All these changes, and yet there's still no "dislike" button on Facebook. However, we're pretty sure if there was one, it would be seeing a lot of action today.
Facebook feeds are flooding with angry users complaining that new features are undermining what they actually want to see on their feeds, while others are saying the new settings are simply difficult to understand.
"Is it asking too much for advance notice and a set of instructions?" Lenora Hobbs Brothers wrote on our Facebook page. (Yes, we understand the irony.)
Users can no longer decide whether to click Most Recent or Top News on their feeds; instead, Facebook is determining what items a user would most want to see, and is automatically including those at the top of the person's feeds.
This is done "based on lots of factors," Facebook says, "including your relationship to the person who posted the story, how many comments and likes it got, what type of story it is, etc." (See a Q&A on the new changes here.)
And although the site has combined those two features, Facebook has otherwise split the feed into... well, two other feeds.
"I... feel a little violated in privacy with the 'real time' sidebar," Melissa Reed wrote on our Facebook page. "If I wanted everyone to know what I was doing every second I was on FB they would KNOW because I would tell them."
Complaints in publicly viewable status updates are popping up at least once every 10 seconds on Facebook, AllFacebook.com reports.
"I really wish FB would allow us to choose what change we wish to make," Tatiana Fowler wrote. "Allow... us to not have to make the switch or to pick out which changes we would like. I like a few of the new changes but preferred the old news feed options."
Megan Bowers is not a fan of the dual newsfeeds. "How obnoxious and what a waste of space!" she wrote. "...They should focus on fixing their security and things like that and leave things alone that aren't broken.
Some users are threatening to defect to Google+, which coincidentally opened to the general public today. (Facebook really did not think this launch date through.) However, as AllFacebook.com notes, "Ever since Facebook launched the news feed in September 2006, people have complained about nearly every single change made to the site."
And seriously, can you even imagine Facebook today without a news feed? Once again, most users will probably (grudgingly) adapt... likely just in time for more changes to be rolled out.
Cheryl Riley broke it down: "If I was paying for it, then I'd have something to say but, I'm hearing a lot of complaints and it seems ridiculous to complain about a free service. It's not costing us money so, if someone dislikes it that much, delete your profile and move on. The real problem is, most people are too addicted to FB to leave. It's easier to stay and complain. :-)"
Two people "liked" that.
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