Most of us are on Facebook these days. Very few of the people I know have chosen to ‘refuse Facebook’. I never had much fun there before the group for my hometown started. Now I understand a little more why many people like it so much. It’s all good, if you know what you’re doing there and how to set your privacy.
Yesterday they released a new feature … the «Timeline». That’s alright too, it used to be very cumbersome to scroll back in time, if you wanted to find some old posting. The fun thing is … when they introduce something new … to read all the comments they get on their own page. People go totally berserk … use all kinds of foul language, even ‘threaten’ them that they will leave Facebook *gasp!*, if they don’t take back the old design. I looked in there a few hours after they’d released this ‘timeline’, and there were already two thousand comments that bascially said «this sucks!». Facebook themselves never say a word, and after a day or two everything is back to normal …it’s all forgotten.
It’s an amazing phenomenon really … the words largest, social network, and they don’t care one bit of what people think about them. They have no support, there’s no way of contacting them when you have a problem. All they do is tell you to go to the help forum, where other members hopefully will find a solution, but most of the times they don’t. There is a way to post to them to report a bug, and then you get a kind of snotty, automated email in return that tells you that they will never respond to email.
Just a few reflections on the Timeline 🙂
I had a minor problem that I reported three times. I tried to fill in the URL [address] to my website in my profile at FB. It just wouldn’t take. It told me my settings were saved, but they were not. It vanished as soon as I hit save. Eventually it was fixed but they never said anything … I just kept going back, trying, and finally it worked the other day.
Sometimes I wonder where it all will take us and for how long it will exist. The enormity of it all is almost hard to fathom. MySpace was big in their hay-days, but not like this and not in the same way, considering the number of people and corporations that are connected.
colderweather2011 
I am glad you refer to MySpace here, it somewhat frustrates me that it is now considered the dinosaur of social networking; obviously it has lost users in floods, but I’ve never really been able to fathom why.
In the film ‘The Social Network’ Zuckerberg suggests that what he is doing has never been done before, sure it was never done quite like Facebook, but really, how different is/was MySpace?
What annoys me most about FB is how we are all cloned by the format of the pages, MySpace allowed you to run a little wild. The ability to use HTML code may have bugged some users who felt it took too long to access a code-heavy page, but that annoyance in a way did allow you to gauge more about the user. FB (ironically) encourages more private use…ergo not as networky as MySpace.
In the future we’ll all implode.
~The Dippylomat esq.
Well, with regards to customization — now you can go a little wild and crazy in choosing the cover picture for your timeline! LOL Yes, in MySpace they were really personalized! The sad part about that was perhaps that most of them didn’t know how to do it, which only caused [older] computers to freeze up or they caused seizures. Is it really possible to compare the two?! We’ve come so much farther now with all the smart/super phones, apps and all that jazz. Every major corporation nowadays has a FB-page with Follow- and Like buttons on their pages. I tried to put a Like button on my own page, but even though I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to web stuff, I had to give in.
I have yet to see that film.
I read this analogy about FB being set up by east coast geeks and MySpace being set up by west coast party animals, as if that was the underlying problem. I still think it was Rupert Murdoch’s short-sightedness which led to MySpace’s downfall, he locked the stable door after the horsr had bolted 😦
Poor Tom ‘MySpace’ Anderson!
I’ve seen him around on Facebook LOL
As much as I hate FB, I use it. Sometimes, I wonder why. I deactivate and then reactivate. I think it is because of my involvement with Team FREDNET, my son’s Team.
Linda,
I don’t hate it … I used to dislike it, but for the time being … I’m neutral 🙂
But all major networks? websites? what-d’ya-call-’ems are the same. No support. Google has no support. WordPress, heaven help us, has little support outside of the Forums, which are hit and miss. People want to sell you things, whether it’s product or something more amorphous, as Facebook, or Google’s various manifestations. But when there are problems, they don’t want to know. You’re on your own.
It’s a tough world, out there, cyberspace.
I beg to differ …at least about WordPress! I’ve received excellent and swift support from them! At least once, but I’ve only needed it once. I was so impressed, that’s why I remember. Google too, I’ve got help from even though it wasn’t as easy. At least I didn’t get that type of email back, as FB keep sending out. Yahoo also has support but it’s tiresome to get there.
The Help-forum in FB is horrible, and I think maybe FB is the most user-unfriendly site I’ve ever been on. Still … I’m there. Could I persuade all my friends to move to Google+, I’d do it in a heart beat. That won’t happen.
Hi Rebby: I’ve had a ‘love-hate’ relationship with Facebook for years…the first time I was on it I lasted a year & deactivated my account….went 2 yrs not being on it. Then I rejoined a few years back & I quite enjoy it…most of my face 2 face friends & my blog friends & NA people & Sponsor & friends of firends are on there…I have made some lovely cyber connections also….
Remember when I got hacked last Boxing Day?? I was in withdrawal from FB!! It was awful!! I called my friend Daniel in Hamilton & he went onto my page & recited eveyone’s name off & I wrote it down so I could re-invite everyone to my new page..I sure hope no one does that to me again this year 😦
i’d be angrier than a wet hornet on a hot poker!!!
I too complain when changes just appear on FB…but I have learned to adapt & move on…because no one is listening anyway, right???
All in all, FB is a good social site…you know I put up an account in MySpace a long time ago & it won’t let me back on there…so that narrowed it down for me too….
Wishing you & Gerry & sweet McDuff a lovely Christmas. Love Sherri-Ellen & Nylablue.
Yes, I remember that, Sherri Ellen! I too, change account about the same time. I had some minor trouble there, and in my innocence I thought it would be easy. It wasn’t. So, i don’t have the original account I signed up for in 2006. I have a nice mix of real-life friends and online buddies there.
I’ve had a MySpace account too, but that never took off. I forget my user-ID now.
Thank you for the holiday wishes … hope you guys have a great time too! ❤
I got my Timeline up on FB too Rebekah. Yours looks good!
I have a love/hate relationship with FB, but I mainly stay there because it’s easy to keep in touch with family and friends through it. In fact, we have re-connected with lost family because of it! So it does have it’s good points.
Google+ seems to be more security conscious but as you say, will our FB friends follow us there?
No, they won’t, Barb … they wouldn’t even go there and look. People in general are reluctant to change, methinks. I like Google+ mainly for the whole integration, with pictures and all that … how I can reply to messages from that bar in Gmail.
It IS easy to stay in touch with FB … many people have their cell phones connected, so that they get the messages as texts. I’ve communicated a great deal with my niece in that chat thing they have there.
FB annoys me once in a while because it likes to make decisions for me. I actually am on twice – under my maiden name which is the page I use to keep in touch with family and friends and boy I do hate it when someone decides to leave. It’s just so nice to hear about the daily things going on in the lives of people I care about. My other account, under my married name, I use to connect with other spiritually minded healers and I love the interactions there. So much positive energy winding in and out of my life through that.
Yeah, it’s evolving all the time. When they reset the privacy settings, so that I have to go through that whole maze again … that’s disturbing. I have only one account, but I’m taking advantage of the lists. I’ve one in Swedish and one in English.
That sounds good about the healers!
Hi,
I am one of the few that are not on facebook. I don’t think I personally know anyone who hasn’t got a facebook page. A couple of my friends keep in touch with family o/seas through facebook and this really seems a great idea for something like that.
Yes, it’s good for keeping up with people … see what they’re up to. It is a little bit what you make of it yourself, and I’m okay with it now. If I were not, I would either leave or just not take part anymore.
People are quite stupid. FB will not undo their changes and working yourself up into a frenzy will not help.
I do not like the timeline and have gotten rid of it. Don’t miss it.
Don’t you think they will implement it on everybody in a while?
Everybody has it but I found a Chrome app that removes it. Much better without it. I never looked at it.
ahh … okay! There’s a Chrome app that removes that scrolling thing to the right, also…