Users Fight Back Against the New Facebook
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 11th, 2008 9:00 AMFacebook users are typically not receptive to change. When Facebook unleashed the News Feed a couple years ago, the Facebook user base fought back, creating groups to remove the news feed and challenging Facebook on the lack of privacy under the new system. Facebook eventually added privacy settings to control what would be displayed in your friends’ feeds but they didn’t remove the feature all together.
Facebook is known for taking two steps forward and one step back. The same thing happened when Facebook announced Facebook Beacon. The program which would track users’ activities around the web was opt-out and wasn’t very transparent. The result was that Beacon was temporarily pushed aside, becoming opt-in and the press applauded Facebook’s decision to support the users’ privacy rights.
Ultimately Facebook Connect will bring about the revival of Beacon, except under a different name. In the meantime, while Facebook Connect is being rolled out, Facebook has launched a new site design. Initially only serving 5 percent of the site’s users, there appeared to be little backlash on the new design. The new design has been rapidly rolled out to more users and we are beginning to see the result.
One group on Facebook, “People against the New Facebook System” has over 26,000 members and appears to be growing at over 2,000 users a day. Another group, “The New Facebook Layout SUCKS!” has over 7,200 members. While these are still relatively low numbers compared to those that grouped together to fight against past changes, the movement appears to be gaining traction.
This time around, I doubt we will see Facebook move back to the old design though given the large investment they’ve placed in the new design. The new design also attempts to reduce the clutter that was generated by the new applications. Are you in support of the new Facebook design?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
August 11th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I’m absolutely in favour of the new design. Much clearer, relevant and interesting content delivery.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:40 am
this sounds terribly cliché … but people who are protesting cant adapt to the change and cant see the value in the new redesign …
so you have to click one more time to go from info to the wall .. big deal !!
August 11th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’m absolutely in favour of the new design. Much clearer, relevant and interesting content delivery.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:24 am
totally in favour.. much cleaner. Now when I go to a friends page, I dont see rubbish apps anymore, as I never interact with the boxs page.
Nick - as you know there is a little link right at the box, that says “Back to the old version”.. lets hope FB keeps that there for a while, and doesn’t add any new features there!
August 11th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I love the new design, hopefully FB will roll it out to all users very soon.
Let’s just get it over with and stop their whining. Eventually they will get used to the new design and see the advantages.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
this sounds terribly cliché … but people who are protesting cant adapt to the change and cant see the value in the new redesign …
so you have to click one more time to go from info to the wall .. big deal !!
August 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am
People are whiny crybabies complaining about their completely free service.
They might have had a slight case if they were paying customers or something.
My only complaint is that there are still bugs around that new site design. Now that’s something worth complaining about… if I even cared about Facebook that much to invest time in bawwing.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what the ‘problem’ is with the new design.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I personally find I’m using the commenting features far more than I had before. I’m enjoying the friend feed style replies to news items. I’m also finding I’m generating more stuff thanks to the publisher.
BUT: The new design does have some drawbacks for casual/non-frequent users. If every time someone visits a site there have been changes, it forces them to relearn the interface etc. For those users, these massive changes are more disruptive than for those of us who are on Facebook all day (or at least a good portion of it).
For example, if I had spent any time customizing my left hand navigation so the apps and tools I found most valuable were right there at my mouse tip, when I come back and see the new design, they’re gone. Yes, I know they’re all still in the applications submenu (or most of them are anyway), it’s frustrating for that casual user who hadn’t realized there was a new design/layout coming. As hard as it may be to believe - not everyone follows Facebook news as closely as we all do.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I love the overall idea of the new design: so much cleaner and easier to digest. I just want more control over where my applications are displayed. I want to be able to decide which apps are shown on my main profile page… and custom tabs would be great: if I want to have a “Media” page and put all my videos and photos on, that would be great.
And the top nav bar could be a bit taller. But overall I love it.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:24 am
totally in favour.. much cleaner. Now when I go to a friends page, I dont see rubbish apps anymore, as I never interact with the boxs page.
Nick - as you know there is a little link right at the box, that says “Back to the old version”.. lets hope FB keeps that there for a while, and doesn’t add any new features there!
August 11th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I love the new design, hopefully FB will roll it out to all users very soon.
Let’s just get it over with and stop their whining. Eventually they will get used to the new design and see the advantages.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
People are whiny crybabies complaining about their completely free service.
They might have had a slight case if they were paying customers or something.
My only complaint is that there are still bugs around that new site design. Now that’s something worth complaining about… if I even cared about Facebook that much to invest time in bawwing.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what the ‘problem’ is with the new design.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I personally find I’m using the commenting features far more than I had before. I’m enjoying the friend feed style replies to news items. I’m also finding I’m generating more stuff thanks to the publisher.
BUT: The new design does have some drawbacks for casual/non-frequent users. If every time someone visits a site there have been changes, it forces them to relearn the interface etc. For those users, these massive changes are more disruptive than for those of us who are on Facebook all day (or at least a good portion of it).
For example, if I had spent any time customizing my left hand navigation so the apps and tools I found most valuable were right there at my mouse tip, when I come back and see the new design, they’re gone. Yes, I know they’re all still in the applications submenu (or most of them are anyway), it’s frustrating for that casual user who hadn’t realized there was a new design/layout coming. As hard as it may be to believe - not everyone follows Facebook news as closely as we all do.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I love the overall idea of the new design: so much cleaner and easier to digest. I just want more control over where my applications are displayed. I want to be able to decide which apps are shown on my main profile page… and custom tabs would be great: if I want to have a “Media” page and put all my videos and photos on, that would be great.
And the top nav bar could be a bit taller. But overall I love it.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:48 am
You can never please anyone in this world can you…
They’ve clicked, themselves to try the new facebook - instead of trying it, finding problems and reporting them (it’s called CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM) - they make silly little groups “protesting”.
I recently posted in one of the mentioned groups above.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you sit on this wall and moan - or how many join this group, the new facebook will still be here eventually.
If you are too vein to see that this new version is more modern, better for security and accessibility and aren’t even willing to adapt - then that’s pretty sad. People will moan when the ‘old facebook’, is ‘out-dated’; yet don’t want to take time to understand the new.”
I hate it when incompetent people look at a website, piece of software or anything for 5 minutes - and because its entirely different to what they are used to, decide they hate it. People did the same with Vista, because they don’t understand it -they don’t like it.
I think, I hope, that once people get used to this new system (and they will have to eventually) they will enjoy it and realise the benefits of the ‘new Facebook’.
In my opinion, and many others from what I’ve read - the new design is nice a neat, professional and tidy. It’s clean and easy to digest information. People are just complaining because things aren’t where they remember them and they don’t understand.
Get used to it, it’s coming.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
You can never please anyone in this world can you…
They’ve clicked, themselves to try the new facebook - instead of trying it, finding problems and reporting them (it’s called CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM) - they make silly little groups “protesting”.
I recently posted in one of the mentioned groups above.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you sit on this wall and moan - or how many join this group, the new facebook will still be here eventually.
If you are too vein to see that this new version is more modern, better for security and accessibility and aren’t even willing to adapt - then that’s pretty sad. People will moan when the ‘old facebook’, is ‘out-dated’; yet don’t want to take time to understand the new.”
I hate it when incompetent people look at a website, piece of software or anything for 5 minutes - and because its entirely different to what they are used to, decide they hate it. People did the same with Vista, because they don’t understand it -they don’t like it.
I think, I hope, that once people get used to this new system (and they will have to eventually) they will enjoy it and realise the benefits of the ‘new Facebook’.
In my opinion, and many others from what I’ve read - the new design is nice a neat, professional and tidy. It’s clean and easy to digest information. People are just complaining because things aren’t where they remember them and they don’t understand.
Get used to it, it’s coming.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I do like the new design. It’s cleaner, and, best of all, you don’t have to scroll down to find someone’s wall somewhere amongst a bunch of other applications.
The one thing I DO NOT like is that I haven’t figured out how to see my wall-to-wall with someone when I visit their profile (unless I’ve recently commented on their wall). That’s the one feature that I use pretty frequently that they seem to have forgotten to include, and for now, I just switch back to the old design when I really want to use it. (Unless maybe I’ve just missed it somewhere…!)
August 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I wonder how many of these users are recent joins, and how many a residual from the last redesign. The group “People against the New Facebook System” is old. It has discussion board posts from Sep 2006 asking how to turn the feed off.
The other group is clearly new though.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I do like the new design. It’s cleaner, and, best of all, you don’t have to scroll down to find someone’s wall somewhere amongst a bunch of other applications.
The one thing I DO NOT like is that I haven’t figured out how to see my wall-to-wall with someone when I visit their profile (unless I’ve recently commented on their wall). That’s the one feature that I use pretty frequently that they seem to have forgotten to include, and for now, I just switch back to the old design when I really want to use it. (Unless maybe I’ve just missed it somewhere…!)
August 11th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I wonder how many of these users are recent joins, and how many a residual from the last redesign. The group “People against the New Facebook System” is old. It has discussion board posts from Sep 2006 asking how to turn the feed off.
The other group is clearly new though.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
check this poll on fb developers forum
http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic….
August 11th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Facebook isn’t my major social networking outlet, but I have to say that the new interface is a lot cleaner.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
check this poll on fb developers forum
http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=19317
August 11th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Facebook isn’t my major social networking outlet, but I have to say that the new interface is a lot cleaner.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hmm we’re a bit indifferent. We somewhat like the new design but find that the older one is just easier to navigate at the moment — we’re not totally opposed to it though.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Hmm we’re a bit indifferent. We somewhat like the new design but find that the older one is just easier to navigate at the moment — we’re not totally opposed to it though.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
My opinion would be that AllFacebook shouldn’t bother us with more internet noise (i.e. clutter) for stories that aren’t really stories. 35,000 “protesters” (as someone above called them) out of nearly 100 million Facebook users is not even a blip on the map. In fact, it’s not even 4/100th’s of one percent (0.035).
And let’s be serious for a minute. These facebook users aren’t “protesting” by clicking “Join Group”. That hardly requires much effort. Most of them (like many of us) are “guilted” into joining their buddies groups. Remember, the key on Facebook is to be unique as possible while conforming as much as possible. It’s the Gen X/Y way. You’d almost have us believe, if we didn’t know better, that these 35,000 users (assuming some aren’t members of both groups) are out picketing Zuckerburg’s house. Of course, we know two things about most of FB’s younger users: they are lazy, and picketing requires making a sign. That’s tough work for most of them. It requires, like, a day of work, and mad spelling skillz, and, like, it’s kinda hot these days, so maybe just click “Join Group” instead. Yeah.
So, save us the click on our RSS feed in the future please (and your own time typing this drivel). When it get’s to 1,000,000 “protesters”, maybe it will be worth an aside post, but quite frankly, it wouldn’t be news until it got to 5 to 10 million.
BTW, I switched to the new profile ahead of time, spent the requisite 15 minutes figuring out what went where. Some people just don’t like change. It really isn’t a question of whether the new interface is better or not. It really isn’t. The people who use Facebook (95% of them) are hardly qualified to make UI decisions. In fact, half of them probably struggled just to sign up in the first place.
Thanks for the “noise” though. Maybe next time you can report on my Facebook group which, so far, has a total of 5 users attempting to limit the size of orders at fast-food drive-thru’s. Yes, I feel that if we can double our membership by year end, we will be an unstoppable force that will crush the 20-minute $45 SUV orders at my local Wendy’s. Come on, AllFacebook! What’s more important? Z-man’s new interface or the productivity of America’s workers at lunchtime?
August 11th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
My opinion would be that AllFacebook shouldn’t bother us with more internet noise (i.e. clutter) for stories that aren’t really stories. 35,000 “protesters” (as someone above called them) out of nearly 100 million Facebook users is not even a blip on the map. In fact, it’s not even 4/100th’s of one percent (0.035).
And let’s be serious for a minute. These facebook users aren’t “protesting” by clicking “Join Group”. That hardly requires much effort. Most of them (like many of us) are “guilted” into joining their buddies groups. Remember, the key on Facebook is to be unique as possible while conforming as much as possible. It’s the Gen X/Y way. You’d almost have us believe, if we didn’t know better, that these 35,000 users (assuming some aren’t members of both groups) are out picketing Zuckerburg’s house. Of course, we know two things about most of FB’s younger users: they are lazy, and picketing requires making a sign. That’s tough work for most of them. It requires, like, a day of work, and mad spelling skillz, and, like, it’s kinda hot these days, so maybe just click “Join Group” instead. Yeah.
So, save us the click on our RSS feed in the future please (and your own time typing this drivel). When it get’s to 1,000,000 “protesters”, maybe it will be worth an aside post, but quite frankly, it wouldn’t be news until it got to 5 to 10 million.
BTW, I switched to the new profile ahead of time, spent the requisite 15 minutes figuring out what went where. Some people just don’t like change. It really isn’t a question of whether the new interface is better or not. It really isn’t. The people who use Facebook (95% of them) are hardly qualified to make UI decisions. In fact, half of them probably struggled just to sign up in the first place.
Thanks for the “noise” though. Maybe next time you can report on my Facebook group which, so far, has a total of 5 users attempting to limit the size of orders at fast-food drive-thru’s. Yes, I feel that if we can double our membership by year end, we will be an unstoppable force that will crush the 20-minute $45 SUV orders at my local Wendy’s. Come on, AllFacebook! What’s more important? Z-man’s new interface or the productivity of America’s workers at lunchtime?
August 12th, 2008 at 5:28 am
I have to agree with @Yazan and practically everyone else here. I think the changes are definitely in a positive direction. Facebook users really need to stop perpetuating the stereotype of the whinny, freeloading, never-satisfied, community of the web 2.0 generation.
Terribly cliche.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:22 am
The “Petition Against the ‘New Facebook’” group is currently clocking in at 134,367 members
August 12th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I have to agree with @Yazan and practically everyone else here. I think the changes are definitely in a positive direction. Facebook users really need to stop perpetuating the stereotype of the whinny, freeloading, never-satisfied, community of the web 2.0 generation.
Terribly cliche.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:22 am
The “Petition Against the ‘New Facebook’” group is currently clocking in at 134,367 members
August 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Would these users be the same people who keep inviting me to join the “They Are Shutting Facebook Down Join This Group to Stop It” group? I find the new layout much better — I prefer the concept of “boxes” over apps on a profile that stretch 3 miles down a page. What people are having a problem with is “change”. The new design is a change, so everyone wants to fight it. In a month, this nonsense will be over. Work with the new design for a couple of days and spend time getting to know it and it will all make sense.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:21 am
I can’t stand it.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Would these users be the same people who keep inviting me to join the “They Are Shutting Facebook Down Join This Group to Stop It” group? I find the new layout much better — I prefer the concept of “boxes” over apps on a profile that stretch 3 miles down a page. What people are having a problem with is “change”. The new design is a change, so everyone wants to fight it. In a month, this nonsense will be over. Work with the new design for a couple of days and spend time getting to know it and it will all make sense.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I can’t stand it.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Is anyone aware of any groups supporting the new facebook?
August 12th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Is anyone aware of any groups supporting the new facebook?
August 12th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
The new design is awful! Not only are the pics that other people post of you featured before the ones you add yourself; they now appear in reverse chronological order, so you have no control over which pics are featured prominently in your profile.
I also dislike that you can no longer see which of your friends’ friends are in which networks. Furthermore, blending the wall and the minifeed was a bad idea. I hate having to weed through superfluous wall posts just to see what my friends are up to.
Popular people are also sure to dislike the fact that you can no longer tell how many people have posted on your wall (the counter is gone).
Overall, the redesign is a step in the wrong direction. I’m just glad that you can still toggle back and forth between the new and old versions of Facebook. They need to keep this option permanently.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The new design is awful! Not only are the pics that other people post of you featured before the ones you add yourself; they now appear in reverse chronological order, so you have no control over which pics are featured prominently in your profile.
I also dislike that you can no longer see which of your friends’ friends are in which networks. Furthermore, blending the wall and the minifeed was a bad idea. I hate having to weed through superfluous wall posts just to see what my friends are up to.
Popular people are also sure to dislike the fact that you can no longer tell how many people have posted on your wall (the counter is gone).
Overall, the redesign is a step in the wrong direction. I’m just glad that you can still toggle back and forth between the new and old versions of Facebook. They need to keep this option permanently.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Yes, I’d also like to join a big group supporting the new Facebook, if anyone knows of one?
I am sick of this big group: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21195... hating the amazing new Facebook. It is currently at 149,080 members & growing rapidly everyday. I don’t want Facebook to listen to these users because most of them are just idiots who have used it for less than 5 minutes & don’t understand the reasons for the new design!
August 13th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Yes, I’d also like to join a big group supporting the new Facebook, if anyone knows of one?
I am sick of this big group: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21195574231 hating the amazing new Facebook. It is currently at 149,080 members & growing rapidly everyday. I don’t want Facebook to listen to these users because most of them are just idiots who have used it for less than 5 minutes & don’t understand the reasons for the new design!
August 13th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
JThe new Facebook has some interesting new qualities. Especially in the areas of (1) communication and (2) apps. This week I took an in-depth look at how Facebook is encouraging greater communications and sharing within this new experience. Check it out and let me know what you think…
http://tpgblog.com/2008/08/13/facebook-says-focus/
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
http://tpgblog.com
August 14th, 2008 at 12:19 am
JThe new Facebook has some interesting new qualities. Especially in the areas of (1) communication and (2) apps. This week I took an in-depth look at how Facebook is encouraging greater communications and sharing within this new experience. Check it out and let me know what you think…
http://tpgblog.com/2008/08/13/facebook-says-focus/
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
http://tpgblog.com
August 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I have tried more than two weeks the new FB, is really boring and force you to ads! (since is in the right column now). There are a lot of limitations in the new facebook, the only thing good is that “looks” cleaner and faster, smthg that you could achieve with the old facebook as well. Applications looks like a junk box now and your facebook is reduced to “your info and your photos”. The interested part of having a laugh with the way your friends think (and you didn’t know)is totally gone.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I have tried more than two weeks the new FB, is really boring and force you to ads! (since is in the right column now). There are a lot of limitations in the new facebook, the only thing good is that “looks” cleaner and faster, smthg that you could achieve with the old facebook as well. Applications looks like a junk box now and your facebook is reduced to “your info and your photos”. The interested part of having a laugh with the way your friends think (and you didn’t know)is totally gone.
August 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I like the new design, I love changes!
I have found myself visiting my friends profiles more often because I don’t have to deal with so many installed applications.
August 16th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I like the new design, I love changes!
I have found myself visiting my friends profiles more often because I don’t have to deal with so many installed applications.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I am very much opposed to the new Facebook profile page.
Before I’m pegged as a new user, or one that hasn’t taken the time to look into and experiment with the newer layout, I have three comments to make:
1. I’ve been on Facebook since early 2005.
2. I actually followed and suggested feedback (weekly) while the new layout was in development via the Facebook Profiles Preview page. A couple of the changes I suggested (undoubtedly along with many other users who were unhappy with certain aspects of the layout) can to fruition. A couple didn’t. And a few things weren’t even revealed until the layout was complete and in official beta.
3. As stated, I have submitted feedback to Facebook. This includes after the profile view became available to the public. And yes, I’m part of that Petition Against the “New Facebook” group.
Now, the reasoning as to why I dislike the new layout:
- My main peeve: Junky news feed/wall goop. Personally, I don’t care about the news feed. I know many (many) users do, but a lot of those are (for an example, Andrew (see above)) users who don’t really care about wall posts they’ve already replied to/seen. Having these mixed together is… junky. Cluttered. Rather annoying. A solution? Add a button that allows filtering of news and wall posts.
- Suddenly I’m seeing a lot more boxes. “Wait a second,” you say, “I think there’s less boxes — look at that wonderful page that houses all those stupid applications and lets everything else… be.” Well, I read left to right, and there are a lot of boxes on the left side. Naturally, that’s what my eye catches. And guess what I find in the middle where my wall/feed gunk is? More box-shaped segments. The right with advertisments? More boxes. I admit, I like the info page. It looks clean.
- Speaking of the info tab… er, why isn’t the info tab the default page? It seems to be the most important. I understand the want for the wall feature to be prominent, but I still think it takes a back seat to actually learning information about the person you’re talking to.
- Navigation. Is. Horrid. Even after playing around with it for a couple days, I still felt a little lost and confused. And thus, clicked the fabulous button (which I can only hope will stay) that says ‘Back to the Old Facebook.’
- Things that aren’t significant but still annoy the heck out of me: The big, light blue bar at the top of the screen looks horrendous with a wide screen laptop. Also, as Andrew mentioned, I really would love for photos that I post to be displayed before photos that I’m tagged. For the mere fact that it keeps it more personal.
Although I realized minds will probably not be swayed (and that Facebook has a (made up statistic of) 99.9% chance of not returning to the previous layout), I hope these few paragraphs provide a little insight as to what the uproar is for a small section of Facebook’s population. Most of us are not stupid user. Most of us have not been coerced into joining these anti-new layout groups. Most of us are just discontent with the aesthetic direction Facebook is going and would rather have things differently. Maybe not the OLD layout, exactly, but something in between.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I am very much opposed to the new Facebook profile page.
Before I’m pegged as a new user, or one that hasn’t taken the time to look into and experiment with the newer layout, I have three comments to make:
1. I’ve been on Facebook since early 2005.
2. I actually followed and suggested feedback (weekly) while the new layout was in development via the Facebook Profiles Preview page. A couple of the changes I suggested (undoubtedly along with many other users who were unhappy with certain aspects of the layout) can to fruition. A couple didn’t. And a few things weren’t even revealed until the layout was complete and in official beta.
3. As stated, I have submitted feedback to Facebook. This includes after the profile view became available to the public. And yes, I’m part of that Petition Against the “New Facebook” group.
Now, the reasoning as to why I dislike the new layout:
- My main peeve: Junky news feed/wall goop. Personally, I don’t care about the news feed. I know many (many) users do, but a lot of those are (for an example, Andrew (see above)) users who don’t really care about wall posts they’ve already replied to/seen. Having these mixed together is… junky. Cluttered. Rather annoying. A solution? Add a button that allows filtering of news and wall posts.
- Suddenly I’m seeing a lot more boxes. “Wait a second,” you say, “I think there’s less boxes — look at that wonderful page that houses all those stupid applications and lets everything else… be.” Well, I read left to right, and there are a lot of boxes on the left side. Naturally, that’s what my eye catches. And guess what I find in the middle where my wall/feed gunk is? More box-shaped segments. The right with advertisments? More boxes. I admit, I like the info page. It looks clean.
- Speaking of the info tab… er, why isn’t the info tab the default page? It seems to be the most important. I understand the want for the wall feature to be prominent, but I still think it takes a back seat to actually learning information about the person you’re talking to.
- Navigation. Is. Horrid. Even after playing around with it for a couple days, I still felt a little lost and confused. And thus, clicked the fabulous button (which I can only hope will stay) that says ‘Back to the Old Facebook.’
- Things that aren’t significant but still annoy the heck out of me: The big, light blue bar at the top of the screen looks horrendous with a wide screen laptop. Also, as Andrew mentioned, I really would love for photos that I post to be displayed before photos that I’m tagged. For the mere fact that it keeps it more personal.
Although I realized minds will probably not be swayed (and that Facebook has a (made up statistic of) 99.9% chance of not returning to the previous layout), I hope these few paragraphs provide a little insight as to what the uproar is for a small section of Facebook’s population. Most of us are not stupid user. Most of us have not been coerced into joining these anti-new layout groups. Most of us are just discontent with the aesthetic direction Facebook is going and would rather have things differently. Maybe not the OLD layout, exactly, but something in between.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
[...] but everyday I read about a few people who don’t like the new Facebook layout. One group I previously wrote about this month has grown to over 50,000 users. This is a really small number though when you compare it [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:58 am
It definitely needed a redesign and I think it is a lot better. I think what a lot of people are peeved about is that it is so different. This is why Mac and Windows have new features but only really slowly evolve. I think the site should have came to this, but gradually over time. I admit I didn't like it at first, but after forcing myself to use it for a bit then I am starting to favour it over the old Facebook, at least I don't have to look at all those stupid applications anymore. In fact, I don't think I have used an application on Facebook since, which isn't great news for developers I guess.
Harith, while it is a free service, Facebook has put a lot of investment into the site. If Facebook starts forcing unwanted changes on its users then they may all start leaving and go to another free service. Even though it is free the customer is always right, that is if Facebook wants to continue to greater and better things that is…
September 6th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
The new design is so much better than the last one. It's way more organized and provides extra space for large applications (such as bumper stickers) through the new tabs. Plus you don't have to load 40 boxes every time you visit a profile page. Here's the group in support of the new layout. Keep it growing!
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22078...
September 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I'm against the new Facebook (and all redesigns in general) because of the lack of control I have over my profile. I want it to look the way that I want it to look, and as soon as I adapt to a new layout, they redesign everything. I realize that this comes with the territory and that one agrees to such changes by signing up for an account. However, and I hate to say this, Myspace is beginning to sound better and better.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:34 am
i like the new facebook design.
people are just afraid of change, and facebook really does need an update.
just give it a few days, you'll learn to like it, and when you go back to the old design, you'll realize how crammed it was.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I just cover the right column ads with a Post-It.
Screw you, Facebook.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I must say I can't stand it either. Having to weed through the minifeed news to read my wall is a little ridiculous. I think it looks sloppy, and it's off center (not a good thing for us OCD folks!). I've been using it for about two weeks now (I didn't want to judge without giving it a try first) and I still can't figure things out. You can't minimize the boxes anymore, which I've always thought makes the page look more organized as well. I also wish you could sort your friends by networks as well. I'm always open for change and am willing to give it a try, but after giving it a few weeks time, I must say the old layout was much easier to navigate.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Actually only stuck up tech nerds like the new design, the average user wants a clean profile that they can make their own and easy to use. I know quite a bit about code and site design and ease of use for the average casual user is more important then satisfying some tech snobs.
The new facebook is cluttered, disorganized, and strips every user of any ounce of personality on their profile. People like MySpace because it allows them to 'make their own page', the 'new' facebook is just a mashup of what a person is doing/being said about them and used for marketing purposes only. Data collection is the goal of facebook, not user satisfaction.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
New fb sux, I hate it and the groups are up to 3,000,000! No one likes new fb, it is cluttered, and has multiple pages, ad is complicated! Facebook is unable to leave well enough alone!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I personally think the new design will be much more effective in terms of integrating the online experience across multiple networks. Having the news feed front and center is important. Feel free to check out my take at JoeSaidSo.com