13:24 by FoxTwo
Is The Old Facebook Layout Coming Back?
Due to habit, I click refresh to see the latest updates from my friends, on the Home Page. Lo and Behold, what do I see?
Yes indeed, it seems that the former Facebook layout is coming back! However, right now it's kind of a hit-and-miss thing. Sometimes when I click refresh, I get the old layout. Other times, the new.
What I can speculate is that perhaps, the Facebook Team is rolling back the changes they made, and they are now synchronising all the servers to update them all. That would explain the randomly alternating between the old and new layouts.
Or perhaps Facebook is experiencing a server or database problem and their engineers are fixing it..
Well I sure hope the old layout is coming back!!
Labels: facebook, internet, self
15:23 by FoxTwo
Facebook, Stop Messing With Layouts!
Image via CrunchBase
Even so, I don't mind it so much when Facebook changed their homepages or layouts to "improve" things. In fact, when other people have been screaming blue murder about the latest changes, all I did was to just "get used to it", and learn how the new layout works.
The one just before the current one is, in my opinion, the best offering they've had so far. I get a running newsfeed of what my friends did, who got tagged in which photos, and so on. In fact I have found a few friends this way - a friend got tagged by another friend, whom I also know. Then I'd send a friend request and we link up.
I also liked how all your invites were in the right sidebar - you can see how many of which types of invites you had.
However, the latest one blows. In fact, I'd say that the latest incarnation of the layout just broke everything. People were just getting used to the "new" layout and then they decided to change it again. Yes, it looks amazingly sparse. Kinda like Twitter in fact. Basically, the majority of what's there on the homepage after you log in is basically just status updates from your friends. That's it. You can't see if they've joined a group, or uploaded a new pic, or commented on a picture. In short, all the stuff that used to be there on this page.
The thing I find most frustrating with the latest layout is that my "Invites Box" went missing (or so I thought). Try as I might, I could not locate my latest slew of useless invites to games I will never play or install. However, that doesn't mean I don't want to see them - there might be an invite to an event or a game I might actually be interested in!
After asking around a bit on Plurk, some friends finally told me where to look for it. I present it in the picture below:
Ok if I didn't show you this picture, would you have noticed that single line I circled in red? You'd be hunting left and right to see where your invite notifications are, wouldn't you? After all, it USED to be on the right sidebar.
There's really too many things dropped in this new layouts. I even tried to fiddle with the newsfeed options, but guess what? I couldn't find it. I remember that it existed before, because I remember the slider bars which I can pic to choose which type of event(s) I wanted to see from which specific friend. I remember sliding them around to "See More Of" and "See Less Of" the various types of events of my friends, to tweak them to my personal preference.
Now, all I see are status updates 90% of the time., which is essentially like Plurk (more than Twitter) because you can comment on the status just like how we chat in Plurk. In fact, if this is what Facebook is trying to emulate, then Plurk is already "there". We're all using it, and Plurk has the advantage of having a scrollable timeline. We just drag the timeline around to see older "status updates". With Facebook we have to click on "older posts" and wait for the page to change.
So, Facebook, stop trying to emulate others. Just be yourself - Facebook. That's why we're here. Otherwise, we might as well be at the website(s) you were trying to emulate.
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Labels: facebook, internet, Rant
14:02 by FoxTwo
Facebook Is A Stalker's Paradise
Facebook has this "feature" which all other networks do not have. Or, even if they did, not to this level of detail. The feature I'm talking about is the newsfeed. You know, when you log in, you are given a summary of what your other friends did, like "commenting on a photo" or "joined xyz group", or even "kissed, hugged, punched" someone etc in the various apps.
Again, let me relate a story. Again, I am not directly involved, and names have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent. App names have also been generalised - ie I will not make references to any specific app by name.
Stella is a very friendly and outgoing person. She also has a soft heart, she can't say "NO" because "it will hurt his feelings" type of person. Like everyone else, she installed many apps due to her friends inviting her to do so. One of these apps is a flirting/dating type app. How this app works is to show her picture rather anonymously, and show only her first name without her last name. Also, in this app, there's no direct link to her profile. Thus the only way for potential suitors to communicate is via this app itself.
So Stella got to know a guy through this app. Let's call him David. David was browsing profiles in this app and saw Stella. Thinking she looks hot, he initiated contact. Stella, being the friendly sort, always replies. At first things were cordial. They sort of "clicked", and more info about each other were exchanged. She gave him a link to her Facebook profile, and accepted his friend request.
Then he started to hint at something more.
Stella recognised the hints and started to back off, but yet still always replying, and never making any ambiguous remarks. She even came right out and reminded David that she's married (as shown in her profile) and that she's only looking for FRIENDS, nothing more.
David, being a resourceful kind of guy, some how managed to obtain her email address (never shown on Stella's profile). Let's not speculate how he got the info. The fact is he did. So he started to send her lovey-dovey messages to her personal email as well as doing all the "sexy" and "naughty" poke actions to her on Facebook.
Every time Stella sees those, she gets upset. At first she tried to ignore them, but when she did, David very angrily demanded to know why she was specifically "singling him out" yet she responds to her other male friends. He insisted she respond to his "pokes" and email, and says that he could see, via the newsfeeds, that she got his "pokes", why wasn't she responding? David kept harping on one point - if she wasn't interested in him, why did she tell him her profile address and accept his friend?
Stella was in a quandry - she confided in her friends, not knowing what to do as it was stressing her out. She didn't want her husband finding out, or else he would think she had been flirting with guys on Facebook (which she didn't). Her friends advised her to totally block David on Facebook, and to set up a filter in her email to automatically delete anything from David's email address.
Stella, the soft hearted girl, didn't want to do any of those. She didn't want to "hurt his feelings". Yet, she's the one being traumatised. Also, in a way, she was afraid of what David will do.
As of right now, this situation with Stella isn't resolved. She now avoids Facebook like a plague. She is afraid to open her email. In a sense, Stella the friendly and outgoing girl, became withdrawn and afraid. All because of one guy.
Stella isn't alone in this. I know of at least a couple more female friends who are in a similar situation - unwanted attention from guys, who won't take NO for an answer. They also are soft-hearted and "don't want to hurt his feelings".
Guys - when a girl says NO, it's not a "maybe" ok? Being "determined" makes women afraid of you, not admire you. There's a fine line between "determined" and "harrassing".
Girls - don't be soft-hearted. Block the irritating ones immediately. Once you block, no matter what kind of threats he issued, you won't even see it. Also when you block, the "newsfeed" no longer updates on the guys' end. Set up filters in your email to automatically DELETE email from these stalkers. In other words, cut him off totally.
If you don't, the only one suffering is YOU, not the guy. He's not soft-hearted towards you, why should you be nice to him?
Labels: facebook, internet, social networking
09:04 by FoxTwo
Join Facebook, Make Friends! Enemies Thrown In As Bonus!
Why do you join a social network, such as Facebook? Well I could have used other social networks like Friendster, Orkut etc but right now, Facebook's the "in-thing", and almost everyone has an account.
So back to the subject at hand. Why do YOU join a social network? I bet it's more likely peer pressure. "Everyone has joined, I should too!". Although none of your friends actively "pressured" you, the mere act of them sending an invite to you is already "pressuring".
We all like friends, definitely. But, did you know you can now use Facebook to find new enemies? Yes you can!
Facebook takes the cake in that it's the first social network thing I know of, where you can make enemies really quick. I'm not kidding.
Previous incarnations of social networking sites, like Friendster, only let you add friends. You can't do much except to send each other private and public messages (Facebook calls the public messages "Wall Messages"). If you uploaded pics of yourself, people can write comments on them. That's basically the extent of the "interaction".
So now Facebook comes along, ups the bar by allowing 3rd party applications. All fine and good. Then people who write "apps" need the apps to be competitive. After all, competition is what keeps nature alive, and ever changing. We compete for food, mates, etc. It's natural. So we have apps that buy and sell friends.
This is the fun part. First, let's set a hypothetical background:
On Facebook, Ah Kow has a friend, Ah Mei. He installed this "Buy Your Friend" app and bought Ah Mei because she is his friend. Ah Mei has another male "friend", Ah Gu. Ah Gu doesn't know Ah Kow, but he knows Ah Mei. So he installs the same app, and buys Ah Mei.
So, this is the part where people get too serious and personal.
Ah Kow is not happy that a stranger buys "his" Ah Mei. So Ah Kow buys Ah Mei back from Ah Gu. Ah Gu, however, is a businessman. He finds that Ah Kow is a good candidate for "quick sales". So he buys Ah Mei again, driving her price up. He knows Ah Kow will buy her back and he'll make more money.
But, Ah Kow is totally pissed off that this weirdo Ah Gu keeps buying "his" Ah Mei. Pissed off, he goes to Ah Gu's wall and writes some threatening notes.
Tada! Ah Gu just got a free enemy from a social networking site!
You just gotta love Facebook... enemies are provided too!
Yes, the story I related is actually happening inside Facebook. This post serves to explain my sudden disappearance from all buy/sell apps, because I no longer wish to be asked to decide whose side I'm going to be on, because EVERYBODY TAKES THESE APPS TOO DAMN SERIOUSLY!
Labels: facebook, internet, Rant
10:31 by FoxTwo Remember when I wrote about Digsby the multi-protocol IM wonder?
Well the devs have outdone themselves this time. Just about a week after Facebook launched its "chat" feature, Digsby is now able to chat with your friends that are on Facebook! This feature is available with the latest version, just released yesterday even, on 1 May.
So that means you don't have to put up with the sucky Facebook interface anymore! No longer do you have to keep popping your chatbox out after every page visit in Facebook. No more asking your friend "What did you just say?" when it loses the last line before the new page in Facebook loads up.
So how does it look? Check it out:
It looks exactly like the rest of the protocols. A big F on a blue background shows that it's a Facebook contact, and on the right, your friend's profile picture in Facebook. In fact your friend wouldn't even know the difference. He/she will think that you're inside Facebook. I just tested it out myself. Works fine on Digsby's end. My friend didn't know the difference and she didn't even think it would be possible to chat to people who aren't "physically" on Facebook.
I really love this new feature - that means I don't have to keep the Facebook page loaded up on my browser all day long if I wanted to chat with my Facebook friends. Let's face it - some "friends" you meet on Facebook, you really don't want them even knowing your MSN or your Yahoo ID. For women, this is a great "excuse". Get Digsby, and then tell all your unwanted suitors to use Facebook to "chat" with you :)
As a quick recap, yes Digsby can do MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalk and other protocols too, so you don't lose anything by switching to Digsby. Well, since women love the cute custom emoticons that MSN has, they will miss it if they switch to Digsby. Yeah, you can't see those funky animated pictures when your friend uses them on you. You'll just see the raw text that forms the picture.
Labels: Digsby, facebook, internet
13:20 by FoxTwo
Digsby The Multi-Protocol Wonder
I'm sure you, like many people, have friends on IM platforms, be it MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ or whatever. And, I'm sure not all of them are (conveniently) on the same platform. You'd have some on MSN, some on AIM etc.
It wasn't till very recently that the 2 largest IM networks, MSN and Yahoo, decided to finally "work together" and allow their users to cross-talk to each other, using the latest versions of their client. Even so, there are some lazy or blissfully ignorant users out there who don't know they need to upgrade to the latest version of their respective choice of clients before they can talk to their friends on the other network. Or maybe they know but they don't want to upgrade.
What we could do to accommodate these type of users is to get a multi-protocol IM client, ie a piece of software that will log you onto the various networks that you may be on, all at the same time. This way, you can talk to all your friends from all the different networks. 2 examples of the more well-known multi-protocol clients would be Trillian and Miranda.
Now, gaze upon a relatively new entrant to this arena - Digsby, The Wonder Client! In my opinion, Digsby is THE client to have. It sports support for MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Jabber and Googletalk protocols, for starters.
One pretty neat feature of Digsby as opposed to other multi-protocol clients out there is the ability to merge "duplicate" entries into one. You will definitely have friends who are like you - have an account in each of the networks. So, if you drag your friend's Yahoo account over to his MSN account, Digsby will merge these 2 into 1 entry on your buddy list! Don't worry, when your friend logs in on either network, you'll be notified like always. It doesn't stop at just 2, too. You can keep dragging his account from any of the supported networks, and it'll merge them all into just 1 entry.
The other usual features are skin support, avatars ("Display Picture" in MSN-speak), fonts etc. But, what takes cake, is support for SOCIAL NETWORKING! Yes, it checks Facebook, Myspace and Twitter! Now, I don't have Myspace, but it's ok. Digsby checks my Facebook and Twitter at regular intervals of about 10 mins. Unfortunately you can't control the interval right now. What is cool is that you can update your Twitter from inside Digsby itself!
Yes, I have been thinking of either getting a twitter client or installing a plug-in for MSN that allows Twitter. Now along comes Digsby and I am thinking I'm going to use this one long-term from now on.
Also, a nice bonus is that Winamp support apparently is built-in. As soon as you play a song on it, your "status" on Digsby changes to reflect the Artist-Title, just like on MSN or Yahoo.
Yes Digsby really works! It even allows you to chat with me via the "Chat With Me!" selection on the sidebar of this page. If you see a green man icon beside it now, it means I'm online in MSN Network.
Labels: facebook, internet, messaging, MSN, social networking, twitter
10:13 by FoxTwo
To Facebook Apps Developers....
When you FORCE them to send invites to 5 or 10 or 15 etc friends before you allow the "results" to be shown. Yes, many will spam their friends just to see the "results", but if your app is useless, it only gets spammed ONCE. Then people remove it and block it.
For once, go take a look at successful apps. Apps like Friends For Sale for example. You don't need to tell us to spam invites... we'll invite on our own because, we get $ when we do, and we can't buy people who don't have the apps installed unless they're on our friends list. You BET we'll invite, even without the need to force us to!
Not only that, people will continue to use/play with your apps if it's FUN and ENGAGING. Make 'em fun and the app will become popular. Force us to spam invites, it stays in our profiles only until we find time to remove it. And remove we WILL.
Forcing people to spam invites makes your app a "virus". That's how viruses spread - by forcing themselves onto others. Chances are, you know that if you don't force people to do it, nobody will come back to your app a second time eh? What a low tactic.
Giving incentives to invite people is another thing - more money, more points, whatever. As long as it's our concious decision to say "hey this app is fun, I want to invite my friends to come play it", it's fine.
Labels: facebook, internet, Rant
20:31 by FoxTwo
"Facebook" Is Now An Official Word In Dictionary
And, today, I found out my Facebook profile died. Well, I dunno, I can't see my own profile from any of my PCs here, and using both FireFox and IE6/IE7, my profile "can't be found". My friends however, say they see my profile fine.
Conversely, I see theirs fine. I just can't see mine. Bleh!
At the very least I can go to the "Facebook Homepage" and start Superpoking my friends.
Incidentally - yeah I haven't been updating my blog as often as I normally do, due to the fact that I'm now "on vacation" and thus, very lazy. I sleep till noon, I eat junk for lunch and then I play online games with Americans and British players till wee hours of the morning (which is just about afternoon time for them).
Ok I'm kidding about the junk food part. I'm STILL on my "diet" and I'm still working out. Oh yeah I also ordered the Bodylastics Home Gym, the Max Tension set, but that's a topic for my other blog :)
Labels: facebook, internet, social networking
