This is a follow-up to “An Open Letter to Facebook”.

Although my open letter to Facebook took about 30 minutes to write, I still considered it to be one of the best pieces I have written so far.  In the letter, there were several elements that went into it:

• I embrace diversity, although that means needing to cater to more needs.
• EE 312 (Introduction to Programming) talked about users’ requirements.  I put in a small bit of that just to apply a little of what I learned.
• I abhor people who try to quash innovation.  I did indeed give it a fair trial, hence my understanding of the feature.  Additionally, I know people who like this feature; and I perfectly respect that.  Therefore, the ability to opt-out is the perfect compromise.  As many philosophers believe, happiness comes from living well, living well is living rationally, and living rationally is selecting a means between extremes.
• Good work needs to be recognized.
• One of the innovations I have been actively watching and using is the concept of open-source software.  One of the things I like about it is how transparent it is — anybody can go in and inspect the code that makes it tick.  In a Facebook profile, I put that analogy in there.  A profile makes a person more transparent and people could obtain more knowledge.
• Groups were being formed and joined like wildfire, which made the situation very urgent.  To make this letter more representative of the community, I emphasized that urgency.

Throughout last year, my writings were not so great because of a lack of elaboration and support.  So, while I was writing that piece, I constantly told myself to elaborate; and when I made any point, I made myself back it up with something.  I hope that all my writings for school will be like this.

With everything said, I would like to congratulate those who bore pens (or keyboards) to protest this change and never lost your cool.  We got that solved in record time, and we can now update our Facebooks in peace!  Now, I’d like to see the ability to hide, show, and rearrange the blocks however you please in the profile.

Whew!  I am so tired from the things I have done this week!

Dear Facebook Developers and Administrators,
Facebook as we know it is a useful resource for finding our friends’ contact information and obtain updates on how they are doing.  By posting our profiles here, we make ourselves more transparent and accessible to others.  With the addition of more networks to include companies and our hometowns, the group of people using Facebook diversifies; and as that happens, requirements change.  This is why Facebook has added features like Photos, status updates, and other tweaks that make Facebook more useful and innovative.

While we embrace innovation and openness, as well as your good intentions to satisfy everybody, there exists a limit.  Unfortunately, the line has been crossed with the addition of the “Mini-Feed” feature.  As we understand it, this feature allows users to see comprehensively and at-a-glance the updates done over a period of time.  We feel that this feature is an invasion of our privacy with plenty of potential for abuse.  For example, suppose somebody’s relationship status is changed from “In A Relationship” to “Single,” a change that is currently logged in the Mini-Feed.  Another person could potentially attempt to “come on” to the newly broken-up person, disenfranchising him/her the time needed to recover.

Take a look at the ramifications of this feature now: The formation of groups such as “I HATE THE FACEBOOK FEED FEATURE” and “I remember when facebook didn’t suck.”  As members, we request that this feature can be turned off completely.  The ability to hide individual items is not enough and is tedious.  If you truly respect our privacy, we entreat you to satisfy this requirement that we place before you.  Otherwise, we fear that more peaceful actions done in protest may occur.

Sincerely,
Your Facebook Members

When people tell you that “you suck at life,” be at a loss of words no longer!  While watching people play Life (the board game) tonight, a good respons would be “What?  The board game?”  Expanding on that, my friend pitched in these two quotes: “But I am awesome at Monopoly,” and “Ah, yes, but you should see me with death.”