I was seven years old, visiting my Aunt in Pennsylvania, when my
Dad first took me to see "Star Wars." Needless to say, I was
forever entranced by lightsabers, breathing-challenged villains,
and walking carpets.
Like the rest of the Star Wars fans, I wasn't terribly impressed
with the prequels. However, George Lucas' re-releases of the
original three movies with some tweaks and updates weren't all that
bad. I got it: When he first filmed the movies, special effects
technology wasn't capable of making his vision into reality. Now he
had the opportunity go back and make the vison truly complete.
But then, the years went by and George kept tinkering, making
updates that seemed unnecessary, and in some cases, outright wrong
(i.e. HAN SOLO SHOOTS FIRST!) There was an outcry from the public
(not unlike the voices screaming from Alderaan), but the protests
fell on deaf ears. Lucas continued--and continues--to make changes
to all the Star Wars films to this day, ignoring two very important
rules of business: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "Always
give the customer options."
Last night, I received an email from Facebook, extolling a new
feature that would reduce the number of notification emails.
Admittedly, I almost never get around to deleting the
notifications: My inbox is a vast ocean of messages from Facebook,
with a couple of personal emails and spam here and there. "Wow," I
thought, "for once, here's a change I can get behind."
And then I woke up this morning and discovered that wasn't the only
change that Facebook made.
My friends' most recent status updates were now shoved to a thin
column on the right, while in the middle, I was getting a news feed
based on what the Facebook algorithms, artificial intelligence, or
Imperial Guard determined I wanted to read...even if it wasn't.
We all know that this isn't the first time Facebook has made
changes supposedly in the customer's best interests. We've seen our
share of security updates and other design tweaks that left
members, in some cases, shrugging their shoulders, and in others,
threatening mass abandonment of the social network.
Reaction this time however has been swift and furious. Personal
status comments, posts to Facebook's own fan page, and Twitter
updates Wednesday have all echoed the same sentiment: This
sucks!
Like George, Facebook fails to remember those two simple rules I
mentioned above.
First, there was nothing wrong with the previous format. We already
had the option to switch between "Top Stories" and "Recent
Updates," and that was fine. In other words, we were perfectly
happy with the way things were. Sure, a tweak to font size or the
number of emails we get isn't so bad, but the constant, abrupt, and
often unannounced changes have done nothing but alienate and
infuriate Facebook nation.
The other thing that both George and Facebook have a bad habit of
doing is not offering alternatives. Fans have been crying out for
years to get the untampered versions of the original trilogy
released, with no luck. Similarly, there's no reason why Facebook
couldn't offer a "Classic Facebook Format" option.
Ultimately, both Mr. Lucas and Facebook have forgotten the biggest
rule of all: They made these products for us--not for themselves.
As users, we're left wondering if they simply don't care what we
think or want. It's presumptuous to assume that we'll just buy the
latest boxed set, or keep logging on to Facebook. And if I'm not
mistaken, those kind of emotions lead to the dark side.
For now, sales of the Star Wars Blu-Ray set are doing well, which
means many of you are completely crazy...er...I mean...certain
people are willing to accept the changes. I'm sure the same will
prove true for these latest Facebook updates. But sooner or later,
the Facebook corporate offices--and the Skywalker Ranch--may find
themselves surrounded by a very angry rebellion.
But first we'll have to run over to Tosche Station to pick up some
power converters.
Tom LaSusa is Community Manager for InformationWeek.
Source: InformationweekUSA