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Facebook Makes New Profile Mandatory for Everyone, Users Grab Pitchforks

by Amar Toor on January 11, 2011 at 12:10 PM

new facebook profile
Last month, Facebook introduced its new profile layout as an optional feature for users interested in a more photo-heavy, browsing-friendly display. Now, the social network has begun rolling out the redesigned profile for all users, much to the chagrin of many Facebook traditionalists.

Over the course of the next couple of days, all users will see their profiles automatically converted to the new design, even if they never chose to make the switch. Not surprisingly, today's announcement has already been met with frustration and anger from the site's notoriously change-resistant constituency. All Facebook's Jackie Cohen calls the move a "communications malfunction," and argues that the company should've clarified its intentions to make the feature mandatory. Cohen goes on to claim that the features of the new profile were never clearly explained, and users, as a result, have been forced "to figure them out on their own."

Perhaps Facebook's plans weren't clear to Cohen, but we thought the site did a pretty good job of explaining itself back in December, when it explicitly stated, "We're rolling [the new profile] out gradually and plan to get it to everyone by early next year." Just because it never used the word "mandatory" doesn't exactly mean it pulled a fast one on us.

Besides, is the new profile really that obtuse? Sure, it may take users some time to get used to it, and some may yearn for the simpler days of social networking yore. But it's not like Mark Zuckerberg is asking all of us to learn Mandarin or anything. Instead of clicking one button to stalk your ex-girlfriend, you'll have to click another one. Most of us could probably learn to do that in the time it would take to file a hate-filled complaint with Facebook. And, ultimately, resistance is pretty futile. As with virtually every other change the site has ever introduced, we'll all learn to cope with it, and go on to lead happy, fulfilling lives.

Tags: changes, complaints, facebook, FacebookProfiles, layout, mandatory, MarkZuckerberg, new profile, NewProfile, SocialNetworking, top

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