New Facebook design and the loss of community control
One of my biggest fears is now very, very true:
Whether we like it or not, the new Facebook design is going to be forced onto us. This is despite hard stats indicating users are switching back to the old Facebook, an option that will no longer be available.
Users no longer have a choice.
It’s this lack of choice, this lack of user control, personalisation and disregarded feedback that has me angry. Online communities and their opinions should never be ignored. So whether we like it or not, we’re stuck.
I’ll miss the design, I’ll miss the user interface and the navigation. What about you? What do you think?
9 Comments
I’m actually used to the new look now, tho it took a while. I like the fact it’s much less cluttered the ‘old’ Facebook and that I’m not constantly harassed by apps
I think we’ll all have to get used to it – just wondering why they’re forcing it so early. I think they should take on more feedback.
It doesn’t mean they’re not listening to feedback – they would be – it’s more they have 100+m users to factor in and consider so the vocal minority aren’t going to have a huge amount of impact.
Maybe so – but I still would have thought the vocal minority would have had more impact that the passive majority, who just accept it.
The way people use these services are changes, these minorities (even just through the countless ‘dont change facebook’ etc groups) are still valuable.
I must admit, they have been listening somewhat, it’s a great improvement since the first release
I like the old Facebook much better. In fact, I liken new Facebook to ‘new coke’ (http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/newcoke.asp).
I have been an active member on a fairly big social networking site called deviantART for over four years. Throughout this time, they have had four changes to the interface. And as you’d expect, there is always a big angry mob of complaints… but in two weeks everyone is over it.
In a year or two (if we’re still using Facebook) you can probably expect another update… and another angry mob.
Matt: Great comparison!
Zac: Sigh, well yes, we all probably will just go quietly eventually, but until then, I’m gonna makes lots of noise heh.
I have to agree with Zac, we probably are just having a few problems with it now, they also allowed you into the building stage. So it is not like they completed ignored what people thought. I must admit that I have gone back to the old format cause it is much easier to nav. Life goes on, I guess.
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