I’ve decided that the one thing I don’t like about Facebook is exerting effort for a small group of people; basically I don’t get why Facebook pages should be closed to all bar friends. It’s not that I dislike my Facebook friends; I appreciate every one of them, it’s just that in a society that values user generated content where there is a finite amount of time in a day, you only want to post or create on X amount of places, preferably ones that maximise the audience. Take for example photos: I post to my Flickr account what I want people to see, be they friends or otherwise, why cant I do the same on Facebook?
OK, so people rave about the privacy and closed networks, but how hard would it be to be able to provide the option “Private or Public Profile?”
If you do want to see what goes on behind the great privacy wall of Facebook (and it’s not that exciting…yet) add me as a friend on Facebook. I might have to have a friend-a-thon so I can play catchup with Robert Scoble…although I’ve got a bloody long way to go 🙂
I agree, and this is one of the reasons I’ve always said I prefer MySpace to Facebook, at least on a social level (if not for the ghastly designs!) .. simply because you can be nosy, look at your friends’ friends’ profiles, hear people’s music, and get a better feel for who people are, rather than the clerical telephone directory style of Facebook.
Anyway, if you want to catch up with Scoble you could probably do it by posting on TechCrunch, but given the quality of the comments lately I’m not sure you’d want most of them as your friends! 🙂
I’ve no experience with MySpace and only joined Facebook today, which happens to be the day I saw this post. At any rate, while I was there, it seemed like a good idea to send you an invitation to be friends. Thanks.
Definitely agree – it’d be nice to have an option to make your profile more public. But i suppose the privacy of facebook – the walled garden nature of it all – is facebook’s key differentiator. That’s why many of my more privacy loving friends signed up to FB but never got onto myspace – some people just aren’t exhibitionists, and myspace is heaven for exhibitionists 🙂