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Facebook's confusing Timeline is about to become mandatory
By Virginia SmithJanuary 26th, 2012, 11:45 amComments (11)
Facebook's overwhelming Timeline profile layout will no longer be optional, as the website is set to roll out the feature across all user profiles in the coming weeks.
Apparently unaware that I get confused and click away every time I see a profile with Timeline, the site's "entirely new kind of profile" is set to go into effect for all users, but will start as a seven-day preview before it goes live. According to the site, this "gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it."
In other words, you have time to get rid of any embarrassing freshman dorm pictures the new "comprehensive" feature dredges up before all your coworkers and relatives see them. That, and all of us now have to go through the embarrassing spectacle of choosing a background image to represent our true selves. Excuse me while I start Google image searching "sunsets" and "cats."
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Commentarium (11 Comments)
noooooooooooooooo
what he said.
I feel the same way. I avoid profiles with Timeline like the plague.
I agree in that some of my super close friends went to the timeline and needless to say, I have just been sticking to texting them and not paying a damn bit of attention to their pages. This blows balls.
you'll all be over it in a couple of days.
Timeline really isn't so complicated. At all. Not a big deal.
Either way it's an ugly as sin layout.
I know whining about the new facebook layout is terribly '07, this really sucks. It's just ugly and really counter-intuitive.
I think Timeline is a big improvement, it makes the page look sleek and bold. To be honest, I disliked every change fb has rolled out, but I voluntarily switched to timeline because I like the way it looks. And the old page looks just outdated and disorganized to me now.
And while I like the idea of a cover photo, it's entirely optional, you don't have to have one.
I think Timeline is visually pleasing, but I prefer the current format. It seems like there's a trend among websites and magazines lately to redesign their layouts with more and bigger photos and colors while reducing the amount of words and actual substantive content. While pretty, I resent the dumbing-down effect it has. I mean, I'm not 3, I do actually know how to read. Actually, I enjoy reading, and getting information and amusement primarily through the written word is generally the main point of me visiting such sites, not to get a glorified children's picture book/end rant.
I think you're wrong about the dumbing down thing, I don't think photos are an inherently less intellectual means of communication or something -- especially when compared to the average facebook status update -- I think the difference is that the last redesign was facebook trying to get on the twitter thing, and now it's facebook trying to get on the tumblr thing.