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Show HN: Facebook Unlike

47 points by suckaplease 14y ago

dmor 14y ago
Interesting, I went through my likes and I don't really have a problem with any of these pages/brands. I guess I don't "like" a ton of stuff (maybe 30 pages, no major brands) so maybe it's not an issue for me but is for other people.
pgrote 14y ago
Can you explain why and what the app will post on the timeline? I didn't see an example on the site. thanks.
SparksZilla 14y ago
It took me a second to get what this was, but after I logged in with FB I definitely found some pages I needed to unlike. Great idea.
courtneypowell 14y ago
Search for "Nick Bergus" and "55-gallon drum of lubricant" to see why you don't want to end up in a sponsored ad.
- gregpilling 14y ago
  Do you mean this link? http://nbergus.com/2012/02/how-i-became-amazons-pitchman-for-a-55-gallon-drum-of-personal-lubricant-on-facebook/ http://nbergus.com/2012/02/how-i-became-amazons-pitchman-for...
  - courtneypowell 14y ago
    Yes! Crazy story.
    - gregpilling 14y ago
      but what kind of SXSW party could you throw with that much lube?
TheBurningOr 14y ago
Needs to have a more prominent share button so I can send this to my friends who have so helpfully 'liked' products that I'm now spammed with.
leviathan 14y ago
Why does the app need all these permissions to access my likes?
- pan69 14y ago
  Exactly. Looks like someone is collecting Facebook data on Facebook Connect. Devious....
  - suckaplease 14y ago
    Out login system only supports one set of permissions and we're using the default set for our primary application. However, I hear what you're saying and I'm deploying a reduced set now. Thanks!
webwanderings 14y ago
Probably good for those who don't know what they're doing on the Internet.
davidkatz 14y ago
doesn't work for me, i get a login error. too bad.
csallen 14y ago
Why do people make sites like this where you're required to give them access to tons of your information before they even tell you what they do? The home page does a poor job explaining why I should use this to unlike pages over, say, logging into Facebook and unliking pages on my own.
- tchae 14y ago
  you're not required to sign up?? it's just iframe like buttons... and have you ever tried unliking pages in mass on FB itself?
  - sumzup 14y ago
    It's pretty easy to do with Graph Search, for what it's worth (yes, I realize most people don't have it yet). Just search for "Pages I have liked".
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
mmanfrin 14y ago
You should add a like button to this page, for mega meta irony points.
- Sirupsen 14y ago
  It seems there already is one when you connect with Facebook.
codva 14y ago
I was pleasantly surprised that I only have about 40 likes, most of them small local businesses or projects friends are connected to somehow. Didn't feel the need to unlike anything. Cool idea though.
jaredsohn 14y ago
Which likes is it supposed to show? It only showed 24 likes for me and I'm aware of many more things that I've liked that weren't shown there. Edit: If you go here http://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/ http://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/ and add 'likes' to the FQL query, you can see many more via the API.
- bpatrianakos 14y ago
  Same here. I've never worked with the Facebook API but I'm guessing there's some sort of limiting going on somehwere that won't let the app pull every like. That or the amount of JavaScript that needs to run to load some people's likes would kill everone's browser. Or maybe some combination of the two. For what it's worth, most of my likes I was okay with but after disliking a few and refreshing I got a couple that didn't show up the first time.
zbowling 14y ago
.... and facebook banned it. Login is dead.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
devindotcom 14y ago
Yesss! As expected, there is only one like on mine: "Saying 'hella'."
ForFreedom 14y ago
How did this ever reach the top on HN?
cedricd 14y ago
How long is this supposed to take? It's just showing a spinner for me.
geuis 14y ago
I HIGHLY recommend no one else use this site without more followup from the developer I don't like this. Not for what it claims to do, but because it doesn't clearly say what it does do. "Facebook Unlike". I get that, good name. When I go to the site, I understand I have to sign in with Facebook. That's fine. Problems: 1) Why does your app require permission to write to my page? You only need permissions to read all the pages that I have liked, nothing more. 2) It is not clear where these FB pages are coming from. I am presented with a handful of FB pages. Now some of them I have Liked and will continue to do so like Photopic Sky Survey. But I am also presented with things like "omg! from Yahoo" and "omg! Insider", but of which I have never and would never like. 3) The term "Unlike" indicates there should be buttons or toggles called "Unlike". At a minimum, hitting "Like" on something I've already clicked should "unlike" it. However, I'm seeing a mix of pages that I definitely have liked and other ones like "omg!" that I did not like. The "Like" button is available on this. If I hit that, am I liking or unliking that page? Its a visual double negative. 4) Once you hit Like, there's no way toggle the button state again. It just turns to Like and stays there.
- bpatrianakos 14y ago
  Actually some of what you said is incorrect. 1) You're probably right 2) Me and others I know have used this and recognize all our likes. There are cases where you accidentally or unknowingly like something which may explain the Likes you claim to never have liked. I've had my FB account since 2006. I don't know about you or others but there's bound to be some likes you don't remember if you've been a member long enough. 3) I agree - I was a little misled at first thinking there would be buttons to unlike pages. That said, and correct me if I'm wrong, there actually is no way to unlike a Facebook page apart from visiting the original page or clicking the embedded Like button you originally clicked to Like it a second time. I don't think this is the developer's fault. This is a Facebook issue and the developer seems to be working around the limitations of "Unlikes". 4) This is incorrect. If you hover over the grayed out checkmark you can click again to unlike. By default all of them should be grayed out and checked anyway since you've already liked them. Hovering over the check mark will show an X. You click the X and it's unliked. It is hard to understand and not intuitive on a number of levels but again, this is something out of the developer's control. I understand your concern that we should be wary of random sites that ask us to log in with Facebook and you're justified in having reservations but in this case a lot of your concerns are easily explained by the Facebook API itself. This looks far more legit than not. The only sketchy part about it was the "Log in with Facebook" request - but once you get past that you see it's legit.
mccolin 14y ago
Usage of your image in this fashion can be blocked via a setting on Facebook that is very easy to find: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&view https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&view No need to go through and unlike things for the purpose of hiding your endorsement of it.
rcush 14y ago
I like the idea. I'm not sure how long Facebook will allow it to operate for, but it's a good tool for those of us conscious about the amount of data shared on social networks. However, I have two issues: The site is claiming that the likes are used to populate advertising on Facebook. Surely a better way to prevent that is through http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&view http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&... rather than removing likes? Perhaps I'm being misled by Facebook, but I have presumed that by toggling the option on the linked page to "no one" I would not have my data used to populate advertising in that way. A second issue is the access the site is asking for; it is significantly too much. Again, I'm not overly familiar with Facebook so perhaps I'm incorrect here, but surely the site only needs fairly restricted access? Maybe the API doesn't allow such fine-tuning, but being allowed to post on my timeline seems excessive.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

47 points by suckaplease 14y ago

dmor 14y ago

Interesting, I went through my likes and I don't really have a problem with any of these pages/brands. I guess I don't "like" a ton of stuff (maybe 30 pages, no major brands) so maybe it's not an issue for me but is for other people.

pgrote 14y ago

Can you explain why and what the app will post on the timeline? I didn't see an example on the site. thanks.

SparksZilla 14y ago

It took me a second to get what this was, but after I logged in with FB I definitely found some pages I needed to unlike. Great idea.

courtneypowell 14y ago

Search for "Nick Bergus" and "55-gallon drum of lubricant" to see why you don't want to end up in a sponsored ad.

gregpilling 14y ago
Do you mean this link? http://nbergus.com/2012/02/how-i-became-amazons-pitchman-for-a-55-gallon-drum-of-personal-lubricant-on-facebook/ http://nbergus.com/2012/02/how-i-became-amazons-pitchman-for...
- courtneypowell 14y ago
  Yes! Crazy story.
  - gregpilling 14y ago
    but what kind of SXSW party could you throw with that much lube?

TheBurningOr 14y ago

Needs to have a more prominent share button so I can send this to my friends who have so helpfully 'liked' products that I'm now spammed with.

leviathan 14y ago

Why does the app need all these permissions to access my likes?

pan69 14y ago
Exactly. Looks like someone is collecting Facebook data on Facebook Connect. Devious....
- suckaplease 14y ago
  Out login system only supports one set of permissions and we're using the default set for our primary application. However, I hear what you're saying and I'm deploying a reduced set now. Thanks!

webwanderings 14y ago

Probably good for those who don't know what they're doing on the Internet.

davidkatz 14y ago

doesn't work for me, i get a login error. too bad.

csallen 14y ago

Why do people make sites like this where you're required to give them access to tons of your information before they even tell you what they do? The home page does a poor job explaining why I should use this to unlike pages over, say, logging into Facebook and unliking pages on my own.

tchae 14y ago
you're not required to sign up?? it's just iframe like buttons... and have you ever tried unliking pages in mass on FB itself?
- sumzup 14y ago
  It's pretty easy to do with Graph Search, for what it's worth (yes, I realize most people don't have it yet). Just search for "Pages I have liked".
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

mmanfrin 14y ago

You should add a like button to this page, for mega meta irony points.

Sirupsen 14y ago
It seems there already is one when you connect with Facebook.

codva 14y ago

I was pleasantly surprised that I only have about 40 likes, most of them small local businesses or projects friends are connected to somehow. Didn't feel the need to unlike anything. Cool idea though.

jaredsohn 14y ago

Which likes is it supposed to show? It only showed 24 likes for me and I'm aware of many more things that I've liked that weren't shown there. Edit: If you go here http://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/ http://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/ and add 'likes' to the FQL query, you can see many more via the API.

bpatrianakos 14y ago
Same here. I've never worked with the Facebook API but I'm guessing there's some sort of limiting going on somehwere that won't let the app pull every like. That or the amount of JavaScript that needs to run to load some people's likes would kill everone's browser. Or maybe some combination of the two. For what it's worth, most of my likes I was okay with but after disliking a few and refreshing I got a couple that didn't show up the first time.

zbowling 14y ago

.... and facebook banned it. Login is dead.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

devindotcom 14y ago

Yesss! As expected, there is only one like on mine: "Saying 'hella'."

ForFreedom 14y ago

How did this ever reach the top on HN?

cedricd 14y ago

How long is this supposed to take? It's just showing a spinner for me.

geuis 14y ago

I HIGHLY recommend no one else use this site without more followup from the developer I don't like this. Not for what it claims to do, but because it doesn't clearly say what it does do. "Facebook Unlike". I get that, good name. When I go to the site, I understand I have to sign in with Facebook. That's fine. Problems: 1) Why does your app require permission to write to my page? You only need permissions to read all the pages that I have liked, nothing more. 2) It is not clear where these FB pages are coming from. I am presented with a handful of FB pages. Now some of them I have Liked and will continue to do so like Photopic Sky Survey. But I am also presented with things like "omg! from Yahoo" and "omg! Insider", but of which I have never and would never like. 3) The term "Unlike" indicates there should be buttons or toggles called "Unlike". At a minimum, hitting "Like" on something I've already clicked should "unlike" it. However, I'm seeing a mix of pages that I definitely have liked and other ones like "omg!" that I did not like. The "Like" button is available on this. If I hit that, am I liking or unliking that page? Its a visual double negative. 4) Once you hit Like, there's no way toggle the button state again. It just turns to Like and stays there.

bpatrianakos 14y ago
Actually some of what you said is incorrect. 1) You're probably right 2) Me and others I know have used this and recognize all our likes. There are cases where you accidentally or unknowingly like something which may explain the Likes you claim to never have liked. I've had my FB account since 2006. I don't know about you or others but there's bound to be some likes you don't remember if you've been a member long enough. 3) I agree - I was a little misled at first thinking there would be buttons to unlike pages. That said, and correct me if I'm wrong, there actually is no way to unlike a Facebook page apart from visiting the original page or clicking the embedded Like button you originally clicked to Like it a second time. I don't think this is the developer's fault. This is a Facebook issue and the developer seems to be working around the limitations of "Unlikes". 4) This is incorrect. If you hover over the grayed out checkmark you can click again to unlike. By default all of them should be grayed out and checked anyway since you've already liked them. Hovering over the check mark will show an X. You click the X and it's unliked. It is hard to understand and not intuitive on a number of levels but again, this is something out of the developer's control. I understand your concern that we should be wary of random sites that ask us to log in with Facebook and you're justified in having reservations but in this case a lot of your concerns are easily explained by the Facebook API itself. This looks far more legit than not. The only sketchy part about it was the "Log in with Facebook" request - but once you get past that you see it's legit.

mccolin 14y ago

Usage of your image in this fashion can be blocked via a setting on Facebook that is very easy to find: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&view https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&view No need to go through and unlike things for the purpose of hiding your endorsement of it.

rcush 14y ago

I like the idea. I'm not sure how long Facebook will allow it to operate for, but it's a good tool for those of us conscious about the amount of data shared on social networks. However, I have two issues: The site is claiming that the likes are used to populate advertising on Facebook. Surely a better way to prevent that is through http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&view http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&... rather than removing likes? Perhaps I'm being misled by Facebook, but I have presumed that by toggling the option on the linked page to "no one" I would not have my data used to populate advertising in that way. A second issue is the access the site is asking for; it is significantly too much. Again, I'm not overly familiar with Facebook so perhaps I'm incorrect here, but surely the site only needs fairly restricted access? Maybe the API doesn't allow such fine-tuning, but being allowed to post on my timeline seems excessive.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]