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Yes same here. If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. Make facebook a useful to

by baby 4y ago

Yes same here. If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. Make facebook a useful tool again, and add additional functionalities in a non-ambiguous way (so either not to the timeline directly, or in another tab) Oh and, bring back a clear way to make the timeline chronological. This is the first sign that facebook is not designed to be useful, but designed to increase engagement. Let users choose. Power users will tweak their timelines and make it chronological, while others will continue to use the default way.

wwweston 4y ago
They did offer this for a long time -- you could make friends lists, and then use them to focus on updates that belonged to those friends. You can still make friends lists, but sometime in the last 2 years or so, they removed the feature to focus on updates from friends, and the friends lists don't do anything at all other than interact with privacy scope for your posts, which I guess is still nice. IMO FB long ago decided it was going to be guided by metrics rather than theories about utility. Maybe they know better what users want than users do themselves, or maybe they care about other things, either way, the days of power users are done here.
- baby 4y ago
  Either we’re the long tail, or we’re the users they should listen to
danwee 4y ago
> Yes same here. If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. That only benefits the user, it doesn't benefit Facebook... so why it would be implemented at all? Do we really think Facebook (and other big platforms) are doing what they do in order to benefit their users? Please, it's 2022, Facebook et al. don't have to beg for our attention/loyalty; they effectively do whatever the hell they want. The sooner we stop using their services the better for the internet.
- flerchin 4y ago
  Engagement per user is not the only metric they have. DAU declines are an easy metric they can target. People are quitting Facebook because of these actively hostile patterns. They make, and charge for, money per user. Give the people what they want, and a chronological "updates from my friends" would retain a non-trivial tranche of users. Separately, I do tend to agree, social media with engagement feedback loops is _bad for most people_ like hard drugs. The sooner folks quit, the better it is for them.
- bluGill 4y ago
  It does benefit Facebook though. The current feed doesn't engage me. I want to see what my friends are doing - not the memes they are sharing or the divisive politics they are commenting on, but their life - original content that they are creating. If they would show me this I would stay on longer, and incidentally scroll past a lot more ads. Instead I see a few shared memes (which I've been "blocking all from the originator" for months now which only helps a little) and give up even though I know there are other friends who have actually done something with their life that I want to know about that I miss. I'm getting ready to drop facebook completely. They need to provide me more value if they want to sell my eyeballs.
FBEngineer 4y ago
>If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. FB engineer reporting. We have no control over this. Honestly, at this point most of us just hang on to siphon off as much money as possible from the company before it all comes crumbling down. My advice for FB users would be to stop using it. I'm not using it either.
- baby 4y ago
  I suspect you’re just a troll account but as an ex-fber: I know most of the internal threads end up pointing to the URL trick to make the timeline chronological. But I think it’s worth continuing to ask and argue for more user-focused features (and even ask during Q&A).
  - FBEngineer 4y ago
    Not a troll account. Proof: Mark posted a surfing video to Workplace on Aug 15 5:31.

by baby 4y ago

wwweston 4y ago

They did offer this for a long time -- you could make friends lists, and then use them to focus on updates that belonged to those friends. You can still make friends lists, but sometime in the last 2 years or so, they removed the feature to focus on updates from friends, and the friends lists don't do anything at all other than interact with privacy scope for your posts, which I guess is still nice. IMO FB long ago decided it was going to be guided by metrics rather than theories about utility. Maybe they know better what users want than users do themselves, or maybe they care about other things, either way, the days of power users are done here.

baby 4y ago
Either we’re the long tail, or we’re the users they should listen to

danwee 4y ago

> Yes same here. If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. That only benefits the user, it doesn't benefit Facebook... so why it would be implemented at all? Do we really think Facebook (and other big platforms) are doing what they do in order to benefit their users? Please, it's 2022, Facebook et al. don't have to beg for our attention/loyalty; they effectively do whatever the hell they want. The sooner we stop using their services the better for the internet.

flerchin 4y ago
Engagement per user is not the only metric they have. DAU declines are an easy metric they can target. People are quitting Facebook because of these actively hostile patterns. They make, and charge for, money per user. Give the people what they want, and a chronological "updates from my friends" would retain a non-trivial tranche of users. Separately, I do tend to agree, social media with engagement feedback loops is _bad for most people_ like hard drugs. The sooner folks quit, the better it is for them.
bluGill 4y ago
It does benefit Facebook though. The current feed doesn't engage me. I want to see what my friends are doing - not the memes they are sharing or the divisive politics they are commenting on, but their life - original content that they are creating. If they would show me this I would stay on longer, and incidentally scroll past a lot more ads. Instead I see a few shared memes (which I've been "blocking all from the originator" for months now which only helps a little) and give up even though I know there are other friends who have actually done something with their life that I want to know about that I miss. I'm getting ready to drop facebook completely. They need to provide me more value if they want to sell my eyeballs.

FBEngineer 4y ago

>If a facebook engineer is reading this, you need to offer a "updates from my friends" timeline, separate from the rest. FB engineer reporting. We have no control over this. Honestly, at this point most of us just hang on to siphon off as much money as possible from the company before it all comes crumbling down. My advice for FB users would be to stop using it. I'm not using it either.

baby 4y ago
I suspect you’re just a troll account but as an ex-fber: I know most of the internal threads end up pointing to the URL trick to make the timeline chronological. But I think it’s worth continuing to ask and argue for more user-focused features (and even ask during Q&A).
- FBEngineer 4y ago
  Not a troll account. Proof: Mark posted a surfing video to Workplace on Aug 15 5:31.