*Begin Rant*
Ok so it’s 11:07pm on a Wednesday night and I am kind of POed right now. Some of you may know that I spend an unhealthy amount of a large amount of productive time on Facebook and have really grown to love it for my business and for my private life. But then came the changes…
- The several different revamps of the Home page. (Really, we need an extra sidebar and for you to hide all of the information and links I use on a regular basis? Nothing like fixing something that’s not broken.)
- The addition of the News feed and the Most Recient feed. (Really? You think you know what I want to look at better than I do? Maybe Facebook has psychic robot dogs that can just tell what I absolutely need to see; and in that case I need one of those robot dogs.)
- The sneaky changing of the “privacy” policy. (I had no idea advertisers were so interested in people’s high school photos or the mobile uploads from last nights bar crawl. Interesting…)
- “Liking” instead of “Fanning” a page. (I have no witty remarks. This is just dumb.)
All of these are unsettling but I was able to look past it because I loved Facebook.
- I love catching up with old friends and finding new friends.
- I like being able to post pictures and videos for said friends to comment on.
- I love the fact that I have the option of being a virtual farmer or a mob boss from the comfort of my own home. (I have done neither of those things.)
Today Facebook may gone too far…
I discovered (via Twitter) a forum post that states that Fan Pages no longer have the option of directing new visitors to a custom landing tab.
*Insert verbal diarrhea here*
Here’s the post:
Seriously?! 10k fans?! I was excited when I hit the 100 mark and got my vanity URL! I’m not saying I suck or anything but I’m not vain enough to think that I am going to acquire 10,000 anytime soon! (This is were you start the letter writing campaign to get me the 10k fans. Hint Hint Nudge Nudge)
This is a stab in the back to all the small business owners on Facebook who have spent time and money to create custom FBML tabs for their visitors. I offer this service to my clients because it’s a great way to really show a new visitor what yout Facebook Fan page is all about and what they can expect if they Fan Like your page.
This has really put a bee in my bonnet.
(Here’s where you envision me very angry about, first of all wearing a bonnet, and second of all finding a bee inside said bonnet.)
I bet MySpace is just loving this… 
*End of Rant*
*Update: (5/20) Facebook seems to have noticed a few unhappy customers and has changed the landing options back to the way they were. You’re landing tabs should work now. Your welcome. 
Sure I’m happy about this but I can’t help but to envision their thought process…
Hey! Maybe we change something huge on our platform and then see if anyone gets upset! Then when they’re all ready to leave we say, “Awww, baby we were just playin. Come on back now and give Facebook some suger!”
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LOL
Lots of people found out before me.
And I totally want *that* job at Facebook
I saw that! (because you are on top of things) I can't help but think Facebook is just screwing with us now…
“Hey Bob, you want to change some crap around and not tell anyone?”
“Sure, as long as it's going to really piss everyone off and then we change it back!”
“Deal!”
I don't think FB has any customer support staff
It seems that FB has changed the landing tabs back … at least for now …
I agree! Why can't we just submit our fan pages to be approved? Ebay does that for all of their postings so it can't be too hard to get started.
Lol, fanning. I just don't understand why they feel they need to fix something that isn't broken! They have over 500 million subscribers so evidently what their doing works.
I'm with you here. I've been like ok, whatever with a lot of the changes but this one really irks me. (Oooh … I just used the word irked). It's taken me a year to get almost 1,000 – at this rate I will be retired before I get 10,000 and Facebook will have gone the way of the dodo.
Apparently is was to cut down on spammy pages, which was a huge problem, but why not find a way for legitimate small businesses to become authenticated in a way that they can afford. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a nominal fee to have a fan page that worked properly.
On the plus side, this did give you an opportunity to use the word “fanning,” which, really, just doesn't get enough play in everyday speech. Unless you're talking about air conditioning a lot. It's a funny looking word, that one.
But ugh, why must they change things? And why change to less-fun things, things like being anti-privacy and making us “like” stuff? Why, FB, why?
But you need 10,000 fans or buy Facebook advertising to get your robot dog. C'mon, Robot dogs are the new facebook.