6 ms·

If you are constantly getting spammed by a fan page that you explicitly liked or followed, then the appropriate answer is to unlike or unfollow it. There's no

by arron61 14y ago

If you are constantly getting spammed by a fan page that you explicitly liked or followed, then the appropriate answer is to unlike or unfollow it. There's no reason to curate information that you wanted to get to begin with. What if Twitter implemented something like this where certain tweets from a person you are following do not appear? How would that feel? This strikes me totally as a money play and not for the user.

thehodge 14y ago
However as you can see from that screenshot, a brand can target fans and friends of fans, so even if you don't like it a brand, you can see see the ad if your friend does
- cjensen 14y ago
  Yes, but it as the screenshot says, it costs a lot to just reach your fans. Reaching friends of fans is a different issue.
TeMPOraL 14y ago
> There's no reason to curate information that you wanted to get to begin with. But are you sure users actually wanted that information? I strongly believe this assumption is false. If I "like" something, I want to express that I like it. I want my friends to know it. It's not a "subscribe" button, it's a "like" button, and contrary to what people in spam^H^H^H^Had business may believe, people actually attach meaning to what is written. It's not a #:G4202 button, it's a "like" button. If you call it "follow", you get a different meaning and different expectations. > What if Twitter implemented something like this where certain tweets from a person you are following do not appear? How would that feel? Twitter is not Facebook. Twitter is about following people. Facebook is about showing people (my friends) what I like (and not necessarily caring what it has to say). I, for one, welcome these new changes and want to repeat by GP: good riddance!
- borlak 14y ago
  I think you've touched on the base problem of both sides of the argument -- it's a UX issue. Facebook has given too much power to the 'like' button. There should be a different 'follow' or 'subscribe' button. If you subscribe to a page, you would expect to always get updates from it. I only subscribed to facebook to be able to watch some dev videos. As I slowly became more used to it, I wanted to know how to get updates from the company page I work for. When I asked how to do this and was told to 'like' the company, that made no sense to me. What if I don't actually "like" something, but I still want to watch its activity?
  - arron61 14y ago
    Yes..this is exactly what I mean. If you don't want to be spammed from liking something, then don't allow the brands to reach out to users who liked their products. You can only do this with "follow." By this definition, brands won't tell people to "like" their pages anymore, they will just say "follow" them. FB blurred the links and now no one knows what "like" or "follow" will do. I can follow a brand and still not get all the information from that brand. This is ridiculous.
  - brazzy 14y ago
    > Facebook has given too much power to the 'like' button. There should be a different 'follow' or 'subscribe' button. Oh yes, please. I want to see the epic torrent of butthurt from "Brands" like Mark Cuban when that happens and they find that less than 10% of their "fans" are actually interested in their "messages" so their reach is far smaller than now.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  I agree with everything you said, but as a practical matter I wanted to point out that it is possible on Facebook to like something and then "hide" it from your newsfeed. This allows you to register your like without all the spam. This is what I did with "Barack Obama", because I do support him and wanted to publically acknowledge that, but I don't need to see three captioned photos of him per day.
danielrhodes 14y ago
I don't think the answer is so binary. Just because you like a product/company/person's page does not mean that you always want to hear from that page. The EdgeRank algorithm is supposed to rank social response and especially your friend's engagement in determining the importance of a post. However, there are clearly cases where the poster would want to attribute increased importance to that post and make sure that more people than usual see it (e.g. an important announcement). That is what Facebook is charging for: the ability to get around its algorithm. I think the problem in the past year for many brands is that Facebook has not had this feature, and the fact that you can pay for it is probably reassuring to many companies because it means they have a guaranteed channel if they need it. The alternative: people get annoyed with liking pages because they are too noisy and start unliking everything and you ruin the channel.
- jeffwidman 14y ago
  For those who don't know what EdgeRank is, start with this primer: http://edgerank.net/ http://edgerank.net/

by arron61 14y ago

thehodge 14y ago

However as you can see from that screenshot, a brand can target fans and friends of fans, so even if you don't like it a brand, you can see see the ad if your friend does

cjensen 14y ago
Yes, but it as the screenshot says, it costs a lot to just reach your fans. Reaching friends of fans is a different issue.

TeMPOraL 14y ago

> There's no reason to curate information that you wanted to get to begin with. But are you sure users actually wanted that information? I strongly believe this assumption is false. If I "like" something, I want to express that I like it. I want my friends to know it. It's not a "subscribe" button, it's a "like" button, and contrary to what people in spam^H^H^H^Had business may believe, people actually attach meaning to what is written. It's not a #:G4202 button, it's a "like" button. If you call it "follow", you get a different meaning and different expectations. > What if Twitter implemented something like this where certain tweets from a person you are following do not appear? How would that feel? Twitter is not Facebook. Twitter is about following people. Facebook is about showing people (my friends) what I like (and not necessarily caring what it has to say). I, for one, welcome these new changes and want to repeat by GP: good riddance!

borlak 14y ago
I think you've touched on the base problem of both sides of the argument -- it's a UX issue. Facebook has given too much power to the 'like' button. There should be a different 'follow' or 'subscribe' button. If you subscribe to a page, you would expect to always get updates from it. I only subscribed to facebook to be able to watch some dev videos. As I slowly became more used to it, I wanted to know how to get updates from the company page I work for. When I asked how to do this and was told to 'like' the company, that made no sense to me. What if I don't actually "like" something, but I still want to watch its activity?
- arron61 14y ago
  Yes..this is exactly what I mean. If you don't want to be spammed from liking something, then don't allow the brands to reach out to users who liked their products. You can only do this with "follow." By this definition, brands won't tell people to "like" their pages anymore, they will just say "follow" them. FB blurred the links and now no one knows what "like" or "follow" will do. I can follow a brand and still not get all the information from that brand. This is ridiculous.
- brazzy 14y ago
  > Facebook has given too much power to the 'like' button. There should be a different 'follow' or 'subscribe' button. Oh yes, please. I want to see the epic torrent of butthurt from "Brands" like Mark Cuban when that happens and they find that less than 10% of their "fans" are actually interested in their "messages" so their reach is far smaller than now.
georgemcbay 14y ago
I agree with everything you said, but as a practical matter I wanted to point out that it is possible on Facebook to like something and then "hide" it from your newsfeed. This allows you to register your like without all the spam. This is what I did with "Barack Obama", because I do support him and wanted to publically acknowledge that, but I don't need to see three captioned photos of him per day.

danielrhodes 14y ago

I don't think the answer is so binary. Just because you like a product/company/person's page does not mean that you always want to hear from that page. The EdgeRank algorithm is supposed to rank social response and especially your friend's engagement in determining the importance of a post. However, there are clearly cases where the poster would want to attribute increased importance to that post and make sure that more people than usual see it (e.g. an important announcement). That is what Facebook is charging for: the ability to get around its algorithm. I think the problem in the past year for many brands is that Facebook has not had this feature, and the fact that you can pay for it is probably reassuring to many companies because it means they have a guaranteed channel if they need it. The alternative: people get annoyed with liking pages because they are too noisy and start unliking everything and you ruin the channel.

jeffwidman 14y ago
For those who don't know what EdgeRank is, start with this primer: http://edgerank.net/ http://edgerank.net/