Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Dear FB, don't be a whore.

Newspaper pic of an actual whore, from the NY Daily News.
Dear Facebook,

Don't be a whore.

Ok, you need to sell ads to make money, i get that. But, this Timeline idea??

You claimed it was to "help us tell our story better." But then you added middle-of-the-page advertising that pushes our content down off the first screen!

Right now on the first screen of my Timeline there is one post that i made and one ad and one post by me. If i scroll down one full page i can see the bottom of my post...and another ad from you!

The old ads on the side were fine. this Timeline assault is obnoxious.

And all the more so because you're obviously just selling your space out to anyone, scams included!

"Congratulations! Your IP has been selected in (city here)! Claim prize!"  ??

"Banks Forced to Write Off Billions in Debt! See if you Qualify for this Program" ???


"You have a pending message ::imitation Facebook message box showing 1 message::" ???? 
You're even letting them imitate YOU!?!? And you know what that ad was for? ilivid.com, a site whose banner read "Download and Watch Instantly"

i used to sell advertising for a newspaper. My job was to make the bottom line higher than it was at that time the year before - money talked. But i still worked to never allow scams (or even misleading ads) from reaching my readers!!!


Plus i've been getting ads on my Timeline for things that are both controversial and diametrically opposed to my own social and political beliefs, which means that your inventory of data's crystal ball is broken too!

Don't get me wrong, Facebook, i actually think you're fantastically cool. But my belief in that is not necessarily unwavering. So, please, shape up! Quit selling ads to scams! Quit making the placing of ad content so obnoxious! And please, remember to stay cool - that's why we like you!:-)

Love,

PaxRyan


5 comments:

  1. ..though not to be misunderstood, i don't actually see anything morally wrong with being a whore. i do however see something morally wrong with selling misleading ads to your audience, Facebook!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is interesting. I don't have timeline (yet) but went to your page to check it out, and only saw the ads on the side. I guess you only see them in the center when it is your page. Yuck. Not looking forward to changing. In fact, I am very tempted to get off facebook altogether.

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  3. I don't see any adds on mine. You might want to try an adblocker. I agree with you though, remember how bad Myspace got with all the flashing adds and annoying spam bots? That's where facebook is heading. I would actually prefer paying for a subscription of like, 10 bucks a year, over seeing the ads.

    Also, I don't know what it is, but I still have the biggest problem commenting on your blog... ~Christine

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  4. i don't know Tiffany, i just looked at several friends' Timelines and saw ads on all of theirs too. Are you sure your glimpse just wasn't too quick? They take a moment to load sometimes.
    Christine, what sort of ad blocker do you mean? i definitely see ads on your Timeline - you seriously don't?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Though i don't think this changes most of the content of this post, it sure does change how i think about it - http://adblockplus.org/en/ i don't know how that software works, but it sure does - i no longer see ads on my Timeline!!!:-) Dear Facebook, Timeline still kinda sucks. It looks and feels messy and disorganized and hasn't changed the accessibility of content much from your older system. But, without the horrible ads, it's not so bad:-)

    ReplyDelete

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