Comment on the article Is Facebook Falling Apart

Mr. Lockard sir, I enjoyed reading your well duplicated(1) article "Is Facebook Falling Apart" along with it's interesting comments. Of course, the referenced New York Times article "The disillusionment with Facebook has come in waves" begged perusal as well.  Together they are part of an area I've studied for years as a small time web developer.

The newsletter notification for this article was quite timely as I recently surrendered to the urgings of friends and created a Facebook account.  What promts me to comment is what appears to be a mis-understanding of why a person should join Facebook.

A departure reason from the Facebook Exodus article under "The disillusionment with Facebook has come in waves." was a non-Facebook "Scrabble application", 3rd party problems are not Facebook's responsibility.  If nothing else at Facebook insterests you, be nice and delete your account, but don't blame Facebook for someone else's problems.

Another departure reason as well as a comment referenced that they were trying "to attract prospective clients", but felt there were other avenues better suited.  I do think they joined Facebook for the wrong reason.  Most likely these folks were influenced by the teachings of black/gray hat SEO Experts whose ultimate goal is to create a demand for their service of fulfilling a non-existent need. When we look at the mission statement from Facebook "giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected" and study the "Make Facebook Useful: Find your Friends" page (which searches under the classifications of Friend Finder, Classmates Search, Coworkers Search, and Name Search) we don't find much about lead building.  They have profile pages available for any public figure, non-profit or organization, musician or local business.  Clicking for information on local business brings one to the ad sales page, not a free lead generation page.

Facebook is a true social networking site.  The faddish part is the unnecessary demand created by false advice.  The well designed and placed ads are aimed toward the possible wants of the viewers while being fine-tuned by demographic and other information gleaned.  Did you know you can tell them you find an ad offensive and they will never show that ad to your profile again.  Like all sites, one must read the terms of service(ToS), especially from 3rd party apps with their "ethical" installs.  Facebook exists to sell clicks on links to vendors dreaming their service or product is the one for which people just like me or you are willing to give them money.

Your article mentioned unique visitors each month.  That is only one of several website metrics. How many time each visitor returns to the site during the month and how many visitors keep returning, month after month are two valuable metrics which gauge a websites effectiveness.  Ad sellers want retention.

Yes, I became a "Fan" of the bowling alley I use.  I'll get a free night of bowling.  But, being their "Fan" really will not change much from our current financial exchange.

I'll never search out the "The Scam of the Month Business Opportunity" and problem will never generate a web search through the Facebook website. Those that do should expect clouded results. Neither should I expect anyone to go to a social networking website like Facebook to search for a web developer.  Advice on how one can use a website in a manner contrary to the sites purpose is advice which should not be followed.

a poor but honest web developer,
Doug

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