Furor Over New Facebook Features is Ridiculous

OK BL, I'm sorry but you clearly have never experienced the facebook as a user. What people have been protesting is not the fact that the information is "out there" (since we all know everything posted online is), but a format that tracks every single step you take within the system an showcases it to EVERYBODY. If I reject the invitation to a party, it is disclosed in big huge letters in the center of the page; if I decide to say hello to a friend it automatically tells EVERYONE I said hello, and so on.

Before, you always knew who had changed his/her profile by just clicking on a very subtle (normal sized) button named "friends". This is no advantageous feed but a ridiculous addition to the facebook user experience.

Those of us who believe in user generated content think sites such as the facebook should respond to our tastes and needs even if they are stylistic details. Clearly, this new layout has failed among users and should be reversed. I really hope you post this and rethink your position about this changes. Thanks!!

Here is a live counter of the number of people who have joined the "Students against Facebook News Feed" group on Facebook..... 300,000 and climbing

http://digg.com/tech_news/Facebook_Stalker_City_Includes_LIVE_Counter

Me again! Just thought you'd like to know the latest about this story. Mark Zuckerberg (founder of facebook.com) published the following letter in all of facebook members' log in page. I am so proud of them for standing up to their principles and listening to the users. Bravo to their team for updating the privacy settings and accomodating a more rational and controllable feed.

An Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg:
We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I'd like to try to correct those errors now.

When I made Facebook two years ago my goal was to help people understand what was going on in their world a little better. I wanted to create an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with. I think a lot of the success we've seen is because of these basic principles.

We made the site so that all of our members are a part of smaller networks like schools, companies or regions, so you can only see the profiles of people who are in your networks and your friends. We did this to make sure you could share information with the people you care about. This is the same reason we have built extensive privacy settings – to give you even more control over who you share your information with.

Somehow we missed this point with News Feed and Mini-Feed and we didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part, and I'm sorry for it. But apologizing isn't enough. I wanted to make sure we did something about it, and quickly. So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you better privacy controls. This new privacy page will allow you to choose which types of stories go into your Mini-Feed and your friends' News Feeds, and it also lists the type of actions Facebook will never let any other person know about. If you have more comments, please send them over.

This may sound silly, but I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn't made so many of you angry, I am glad we got to hear you. And I am also glad that News Feed highlighted all these groups so people could find them and share their opinions with each other as well.

About a week ago I created a group called Free Flow of Information on the Internet, because that's what I believe in – helping people share information with the people they want to share it with. I'd encourage you to check it out to learn more about what guides those of us who make Facebook. Today (Friday, 9/8) at 4pm edt, I will be in that group with a bunch of people from Facebook, and we would love to discuss all of this with you. It would be great to see you there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Mark