The little children running Facebook quietly changed users’ email addresses recently, with no warning whatsoever.
Somebody, hire an adult to supervise the children. And then get this company a good PR person!
This email switcheroo was one of two big, dumb boneheaded moves in the last few days.
Dumb Move Number 1:
The Lifehacker blog explains that Facebook removed everyone’s email addresses from their profiles, replacing them with an @Facebook.com address instead:
You’re stuck with that one unless you know how to change it back to your old email address. Click here for the four-step process on how to do that.
Dumb Move Number 2:
Yesterday, Facebook quietly launched a new feature called Find Friends Nearby. It let users with mobile phones see a list of other Facebook users that were within a certain vicinity.
But within hours, after bloggers already had written about it, Facebook pulled the feature altogether, claiming that it wasn’t supposed to launch in the first place. Facebook says this wasn’t a formal release, “just something a few engineers were testing.”
This publicly traded company is making it increasingly difficult to be taken seriously by advertisers, investors and its more than 800 million active users, who have a right to be peeved about the email switch.
Am I wrong?
Facebook doesn’t give a hoot about advice from you or me. But if they did, what advice would you give them?
Even worse than changing your email without notice is the fact that anyone who hasn’t claimed their name on Facebook, or Facebook email, was turned into a number. So instead of JoanStewart@Facebook.com, you could be 124567@Facebook.com. I think that’s a real slap in the face to users of Facebook.
I think letting Facebook amass Facebook mail may be a way to avoid a lot of junk mail. Just ignore anything sent to the FB email address and you’ll have one less pile of junk to monitor.
Facebook didn’t steal your private information. You gave it to them.
We all gave Facebook permission to share our personal information, including email, address and anything else we ever chose to share there – including our friends’ information. Nobody, including me, reads privacy policies, especially ones that are pages and pages long.
All excellent points. I had forgotten about the “you’re just a number” aspect. Thanks for stopping by, BL.
FB shut down a page with no reason given and I can’t for the life of me reopen it.
It’s insane to have a business where the consumer has literally NO way of communicating with the company and your are forced into something you don’t even want, like FB email and timeline.
I wish they had good competition…competition improves a company or puts them out of business.
The sad truth is that Facebook is free. So you play by Facebook’s rules. The company has a variety of forms you can fill out and submit if you’re having a problem. But don’t wait around for a reply if you have something better to do. You can start here: https://www.facebook.com/help/suggestions/. Also, go over to Mari Smith’s FB page and look for the link she has where you can find all the various forms to submit if you have a gripe about something. She’s at http://www.Facebook.com/MariSmith
Facebook is like an ill behaved child when it comes to user interface changes — seeking forgiveness for manipulating account information rather than asking permission. What’s most disturbing is the site’s bad habit (both from a PR and consumer relations perspective) of making arbitrary changes without giving users any kind of a warning. FB spent months publicizing the changeover to Timeline. And yet, when it comes to sensitive information like publishing cell phone numbers or switching email addresses, the site stays silent until being outed for the changes. What would happen if the broader online community failed to catch these unannounced modifications? For a website that’s all about sharing, its
it’s time for Facebook to start playing nicely in the sandbox and stop being so secretive.
Well said, Melissa. Thanks for a deeper response than what I offered.
Joan,
Thanks for continuing to be the pro that you are and sniffing out the vital information we need to keep our heads above water.
I have a big gripe about Facebook and others who are eager to disclose our actual whereabouts to “Friends” or anyone else. (If they are really “Friends” we’ll decide when we want them to have this info.) While this may be ideal for retail businesses who want to encourage walk-in traffic, this is the pits for us homebased entrepreneurs who have no interest in having a “Friend” show up unannounced or even know that we are nearby.
As for launching Find Friends Nearby accidentally? Come on! Evidentally their brain cells are disproportionate to their earnings.
Flora, I think the “Find Friends Nearby” feature is creepy. Thanks for joining this very interesting discussion!
It wasn’t until someone explained to me that Facebook was being run without adult supervision that I finally got it. But…one day Mark will grow up. Or will he?
So many of the spur-of-the-moment changes, their awful customer service, etc. make you wonder. It remains to be seen how long it takes for a significant number of users to leave this site. Thanks for your comments, Laurie.
I would not have know about this if you would not have posted it, Joan. And, like the pro you are, you told us what to do about it. Thanks!
Actually, Jobi, it was the LifeHacker blog that had the 4-point list. I simply linked to it.
Joan, Facebook is out of control. Thanks for the LifeHacker link. I’ll be checking on my email and if need be down the road deleting my FB account. Enough is enough.
Lete’s see how this plays out. It will be interesting to see Facebook’s next move.
About two months before Facebook’s IPO my teenagers stopped responding to anything I sent them via FB. When I finally noticed after a couple of weeks and asked them why they said “we don’t really use it that much anymore.” The latest boneheaded maneuvers only underscore my gut feeling that the company’s best days are now behind.
I am hearing this more and more, but usually not from teenagers. Thanks for your comments, Mike.