New Facebook Feed Comment Box Confuses Some Users

Since rolling out the new design last week, many users have noticed that comment box is displayed below feed items by default. It’s a small change but I’ve had a large number of emails and comments related to the topic over the past few days. David Kirkpatrick, author of the book “The Facebook Effect” commented that he believes “it takes up too much space in news feed”.

One email I received from an individual didn’t even understand the purpose of the box, although I have to admit that the presence makes it pretty obvious what it’s for. Previously Facebook had a link which said something along the lines of “Add Comment” but now they’ve substituted that for a comment box by default.

So why would Facebook add the comment box there? My assumption is that they are trying to encourage more people to leave feed comments. Personally I’ve seen a decent increase in comment activity but I’m not sure if this is directly correlated to the new comment box or if it’s related to an increase in the number of friends I have.

Whatever Facebook’s rationale for the new comment box placement is, the company appears to be set on moving forward with a more conversational layout to handle what I called the “Twitter threat”. Do you like the new layout? Have these comment boxes confused you? What changes would you like to see to Facebook’s newest design?

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466336 Comments2009-03-18+18%3A55%3A56Nick+O%27Neill »

What's been throwing me off about it is that I keep seeing my picture below a comment and thinking "Hey, I don't remember writing a comment there." Because, of course, I haven't, but I still have that moment.

Comment by Helen Mosher — March 18, 2009 @ 11:00 am
I don't mind the new design, nor do I think these comment boxes take up that much space. But I feel like the redesign has missed the mark. There has to be a happy middle between Friendfeed and Twitter functionality. I think the last version may have stagnated conversation a bit but this version hurts sharing anything but conversation. Importing from other sites and commenting on items like photos have been marginalized on the profile view of this new version.

Plus, until you can search status updates by keywords (even if it's only your own friends' updates) Facebook will be a step behind Twitter in the conversation department.

Comment by Andrew Ledwith — March 18, 2009 @ 11:11 am
The two biggest things I'd like to see tweaked in the new desig, one much smaller than the other.

Big thing: Allow users to control what types of "stories" appear in newsfeed. We used to have this functionality via the sliders on the "newsfeed settings" page. I like seeing my friends' statuses and their pictures and their links. I don't want to see quiz results, poke activity, profile picture changes, and when one friend writes on another's wall. Those are my personal preferences, and would probably be very different for other people. Which is why it should be customizable by user.

Little thing: When you post a link now, either by using the internal share functionality (as in, you're already on a facebook page and wanting to paste a URL) or by using the "Share on Facebook" bookmark in your browser's toolbar, you no longer have the choice of publishing the link without an associated thumbnail image. Sometimes the links I post have images I don't want to push out to everybody (because they're large, irrelevant, or random advertising). The option to post without thumbnail used to be there and has disappeared.

I've sent both these feedback items to Facebook, which is all you can seem to do.

Comment by Amy — March 18, 2009 @ 11:21 am
I noticed increased feed commenting and time saving for heavy commenters with lots of friends. But like most of us, it takes up too much space and is very distracting as you scroll through the feed.

As far as design is concerned, I've liked the changes they made and realize why they are set default for all users. When it comes to smaller features like this new comment box, Facebook needs to learn to allow users to customize features on/off depending on their preferences.

Comment by Revanth Reddy — March 18, 2009 @ 11:33 am
The major problem with the new design is that a number of extremely important facebook stories are completely missing! Where are the new friendship stories? where are the group or public profiles joining? where are the photo comments? relationship status and application additions??

OK…I really like the new approach of encouraging conversation and I hope that FB will keep it BUT they should add again all stories (as in old Live Feed). The addition of auto-update would be also nice (as old Live Feed again).

What I can't understand is why more blogs (other than Mashable) did not write about it… All bloggers like the fact that the major FB stories are missing?

Comment by Manos Matsakis — March 18, 2009 @ 12:17 pm
1) I too feel that the comment boxes take up too much space. It feels like one has to scroll down much farther to get to the end of the page these days. My suggestion would be to have one comments entry box and a 'View Comments' link that opens existing comments when clicked.

2) I agree with Andrew that status updates are being promoted too much at the expense of shared items. I would have preferred a tabbed approach still, with status updates being in one tab and visible first by default; and shared items in another tab. I'm sure they had good reasons for moving away from tabs though.

Comment by IdeaTagger — March 18, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
As Amy stated, let users control it! I personally think it takes up too much room, but it might work for others. I also totally agree with bringing back the control over what content is posted on the news feed. They still have some lessons to learn from Friendfeed. For instance hopefully we'll see better comment and reading management as FB evolves. For instance I wanna see new comments of certain pages/friends/posts float to the top of my news feed. You gotta think FB knows this, but when one is dealing with a 175M user base, change can be hard! They have come a long way, but it is going to become increasingly more difficult for them to keep that fresh startup mentality.

Comment by Facebook User — March 18, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
I know you need to give change a chance, but I'm already certain that I don't like the comment boxes under each newsfeed item. It defintely wastes too much space and causes an awful lot of extra scrolling. It needs to go!

Comment by Bruce Namerow — March 18, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
There's nothing to be confused about in the Feed Item Comments, we had them before too. What is confusing is the lack of editing of already published Comments (you need to delete and republish, often losing the previous position) and the invisible size limit which could have been solved with a very simple JavaScript character counter – c'mon Facebook, Yahoo 360 has it!

Comment by Apostol Georgiev Apo — March 18, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
Like the first commenter said, "What’s been throwing me off about it is that I keep seeing my picture below a comment and thinking “Hey, I don’t remember writing a comment there.” Because, of course, I haven’t, but I still have that moment.".

I agree. We already knew that we could comment. It's just another thumbnail,

Comment by Katherine — March 18, 2009 @ 2:16 pm
I don't mind the comment box, what I mind is not having a live feed showing who is friending who, groups, and such.

Still can't understand why they removed it and left it so status heavy.

Comment by Mike — March 18, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
It feels confusing to see own thumbnail in comments, when I haven't commented yet. I sometimes wonder 'had i commented for this photo?'.. Only name instead of own thumbnail image would makes more sense, when we haven't commented yet.

Comment by Mender — March 18, 2009 @ 7:44 pm
I don't like it at all.

They've removed the useful links in the top right (such as "Events", "Groups" etc), and replaced it with an utterly useless "HIGHLIGHTS" box which changes once in a blue moon and is full of crap I don't want to see. Show me everything, and let ME choose what's of most interest.

Plus, removing all the various types of news story from the feed is a serious cutback on content. I know they're trying to compete, but really… If I wanted a Twitter account, I'd sign up for Twitter.

http://apps.facebook.com/layoutvote/ – Please vote. I know FB has 100m users, but this is going viral very quickly. If we can get up to 5/10m "no" votes, it might actually have an impact.

Comment by Will — March 19, 2009 @ 2:30 am
I'm not overly keen on this aspect of the redesign as it means it takes more scrolling to get through my feed.

However, I find myself inexorably drawn to it and I'm aware that I am using it much more, not matter how hard I try to avoid it!

Comment by Daryl Griffiths — March 19, 2009 @ 5:28 am
hello

Comment by Tan ShiLin — July 28, 2009 @ 11:10 pm
hiii

Comment by Tan ShiLin — July 28, 2009 @ 11:11 pm
I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!
YOUTUBE BETTER THEY ACTULLY ASK IF YOU WANT
TO CHANGE YOUR PROFILE!!!!!
I CAN’T EVEN FIND THE COMMENT BUTTON ON FACBOOK!!!
SO I CAN’T LEAVE A COMMENT!!!
SO I’M NOT GOING ON FACEBOOK FOR A WHILE!!!!
AND I CAN’T EVEN SEE WHAT MY FRIENDS DID ON
FACEBOOK A COUPLE HOURS AGO!!!!!!!!!
UGH!!! I HATE FACEBOOK NOW!!!!!

Comment by Megz — August 21, 2009 @ 1:30 am
I don’t think it facebook needed to add a comment box under EACH and EVERY post. They already had a place for you to click and bring up the comment box. I think the new layout is very annoying. It would be nice if facebook would give its users a choice in some of these changes.

Comment by Kathy — October 8, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
That scene where he talks to Jabez before his final waltz is truly haunting, that close-up on his face as he talks about his soul. ,

Comment by Wolf66 — October 22, 2009 @ 8:44 am
That’s where he decided to come out, and upon returning, he gave up everything–wife, business, state representative’s job. ,

Comment by Arnold31 — October 22, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Paul belien posts a quote from the Dissident Frogman. ,

Comment by Mr.Carrot47 — October 23, 2009 @ 7:24 am
http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/XdC...

Comment by Steve — November 4, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
I left a comment on someon's wall and it left a comment box with my picture on every friend's wall. How do I get the comment box with my picture next to it off of all of my friends' walls and some of them have 8 – 10 of these (my picture) on their wall?

Comment by Tara — November 19, 2009 @ 9:22 am
I can't leave a comment period.What do I do?

Comment by brenda osborn — December 15, 2009 @ 6:45 am
great

Comment by Obeng Keren — January 5, 2010 @ 7:19 am
I would like the option to go back to old homepage. I prefer the older one. Other comment is why can't I send pics from my phone anymore? It was working a week ago, now I send them and they go but where do they end up? Where are they going? Sure not on my FB.

It's really hard getting a response or solution.

Comment by Shelby — January 9, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
comment comment

Comment by Nico Broccoli — February 5, 2010 @ 7:10 am
its like i been writeing a book for the last year and they took half my book away. i want my old post back my girl can see my old post but i cant.how could that be. when i click old post there gone but she can see it i cant.

Comment by ken — February 8, 2010 @ 11:25 am
Since Facebook has no direct contact info I need help!!! I Only have internet access through my cell and I have had one problem after another for the past month.Now I cant comment on group post from my mobile.WHY????? This really is the main thing I do on fb and it is so frustrating.HELP PLEASE!

Comment by tasha — March 8, 2010 @ 3:56 pm
Since Facebook has no direct contact info I need help!!! I Only have internet access through my cell and I have had one problem after another for the past month.Now I cant comment on group post from my mobile.WHY????? This really is the main thing I do on fb and it is so frustrating.HELP PLEASE!

Comment by tasha turnbaugh — March 8, 2010 @ 4:02 pm
test

Comment by Phil Los — August 20, 2010 @ 7:38 am
Hi Mama where have you gone for a trip to Guruvayur yes or no

Comment by Rangasamy Hariragan — October 19, 2010 @ 6:01 am
I find the missing or re-located Comments box hugely annoying:((

Comment by sparkys nemesis — December 14, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
I really don't care for the new facebook. They did exactly what myspace did, forced everybody to change and I am afraid for them. They very well may have made the same mistake. Not everyone likes the new design, i find more people over all don't care for it. Be Careful, Facebook!

Comment by Cassie Marie — January 15, 2011 @ 7:51 pm
i am girl need boyfriend: contact mobile:+918890657002

Comment by reena — February 24, 2011 @ 11:46 am
wow that's great

Comment by Rainforest — November 30, 2011 @ 2:30 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

What's been throwing me off about it is that I keep seeing my picture below a comment and thinking "Hey, I don't remember writing a comment there." Because, of course, I haven't, but I still have that moment.

Comment by Helen Mosher — March 18, 2009 @ 11:00 am

I don't mind the new design, nor do I think these comment boxes take up that much space. But I feel like the redesign has missed the mark. There has to be a happy middle between Friendfeed and Twitter functionality. I think the last version may have stagnated conversation a bit but this version hurts sharing anything but conversation. Importing from other sites and commenting on items like photos have been marginalized on the profile view of this new version.

Plus, until you can search status updates by keywords (even if it's only your own friends' updates) Facebook will be a step behind Twitter in the conversation department.

Comment by Andrew Ledwith — March 18, 2009 @ 11:11 am

The two biggest things I'd like to see tweaked in the new desig, one much smaller than the other.

Big thing: Allow users to control what types of "stories" appear in newsfeed. We used to have this functionality via the sliders on the "newsfeed settings" page. I like seeing my friends' statuses and their pictures and their links. I don't want to see quiz results, poke activity, profile picture changes, and when one friend writes on another's wall. Those are my personal preferences, and would probably be very different for other people. Which is why it should be customizable by user.

Little thing: When you post a link now, either by using the internal share functionality (as in, you're already on a facebook page and wanting to paste a URL) or by using the "Share on Facebook" bookmark in your browser's toolbar, you no longer have the choice of publishing the link without an associated thumbnail image. Sometimes the links I post have images I don't want to push out to everybody (because they're large, irrelevant, or random advertising). The option to post without thumbnail used to be there and has disappeared.

I've sent both these feedback items to Facebook, which is all you can seem to do.

Comment by Amy — March 18, 2009 @ 11:21 am

I noticed increased feed commenting and time saving for heavy commenters with lots of friends. But like most of us, it takes up too much space and is very distracting as you scroll through the feed.

As far as design is concerned, I've liked the changes they made and realize why they are set default for all users. When it comes to smaller features like this new comment box, Facebook needs to learn to allow users to customize features on/off depending on their preferences.

Comment by Revanth Reddy — March 18, 2009 @ 11:33 am

The major problem with the new design is that a number of extremely important facebook stories are completely missing! Where are the new friendship stories? where are the group or public profiles joining? where are the photo comments? relationship status and application additions??

OK…I really like the new approach of encouraging conversation and I hope that FB will keep it BUT they should add again all stories (as in old Live Feed). The addition of auto-update would be also nice (as old Live Feed again).

What I can't understand is why more blogs (other than Mashable) did not write about it… All bloggers like the fact that the major FB stories are missing?

Comment by Manos Matsakis — March 18, 2009 @ 12:17 pm

1) I too feel that the comment boxes take up too much space. It feels like one has to scroll down much farther to get to the end of the page these days. My suggestion would be to have one comments entry box and a 'View Comments' link that opens existing comments when clicked.

2) I agree with Andrew that status updates are being promoted too much at the expense of shared items. I would have preferred a tabbed approach still, with status updates being in one tab and visible first by default; and shared items in another tab. I'm sure they had good reasons for moving away from tabs though.

Comment by IdeaTagger — March 18, 2009 @ 12:31 pm

As Amy stated, let users control it! I personally think it takes up too much room, but it might work for others. I also totally agree with bringing back the control over what content is posted on the news feed. They still have some lessons to learn from Friendfeed. For instance hopefully we'll see better comment and reading management as FB evolves. For instance I wanna see new comments of certain pages/friends/posts float to the top of my news feed. You gotta think FB knows this, but when one is dealing with a 175M user base, change can be hard! They have come a long way, but it is going to become increasingly more difficult for them to keep that fresh startup mentality.

Comment by Facebook User — March 18, 2009 @ 12:34 pm

I know you need to give change a chance, but I'm already certain that I don't like the comment boxes under each newsfeed item. It defintely wastes too much space and causes an awful lot of extra scrolling. It needs to go!

Comment by Bruce Namerow — March 18, 2009 @ 1:05 pm

There's nothing to be confused about in the Feed Item Comments, we had them before too. What is confusing is the lack of editing of already published Comments (you need to delete and republish, often losing the previous position) and the invisible size limit which could have been solved with a very simple JavaScript character counter – c'mon Facebook, Yahoo 360 has it!

Comment by Apostol Georgiev Apo — March 18, 2009 @ 2:01 pm

Like the first commenter said, "What’s been throwing me off about it is that I keep seeing my picture below a comment and thinking “Hey, I don’t remember writing a comment there.” Because, of course, I haven’t, but I still have that moment.".

I agree. We already knew that we could comment. It's just another thumbnail,

Comment by Katherine — March 18, 2009 @ 2:16 pm

I don't mind the comment box, what I mind is not having a live feed showing who is friending who, groups, and such.

Still can't understand why they removed it and left it so status heavy.

Comment by Mike — March 18, 2009 @ 5:36 pm

It feels confusing to see own thumbnail in comments, when I haven't commented yet. I sometimes wonder 'had i commented for this photo?'.. Only name instead of own thumbnail image would makes more sense, when we haven't commented yet.

Comment by Mender — March 18, 2009 @ 7:44 pm

I don't like it at all.

They've removed the useful links in the top right (such as "Events", "Groups" etc), and replaced it with an utterly useless "HIGHLIGHTS" box which changes once in a blue moon and is full of crap I don't want to see. Show me everything, and let ME choose what's of most interest.

Plus, removing all the various types of news story from the feed is a serious cutback on content. I know they're trying to compete, but really… If I wanted a Twitter account, I'd sign up for Twitter.

http://apps.facebook.com/layoutvote/ – Please vote. I know FB has 100m users, but this is going viral very quickly. If we can get up to 5/10m "no" votes, it might actually have an impact.

Comment by Will — March 19, 2009 @ 2:30 am

I'm not overly keen on this aspect of the redesign as it means it takes more scrolling to get through my feed.

However, I find myself inexorably drawn to it and I'm aware that I am using it much more, not matter how hard I try to avoid it!

Comment by Daryl Griffiths — March 19, 2009 @ 5:28 am

hello

Comment by Tan ShiLin — July 28, 2009 @ 11:10 pm

hiii

Comment by Tan ShiLin — July 28, 2009 @ 11:11 pm

I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!
YOUTUBE BETTER THEY ACTULLY ASK IF YOU WANT
TO CHANGE YOUR PROFILE!!!!!
I CAN’T EVEN FIND THE COMMENT BUTTON ON FACBOOK!!!
SO I CAN’T LEAVE A COMMENT!!!
SO I’M NOT GOING ON FACEBOOK FOR A WHILE!!!!
AND I CAN’T EVEN SEE WHAT MY FRIENDS DID ON
FACEBOOK A COUPLE HOURS AGO!!!!!!!!!
UGH!!! I HATE FACEBOOK NOW!!!!!

Comment by Megz — August 21, 2009 @ 1:30 am

I don’t think it facebook needed to add a comment box under EACH and EVERY post. They already had a place for you to click and bring up the comment box. I think the new layout is very annoying. It would be nice if facebook would give its users a choice in some of these changes.

Comment by Kathy — October 8, 2009 @ 4:33 pm

That scene where he talks to Jabez before his final waltz is truly haunting, that close-up on his face as he talks about his soul. ,

Comment by Wolf66 — October 22, 2009 @ 8:44 am

That’s where he decided to come out, and upon returning, he gave up everything–wife, business, state representative’s job. ,

Comment by Arnold31 — October 22, 2009 @ 9:50 pm

Paul belien posts a quote from the Dissident Frogman. ,

Comment by Mr.Carrot47 — October 23, 2009 @ 7:24 am

http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/XdC...

Comment by Steve — November 4, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

I left a comment on someon's wall and it left a comment box with my picture on every friend's wall. How do I get the comment box with my picture next to it off of all of my friends' walls and some of them have 8 – 10 of these (my picture) on their wall?

Comment by Tara — November 19, 2009 @ 9:22 am

I can't leave a comment period.What do I do?

Comment by brenda osborn — December 15, 2009 @ 6:45 am

great

Comment by Obeng Keren — January 5, 2010 @ 7:19 am

I would like the option to go back to old homepage. I prefer the older one. Other comment is why can't I send pics from my phone anymore? It was working a week ago, now I send them and they go but where do they end up? Where are they going? Sure not on my FB.

It's really hard getting a response or solution.

Comment by Shelby — January 9, 2010 @ 7:14 pm

comment comment

Comment by Nico Broccoli — February 5, 2010 @ 7:10 am

its like i been writeing a book for the last year and they took half my book away. i want my old post back my girl can see my old post but i cant.how could that be. when i click old post there gone but she can see it i cant.

Comment by ken — February 8, 2010 @ 11:25 am

Since Facebook has no direct contact info I need help!!! I Only have internet access through my cell and I have had one problem after another for the past month.Now I cant comment on group post from my mobile.WHY????? This really is the main thing I do on fb and it is so frustrating.HELP PLEASE!

Comment by tasha — March 8, 2010 @ 3:56 pm

Comment by tasha turnbaugh — March 8, 2010 @ 4:02 pm

test

Comment by Phil Los — August 20, 2010 @ 7:38 am

Hi Mama where have you gone for a trip to Guruvayur yes or no

Comment by Rangasamy Hariragan — October 19, 2010 @ 6:01 am

I find the missing or re-located Comments box hugely annoying:((

Comment by sparkys nemesis — December 14, 2010 @ 5:21 pm

I really don't care for the new facebook. They did exactly what myspace did, forced everybody to change and I am afraid for them. They very well may have made the same mistake. Not everyone likes the new design, i find more people over all don't care for it. Be Careful, Facebook!

Comment by Cassie Marie — January 15, 2011 @ 7:51 pm

i am girl need boyfriend: contact mobile:+918890657002

Comment by reena — February 24, 2011 @ 11:46 am

wow that's great

Comment by Rainforest — November 30, 2011 @ 2:30 am

New Facebook Feed Comment Box Confuses Some Users

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466336 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2Ffacebook-feed-comments-2009-03New+Facebook+Feed+Comment+Box+Confuses+Some+Users2009-03-18+18%3A55%3A56Nick+O%27Neillhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2F%3Fp%3D4663 »

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Follow AllFacebook

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Social Media Jobs

Let your next job find you!

Featured Company

Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

Digital/Social Media Manager - Entertainment

Social Media Coordinator

See all jobs

Upcoming Events

466336 Comments2009-03-18+18%3A55%3A56Nick+O%27Neill »