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Ask HN: Is anyone else being forced to move to Facebook timeline?

4 points by grecy ↗ HN
I've been resisting timeline since it's introduction, and have never agreed to it being on my profile.

Today I logged in and saw a message "You now have timeline. Preview it before others see it beginning August 14".

Does anyone know if Facebook can move me to timeline without my explicit consent?

21 comments

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esolyt
It happened to me too. And yes, I guess it can move you to anything without your explicit consent.
grecy
I figured there was a change in the terms of service that required explicit consent.... damn, I guess not.
esolyt
Probably. I don't even care about Facebook anymore. It is just an XMPP server for me.
graue
I love the idea of Facebook being "just an XMPP server". Even though I knew they use XMPP for Facebook chat, I never thought about it that way.
esolyt
I needed a way to use Facebook Chat without seeing the news feed. Because, I would always impulsively and uncontrollably click on some link and then start going through people's profiles as a chain reaction. I now just use Pidgin to connect their XMPP server (group chat doesn't work though, they use their own proprietary implementation for that).
koopajah
The messenger application should do it no? It is available for desktop and smartphones
tdimaline
It rearranges all of my beautiful icons :'(
esolyt
If I'm not mistaken, the desktop app was Windows-only. I'm using Linux on my desktop.
ceslami
It is entertaining to me that you would presume Facebook doesn't "have a right" to change the way your profile looks.

This reminds me of when SearchKing sued google because they position on SERP's dropped. At some point, people forget that there are multinational corporations behind these massive service. They have no obligation to delight you, or remain consistent in appearance/functionality.

27182818284
It gave me a heads up and then moved me automatically like a month or so ago. I think they're just pulling the final trigger on the people resisting a layout change. (That is all it is, there isn't new data...they don't make up stories about you)
lylemckeany
I switched nearly a year ago. I'm shocked that they have waited this long to force-switch everyone over to it.

Out of curiosity, why are you opposed to timeline?

grecy
The layout is painful to use (I've seen friend's accounts)

And I really hate the "inline" ads.

lylemckeany
Agreed on the ads, for sure. But ads are to be expected with FB no matter what and they're annoying in general anyways.

One thing I like about timeline is the discovery when looking at someone else's. It makes it a little easier to grasp what that person is all about in a relatively short amount of time. It's also pretty cool that you can add in significant life events that occurred well before FB (or even the web) existed.

grecy
> It's also pretty cool that you can add in significant life events that occurred well before FB (or even the web) existed.

It's amazing we're so willingly giving the details of our 'significant life events' to an advertising company, without any thought to what it means in the long run.

caw
Yes, my friends and I have been getting forced over since August 4th. I was August 5th, so it seems like a gradual forced rollout.
trueneverland
Just verified, not happening with every account (at least not yet over here).
creativeone
Why do so many people care about the layout of their Facebook profile?
grecy
Because my use case of Facebook is get in, check stuff and get out as fast as I can.

The Timeline seems to be designed in such a way to make it really hard to quickly scan for information, therefore sucking you in for more and more time. It's not surprising, Facebook want everyone to spend more time on the site, it's just a pain.

mihirs
Yup, I got hit too.
jamesjguthrie
I changed as soon as I could. Ads don't bother me as I have Adblock Plus installed, and I hate missing out on new features.