Zombie Robs
I (used to) use Facebook for people I know well, LinkedIn for weaker ties and Twitter mostly for people I don’t know at all.
Over time though I’ve created identities on pretty much every network. With the increased interconnectedness of such sites when I stop using them I don’t stop posting…
I just discovered (in a spam filter) that someone was having a one sided conversation with me on Plaxo Pulse. I’m also actively posting (but not paying attention) on Buzz and goodness know how many other networks. I’m sure this inflates their active user count admirably but I’m now worried that undead me is being rude.
The social graph needs to work better in the other direction. Everything I post and comment on syndicates out like crazy but keeping track of responses just isn’t working.
Related Posts
- Circles
- Pulling the plug on Facebook and Twitter, Tweet Archive
- Facebook Interoperability
- Fight Facebook with Email
- Facebook shouldn't own your social graph
(Published to the Fediverse as: Zombie Robs #etc #facebook #linkedin #twitter #plaxopulse #buzz #socialgraph Zombie Robs (how not to follow one - you can reach me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or preferably just here). )
Top 5 reasons to hate the Facebook like button
5. Validation
The metadata required to use the like button looks like this:
[code:html][/code]
But the property attribute isn't valid html or xhtml. The “Open” Graph Protocol says that it's inspired by Dublin Core. DC manages to get by using the name attribute like any other meta tag - why can't Open Graph? It's not the worst problem but it just seems needlessly irksome. Facebook has published a presentation describing their design decisions. This would be great, but it's in that Lessig one word per slide style and so it's attractive but completely useless without the presenter.
4. Fragility
Facebook's documentation is frustratingly sparse. For example you need to specify the owner of the page using a Facebook ID, and once you've chosen a name for your profile this is hard to find. The information vacuum has been filled with many erroneous blog posts saying to use the name, or some number from a shared photo (the best source is http://graph.facebook.com/robert.ellison, substituting your own username). Once you've got the admin ID wrong, you can't correct it - the first admin specified is fixed forever. What happens if a site is hacked and a bad actor sets themselves up as the admin? Surely something like the Google Webmaster Tools authentication scheme could have been used instead?
3. Pages with more than one object
Describing the object being liked in the head element limits you to one object per page. For some sites this is perfect, but what about a blog where you have many posts on the home page? It would be useful to have a like button per post, pointing at the permalink for the post in question. I've worked around this by having a like button for the blog on the home page, and a like button for each post on the post pages. Not ideal. I'm using the iframe version of the gadget, possibly there's some more flexibility with the XBML variant.
2. Duplicating existing pages
Let's say you've spent the past couple of years building up a Facebook page for your site/band/blog/movie and have thousands of fans. When you click your new like button for the first time you create a whole new page. There's no way to tell the like button about the existing page or the existing page about the like button. You now have at least two pages to worry about managing and potentially many, many more. You're also starting from scratch on the ‘like’ count, so even if your brand is already popular on Facebook it's back to Billy no-mates for you.
I can't believe this won't be fixed at some point. As with admin authentication above there must be a better way to establish ownership of various objects in the social graph.
1. Vocabulary
For better or worse Facebook has the inexorable pull to start making the semantic web a reality. Given this, and that there are something like twenty-four thousand verbs in the English language it's time for more expressiveness than ‘like’. You also can't comment on the ‘liked’ item in your stream (yet) so no clarification or discussion is possible.
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Having said all that, if you enjoyed this post please click the ‘like’ button above ;)
Related Posts
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- Apparently you can’t build an alternative to Facebook without Facebook integration…
- Got It
(Published to the Fediverse as: Top 5 reasons to hate the Facebook like button #etc #facebook #like #lessig #dublincore #semanticweb #opengraph #metadata Why can't you link to an existing page? How can you have a like button per blog post on your home page? Are we headed towards a world with only one verb? )
MMS Photo Upload to Facebook
Does Facebook now hate MMS? For the past couple of weeks every time I tried to send a photo I got the following error message:
You have uploaded from an unrecognized address. For instructions on how to upload photos to Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/mobile"
I got this sending to both [email protected] and 32665. The referenced page is no help at all, and my phone number is registered with Facebook Mobile.
It turns out that there's a new secret email address. On the Facebook site click the icon to share a photo:
Then click Upload a Photo:
Then click upload via email:
Your personal email address is finally revealed and can be used to send a photo via MMS.
Facebook - update your error message to point this out!
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(Published to the Fediverse as: MMS Photo Upload to Facebook #etc #facebook #mms How to MMS photo Upload to Facebook via the hidden personal upload email address. )