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Where's My Dislike Button?

Submitted on September 21, 2011
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Facebook screenshot.If you use Facebook, you're probably used to the layout of the site changing over and over again just as you've gotten used to the way things are set up. This may frustrate you, as these changes often limit the amount of your friends' posts that show up to you or make you a pawn to advertising. I am unfortunate enough to have had my personal account switched over suddenly to the newest layout, and I can tell right away that it has negative aspects for organizations like libraries who have joined Facebook as a way to promote their programming and services.

What has changed?

The new Facebook layout transitions away from a central news feed that is constantly updated with your friends' postings. Instead, the feed is transitioned to a "Ticker," a box on the right side of the screen that shows snippets of your friends' recent postings and activities. Mousing over posts on Ticker will make a scroll bar appear and will bring up a pop-up window showing the full post and any comment threads attached to it.

Ticker Ticking me off

With the constantly scrolling Ticker, it's much easier for posts to get hidden away out of place as new items are posted. Our library likes to post updates reminding our patrons of upcoming programs, and while Facebook does continue to post certain items to the main news feed on your page, there's no telling what formula is currently in place to select what gets posted there. My concern is that the people who are following our Library page on Facebook will not see our event notices before they disappear in the stream of updates on the Ticker, and will miss out on some fun and educational events.

New Facebook layout.

Maybe There's Still Hope

Or maybe Facebook will decide that this new format is not popular enough to impose on all its users, and by the time this is posted, they will have decided not to adopt it. It's obviously still in the testing stages, since only my personal account has switched--my professional account still has the old layout. In the meantime, I will do what I can to provide feedback to their development team to share my user input.

Have you "Liked" your local library yet?

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Author Bio:

Michelle K. is a Librarian at the Brisbane Library. She has disabled her Facebook account in the past, and it is surely only a matter of time before she does it again.


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