on Facebook like 4 years ago.

[Matthean]

You can control what's in your news feed. It hasn't changed what notifications come up and if you don't alter the subscriptions you have of people, you still get all of that <s>noise</s> valuable information as you wish.

I'm just figuring out how to do this, but now I wish there was a mass way of doing it. This would clean up the sidebar a ton.

[Young Drachma]

What do Facebook changes mean for music fans? | Music | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/sep/23/facebook-changes-music-fans?newsfeed=true)

[Ben E Lou]

The timeline is interesting. I absolutely *LOVE* it for my own purposes, but I'm not sure I'd ever use it for anyone else. For example, I was able to easily look back and see all the congratulatory stuff that was posted to my account on the weekend of 4/4/09 (my daughter's birth), much of it that I never read. That piece of it is great. I'll say this, though. No offense to DC, but when I look at his profile and see that big ol' "Cover" picture at the top, it's annoying that I have to scroll down to see what I actually want to see when I look at someone's profile because roughly a third of the screen is taken up by the one pic . *shurg*

[Young Drachma]

Just looked at yours. I guess it never occurred to me that the cover was optional, but sure enough "remove cover" is right there. Heh. I think I'll probably do it when I have a picture worth putting there and when I don't, as I think most folks will use it and it'll just get used to like other randomness. But I echo the "old stuff I forgot" thing BEL said, because I was reminiscing on that first day of stuff I'd long forgotten about.

[JediKooter]

Is music 'sharing' that much of a demand by FB users? I'm sure I'm not really the demographic that Zuckcorp. Inc is targeting, but, I don't get it. I'm not saying that to be obtuse. I don't care what someone else happens to be playing at any particular time. It's completely insignificant to me. I just want to know how people are doing and see their pictures that they share. I view FB more as a communal interactive email portal more than an iPod that that pings everybody what music I'm playing.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Is music 'sharing' that much of a demand by FB users? I'm sure I'm not really the demographic that Zuckcorp. Inc is targeting, but, I don't get it. I'm not saying that to be obtuse. I don't care what someone else happens to be playing at any particular time. It's completely insignificant to me. I just want to know how people are doing and see their pictures that they share. I view FB more as a communal interactive email portal more than an iPod that that pings everybody what music I'm playing.
We basically have a thread here on FOFC that's exactly this, so I guess there's demand for it somewhere.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah but we already know about our friends and relatives bad taste in music.

[Logan]

In spite of, rather than because of, the inane way it's run.

I can't think of a better example of something that has been successful in spite of itself. There's no company in the world, not even Netflix, that would benefit more from having its CEO step in front of a bus.

Okay, I'll bite...why?

[JediKooter]

We basically have a thread here on FOFC that's exactly this, so I guess there's demand for it somewhere.

There can never be too much demand for some Pumpy though.

[Young Drachma]

Is music 'sharing' that much of a demand by FB users? I'm sure I'm not really the demographic that Zuckcorp. Inc is targeting, but, I don't get it. I'm not saying that to be obtuse. I don't care what someone else happens to be playing at any particular time. It's completely insignificant to me.

Yes, it is. Social music is what fuels sites like last.fm. With the proliferation of indie labels, cross and sub-genres and ease in which you can find music from around the world, there's a voracious appetite for people who like music to find likeminded folks, to find out what they're listening to and to share what they're jamming to.

It trends younger and I find it's largely people who don't have kids regardless of age. But hardly mutually exclusive to those people. It's not so much "what is grandma" listening to. It's what are my friends listening to. For young people, it's the shared experience of liking similar things and for people across those it's sharing and exposing people and so forth.

So yeah, it's huge and it's already happening. FB isn't reinventing the wheel here, it's enabling people who are already sharing music via spotify and rdio (et. al.) to share what they're listening to within FB, which for those of us who have been keeping last.fm profiles for years now, have wanted integrated in our profiles for a long time. Remember myspace profiles and how they had music on them? It's part of the social experience.

[Ksyrup]

That would seem more effective where music is the primary motivator for the site, as opposed to something like Facebook.

[Young Drachma]

That would seem more effective where music is the primary motivator for the site, as opposed to something like Facebook.

<s>But you're wrong.</s> (Sorry, that wasn't necessary.) It's a social hub. It's not JUST for "omg, hello old HS non-girlfriend that I wanted to shag but was too shy to say anything." By that same extension, it'd be like saying games have no place there or other things. It's intended -- according to Zuck G-d -- to be a social utility and so, why wouldn't you want to integrate that if you're them and if you're those fledgling sites...of course you'd want to be part of the biggest social network on the planet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Is music 'sharing' that much of a demand by FB users? I'm sure I'm not really the demographic that Zuckcorp. Inc is targeting, but, I don't get it.

Neither am I, but to some extent I kind of get this one.

I mean, over the course of an average week I probably share YouTube links to 5-10 songs & I see links to probably close to a hundred. Considering that there's probably only a little more than half of my 300ish friends list even active on FB at all, that's a fairly high number. Probably the most shared genre/topic/niche next to political commentary.

The whole "every song you play scrolling" thing seems over the top by a wide margin but the basic idea of making music sharing easy doesn't seem like a bad one to me.

[Young Drachma]

Facebook's terrible plan to get us to share everything we do on the Web.

via Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2304425/

[Ksyrup]

Oh, I get why they'd want to integrate it, because they see the popularity of music-specific sites taking off. I just don't look at FB and think it's the place I'd want to go to find new music since the group of people I'm connected with is primarily non-music friends/family. So I really don't care what they're listening to and likely don't want to listen to it.

The places I go for music recs, while not site like spotify, pandora, etc., are still music-specific and populated by people whose tastes I know, like, and trust.

[JediKooter]

Yes, it is. Social music is what fuels sites like last.fm. With the proliferation of indie labels, cross and sub-genres and ease in which you can find music from around the world, there's a voracious appetite for people who like music to find likeminded folks, to find out what they're listening to and to share what they're jamming to.

It trends younger and I find it's largely people who don't have kids regardless of age. But hardly mutually exclusive to those people. It's not so much "what is grandma" listening to. It's what are my friends listening to. For young people, it's the shared experience of liking similar things and for people across those it's sharing and exposing people and so forth.

So yeah, it's huge and it's already happening. FB isn't reinventing the wheel here, it's enabling people who are already sharing music via spotify and rdio (et. al.) to share what they're listening to within FB, which for those of us who have been keeping last.fm profiles for years now, have wanted integrated in our profiles for a long time. Remember myspace profiles and how they had music on them? It's part of the social experience.

See? I had no clue. I really didn't think this was a big deal to people. Maybe it's because I don't listen to music on my computer, it's all on my iphone/ipod. Every once in a while I'll post a music video from youtube or something, but, usually it's because it's related to something in the news or I thought it was funny. Just never gave sharing what I'm listen to with other people much thought.

Ah yes, I do remember the little music jukebox thing on myspace. I never used it, but, I do remember seeing that in a lot of other peoples profiles on there.

[Ksyrup]

Facebook's terrible plan to get us to share everything we do on the Web.

via Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2304425/

That's a good article. Especially the stuff about what sharing and liking means as an affirmative act.

And then this:


This is a nightmare, but not for the reasons you might suspect. I don't hate this new model because of its lack of "privacy," or due to Facebook's clear financial interest in collecting my personal information. Zuckerberg stressed that these apps require users' consent to start auto-sharing; for me, that's enough privacy protection. And I don't begrudge Facebook making tons of money from what people do on its site—if people enjoy Facebook enough to keep coming back, the site should be free to make as much money as it can get.

I pretty much agree with this, except I still have an issue with it because if sharing everything with everyone is the end goal, then why would I want to continue being a part of it if I don't agree on some basic level with the premise? I'm very close to simply closing my account, not because this stuff is affecting my ability to use FB in any materially significant way (although I still hate the segregation of top stories and recent stories because they are out of chronological sequence), but because the site is going places I don't want to go. So why should I stick around?

[JediKooter]

Neither am I, but to some extent I kind of get this one.

I mean, over the course of an average week I probably share YouTube links to 5-10 songs & I see links to probably close to a hundred. Considering that there's probably only a little more than half of my 300ish friends list even active on FB at all, that's a fairly high number. Probably the most shared genre/topic/niche next to political commentary.

The whole "every song you play scrolling" thing seems over the top by a wide margin but the basic idea of making music sharing easy doesn't seem like a bad one to me.

Ok cool. This feature went completely over my head. I do the youtube thing every now and then too and have a couple of people that post videos quite a bit during the week.

I guess this could morph into something like how Xbox Live has for you friends status where it tells you they are watching a movie, etc...

[Ksyrup]

See? I had no clue. I really didn't think this was a big deal to people. Maybe it's because I don't listen to music on my computer, it's all on my iphone/ipod. Every once in a while I'll post a music video from youtube or something, but, usually it's because it's related to something in the news or I thought it was funny. Just never gave sharing what I'm listen to with other people much thought.

Ah yes, I do remember the little music jukebox thing on myspace. I never used it, but, I do remember seeing that in a lot of other peoples profiles on there.

Again, piggybacking on that article though, I will sometimes (very rarely) post a YT of a song or artist I like. And I do that for a purpose - I feel strongly about it and I want to share it with the hopes that someone who's friends with me will check it out, like it, and maybe be interested enough in the artist to check them out. That gets completely lost if everything I listen to is posted to my status - whether it's some great new band I've fallen in love with, or just an album I decided to listen to because I hadn't heard it in years, but I'm really pretty ambivalent to. Why would I want to share that, and why would I want you to know I played it?

To me, that's a type of sharing that's completely ineffective. I don't want indiscriminate sharing, I want targeted sharing. And just being your friend is not enough of a target, because I'm sure plenty of my friends have music tastes I hate.

[Young Drachma]

Oh, I get why they'd want to integrate it, because they see the popularity of music-specific sites taking off. I just don't look at FB and think it's the place I'd want to go to find new music since the group of people I'm connected with is primarily non-music friends/family. So I really don't care what they're listening to and likely don't want to listen to it.

The places I go for music recs, while not site like spotify, pandora, etc., are still music-specific and populated by people whose tastes I know, like, and trust.

Right, I think it owes to who you're friends with on FB and what their mutual interests with you might be.

[Ksyrup]

And I can get that the younger you are, the more this makes sense. For 30+ year olds, to me this is a horrendous path for FB to go down.

[JediKooter]

Again, piggybacking on that article though, I will sometimes (very rarely) post a YT of a song or artist I like. And I do that for a purpose - I feel strongly about it and I want to share it with the hopes that someone who's friends with me will check it out, like it, and maybe be interested enough in the artist to check them out. That gets completely lost if everything I listen to is posted to my status - whether it's some great new band I've fallen in love with, or just an album I decided to listen to because I hadn't heard it in years, but I'm really pretty ambivalent to. Why would I want to share that, and why would I want you to know I played it?

To me, that's a type of sharing that's completely ineffective. I don't want indiscriminate sharing, I want targeted sharing. And just being your friend is not enough of a target, because I'm sure plenty of my friends have music tastes I hate.

That makes sense. How do you separate the "I'm just listening just to be listening" from "Hey, I want everyone to know about this band"? Other than having some kind of filtering mechanism to do that, I would think seeing constantly streaming lists of songs would just get relegated as background noise, unless you are a total audiophile.

[Young Drachma]

See? I had no clue. I really didn't think this was a big deal to people. Maybe it's because I don't listen to music on my computer, it's all on my iphone/ipod. Every once in a while I'll post a music video from youtube or something, but, usually it's because it's related to something in the news or I thought it was funny. Just never gave sharing what I'm listen to with other people much thought.

Ah yes, I do remember the little music jukebox thing on myspace. I never used it, but, I do remember seeing that in a lot of other peoples profiles on there.

Right, that makes sense from that perspective. I do it for a living, so it's always good to hear other people's ways of interacting with the same sites in dramatically different ways. Not because I'm not aware of it, but rather, because I don't always think about it.

[Young Drachma]

That makes sense. How do you separate the "I'm just listening just to be listening" from "Hey, I want everyone to know about this band"? Other than having some kind of filtering mechanism to do that, I would think seeing constantly streaming lists of songs would just get relegated as background noise, unless you are a total audiophile.

It's really easy to tune out. And I'm too busy listening to my own stuff to care what most people are posting, even the people whose music taste I like/respect. So far, the best part of it streaming is that I can play a song without having to find a youtube video for people to hear it. But I don't know that it's anymore distracting than anything else on FB from what I've seen.

[Young Drachma]

How to Stop Facebook From Tracking You Across the Internet (http://gizmodo.com/5843985/this-chrome-extension-kills-every-connection-facebook-has-to-you)

[Ksyrup]

How to Stop Facebook From Tracking You Across the Internet (http://gizmodo.com/5843985/this-chrome-extension-kills-every-connection-facebook-has-to-you)

This really isn't the problem. I can pretty much control my privacy. My problem is the flipside - I don't want FB tracking what YOU do and telling me about it in a steady stream of non-chronological updates. And it's not about simply turning off apps, because it's more involved and user-specific than that.

Let's take music - right now, I'd say a good 75% of the people who do things like post YTs and such that I see, I actually don't mind seeing. That's because most of the people I've friended who do that kind of thing, actually like the same music I do. So when they go out of their way to post something like that, it's not an issue for me. Now, EVERYONE will be posting their music, whether they want to or not, and whether I want to see it or not. So to stop them, but keep the others, I now have to walk through 200+ people and individually set preferences. Wash, rinse, repeat for whatever other apps they currently have or will come out with in the future. It's a fucking mess. I don't want to lose a lot of what I get now, but it'll all get washed away in the tidal wave of everyone's posts, unless I spend a bunch of time I'm not interested in spending to customize my FB experience to try to get it back to what I once had. And that sucks.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yeah - there's no way to tell FB that you don't want to see the streaming of what everybody else is listening to/watching that is the issue. Not that they offer you a way to publicize what you're watching/listening to, but that there's no way (short of hiding you entirely) to say "I don't like music...stop showing me what everyone is listening to every minute of the day).

Ohh....ksyrup's last post basically said just this.

Good line from the slate article:

My problem with "frictionless sharing" is much more basic: Facebook is killing taste.

[DaddyTorgo]

My solution I guess (until/unless) they fix that will be to just use facebook less and less except for keeping up with pictures posted by family members (specifically my sister's pictures of my nieces). Other than that...oh well.

[MJ4H]

I plan to just block the music sharing apps. I hate it when someone puts up a link to a youtube video that is just a music video, or song lyrics, or any of that stuff. If it's as awful as most people seem to think it will be, I think most people will block it, also. Or maybe it will be relegated to a separate tab or something. I'm not worried about this in the slightest.

[JediKooter]

Right, that makes sense from that perspective. I do it for a living, so it's always good to hear other people's ways of interacting with the same sites in dramatically different ways. Not because I'm not aware of it, but rather, because I don't always think about it.

Oh ok shoot yea, that totally makes sense in your case then.

It's really easy to tune out. And I'm too busy listening to my own stuff to care what most people are posting, even the people whose music taste I like/respect. So far, the best part of it streaming is that I can play a song without having to find a youtube video for people to hear it. But I don't know that it's anymore distracting than anything else on FB from what I've seen.

That's cool. I haven't checked it out yet and probably won't until the forced changes happen. I just envision it as the same thing as the current twitter-ish ticker they have in the upper right corner of the UI and it being a bit of a distraction. If not, cool!

[zums]

another article I read yesterday that is relevant to this discussion

Editorial: Facebook’s new sharing is anything but ‘frictionless’ | This is my next... (http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/25/facebook-frictionless-sharing-timeline-panopticon/)

[Young Drachma]

http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/09/time-online.png

The Facebook Chart That Freaks Google Out - Peter Kafka - Social - AllThingsD (http://allthingsd.com/20110926/the-facebook-chart-that-freaks-google-out/)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Now, EVERYONE will be posting their music, whether they want to or not, and whether I want to see it or not.

Well, actually, aren't the only ones that will be posting their music the relative handful that are using Spotify/whatever other service(s) FB ends up developing sharing apps for? And then of those, only the ones who actively connect their FB account to their WhateverMusic account.

Right?

As annoying as this would become if I still saw the ticker, it seems as though the only ones who'll be feeding this thing are those who are arrogant enough to think anyone gives a shit what they're listening to at all times.

Other than an infrequent Friday Night 80's binge that a few old classmates & I get caught up in 2-3 times a year (where it's almost like Dueling Videos or a game of Can You Top This?), I post 1-2 songs a day and I'm on the high end for that a lot of the time. But even with that I don't have try (nor do I want) to share every single song with anybody. I go to the extent of building 80-100 song playlists on YT each month now for crying out loud & I share that link once or twice a month for anyone that's interested but that's still miles away from what these apps seem to be intended to do.

[Autumn]

I can't imagine there's not already apps for posting your music on your Wall. Like Jon says, it still will just be people who link their accounts. They might have made it easier, but I'm sure you can just block the few people who think that's interesting to do.

[Young Drachma]

Well, actually, aren't the only ones that will be posting their music the relative handful that are using Spotify/whatever other service(s) FB ends up developing sharing apps for? And then of those, only the ones who actively connect their FB account to their WhateverMusic account.

Right?


That's right.

[JonInMiddleGA]

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/315461_2451336208915_1417291168_4680745_606862682_n.jpg

[Young Drachma]

How to stop or limit Spotify sharing on Facebook | How To - CNET (http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20111775-285/how-to-stop-or-limit-spotify-sharing-on-facebook/?tag=mncol;txt)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Interesting thing from that link
In fact, Spotify now requires all new users to sign up with their Facebook account.

So much for not connecting your accounts I guess.

[JediKooter]

I'm not sure if I missed this in any of the threads here, but, I just installed and used this: chrome://facebookfilter/content/help.html and it works great so far. It works with Firefox. Now, I have no more twitter-ish ticker on my FB page.

[terpkristin]

Not a fan of the changes to FB, but it's not going to stop me from using it.

That said, I wish it would do what I ask. If I say "unsubscribe from comments and likes by such-and-such user," it should do that...alas, so far no go...

/tk

[Galaxy]

FB is starting to become the cluttered, overload interface that hurt Myspace.

[JonInMiddleGA]

It'd be nice if the "unsubscribe from comments & activity" button actually worked.

[Matthean]

It'd be nice if the "unsubscribe from comments & activity" button actually worked.

+1. I have been working on getting people fixed to where I get the info I want in the side bar, but some people still have stuffed posted that shouldn't be there.

[JediKooter]

And messages that are Spotify specific...gone.

[sterlingice]

http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/09/time-online.png

The Facebook Chart That Freaks Google Out - Peter Kafka - Social - AllThingsD (http://allthingsd.com/20110926/the-facebook-chart-that-freaks-google-out/)

It's kindof staggering to me that any site can control more than 1/6th of all internet traffic and still be growing.

SI

[Young Drachma]

Facebook Timeline Launch Delayed in Federal Court Case (http://mashable.com/2011/10/03/facebook-timeline-launch-delayed/)

[Ksyrup]

Having spent the past week or so with the new top stories crap, I can definitely say that it's about killed any waning interest I had in FB. There's no rhyme or reason to the updates I see, and hours or even a day later, I see many of the same updates repeatedly when I check status updates. This is on my blackberry and/or my ipod. It's nothing more than a jumbled mess. I simply want a chronological list of status updates that refreshes from the last time I checked. That's it. It's useless now, because there's no sense to what I'm seeing.

It's the equivalent of opening up a thread here that you think is current, only to get to the end and realize someone's just bumped a 3-year old thread and everything you just read is stale information that's out of date.

[DanGarion]

That is a pretty fricken stupid lawsuit. It's just a design change that is named Timeline, it's not like people will remember what it was called in a couple months.

[Ryan S]

This is long overdue.

BBC News - Facebook works with Websense to add phishing safety net (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15154014)

I have had to fix far too many pcs because someone has clicked on an obvious phishing/malware link on their friend's wall.

[sterlingice]

It's only a skin deep analysis, but I think this is pretty good:

Is the world ready for Facebook Timeline? | Digital Media - CNET News (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20121562-93/is-the-world-ready-for-facebook-timeline/)

SI

[Rizon]

I find myself less interested/visiting in FB after all the changes they made a few weeks ago.

[stevew]

I do as well. Either most of the people I like stopped posting, or the changes have made it so that I don't easily find their updates.

[dubb93]

To be completely honest prior to their change I visited once a day. Posted about once a week. Since the new Facebook I find myself visiting about once a week and haven't posted since.

My girlfriend is in the same boat. To be fair we weren't "mega" users prior to the change but I wonder if these moves have made Facebook a little more niche than they were catering to the hardcore users and alienating the casual users to an extent.

[Ksyrup]

I hate opening the FB app once, maybe twice a day and coming back the next time to have to see 10 of the first 12 entries are the same as the last time I visited. It takes a ton of scrolling down to get to the "new" posts. I only visit FB on my phone, so I don't know what the site looks like or works like differently than on a phone.

[Ryan S]

I activated the timeline feature early and I can't stand the thing.

[DaddyTorgo]

I find myself less interested/visiting in FB after all the changes they made a few weeks ago.

This. Way too much "noise" now.

[Passacaglia]

Maybe I don't have the timeline feature or whatever, but it seems basically the same to me. That part on the upper right is usually annoying, but sometimes interesting, and when it's annoying I just ignore it.

[JediKooter]

Knock on wood, but, I haven't seen any new changes in a couple of weeks now. I definitely don't have the time line thing either.

[DanGarion]

Maybe I don't have the timeline feature or whatever, but it seems basically the same to me. That part on the upper right is usually annoying, but sometimes interesting, and when it's annoying I just ignore it.

Timeline is only while looking at your own profile.

[Young Drachma]

Timeline is only while looking at your own profile.

Or anyone else that also has Timeline installed.

[DanGarion]

Or anyone else that also has Timeline installed.

Sorry should have included if you are looking at someone else's profile.

[Rizon]

What does this timeline thing look like? I'm not sure if I have it or not.

[ISiddiqui]

If you don't know, you don't have it.

[DanGarion]

What does this timeline thing look like? I'm not sure if I have it or not.

Incompatible Browser | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline)

You would know if you had installed it, it would have required you to install it as a FB developer.

[Young Drachma]

What does this timeline thing look like? I'm not sure if I have it or not.

Eventually, everyone will have it. But it's tied up right now in a lawsuit. But for the people that went through the extreme lengths to set it up, they were able to keep it.

[terpkristin]

Yeah, put me in the camp that finds FB less usable and uses it less since the change. I only ever previously visited once per day and could find what I wanted to see. No more.

I think the new changes might work well for people who are on FB multiple times a day or just keep it open all the time. Alas, I don't have time or interest for that.

Meh, most of my FB is auto-post from Twitter. I'll keep doing what I do but it's less usable for me.

/tk

[Ksyrup]

I think the new changes might work well for people who are on FB multiple times a day or just keep it open all the time.

Yep. If you constantly check it, then you'll get less "top stories" and more "recent stories," I believe. Those of us who rarely check it get just the opposite. And wth top stories, those tend to stay the same for a couple of days, so it's just repeats.

[Lathum]

I have found facebook pretty much unusable with recent changes and am to lazy and busy to figure out how to optimize it, so I just avoid it instead.

[MJ4H]

I've barely noticed the changes, myself.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I've barely noticed the changes, myself.
THEN CLEARLY YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

[PilotMan]

I think you guys are crazy. The new stuff isn't great, but I have been on FB way, way, way more since the changes. It is really just a small change, but my stalking skills have never been better.

[Ksyrup]

It sucks if all you want is chronological updates, in order, picking up from where you last left off.

[Lathum]

It sucks if all you want is chronological updates, in order, picking up from where you last left off.

This is the problem for me as well.

[JediKooter]

It sucks if all you want is chronological updates, in order, picking up from where you last left off.

Exactly. That's all I request it to do. That's fine if they want to add all this extra fluff, but, let me have the ability to see posts in chronological order.

[Ksyrup]

Reading FB now is like opening a thread here that's been bumped from the archive. When you start reading, you think it's a current thread until something in a post alerts you that it's old, and then you realize you're reading old posts until eventually further down the thread, you hit the stuff that's fresh.

Annoying as hell.

[JediKooter]

My thoughts exactly, but, with how f'd up their smart phone app is, I always think it's a bug and think that it just hasn't updated anything since 11 in the morning yesterday.

[terpkristin]

Exactly. That's all I request it to do. That's fine if they want to add all this extra fluff, but, let me have the ability to see posts in chronological order.

Indeed. Does our complaining about this new-fangled technology indicate that we're now officially "old"?

/tk

[JediKooter]

Indeed. Does our complaining about this new-fangled technology indicate that we're now officially "old"?

/tk

That's possible, but, I won't know until I have my dinner here at 4:30.

[Rizon]

Indeed. Does our complaining about this new-fangled technology indicate that we're now officially "old"?

/tk

What's that can you speak up sonny

[JediKooter]

What's that can you speak up sonny

SHE SAID: "DOES CAMPING IN THE NUDE TRIANGLE MAKE THE BREAD MOLDY AND OLD?"

[sterlingice]

Get off my lawn!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y268/sterlingice/random/grandpa_simpson.jpg

SI

[Passacaglia]

I guess I don't care enough to notice whether it's in chronological order. I just read until I get bored or until I get to a post I've seen before. Maybe that means I'm missing stuff, and therefore using FB less, after all.

[Draft Dodger]

I have to wonder if they will need to tweak this. While I don't have data, it sure feels like there is a lot less interaction since fb started pushing the top stories up top. I know I personally tend to be less apt to comment on those - by the time I see them they have either run their course or are too old. I find that if I'm not one of the first few commenters, I'm not doing it and based on the downturn I suspect I'm not the only one. and, I don't always bother to scroll down to see the most recent posts (which are what I'm interested in) and so they tend to get ignored.

as I type that, I just tabbed over and see that I seem to have a new feed - highlight stories first and "sort by recency". Both appear to do the same thing, but it seems like the latter is what I've been looking for.

[molson]

I guess I don't care enough to notice whether it's in chronological order. I just read until I get bored or until I get to a post I've seen before. Maybe that means I'm missing stuff, and therefore using FB less, after all.

Ya, I've always been a casual user anyway, so maybe the ones on top ARE better to check out sooner....I have a small enough amount of friends anyway that I do think I can catch everything from the last day or so by scanning down some, even if they're out of order. And the "out of order" thing seems like a different of just hours, rather than days.

[Rizon]

Is there any way in FB to move groups of similar pages off my main page?

Over the years I thought it would be cool to LIKE or FAN or WHATEVER it is called model's pages. So I could look at bikini pics or whatever. But these chicks are nuts. Seriously nuts. They relentlessly spam, bitch and moan constantly about "jealous bitches", how they are "pissed cause i have 6500 fans and only 340 likes of my pic I posted 5 minutes ago" and 500 posts an hour about how "they are over that guy (that wanted to take pics of my vajajay".

I still want to see titty but not this much titty and I don't want to see bitching. So if I could move them all to a group or whatever so I can just click that group to see them.

Possible?

[Ksyrup]

New Facebook Feature Allows User To Cancel Account

PALO ALTO, CA—In its ongoing effort to enrich the way people connect and interact, social media website Facebook introduced a new feature Monday that allows users to cancel their accounts. "To complement our recently overhauled interface—which now provides users with a real-time log of every single thing their friends are doing at any given moment—we've added a function that lets people delete their entire profile with the click of a button," said company spokesman Scott Wippold, describing how the change would bring "an exciting new level of user control" to Facebook. "It's a really cool feature we're happy to be offering for the very first time." The company later confirmed that account closures would not stop Facebook from continuing to acquire, permanently store, and sell all information about its current and former users until the day they die.http://o.onionstatic.com/img/icons/terminator.gif

[Rizon]

lol, that got me until I saw it was from teh Onion.

[JediKooter]

Hey, they actually added a useful feature. You can now set it to where it will show you the most recent posts.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Dear Facebook,
I've now "unmarked as top story" these $#^@#$^ recently-read--on-Yahoo notices at least a dozen times. Please figure out that I have as much interest in seeing a pile of dog poop (fresh or stale) as I am in knowing that a friend read about story X,Y, or Z. If they think it's worth me knowing I'm pretty sure they'll link it or otherwise call it to my attention. I'm not going to do anything futile like threaten to leave FB over it, we both know that you could care less about my presence on the microlevel. I will, however, find it incredibly difficult to resist the urge to beat the living $%^ out of any FB employee I happen to encounter in person.
Sincerely,
Jon

[cuervo72]

What I would like, and I'm not sure they have it and if they do I haven't found it, is to block shared content from certain sites or accounts. Every day my liberal cousin shares about a dozen links from the same whack-job blogs/accounts. I didn't see a way to block those, so I just unsubscribed from him (which may be just as well anyway).

[JonInMiddleGA]

What I would like, and I'm not sure they have it and if they do I haven't found it, is to block shared content from certain sites or accounts. Every day my liberal cousin shares about a dozen links from the same whack-job blogs/accounts. I didn't see a way to block those, so I just unsubscribed from him (which may be just as well anyway).

I'm having the same problem (diff sites) with one friend in particular as well. The only thing I've found that works so far has been to "Like" or "Friend" the offending site, then block it. I hate like hell to reward them with support that way but it was at least a temporary relief from a couple of them.

Now another batch has started that I absolutely refuse to associate my name with in any way so that friend is probably going on "only major" or full hide status.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, no way I am liking "Republican Bigotry Hate Fear Lies and Distortion" just in order to block it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah, no way I am liking "Republican Bigotry Hate Fear Lies and Distortion" just in order to block it.

Likewise my feelings about "Atheism" and the ever popular "Evolution Is Not A Theory"

[Matthean]

I'm getting close with one person since they have a news feed that gets posted as their posts and then he does a song for the day on another account, which is the reason I added him, but he so many times posts multiple stuff it's kind of hard to buy into the "a song for the day" concept. This says nothing of his taste in certain things.

[MJ4H]

Facebook now allows you to choose your sorting method between "most recent stories" and "highlighted stories."

Just FYI.

[Draft Dodger]

called that!

[JediKooter]

10-31-2011 10:55 AM: Hey, they actually added a useful feature. You can now set it to where it will show you the most recent posts.

:popcorn:

[Ryan S]

Facebook now allows you to choose your sorting method between "most recent stories" and "highlighted stories."

Just FYI.

Can anyone tell me where this option is because I can't see it?

[terpkristin]

Can anyone tell me where this option is because I can't see it?

I don't think it's been rolled out for everyone yet. I don't have it yet.

Facebook Brings Back the Old "Most Recent" News Feed Option (But It's Kind of Hidden) (http://lifehacker.com/5858091/facebook-brings-back-the-old-news-feed-but-its-kind-of-hidden)

/tk

[MJ4H]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/fbsort.png

[Ryan S]

I don't think it's been rolled out for everyone yet. I don't have it yet.

Facebook Brings Back the Old "Most Recent" News Feed Option (But It's Kind of Hidden) (http://lifehacker.com/5858091/facebook-brings-back-the-old-news-feed-but-its-kind-of-hidden)

/tk


That explains it. I must be way behind the curve, I still have not seen the facebook ticker on my account.

[Rizon]

I'm not sure what's happened in the last week, but now I see all the pictures, links, etc, that my friends like. It's half my feed.

I looked online and the way to remove it was to click the arrow next to the post, and click "unsubscribe from comments and likes by xxxx". Clicking that doesn't unsubscribe from comments and likes by that person, only removes that photo/link they liked from my feed.

Anyone having this problem and have you found a solution? (I don't want to entirely block some of these people)

At least I haven't been forced to go Timeline yet.

[Grover]

I'm not sure what's happened in the last week, but now I see all the pictures, links, etc, that my friends like. It's half my feed.

I looked online and the way to remove it was to click the arrow next to the post, and click "unsubscribe from comments and likes by xxxx". Clicking that doesn't unsubscribe from comments and likes by that person, only removes that photo/link they liked from my feed.

Anyone having this problem and have you found a solution? (I don't want to entirely block some of these people)

At least I haven't been forced to go Timeline yet.

Yes, that is how you do it, but I notice it hasn't been working on mine. It had in the past.

[Chief Rum]

I received my Timeline "option date" of August 22nd last week. So for the rare few of my FB friends here who happen to look at my profile, be prepared for it to look like shit around then.

[JediKooter]

Mine just got forced moved to timeline earlier this week. If trying to unsubscribe works as great as hiding ads...you will never be able to unsubscribe.

I do use Feed Filter and it forces the ticker to be completely hidden. I love that. Now if it could only force hide the stupid advertisements, I'd be super happy.

[korme]

Timeline is sweet, you'll get used to it

[stevew]

I wish that FaceBook would stop allowing my cunt Sister-in-law to make new accounts. I find myself blocking her every 5-6 months or so. Just looking at her makes me angry.

[bhlloy]

I already had timeline, but I noticed they did their periodical "you don't know what you want to look at on Facebook, we tell you what you want to look at" and defaulted my feed to top stories again yesterday.

[JediKooter]

I already had timeline, but I noticed they did their periodical "you don't know what you want to look at on Facebook, we tell you what you want to look at" and defaulted my feed to top stories again yesterday.

It does this all the to me as well. Facebook apparently has the foresight to know exactly how I want my page to be configured.

[stevew]

I already had timeline, but I noticed they did their periodical "you don't know what you want to look at on Facebook, we tell you what you want to look at" and defaulted my feed to top stories again yesterday.

Yeah, they'll throw that trick in every so often just to fuck with you.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I wish that FaceBook would stop allowing my cunt Sister-in-law to make new accounts. I find myself blocking her every 5-6 months or so. Just looking at her makes me angry.

So do you two still get along?

[Solecismic]

I have adblockers and no-script, and even though I allow the scripts from facebook to run, most of the site stopped working in the last month or so. Since Timeline, pretty much nothing is working.

There is an increasing trend out there to force you to look at ads. I don't want to look at ads. This is more important to me than using Facebook.

The problem with an ad-driven business model is that you have incentive to make your service less appealing to customers. On the internet, that usually means a short life-cycle. Hence the failing IPO despite nearly a billion accounts.

[stevew]

So do you two still get along?

She is a half retard trouble maker who won't take medicine, abuses prescription pills, abandoned her daughter and has been married something like 5 times(plus several long term flop relationships). And she doesn't work.

[Rizon]

It does this all the to me as well. Facebook apparently has the foresight to know exactly how I want my page to be configured.

I already had timeline, but I noticed they did their periodical "you don't know what you want to look at on Facebook, we tell you what you want to look at" and defaulted my feed to top stories again yesterday.

Yeah, they'll throw that trick in every so often just to fuck with you.

I've had the same problem with Top Stories/Most Recent since it was implemented. It always changes back to Top Stories, which is just a jumble of posts/pictures/links from random people/pages over random dates, such as the current day or maybe a few months ago.

[JonInMiddleGA]

There is an increasing trend out there to force you to look at ads. I don't want to look at ads.

Element Hiding Helper for AdBlock Plus (Firefox) FTW.

I don't even see most of the internal ads within, say, Zynga games at this point.
Can help get rid of some of the FB elements that may be causing hangs/crashes too.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

She is a half retard trouble maker who won't take medicine, abuses prescription pills, abandoned her daughter and has been married something like 5 times(plus several long term flop relationships). And she doesn't work.

So that's a no? :)

[DaddyTorgo]

I have adblockers and no-script, and even though I allow the scripts from facebook to run, most of the site stopped working in the last month or so. Since Timeline, pretty much nothing is working.

There is an increasing trend out there to force you to look at ads. I don't want to look at ads. This is more important to me than using Facebook.

The problem with an ad-driven business model is that you have incentive to make your service less appealing to customers. On the internet, that usually means a short life-cycle. Hence the failing IPO despite nearly a billion accounts.

Yup - been saying this since before the IPO. Should have put my money where my mouth was and shorted - would have made a fucking killing.

[cartman]

Yup - been saying this since before the IPO. Should have put my money where my mouth was and shorted - would have made a fucking killing.

Not really. The price for shorting during the lockup period didn't make it very attractive at all, even though it went down by nearly 50%.

[JediKooter]

Element Hiding Helper for AdBlock Plus (Firefox) FTW.

I don't even see most of the internal ads within, say, Zynga games at this point.
Can help get rid of some of the FB elements that may be causing hangs/crashes too.

I owe you a 6 pack!!

Thank you!

[Ksyrup]

I've had the same problem with Top Stories/Most Recent since it was implemented. It always changes back to Top Stories, which is just a jumble of posts/pictures/links from random people/pages over random dates, such as the current day or maybe a few months ago.

Yep. Every few days it changes back to Top Stories on its own. I figured there was a hidden setting to make a change permanent that I've never found, but maybe not.

[sterlingice]

I have adblockers and no-script, and even though I allow the scripts from facebook to run, most of the site stopped working in the last month or so. Since Timeline, pretty much nothing is working.

There is an increasing trend out there to force you to look at ads. I don't want to look at ads. This is more important to me than using Facebook.

The problem with an ad-driven business model is that you have incentive to make your service less appealing to customers. On the internet, that usually means a short life-cycle. Hence the failing IPO despite nearly a billion accounts.

+1 on all accounts here

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

I owe you a 6 pack!! Thank you!

{nods}

That thing is a beast, and it has truly made a huge difference in the quality of my web surfing.

As good as it is on FB, it's even better on places like newspaper sites.

[klayman]

Yep. Every few days it changes back to Top Stories on its own. I figured there was a hidden setting to make a change permanent that I've never found, but maybe not.

Do you use mobile apps? I've just noticed that not using a mobile app for the last week or so my setting stayed at recent stories, but the second I used a mobile app today it changed back to top stories. I'm wondering if the issue could be with the apps instead?

[JediKooter]

{nods}

That thing is a beast, and it has truly made a huge difference in the quality of my web surfing.

As good as it is on FB, it's even better on places like newspaper sites.

Wow. Just now saw your post. I was pretty amazed how much it can do and with relative ease.

Definitely a keeper for sure.

[Solecismic]

Strangely, I still can't use facebook. It works in IE, even with my HOSTS file intact (HOSTS does wonders on FOFC on its own, by the way). And I've tried running without plug-ins. I must have done something weird to Firefox. Maybe it's because I don't have a Java plug-in.

[Kodos]

I found out that saying you live in Antarctica cuts down on ads too.

[JediKooter]

I found out that saying you live in Antarctica cuts down on ads too.

I am going to have to try this or maybe pick Mars or the Moon or something like that, just to see what other things might happen. :)

[Young Drachma]

Careful what you search:

http://newsroom.fb.com/News/An-Update-to-Activity-Log-1bc.aspx

Last year we rolled out a new tool called Activity Log to let you review and manage your activity on Facebook.

Starting today, in addition to your other activity, you'll be able to see the searches you're making on Facebook. Just as you can choose to delete any of your posts, you can use the same inline control on Activity Log to remove any of your searches at any time. It's important to remember that no one else can see your Activity Log, including your search activity.

http://newsroom.fb.com/ImageLibrary/DisplayMedia.ashx?MediaDetailsID=4213&SizeId=3

You can expect to see your Activity Log updated with your search activity over the next few weeks. You can access this tool by going to the top of your profile, and going to Search from the activity sorter.


We're continuously working to bring your settings inline, next to the information they control. As part of this ongoing initiative, we recently announced the Shared Activity plugin that enables you to easily control your app activity inline while you use the app.

[Young Drachma]

Your searches on Facebook to show up in activity log | Internet & Media - CNET News (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57518097-93/your-searches-on-facebook-to-show-up-in-activity-log/)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Your searches on Facebook to show up in activity log | Internet & Media - CNET News (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57518097-93/your-searches-on-facebook-to-show-up-in-activity-log/)


Prepares for onslaught of "OMG, FB is showing everything" posts to swamp our walls in 3 ... 2 ...

Of course most of the posts will also include some variation about how this is related to FB going public.

[stevew]

Duh, they are just beta testing this feature so they can charge for it in a few months.

[SteveMax58]

Careful what you search:

http://newsroom.fb.com/News/An-Update-to-Activity-Log-1bc.aspx


That would be great if you could make it public for a handful of searches. Just to see what kind of reaction you get.

For instance....

SteveMax58 searched for sexy women over 90
SteveMax58 searched for sexy women over 80
SteveMax58 searched for sexy women over 70
SteveMax58 searched for sexy women over 60
SteveMax58 searched for why are women not sexy after 60?

[Matthean]

I'm just glad they finally allowed editing of posts.

[Lathum]

New feature. Promote. Allows you to move a pic, story, or status to the top of newsfeeds, looks like it may sticky it there. For a cost of $7.00. First step towards pay accounts.

[britrock88]

New feature. Promote. Allows you to move a pic, story, or status to the top of newsfeeds, looks like it may sticky it there. For a cost of $7.00. First step towards pay accounts.

Seems something like meta-advertisement to me.

[JediKooter]

Haha! Got to make up for the tanking stock prices somehow.

[sterlingice]

I don't know what they've changed but over the past couple of days, it stopped working in Chrome but started working again in Adblock/Noscript Firefox. WOO!

I'm sure it won't last but I was getting sick of seeing all the FB ads I was never going to click on. No, I'm not going to sculpt my body like the 300, play your stupid FB game, or meet singles in my area (impressively bad ad placement considering the status of "married")

SI

[Izulde]

No, I'm not going to sculpt my body like the 300, play your stupid FB game, or meet singles in my area (impressively bad ad placement considering the status of "married")

SI

Well, maybe they think you want to learn how to fudge a bank statement.

[sterlingice]

Chat still doesn't work, tho

SI

[ISiddiqui]

Aroo? I Facebook chatted this morning.

[EagleFan]

I heard that starting this weekend you would have to pay for facebook unless you post that you also heard about it on your profile. Somehow doing that will magically give you immunity from paying.

On a related note I am going to also post that about my mortgage and car payment to see if that works the same way...

;)

[mckerney]

I heard that starting this weekend you would have to pay for facebook unless you post that you also heard about it on your profile. Somehow doing that will magically give you immunity from paying.

On a related note I am going to also post that about my mortgage and car payment to see if that works the same way...

;)

Time to upload this as our profile image and create and album full of it too.

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4e807456eab8ea6e78000067/facebook-gold-account.jpg

[bhlloy]

That link is broken, it says you have to have a Facebook gold account to view it

[DaddyTorgo]

Step 1: Upload said image and spread it
Step 2: Create way for people to pay me untraceably for "Facebook Gold" upgrade
Step 3: PROFIT!!!

[mckerney]

Step 1: Upload said image and spread it
Step 2: Create way for people to pay me untraceably for "Facebook Gold" upgrade
Step 3: PROFIT!!!

All you need to do is find someone gullible enough to fall for it and knows how to use bitcoins.

[DaddyTorgo]

All you need to do is find someone gullible enough to fall for it and knows how to use bitcoins.

Yeah - unfortunately that subset is pretty small.

It would need to be a paypal thing to capture the most gullible folks I'm afraid. Bank account overseas...bam. Winner winner.

[mckerney]

Yeah - unfortunately that subset is pretty small.

It would need to be a paypal thing to capture the most gullible folks I'm afraid. Bank account overseas...bam. Winner winner.

Yep, so if you do find someone who fits that criteria make sure you up sell them to the lifetime subscription.

[Desnudo]

Hey, so can someone get me a gold account? I can only pay in bitcoins though if that's ok.

[terpkristin]

I don't know what they've changed but over the past couple of days, it stopped working in Chrome but started working again in Adblock/Noscript Firefox. WOO!



Huh, the ads started showing up in Chrome for me, too. Maybe it's time to go back to Firefox.

/tk

[mckerney]

Huh, the ads started showing up in Chrome for me, too. Maybe it's time to go back to Firefox.

/tk

There was an adblock update on Chrome the other day and now I don't see ads while I did before.

[bhlloy]

So I've noticed recently that FB seems to want me to be friends with a decent number of insanely hot chicks who have profile photos of them with very little clothing on. These people have (sadly) absolutely no connection to me - no shared friends, not people I've ever emailed or in any contact list I know about that FB could have dredged up, so I'm left with two logical conclusions, both of which are some sort of scam I'd imagine

1) These people are paying for premium accounts or some way to continually insert themselves at the top of ppl's friends suggestions and FB is so desperate for any sort of revenue that they don't care what's behind it

2) Scammers have figured out a way to do #1 and FB just hasn't cottoned onto it yet

I guess a third possibility is that this is how FB is trying to hold the interest of a certain section of the populace (kind of like how Google+ desperately begs me to follow somebody famous every time I log in and log back out again 30 seconds later) but that seems slightly distasteful and potential horrible PR, and they don't really need subscribers, they need revenue.

Not that I'm complaining too much that the A+ girl who managed to take a profile pic of herself wearing just a tie keeps showing up at the top of my friend suggestions. Interested to know what the reason behind it is though. Seems to be a very recent thing in the last couple of weeks.

[Matthean]

So I've noticed recently that FB seems to want me to be friends with a decent number of insanely hot chicks who have profile photos of them with very little clothing on. These people have (sadly) absolutely no connection to me - no shared friends, not people I've ever emailed or in any contact list I know about that FB could have dredged up, so I'm left with two logical conclusions, both of which are some sort of scam I'd imagine

Better than what I am getting. I get shirtless men with six pack abs.