Facebook Users

[David Baxter PhD]

Dumbass of the Week: Facebook Users
by Kalena Jordan
Feb 18 , 2010

Oh boy, you?re going to love this one.

It all began last week when Read Write Web, (a very popular blog based here in New Zealand), published a post about Facebook?s new partnership with AOL called FB Wants to Be Your One True Login.

Apparently the post started ranking in the top Google SERPs for *facebook login*. Nothing wrong with that so far, it makes perfect sense given the post title and TrustRank the site has built up in Google.

BUT, all these strange and inappropriately angry comments with excessive use of exclamation marks began appearing on the RWW post.

Comments like this:

?When can we log in??

?I don?t like the new facebook. Why fix something that isn?t broken. this really sucks..?

?I just want to log in to Facebook ? what with the red color and all??

?Quit this crap and let me sign in!"

?All I wanted to do was LOG IN TO MY FACE BOOK ACCOUNT! I don?t like this new way! If it an?t broke why fix it??

?Can we log into face book? This is crazy I want to get all my info off and be done with this.?

?How do you get in??

?I just want to get into my Facebook page.?

?This is such a mess I can?t do a thing on my facebook . The changes you have made are ridiculous,I can?t even login!!!!!I am very upset!!!?

?I was just learning,why would you mess it up??

?All I want to do is log in, this sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

?The new facebook sucks> NOW LET ME IN.?

RWW staff were confused at first, but then it dawned on them. Instead of bookmarking Facebook.com or entering Welcome to Facebook | Facebook in their browser address bar like anyone with half a brain, all these commenters were apparently typing *facebook login* into Google whenever they wanted to login to Facebook and then clicking randomly on one of the results. The RWW post just happened to be the one they clicked on.

Having arrived at the Read Write Web post about Facebook, they somehow thought it WAS the *new* Facebook, despite the completely different color, design and the very clear Read Write Web heading at the top of the page. Not only did they think they were AT Facebook, but these commenters, in their hundreds, somehow managed to ignore the post itself, work out how to comment ON the post and leave their inappropriate rants about how much the hated the *new* Facebook. Except for one commenter, who claimed he liked the new design.

As the hours wore on and the page rose even higher in the Google results for *facebook login*, the comments became even more inappropriately angry and amusing:

?I WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK THIS SHIT IS WACK!!!!!?

?I am going to delete my account (IF I CAN EVER LOG IN) as this SUCKS BIG TIME ! If this does not get back to NORMAL you are going to lose a lot of folks who hate this and as you can see from all the comments they think it sucks too !!! facebook was great for connecting with old friends ?now, NOT SO MUCH. SO HOW DO I LOG IN??

?Bring me back old facebook this is sheet?

?I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK PAGE , IN FACT I HAVE STARTED TO VISIT IT LESS, BECAUSE IT IS A HASSLE?

?Who?s idea was this?? Hope he?s not too big to fire cause he just LOST a bunch of faithful users. Chances are it?ll never be the same as it was before?.cya?

?I?m going back to my f*ckin space u ass holes have to f*ck up a good this !!!!! dumn asses"

To add to the hilarity, a Facebook user called Laraine (bless her heart), found a new way for Facebook users to solve their *problem*:

?For those of you that want to get in face book now just go to Bing..put in face book and search (or it will pop up) hit on face book login and it takes you to your password page?i did it?. if this ever gets back to normal I will use the address bar from now on?..?

Read Write Web added a big bold paragraph to the original post stating *This site is not Facebook* and wrote a new post addressing the issue called We?re Still Not Facebook, but they continued to be bombarded with flames. It?s a little something I like to call The Walmart Effect.

There are two morals to this story:

1. There should be some type of study done on the correlation between IQ and the use of exclamation marks.
   
2. You need to design your web site and your software for the lowest common denominator.

I?m reminded of Damian Conway?s fantastic presentation at Webstock Web 2.Overwhelming ? 22 Ways to Frustrate Your Visitors where he amusingly drilled into us that the majority of our web site users are NOT geeks, they?re NOT tech savvy and as this example shows, Dumb User Errors (DUE) are terrifyingly commonplace.

Make your stuff embarrassingly easy to use, because Dumb Happens.



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