Face-off | Tragic Comedy

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Nine Replies to Face-off

Scott Hardie | August 24, 2010
I really like your status updates on Facebook. You write funny stuff that's worth reading, not generic "goin to bed" or "is it Friday yet!!" updates like a lot of people. But whatever programs you're using to feed data into Facebook, the content never feeds into the streams that I read. I miss all of your updates unless I specifically look you up on the site and read your profile, which I try to make a point of doing every week or two. That's why you get a bunch of likes from me all at once. :-)

Facebook continues to be their own worst enemy on the privacy controversy. I think most people expect stuff to be opt-out these days; when you sign up for a site like Facebook, you expect them to display whatever information you provide. But when someone specifically instructs the site not to share a piece of information, they expect that to last, not to be undone three weeks later by another round of revisions that reset everything to public. Facebook needs to get this problem under control, but they probably won't for a while, because they seem to think they're invincible and the wave of popularity that they currently enjoy won't end.

Just venting now, but the privacy resets have stung me too, even though I'm comfortable sharing personal information online. I created a work account to test code for clients who want Facebook widgets, and I said I didn't want my work email address displayed, but after a few weeks, I started getting daily spam, which really hurt after six years of zealously defending my inbox from any spam whatsoever. Worse was when people I know would get the profile suggested to them and they'd send friend invitations; I kept telling Facebook not to let other people discover the profile, and a few weeks later it would suggest it again, even suggesting it to me a couple of times. Deleting it was the only way to stop this. I'm glad that when it comes to my real account, I'm fine sharing whatever information with the entire world and friending anybody, because it seems to me the only way to have a frustration-free experience on there.