"Can I say you're my girlfriend on Facebook?"

(I gave birth to a lot of them first)

http://www.msdlists.com/images/full%20size/Goya%20Saturn%20Devouring%20His%20Children.jpg

yearbook photo?

Taken in the cafeteria.

wtf @ this stupid thing where now you can't have anything listed in your activities/interests/etc. unless you link to a page for each and every one?!?

fb is def overreaching w/ the privacy stuff lately. I'm so ready for some other site to become the coolnewthing. (and they're basically creating a need for that to happen)

yeah i agree - i've been totally ok with most of the other stuff bc it's either been easy to ignore or turn off but this seems really invasive.

Yeah, I've shrugged off most of the recent changes, but this one is awful.

Yeah, me, too. I basically deleted everything in my profile except for some info in the "about me section," and "unliked" all the things that Facebook decided must now be part of my profile because gross. I do not want to be part of a "community page" for my (very large) employer, because I don't want most of my coworkers to know I know what Facebook is, much less discover I have a profile. I mean, gross.

I said gross twice because it is SO GROSS.

yeah i deleted everything too.

If you don't link to any Pages, the following sections on your profile will be empty:
Work and Education
Current City
Hometown
Likes and Interests

seriously, wtf facebook

if i wouldn't lose contact w/ a bunch of people if i deleted my profile, there's a good chance i wouldn't be on FB right now

it sure didn't take these guys long to turn shamelessly evil. nothing I've ever read on zuckerberg suggests that he's a good person on any level. I've never really cared about the design changes or minifeed or whatever - but the recent trend of disabling previously existing privacy settings is a pretty big slap in the face.

otoh I can stalk all kindsa people who I couldn't before because nobody realizes that their profile is completely open now.

I know, right? A bunch of law school related groups that I would like to stay in touch w/ because of job leads use FB as their main communications method, as do the non-profit orgs that I am involved in, so it's not just friends but actual professional connections that I would lose if I deleted the page. Not to mention the discussion page for our book club. I also hate how when you "like" pages, those pages are visible to EVERYBODY and there's no way to hide them. So as much as I want to "like" some groups, I just can't have my mother-in-law seeing that I "like" "punching Creationists in the face" or something.

xp

Also, there appears to be no way to any longer edit things that you've "liked". WTF?

what do you mean by "edit"?

Oh, wait, you actually have to go to that page and click "Unlike".

I just wanted to "unlike" some stuff, but you can't do that through your profile.

so you used to be able to do that via your profile before? if so, then they probably made it more difficult b/c they obviously don't want people leaving anything

yeah it's pretty clear to me that zuckerberg is the new bill gates - harvard asshole who stumbled upon something good in the days of its infancy and has managed to parlay it into some kind of fake empire, fortunately it looks like he's at the top of the hill already and now we get to watch him slowly grind the gears into mush and end up as two stumps in the shifting sands of the online desert

Tbh, I'm not sure if you could before or not. I just assumed it would be the same as deleting any of your "interests", but apparently not.

yeah, i thought you always had to go to the thing itself, but . . . *shrugs*

Timely

How to delete Facebook applications and why you should.

some dude from 2nd grade added me on facebook which is pretty cool

i mentioned the time we dug up a skull in a creek in my backyard and brought it to school

he told me he kept the skull and now it's on his desk at work! AWESOMEST FRIEND EVER

wait what kinda skull?

deer I think. we gave away the teeth to classmates that day and I think we were supposed to trade the skull back and forth every week but I don't think my mom cared much for that idea. I told my friend to take a picture of the skull and tag it on facebook so maybe I'll find out what animal it is once and for all

Dude. That's awesome!

This connections stuff is total bullshit. The help page answers are creepy as fuck too. They just keep repeating that you will now 'express yourself' by being forced to link to public groups.

Facebook got huge with non-net-savvy people because the privacy was dead simple: nobody could see fuck-all except the people you said were your friends. They uploaded loads of private information and pictures.

Now all that stuff is being exposed because you need to understand set theory and advanced logic just to say who can see your holiday snaps. It's bewilderingly complicated; so complicated that I don't think people have realised. I keep waiting for the outcry when they finally do.

Why isn't anybody launching a decent competitor?

loooool, stet is a hero. A++

I'm mostly disappointed that I can't express my unique and outsized personality through my 'interests, favorite movies and music' categories anymore

i wish i could put "never signed up for Facebook" as a resume line item

the fact that it is becoming the de facto communications medium for a lot of people -- including a lot of the people i know, ensuring that i basically have to use the site -- makes me sigh deeply

basically: email forever

They must be rolling out the iterests change in stages cos mine are still the old-style list of words.

But tbh Ive never had workmates or places of employ listed on fb. I think the "privacy" of it was always a bit of a red herring.

yeah, it seems like it's getting rolled out slowly over here -- some people have it, others don't

I'm mostly disappointed that I can't express my unique and outsized personality through my 'interests, favorite movies and music' categories anymore

― going non-native (dyao), Friday, April 30, 2010 9:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol yes

i hate complaining about facebook but this new "feature" is fuckin atrocious

I think what they're failing to realize is that facebook was originally successful because people didn't have to connect with other people on a global scale. It seems like this new "feature" basically is trying to connect people who don't know each other already based on interests, etc. People were fine just having their own group of friends and basically creating a personalized network of friends who they could interact with, which was what Myspace couldn't do. The exclusivity is what drew people in, and they're basically destroying that.

However, it makes sense on a monetary level that this is what it would evolve into because this way advertisers and companies can reach people much more easily than if it was still a very privatized network.

i'm interested in seeing if they're just going to continue to bloat and complicate the service to the point where it becomes even more annoying to use than it already is

some people i know switched the majority of their "updating" activity over to Twitter a while back. i think most people, though, will stick with Facebook for a while, at least until a compelling alternative comes along. the sad part is that, even if an alternative does come along, people are already way more invested in FB than they ever were in MySpace, and it'll take much longer for user attrition rates to increase in any significant way. unless FB does something really crazy, people just aren't going to get rid of their accounts or use them significantly less until they can use something else significantly more

think the "privacy" of it was always a bit of a red herring

Yeh, this is kind of it for me. I mean, tongue slightly in cheek, I've always said that if you're that bothered about privacy then don't plug your computer into the internet.

I like Facebook. In the past couple of years in particular, I've had some fantastic discussions/arguments/whatever on there. I think a large part of this is because it's individuated: I'm arguing with real people, almost all of whom I know in real life (and very occasionally with passing strangers: I made the deliberate decision to open up my profile for that very reason).

Facebook's the one place where (most) people are being themselves: sure, there's not much difference between Simon on Facebook and grimly on ILX, but there's enough. I've said things here in the past -- which I'm not proud of -- that I'd never say to someone on Facebook.

And the key thing about Facebook is I've never said anything I wouldn't be happy for a current or future employer (or friend, or relative, or whatever) to read. Same with Twitter. That's meant thinking twice before posting; a couple of times it's meant quickly going back and deleting stuff. Like it or not, that's how it is: wasn't there some instance a few weeks back where supposedly private information on Facebook was made briefly public? I think you've got to be black-and-white about it: you put something on Facebook, you assume everyone can potentially find a way to see it, because ultimately: do you trust their privacy settings 100%?

They just keep repeating that you will now 'express yourself' by being forced to link to public groups

Umm: forced? You're not forced to do anything. You can unlink from everything if you want. Not ideal, no. But "forced" is overstating it.

Facebook got huge with non-net-savvy people because the privacy was dead simple: nobody could see fuck-all except the people you said were your friends. They uploaded loads of private information and pictures

... which was ultimately maybe a bit daft of them, no? Hellfire, even by e-mailing one person something in private you run the risk of that information accidentally being made public --

AS WE BOTH KNOW TO OUR COST, STET, EH? EH? One day I'll let that lie ;)

-- so, y'know, posting shit on the World's Favourite Social Network? Umm. It's kind of trying to have your cake and eat it: "I want this to be sort-of public but mostly private!" And I don't think this is about net-savvy and non-net-savvy people: it's just simple common sense.

No, it's not an ideal situation. But what is? Ultimately, people have got to take a wee bit of responsibility for themselves and their information, no?

i'm interested in seeing if they're just going to continue to bloat and complicate the service to the point where it becomes even more annoying to use than it already is

This, I think, is a much more valid point: there seems to be a notable correlation between new features and overall bugginess.

(Jesus, that was long. Sorry. Too long in academia, too long away from ILX.)

Lol prolix. Not going to argue over semantics of forcing: if you want to use it tomorrow like you used it last week you have no alternative but to do it in public, and it will happen by default if you don't notice. There's some hefty coercion there.

Also: perfectly reasonable to expect private stuff online. I don't expect Gmail to decide to publish my email archive publicly so that I can better express myself.

Also: "take responsibility"? Bit blame-the-victim when FB continually changing the rules mid-game

i wonder how many FB users are aware that a link to their profile is indexed in Google unless they go in and change a setting

i mean, i follow tech news & even i have trouble keeping up w/ all the changes they're making

where's the setting to not get indexed ksh?

Privacy Settings --> Search

find "Public Search Results" & uncheck the box next to "Allow"

oh cool i'd already unchecked that. thx for the reminder tho, i'll pass that on.