My kids have been on Facebook for three years or more, when it was only open to College and High School students.
My daughter tells me that about a year ago, Facebook started a news feed and its members were outraged at the change, and that it seemed to Facebook members that Facebook was trying to look like MySpace.
Facebook members started a group to get rid of the news feed or to allow members the option to turn off the news feed.
Facebook management (so I hear from my daughter) told people that if their group has a million members (the group did reach that number very quickly) that Facebook would allow people to turn off their news feed.
Within a week or so, the option to turn off the news feed on Facebook was instituted, my daughter tells me. She is one of many, many Facebook members who turned off her news feed.
It seems both a fairly simple technical change and one also that addresses the privacy and personal preferences for the many members here on Gather who have expressed their feelings about the news feed and some of the changes re: Hawthorne.
I appreciate the work Gather staff has put into the upgrade and appreciate the features I do like: Spotlighting, Profile Visits, article and image views.
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Comments: 266 ( 1 removed by Kathryn E. )
Steph: I think we should have the option, too.
I think PINGS should be private and I think the News Feed should be an option. Otherwise, no complaints. Those are my two main issues.
The first number I saw was 149 votes - with about 42 percent FOR the uprgrade and 29 percent AGAINST. After people sent emails to their connections, that number changed quickly - within an hour to 384 votes and 54 percent AGAINST - I think about 29 percent was FOR the upgrade at this time. Some were OTHER, some were UNDECIDED.
You mentioned in a previous writing that there are many of us here that are baby boomer age or older. It astounds me that they could think that clicking 4 or 5 times to get somewhere when it used to take only one click could be a good idea, especially for boomers and older. They could not have consulted anyone about "human factors".
I'm also amazed at the attitudes taken with members yesterday. When so many have concerns, it's not smart business to choose the attitude, "like it or lump it." Before computers, if people were dissatisfied, they might tell a few friends. Now, with the Internet dissatisfaction in a product or company can reach millions and millions with the click of a mouse.
I looked at facebook a while back and thought, "I'm too old for that." That's what I think now, when I go to my page here.
For me, I think that is my biggest issue. It's all cluttered and jumbled together. I don't honestly believe Gather is going to go back to the old style or give us an option of going back to the old style. I do however think they are going to do something like allow us to control what feeds we are receiving.
While I prefer the old way with my articles/images/videos being nicely organized into separate sections, I think I can adjust to the need feeds if I'm given the ability to control my feeds.
It also slightly annoys me that when I click on a members name, it no longer takes me to all of that members content... I guess I'll adjust to that also.
***
Before I sent my email earlier tonight, I checked the poll, which stood at 149 votes, 42 percent FOR and approximately 29 percent AGAINST.
Several people sent emails asking members to vote in the poll, including the email I sent. About an hour after I first checked - not that long after the emails were sent, the poll results were:
The final tally I saw just before it was taken down, was 384 votes total and 54 percent AGAINST the upgrade and about 29 percent (I am not 100 certain of the FOR number...but it was a LOT lower than the against in the final tally before Gather replaced it with the HDTV poll).
If Gather simply allows us this choice: to collapse the feed and to use the old view - for those of us who wish to do so, then literally thousands of us will be a lot happier.
Many members are Baby Boomers - people born from 1946 - 1964 - and a significant number are also people of the Greatest Generation - born before 1946. (Those two generations comprise 128 million people born during those two generations - Boomers - 78 million and the Greatest Generation - 50 million.
However, all across the country - as exemplified in the book, Generation Ageless, a book promoted on Gather not long ago, many, many marketing decisions fail to reach the target audience because many marketeers are Gen Xers - a group comprising only 50 million to the Boomers 78 million.
The reason the Gen Xers fail to reach the target audience is that they misread WHO their target is: They forget to look at Demographics as the clue to knowing their target - and demographics reveals that the biggest buying group, the biggest population bulge since 1946 has been and will be for years to come is ALWAYS the BOOMERS; focus groups, which are small samplings and not representative of demographics do not always hit the mark.
This is true in retail and it is true in many aspects of current marketing in business today.
Many members are Boomers or Greatest Generation - and some are older Gen Xers (people born after 1964 but before the mid-1970s) who reflect the values of Boomers more than they reflect the values of younger Gen Xers .
This is actually a feature that I like! I like being able to see my connections comments. I've been lead to some interesting content, that otherwise I would have missed, because one of my connections made a comment that peeked my interest.
We've also always been able to see our "friends" activity with connecting to other people... It just wasn't up front and in your face.
Personally, I'd just like to be able to filter it to only getting articles/images/videos and comments!
I actually have a lot of non-Gather computer work to do this weekend, (for which I am paid) so I am trying not to spend TOO much time away from my freelance work...And a lot of competition here for the computer...
Organizational psychology consultants advise their clients against presenting clients with too many choices because people tend to make no decision when presented with too many choices.
Likewise, retail experts caution against a cluttered presentation because customers do not buy when the presentation is messy.
Also, just as an aside, people(35 and under) are LESS inclined in this day and age to learn about computers/internet. They know how to get to where they want to and don't want to be bothered learning new stuff--this was a survey done on computer users and college students about 12-18 months ago--and I learned about it from my professor in a computer science class(I was taking to refresh my skills). That means that even the younger groups don't want to be bothered....not just us "old" folks!
Maybe gather just makes changes so we can complain and create lots of page views in the process. Hmmm.
interesting, about computers and people under 35.....I am the most knowledgeable in my family ( my husband the least = just his personality) with my daughter the second most knowledgeable. She is a whiz. Just her personality.
My son, not so much. He fits the profile in your study.
Reading improves the mind.
A developed mind is essential for togetherness.
35 and under group? Hmm, maybe my husband and I are just geeks, hence the reason we've got so many techie friends LOL
The main reason I dig gather is because their pages return HIGH SEARCH PAGE RESULTS ! ! ! !
Google crawls over gather every damn hour, maybe more than once an hour. You can write an article and find it on google within an hour, sometimes even faster.
The feeds are only going to improve that.
Ariellle, Kevin V. (threemenfishing.gather.com) has a HELP article every day. You can ask him questions about navigation.
You know this is very true even for the internet. I was taught in my html classes that one of the very first reasons for a website to fail is due to it being hard to navigate.
Just like writing, you've got a small window of opportunity to catch a person's interest. With a webpage it is the same. If a person has trouble finding the way around a website, they will quickly leave it.
Ashmin: Customization would help.
I will be back later.
Some very professional people on this site, including myself and some of the Correspondents, are considering leaving Gather, due to aspects of the upgrade that relate to privacy.
For a person who is serious about what they do in the real world and who use their Gather page as an example of their professional persona, the upgrade trivializes aspects of what many of us do on Gather.
I do like that we can see how many times our profile has been viewed (No one else sees this).
I do like that we can Spotlight 4 articles and 4 images and/or audio/video content.
However, the feed is not only useless for me (and for many, from the emails I've been getting) it also clutters the page, and trivializes our content by making these 'Kathryn commented on so and so" or "So and so commented on Kathryn's article" public.
People and employers who go to my page want to see the list of articles I have written, not comments made. In my professional life as a freelance writer, I cannot afford the image this new upgrade now presents - this does not only affect me but it affects many - or every one of us.
I guess I don't understand enough about what a news feed is, because I don't know why everybody is so up-in-arms about it. I also never knew there are "professionals" here, and I don't understand why a professional would spend time here for ift cards and/or so little pay.....
Jennifer: YEP.
The Correspondents and a number of the members who take writing, photography and/or art very seriously may be using their profile on Gather as part of their professional image.
Gather, please let your customers choose which view they want to present to the other members and what activities they are willing to share.
James: We are members, subscribers to the service but NOT customers. The customers, or clients are the advertisers.
That does present a conflict of interest, as it is we who are LIKE customers but customers provide the bottom line for a company. Only the advertisers here do that.
But if the subscribers to the service are ignored, people will go away. But more will coe. Then go away.
I really think Gather did not consider the news feed a vital point, otherwise they probably would have given us the choice.
I'll pull my personal info and shut off pings when I am done typing here, I;ll still be around , but until there is a change in the "new" look, it will not be as often.
Thanks,
Sandy
Just found your article. Yes, choice would be good....I would like that if Gather offered it!
Thank you for another place to vent Kathryn!
You can put key words about your interests in the text box and it automatically searches for them on gather. Then when someone publishes an article with thos words in it, Feed Me brings the article/ comment to your attention.
I find it's a great way to find articles I'd normally not stumble across.
Mathew: Thanks for your input. I think people should have the choice, as many feel it trivializes and clutters the page.
I don't do anything that I am ashamed of but still who really cares anyway.
Be ready for more changes too. I don't see anyone mentioning this. Gather officials said this was the first change and there would soon be another.
There will be changes, but NEWS FEED should be an option.
Nancy: Agreed.
I just want you to stop sending me mass mails about this - and I'm still waiting for you to clarify what you meant by 'some correspondents are leaving if...' .
Anyone but you? Certainly not me or Austin.
I don't fear the feed, or see it as an invasion of my 'privacy'. You're on a public site, posting publicly. With a few clicks, anyone could have seen what you were commenting on or who you were friends with the way the system was set up before.
--L
LEAVE YOUR NAME, SAY CHOICE OF FEEDS or something to that effect. Unless you like the Feeds as they now stand. You can state that, as well.
Other upgrade comments also welcome.
But there were others, too.
Well, I'm with you, and Laura is wrong, I have to say, because people should be able to control what's on their site, and what others can see. Sure it's a public site, but it works for US. I have a Facebook page to keep up with my nieces and nephew, and also with young students that are in our programs. I HATE the Facebooking of Gather, and it seems all these changes are really for the worse. News feeds should be a choice! I like change if it's good, but this one clearly is NOT.
This is a petition to voice your opinion on the feeds and other upgrade issues.
Anyhow, next time you send out the mass mailing, please be a little more clear that 'some' is not us.
Still not seeing what the problem is with the feed,
--L
Andrea: thanks for your opinion on the Feeds. It really does clutter a formerly CLEAN page! Professional!
My daughter turned off her News Feed on Facebook immediately. My son, too. I'd like the same here. Then I will have no issues except to make pings a choice of public or private.
Speak for yourself.