Exxodium

Here I am, up at 4:40am, writing a post that is, in essence, bitching more about Facebook.

I wrote some time ago about how Facebook rolled out a change that caused the enter key to post a comment, rather than enter a carriage return. I called this move “user-hostile” and called Facebook out for making changes for changes’ sake, and never for user benefit.

Well, it’s time for me to do that again: Facebook has rolled out yet another change. This time, they’re changing the news feed. So now, instead of having it divided between “top news” and “most recent”, you get it all mishmashed into one news feed. With the most recommended threads being thrown up toward the top, and the most recent down toward the middle.

I don’t know who at Facebook even thought for a second that this is a good idea.

The news feed of before was fine enough as it is: All posts in chronological order, newest first. That way, we could read the most recent topics first, and as we scrolled down, the older topics. This is the way it should be. This is the way most websites, like Gizmodo, Engadget, and Daring Fireball operate. It is how the web should operate.

But Facebook believes that it has a new way of consuming your news from friends, and that it’s ideas are best for everyone.

It’s like having a company like Apple control a social networking site. However, difference being is that Apple doesn’t put out half-assed designs. And if Apple is truly wrong on a design, they’ll listen to their users and roll it back (See: Leopard’s translucent menu bar, which they introduced an option to switch it off after massive criticism). If one of Facebook’s “redesigns” meets mass disapproval, Facebook’s response is “deal with it.”

As one of my friends said: It’s not Google+ that is killing Facebook. It is Facebook that is killing Facebook.

What I would do about it

Of course, one of these bitching posts isn’t any good if I’m not going to give any insight on it. So what would I do about this?

Until I could get a version of this site design working (and by working, I mean options for the style as it is now, and one for strictly chronological ordering), I would roll it back for everybody. Tweak the layout a bit. Do a limited rollout. Gauge the reactions of those who it’s been rolled out to (all the while giving them the option to switch back to the old layout and gauging how many people are doing this.) Encourage feedback from everyone. Listen to said feedback.

But better yet, what I would do, something that might not appease those up in Facebook HQ, is adopt the rule “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Nothing was wrong with the old Facebook. Even if G+ got more features, you wouldn’t have to change the layout to maintain feature parity.

Facebook’s willingness to change, and the mentality that they need to make changes for changes’ sake is only going to kill them in the long run, and make their competitor that much stronger. If Facebook is to survive, they need to drop the stupid changes, and begin making changes for usability’s sake, not changes’ sake.

(EDIT: I really, really need a better keyboard. Damned typos.)