Why I Don’t Use Facebook (Too) Much Anymore
Ever since Facebook applications came along…
Where can I set auto-ignore?
That is all.
Where can I set auto-ignore?
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62 Comments
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[...] off’ for not adding someone to my friends list or replying to their note. But I think Paul Stamatiou’s picture above somes it up, the real requests from honest to goodness friends get lost in the [...]
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[...] also seems to be having issues with Facebook. digg_url = [...]
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[...] their best source for information is word of mouth. Paul Stamatiou is one college guy who has chilled on Facebook. Thank goodness there’s all those grown-up bloggers to keep the hype [...]
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[...] something like what I get daily on Facebook (see right), but it’s probably not as bad as what Paul Stamatiou gets! It’s not exactly spam… but it’s bacn [...]
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[...] community/web community ever since the launch of the facebook platform. The main complaint? “Clutter” according to Paul Stamatious and “I’m anti-facebook” from Get a New [...]
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[...] too late. Seeing Facebooks valuation rise and the handful of negative posts from earlier adopters (Paul Stamitou & Jason Calacanis most recently), and I start wondering if maybe Zuckerberg’s ego is [...]
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[...] month, Paul had this to say about why he doesn’t use Facebook so much anymore. Too many apps, [...]
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[...] Why I Don’t Use Facebook (Too) Much Anymore [...]
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[...] enough, this is something that Facebook has been doing for a while now, but not everyone likes that fact, and just because someone else does it doesn’t mean that you have to copy [...]
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[...] enough, this is something that Facebook has been doing for a while now, but not everyone likes that fact, and just because someone else does it doesn’t mean that you have to copy [...]
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[...] those people. I get no such invitations from my less eccentric friends. Why are bloggers like Paul Stamatious constantly bombarded with app invites? Probably because the majority of bloggers have a lot of [...]
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[...] Complaints abound over the… enthusiastic nature with which some applications try to get you to sign up. I guess it’s all about the numbers. But as I watched my notifications over the course of a week, I was intrigued by what I saw. At the start of the week, I was being notified about these items: [...]
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[...] the constant flow of invites keep washing over you like a tsunami wave each time you log in, like Paul Stamatiou shows in his blog. The part when you have to click ignore on each and every application is [...]
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[...] requests to be a vampire or werewolf. I would share a screen, but I think it was captured better by Paul Stamatiou, who has a lot more friends than I [...]
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[...] courtesy of Paul Stamatiou. Do I have to say something more? Okay. Let’s do some [...]
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Definitely,!I don’t understand all the buzz around Facebook. I played a bit with those past 2 or 3 weeks but man it’s so cluttered. I really don’t need to be transformed into a werewolf or receive stupid gifts!!!
I moved to orkut and I guess i’m gonna stay over there. it’s much cleaner and does the job right. I can import any kind of feeds and there are a bunch of interesting communities. Nothing more. Just plain clean and tied to my Google account
Here here! Well said. There is a greasemonkey script that kills the applications, but I use Camino and refuse to change back to Firefox on grounds that Facebook is a pain in the arse.
My sentiments exactly. :]
That’s complete insanity.
I completely agree. There are only so many times you can tell it that you don’t want to be a zombie before the whole 3rd party apps thing gets too much.
Maybe you should make an app that ignores all the other apps? :P
it does get annoying, with all the clutter, etc..
I was thinking the same thing the other day. I think serious changes need to be made to F8 including an option to turn off application requests.
the thing is, when you sign up for an app, it says: invite all your friends? if you click through quickly just doing the typical windows install “ok.. ok.. ok..” you spam everyone. You have to find the small button that says “skip this step” ARGH.
don’t you love those ninja vs pirate invites? dont forget to mention the vampites!!!
facebook is starting to look like myspace
Is one addiction I have pretty much manged to avoid so far anyway, but thanks for the warning :-)
I agree with u paul, its really annoying. When i started my facebook profiles, almost a year ago, the site was the most promising social network on the net. Ever since they open the platform the absolute chaos came.. :(
Great post! That’s totally the way I needed to start my day! I for one have not gotten caught up in the Facebook/MySpace hype. I mean it seems cool for a second but I am definitely a fan of my privacy. I mean, If you’re supposed to know what I’ve been doing and all the ins and outs of my life we’re probably already talking via phone or AIM anyway so the need for it in my life is just not there. Now that I’ve started my own blog I feel it would just be one more distraction. No offense to those that love it…just my personal preference :)
With the introduction of Facebook Apps, Facebook has quickly turned in to another MySpace…ugly and all. It’s quite sad.
Agreed! Facebook has turned to the dark side for sure.
Just after I finally convinced all my friends that FB was the answer to our prayers, a world unlike Myspace, a world where your eyes don’t constantly get bombarded by vile graphics and generally poor design, Facebook opens the doors, and every idea/theme under the sun is turned into a FB application.
No I do not want a virtual fish tank on my profile, I do not want to become a pirate/zombie etc. Admittedly there are a couple of applications I use, those being the LastFM app and the Upcoming app but that’s it.
Kill all these FB apps asap and make Facebook a better place again!
I backed out of FaceBook more for concerns about data security than the lack of filters, but the inability to filter out crap you do not want to see is a huge failing on its part. I use Plaxo because it does give me the ability to filter. But, it does not have the application add-ons that FaceBook has. FaceBook still intrigues me because of its application platform, and I may tinker with it again someday. But, I will have to see filters added before doing so, and will have to be convinced they are serious about not sharing my data.
Long live iPhone.Facebook.com! Most clean and elegant FB layout since the early days.
Thanks for reminding me why deleting my Facebook account a year ago still stands to be a good move. =)
So…why don’t you guys simply ignore the virtual fish tanks and vampire bites? It only takes a sec, you click ignore instead of accept and that’s a done deal. It sounds to me like you are making too much fuss over nothing…
I like the idea behind some of those Facebook apps, but it’s definitely getting to be a cluttered site with all the news feed updates and invitations and stuff.
I totally agree with you Paul. It is SO annoying. Just build in a Top Friends feature or something. Forget about apps.
As much as I love faceboook, I really do hate the new apps. I switched from myspace for that reason, to get rid of the clutter.
I particularly hate the ones in my notifications that say “your friend has written on your super wall” or something to that effect, when really, it’s just an invite to add that app.
I’ll continue to use facebook to keep in touch with friends, but i’m really not a fan of the apps either.
Are all of those notifications from your facebook Paul?
@Michael - yup, that’s my account.
I’ve been diligent about marking applications as spam. It actually seems to do something, as I’ve never had repeated troubles from stupid apps (almost all of which were made by Slide).
My point exactly.
I watched the tour of a local cafe. The cashier asked me for some personal information and then let me access and look around. I saw a thumbnail sitting down and said we have the same laptop. “Can I add you as a friend?” Then she replied “welcome to MugMag, don’t SPAM me or I will report you.” Lisa88 added me as a friend after she looked at my profile which was located at my crotch. We got naken an hour later and I was glad I borrowed my friends Apple MacBook. It was a chick magnet. (excerpt from “What Happens When I Walk Out My Door”)
Facebook was the most boring thing I experienced. I logged in and got overwhelmed with the friends who jumped at me. Freakin’ lemmings. The apps in facebook are useful if you have no life and need to fix what doesn’t need fixin’ - my doorbell works just fine, I do not need it to ring all my devices.
Based on the opinions of this thread, how can this be improved? Is there room for another community site with a new angle, a smarter method? I say yes! I want to help build it.
I completely agree!
Also, when they started allowing people who aren’t associated with a university in it went a bit downhill. EmoSpace Mark II with “applications”…
With great power…comes great responsibility.
I think this applies to Facebook AND to the user.
I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling stupid about Facebook. It’s become a ghetto mess with all the bacn application email alerts. High noise, low signal.
I feel the same way!!! I hate this application thing its so annoying.
AUTO IGNORE PLEASE!!!
Very very true. Facebook should limit users to 3 applications each. I actually don’t have trouble with invite spam at all - my biggest beef is how enormously ugly some people’s pages look now. As much as I’m a fan of freshness and innovation and all that jazz, there’s a definite advantage to things like Facebook pages having a certain amount of uniformness. Find what you need fast. To me that’s a big part of what Web 2.0 is about. Application overflow is a step backward.
Sorry to bother you Paul.
@J - ;-) no worries.
Adding an auto-ignore feature to settings would solve the problem.
There’s no getting away from the fact that the point of joining a social network is being able to interact with people you know.
I joined Virb° a few months ago when it was about to go out of beta and there was a lot of hype about it. But I never managed to get more than a handful of friends to join it.
The other point of a social network is that it will never be able to everything: the world’s best social network will never be able to combine the best of Vimeo, Last FM, Flickr et al. into one. So interaction with other sites is the key.
Facebook is the only large social network that has both a large user base and can interact with other networks.
I agree Facebook profiles have got really ugly of late but I’ll be sticking it out: the pros outweigh the drawbacks and there is no credible alternative.
Whereas a vast majority of apps are absolutely useless and purely annoying, there are definitely instances in which great applications can be built that utilize to a great extent the networked user base and friend communities.
For example:
http://lendingclub.com - peer2peer lending
http://wegobreak.com - group spring break travel planning
As for auto-ignore, I think a more appropriate functionality would be one-click-clearing.
I’d like to know what exists out there (wouldn’t we all like to be informed) but would like the option to make it all disappear with one click instead of 15 if nothing interested me…
Paul,
I do agree with you. The applications and notifications are getting obnoxious. Some of the applications are so pointless and waste a lot of time. Although this is the case, the basic features from facebook are still awesome for networking and connecting with like-minded individuals!
It can be a nuisance, though I’ve not received invites quite to the extent you have. Whenever I receive one, I go to the app’s page and click “Block” and I’ll never get an invite to it again. Takes a bit of time at the beginning I guess, but eventually the majority of the most popular apps will be blocked and you’ll see no invites. I get one maybe every 2 weeks now.
Yes, some people’s Facebook page can be soo cluttered. :(
yeah. they definitely need an auto-ignore feature. or at the very least let you ignore application requests you already turned down from some other friend.
I guess this is a bit behind the times, but now you can choose to have applications not notify you! yay! uncloggyness!
How Facebook Spies on Users:
http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/
Facebook used to be nice and then — as you said — came the APPLICATIONS and the beginning of Facebook as MySpace. Pretty awful.
Amen
I also joined Virb and totally love it. Yeah there aren’t as many friends as I would want to join on it, but what I do love about it is that there are little to no ads, you can pipe your existing blog posts onto your virb profile, and they are adding lots of other useful modules to their service that will ultimately integrate much of other things we do from various other social networks.
Now, Facebook has a one up on them in that they created a way where 3rd party developers could create apps for your profile. I’m just not a huge fan of that and the facebook profiles look ugly and plain.
Just my thoughts.
Amen, I deactivated my account because FB turned into a 3rd party for 3rd party apps.
I KNOW!
Facebook apps suck, especially with all these people sending invites. Auto-ignore? Amen!
Too right, and what a great read. Haha. The trend is losing its ability to keep users hooked.
With the additions FB is making by way of suggesting random friends of friends to you its getting very annoying and pointless. Much better when it was just you and your “friends”.
And what is with the applications. The worst decision FB made was to open up the API to any tom dick or harry, as well as henry!
Paul!
You post helped me to make summary of burning problems of social networking. Thank you very much!
You can read it here on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/3me6c3
Thanks again.
Take care,
Vlad