Things I would change about Facebook
Nov. 20th, 2007 09:05 amI've been on Facebook for a while now. I don't use it very much, but I check daily to see if I've got any new messages or friend requests. Frankly, I'm really frustrated with the whole system. If I were in charge of making interface changes, here's what I'd do:
- Include an option to turn off application notifications in my homepage feed. I don't use applications and really don't care who added "send hotness" or "compare me." Some days, applications are half my feed.
- Allow users to scroll back through the feed. I've got so many friends, who post so frequently, that if I don't check every 8-12 hours, I'll miss stuff. (I *don't* check every 8-12 hours, but that shows how disinterested I am in the whole thing.)
- Have a way to filter friends, both on my feed and my profile. Sometimes, I only want to read about my school friends, my sci-fi friends, or my sca friends. Sometimes I'll write a note that's I only want to send to certain people. IMO, this is one of the great strengths of livejournal.
- Include groups on my feed. I'm currently a member of 22 groups, and no updates from any of them will ever show up on my feed. If I want to know if something new happened in any of them, I've got to check them manually.
- Include a way to manage my messages: folders would be nice, but tags at the very least. I don't want to hunt through five pages of messages to find the one I want.
- Make users able to join more than one regional network at a time. If I'm a native Montrealer living in Toronto for a year (as I was in 2005-6), I can *either* be part of the Montreal network OR the Toronto one. Why can't I be both?
Okay, that's enough ranting for now. Don't get me wrong, Facebook does *some* things well. On the whole, though, I prefer my LJ.
- Include an option to turn off application notifications in my homepage feed. I don't use applications and really don't care who added "send hotness" or "compare me." Some days, applications are half my feed.
- Allow users to scroll back through the feed. I've got so many friends, who post so frequently, that if I don't check every 8-12 hours, I'll miss stuff. (I *don't* check every 8-12 hours, but that shows how disinterested I am in the whole thing.)
- Have a way to filter friends, both on my feed and my profile. Sometimes, I only want to read about my school friends, my sci-fi friends, or my sca friends. Sometimes I'll write a note that's I only want to send to certain people. IMO, this is one of the great strengths of livejournal.
- Include groups on my feed. I'm currently a member of 22 groups, and no updates from any of them will ever show up on my feed. If I want to know if something new happened in any of them, I've got to check them manually.
- Include a way to manage my messages: folders would be nice, but tags at the very least. I don't want to hunt through five pages of messages to find the one I want.
- Make users able to join more than one regional network at a time. If I'm a native Montrealer living in Toronto for a year (as I was in 2005-6), I can *either* be part of the Montreal network OR the Toronto one. Why can't I be both?
Okay, that's enough ranting for now. Don't get me wrong, Facebook does *some* things well. On the whole, though, I prefer my LJ.