Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Dear Facebook: I'm on to your plot

This morning Facebook did it again!  They've changed EVERYTHING around and have taken away the ability to just see recent posts, versus "Top Stories".  I never got that whole "Top Stories" thing.  Who decides what is a "Top Story" versus another post?  I hate that setting, so I always had it on "Most Recent"... until today.

Today I'm greeted with some little blue corner that had a big box that screamed "THIS BLUE CORNER THING ARE POSTS THAT YOU ARE MOST INTERESTED IN BECAUSE WE SAID SO AND THE REST OF THE MUNDANE CRAPPY POSTS ARE SOMEWHERE UNDERNEATH THE REALLY COOL POSTS THAT WE KNOW YOU WANT TO SEE".

I have no idea how Facebook "knows" what I would be most interested to see, but I've heard that they have a room full of Guatemalan children chained to desks that read every Facebook post and mark them as Top Stories.  These children are known as "The algorithm".

Um... screw you Facebook.

To the right side of the screen was this scrolling mass of updates (mostly my friends bitching about the new Facebook) that was going by so fast that not only did I become nauseous, but I fell out of my chair trying to read them.  I tried to ignore it, but like everyone in this day and age, I'm easily distracted by movement and then mesmerized by it, I totally forgot that I was going to post something exciting and bound to be TOP NEWS like: I'm constipated.

Its as if Facebook is trying a form of social warfare.  It seems to think that I have a lot of friends, but some friends aren't as good as other friends, so they want to put some friends' posts above other friends, like we're all still in high school and have lists of friends, but not good friends or BFFs that we'd call if the REALLY good friends were busy and we were pissed off that they didn't invite us to be busy with them so we'll show them by calling the less than good friends to hang out.

All of my friends are equal friends otherwise I'd completely not friend them, duh! 

So, as I do with everything... I complained about the new Facebook.  A LOT of my friends complained about the new Facebook.  Eventually some started pointing out that Facebook is free, if you don't like it, don't use it.  Yes, yes, I've used that argument before, but this really is the last straw, not like that last straw during the last change, but really REALLY the last straw for me... sorta.

What Facebook does is like this:
You walk down the street and see a sign that says "Free fun club, come on in", and so you do.  The minute you open the door, someone punches you in the face.  You complain that you got punched in the face and the person at the door points out that you shouldn't complain because the club is free.  You tell the person not to punch you in the face anymore, and they say "ok", you walk in and have a really great time in the club.

The next week you go back to the club and the person at the door kicks you in the shins.  You complain.  The person at the door says "oh, but you opted out of being punched in the face, but not getting kicked in the shins, and besides... its free".  You opt out of getting kicked in the shins, go in and have a great time.

The next week you go back and the person at the door stabs you... eventually you stop going because even though its free, and you have a great time, you really have no idea what's going to happen when you open that door.

This is where I'm on to their plot... Facebook is doing its best to piss you off.  It wants you so pissed off that you will finally beg them to give you a fully self customizable User Interface (UI for you geeks) that they won't touch or futz with or add to or "update" or "upgrade" or "fix" or "tweak" or do anything to, and if they do that, you will gladly fork over any sum of money to have that capability.  They WANT you to beg them to charge you for something you have control over. 

They will still provide "Facebook Light" to everyone that doesn't want to pay, and it will be the Facebook we know now: changed, broken, screwed up, things moved around, ads blinking non-stop, scrolling things, hidden stuff, updated, upgraded, and screwed up on a weekly basis for free... because they know you're addicted to Facebook like crack and won't get rid of it, but just may pay for it if it gets annoying enough. 

They know this to be true because their only competitors are MyWasteofSpace, and Google double plus worthless.

In the meantime, I will continue to bitch about free Facebook... just like I bitch about everything else... because that's what Facebook is for, isn't it?

1 comment:

  1. The best thing that happened to me on Facebook today was Facebook marking my post about how much I hate Facebook as a Top Story.

    Mwah. Ha. HA!

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