Monday, September 26, 2011

Adios Facebook!!

I don't like change. Especially when it's done for no other purpose than to roll out the latest technology and make a semi-user friendly website, non-user friendly.

I basically use two web companies for all of my online social needs except e-mail: Blogger and Facebook. Blogger I use for my public online needs and Facebook for my private online needs.

As of late, each company has decided to roll out new features, which depending on what kind of a heavy user you are, is either the greatest thing since sliced bread, or the worse thing since New Coke. With Blogger, most of their improvements have been somewhat of mixed blessing. The latest improvement, which I wrote about here, will initially drive me buggy, but in the long run, will be something I'll get used to. So long as I'll be able to do the following things without too much aggravation, I'll grudgingly accept it.

1} Allow me to write blog posts.
2} Allow me to schedule blog posts.
3} Allow me to easily access my old posts.
4} Allow me to properly moderate comments.
5} Allow me to find my blogs.

Whereas I use Blogger for my public online persona, I use Facebook for my private persona, and it's Facebook that is the main reason for this post.

Unless you've been comatose for the past week, you know and probably experienced Facebook's new and improved semi-user friendly website with all of the latest bells and whistles. What you probably didn't know, and the main reason why I'm saying adios to Facebook, is that they're introducing a new concept called "Timeline" that in my opinion, will take your privacy concerns and stick them where the sun don't shine.

If you read this nice informative article by PC World, you'll get a better understanding of what I'm about to say. In a nutshell, Facebook will be taking every single scrap of information that you posted about yourself since your first day on Facebook, either publicly or privately, and what your friends also said about you both publicly and privately, and create a nifty searchable record that will be attached to your profile.

Now I don't know about you, but I migrated to Facebook because I wanted to be somewhere where I could be myself and share certain things with friends about myself that I didn't want to put out on the blogs or in the chat rooms. However, this new feature being rolled out by Facebook is taking my personal information to an extremely uncomfortable level of non-privacy.

Because of this new feature being rolled out, and its something that you can't opt out of, I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account. For those of you who follow me both on the blog and on Facebook, you'll now get me just on the blogs, or via the e-mail if you so desire. For those of you who follow me exclusively on Facebook, you'll now have to keep up with me via the blog or via the e-mail if you so choose to.

In any event, I will post a note on Facebook that will reiterate what I've stated here today and give everyone at least a couple of days to prepare for my departure from Facebook. It's been a fun 2+ year ride on Facebook, but for the time being, my privacy concerns easily outweigh me keeping in touch with my friends on a social network.

17 comments:

  1. I read someone else moaning about the changes on Facebook. As I don't have Facebook, and never will, these changes won't be bugging the hell out of me, I'm pleased to say.

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  2. Awww -- I'll miss you over on FB! But I can understand the annoyance with the "new and improved" features. I don't know WHY they continue to "fix" things when nothing needs to be fixed. But I'll be very sorry to see you go...

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  3. Agreed, Facebook has become nothing but an overbloated piece of trash. My website page is all I'm keeping the rest can pound sand.

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  4. I will probably continue to hang out on Facebook for now. I don't typically post anything I don't care if everyone knows. Although I better stay off it when I'm drunk, I guess.

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  5. Joe: Consider yourself to be blessed. I've always split my cyber world time between the public shenanigans of the blog and the private fun (or was it hell) of the chat rooms and then FB. But with these "improvements", FB has stop becoming a way to relax (I don't play games) and instead has become a way to get seriously aggravated. I don't need to becoime aggravated during my down time.

    Lisa: I'll miss you too on FB. But we can always stay in contact with each other via the blogs or the occasional e-mail.

    Pat: I agree, FB can pound sand. My blogs have basically become my best outlet for writing and expanding my horizons. And should I ever want to say hi to my friends, I can still e-mail them.

    Charles: If you don't post relatively personal stuff, you should be okay. But I did enjoy sharing the stuff with my friends that I didn't feel like putting on my blog and that was the only reason besides staying in contact with the friends that I've made elsewhere during my journey around the Cyber version of the great Blue Marble.

    But yeah, don't post while drunk.

    Or write for that matter. :D

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  6. I have never bought into the idea that their privacy snafus were accidents. Fuck Facebook! BTW I am still looking for a funky present for you here in London.

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  7. R: They're never really are. Every single upgrade that FB has done always has the default setting as "opt it". If you want something to be private, you always have to opt out. Really sucks.

    Still looking? Ruh-roh. :D

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  8. I haven't quite gotten a grip on the new facebook format and don't feel much inclination to worry about it. I don't like that privacy invasion thing - thanks for the tip. I'll be looking into that.

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  9. Lynn: More than welcome. I'm hating the new format, because I'm unable to declutter my wall. FB is not processing my requests to unsubscribe to my friends comments and likes, so I'm forced to see all kinds of stuff that I'm not interested in seeing.

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  10. I never could make the jump to Facebook. And after reading your post I'm glad I haven't.

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  11. David: For the past two years, Facebook and Blogging provided the best of both worlds for me. But in the past week, Facebook has gone so far downhill for me that this really is the only viable alternative for me.

    If I want to talk to my friends privately now, I'll just e-mail.

    Already had one person ask me about Twitter, but since I don't text and I can't get my point across in 140 characters, its a moot point.

    You aren't really missing much. If you have better ways of staying in contact with family and friends, by all means continue using those methods.

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  12. Wow although I haven't been overly bothered by the newest changes(I adjusted settings so I wasn't gettting every single post and update from folks) I don't like what I'm hearing here. May be time to rethink the presence on Facebook. Glad I still have here to visit you.

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  13. Jeanne: Over the past couple of days on Facebook, the aggravation factor has increased by a factor of 50.

    I've tried adjusting so that I don't see eveyone's likes and comments on other people's stuff, but for some unknown reason, FB isn't accepting all of my requests.

    All the "improvments" suck moose testicles, and the one that is driving me away is biggest annoyance out there.

    And I'm glad you visit me from time to time here and I over at your blog as well.

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  14. Glad you explained that G - I knew there had been changes but couldn't be arsed to read about them. (They seem to happen all too often.) I've been thinking about opting out FB for ages - only kept it as a means for my blog , I think I might review it though now though - that really is an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

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  15. Jane: The new changes have been incredibly frustrating to deal with and when the last one rolls out, I think it's gonna annoy and alienate a greater percentage of people than before.

    However, I did make sure that I let my friends know that I was leaving, so it wouldn't be something completely unexpected.

    To be honest with you, I'm not even sure if my blog is still there or not. Once you deactivate your account, everything connected with you vanishes.

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  16. I'm not thrilled with the new Facebook changes either. I'm debating about exiting too.

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  17. Kelly: It took a lot to actually drive me to this step. I was able to put up with a little tweaking here and there and some aggravation inflicted by a few former friends over the years. But these wholesale changes is what finally did to me. I didn't like doing a search and destroy for the stories/status updates that I thought were relevant but FB didn't, nor do I want a new and intrusive profile.

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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