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Facebook gets redesigned

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Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#31

Post by jfruh »

gfodor wrote: post #25
jfruh wrote: post #17

I hate to be one of those people constantly whinging about Facebook redesigns, but ... can someone explain why Facebook seems to intent on "curating" your stream for you, based on priorities that aren't clear? I know a lot of people probably enjoy having some definition of "highlights" stuck at top, but many of us like going through the whole thing to see what all our friends are up to, until you get to a status upda…

Because 'going through the whole thing' is nearly impossible for some people, who either log on spargingly or have a lot of friends. Additionally, since Facebook is full of relationships that are less than actual 'friends', a lot of people have complained for years about the quality of the posts. I think they must have realized their algorithms needed a stronger signal than what they had, and this UI is a way to get…

But this option already existed (you could choose "top stories" instead of "latest stories"). What annoys me is imposing a one-size-fits-all version on everybody.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#32

Post by chadgeidel »

danpker wrote: post #9

I've had this for a couple of weeks (weirdly). You never get used to it and you always feel like you're missing something. Even more annoying is the little status updates in the top right, above the sidebar showing everyone of your friends recent activity (which I really liked) seems to have gone now.

Yes, and the changes have pretty much ruined the iOS app's "news" display.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#33

Post by danso »

yuvadam wrote: post #6

As opposed to previous minor redesigns, this time Facebook has complete lost it. Basically what you're missing out on is "subscribing" to non-friends a-la-Twitter, horrible page layouts, numerous bugs, and way too many options and configurations. No Facebook, I do not want to manage my friends as if this is some kind of war room. Stop it. And someone please let Zuck know that we're not in 1999 anymore. Floating frame…

As someone else has already replied, this layout minimizes the managing of friends, at least in terms of prioritizing who you want to see most of. The curation seems to be based on how much you interact with another user. By definition, your best friends on FB are the ones you interact with most, or at least whose profiles you peruse the most often. And so with FB's curation algorithm, you don't have to generate a best friends list.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#34

Post by rhizome »

tmcneal wrote: post #20
rhizome wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. I think they're backgrounding (side-bar'ing) random friend activity and designating the center stream for capital-c Content. Subscriptions, active threads, messaging from Like'd entities...the center box is commerce-oriented, the sidebar is for communications and for contributing to entities (comments, photos, statuses, etc.) defined as candidates for the center stream. I believe that the center str…

Along those same lines, I'd bet that the floating section was added to get more eyeballs looking on the right side of the screen where the ads are.

I'd say that along those lines, one aspect of the purpose of the sections is that the center is long-form attention and the right sidebar is short-form "constant check" attention.

And just to put the button on it: I fully believe that FB is at least this cynical when it comes to the design of the page.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#35

Post by rhizome »

jfruh wrote: post #17

I hate to be one of those people constantly whinging about Facebook redesigns, but ... can someone explain why Facebook seems to intent on "curating" your stream for you, based on priorities that aren't clear? I know a lot of people probably enjoy having some definition of "highlights" stuck at top, but many of us like going through the whole thing to see what all our friends are up to, until you get to a status upda…

What do they gain by foregrounding the posts that they think are important?

Control. Facebook is free, so it IS NOT FOR YOU. It's for advertisers. The fact that there is little advertising on FB at the moment does not disprove this. Wait until the Super Bowl or the US Presidential election next year.

It's the long game.

UPD: Ah, the silent downvote.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#36

Post by vasco »

wccrawford wrote: post #10

They took away the ability to show all events in chronological order? Ugh. I was trying to stay away from G+ for ethical reasons, but this... This might just drive me back.

I'm very curious about the differences you think exist between the two services regarding ethics.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#38

Post by dupe123 »

Oh god. This is horrifying. Less is more facebook.. less is more. I agree with the people complaining about facebooks need to curate things for you. Thats what the "hide posts from this person" should be used for. Just give me one stream and let me decide what filters to put on it.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#39

Post by bconway »

danso wrote: post #30
jfruh wrote: post #17

I hate to be one of those people constantly whinging about Facebook redesigns, but ... can someone explain why Facebook seems to intent on "curating" your stream for you, based on priorities that aren't clear? I know a lot of people probably enjoy having some definition of "highlights" stuck at top, but many of us like going through the whole thing to see what all our friends are up to, until you get to a status upda…

I often wonder the opposite: why do FB users care about seeing the updates of just anyone in their friend list? But I'm thinking along the lines of a more cynical user, as in, I realize FB is a huge timesuck, I've probably friended more people than I consider friends in real life, I should get off the computer more, etc etc., and so I appreciate the way that FB shows me the updates of people who I'm most interested i…

why do FB users care about seeing the updates of just anyone in their friend list?

If the things they're saying aren't (regularly) of value, they wouldn't be on my list.

Re: Facebook gets redesigned

#40

Post by wccrawford »

vasco wrote: post #36
wccrawford wrote: post #10

They took away the ability to show all events in chronological order? Ugh. I was trying to stay away from G+ for ethical reasons, but this... This might just drive me back.

I'm very curious about the differences you think exist between the two services regarding ethics.

It's the whole Real Name debacle. It's been debated to death, though.
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