T4L Redux: Managing Your Privacy on Facebook

Privacy is an important concern when it comes to any online service, especially social media, but I think it's even more so on Facebook.

T4L Redux: Unhiding Friends on Facebook

I really should send the folks at Facebook a gift basket to thank them for all the traffic they've driven my way this year by virtue of their never-ending interface changes, confusing privacy settings, random bugs, and completely unwillingness to fix common user problems. Case in point: the nightmare that is trying to add a friends' posts back to your timeline after you've hidden them, whether accidentally or on purpose.

The Good Part of Facebook's New Privacy Settings

In yesterday's post, I talked about the new way Facebook is managing privacy controls and pointed out a couple of issues I have with their new approach. However, there's also one major improvement to the system.

Facebook's Latest Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Oh-So-Ugly

If you've logged into Facebook over the last few days, you were likely welcomed with this pop-up window alerting you to new changes to the site's privacy control settings. (And if you haven't been, you will be shortly.)

QuickTip: Change the Title and Blurb for Links You Post on Facebook

I share a lot of links with my friends on Facebook, and I'm always frustrated when the site I'm sharing from is coded in such a way that there's no useful or interesting info in the link text.

Facebook Announces Upcoming Changes to Privacy Settings

Over the last couple of days, you may have seen a notice at the top of your Facebook home page, linking to an open letter from Mark Zuckerberg, the company's CEO.

Weirdest Facebook Bug I've Seen to Date

And that's saying something!

Update Your Facebook Fan Page Status with TweetDeck

This morning, a reader contacted me because every time he updated his business page status line, the status line on his personal profile was also being updated.

Vote for T4L in the Mashable Open Web Awards

Woo-hoo! Tech for Luddites has made it into the top 5 finalists for a Mashable Open Web Award in the Most Educational To Follow category. Thanks to everyone who nominated me!

Don't Verb Me, Bro!

The New Oxford American Dictionary has selected "unfriend" as its Word of the Year.

Three Things I Love About Facebook Lite

And one thing I hate.

Share External Links on Facebook More Easily

One of the most common uses of Facebook is to share content that you find interesting with your friends, which is probably why there are so many different ways to do it.

QuickTip: Open Web Links in a New Tab

This came up last week as my friends and I were complaining about Facebook's latest changes. However, this isn't specifically a Facebook issue--it can happen on other websites as well, depending on how they're coded.

Is Facebook Lite the Answer to the Feed Fiasco?

If you think the new Facebook News Feed is too little and the Live Feed is too much, then Facebook Lite may be juuuusssst right.

Update on the New Facebook Live Feed

I have to admit, I'm feeling a little bit foolish about this one. When I wrote about the differences between the News Feed and Live Feed views on Facebook, I didn't even think to address why they call it "Live" Feed.

Four Things Facebook Would Be Better Off Spending Their Time On

As we've discovered with the recent changes to the Facebook News Feed, Facebook is not really big on the whole, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" concept. Unfortunately, they're not much better on the flip side of the expression, namely, "If it IS broke, DO fix it!"

Bug Alert: Friends Are Missing from the New Facebook Live Feed

In my post from a few days ago, Facebook Changes: News Feed vs. Live Feed, I explained how the News Feed view provides a subset of posts from the last day and the Live Feed view is supposed to a list of everything all your friends are doing in real time. However, when some people choose the Live Feed view, some of their friends' posts are not appearing. If this is happening to you, here are some possible fixes to try.

Facebook Changes: News Feed vs. Live Feed

You may have logged into Facebook recently, scanned your home page, and thought, "I saw all these yesterday... Where are the more recent posts?" Or, you may have asked yourself, "What's all this new crap showing up on here that I don't care about? Yes. Facebook has changed their News Feed yet again.

QuickTip: Find Your Favorite Facebook Pages Faster

I'm a fan of 42 Pages on Facebook and I suspect I'm not alone in being really interested in only a subset of those.

Introducing Twacebook! (Fitter?)

Okay, so it's really called Facebook Lite--Facebook's latest attempt to Twitterize itself. It's just arrived today, so this is my first look at it, and my first thoughts about it. If I say anything here that turns out to be incorrect, please let me know and I'll set the record straight.

Reader Answers: Facebook Fixes

Two readers recently sent me tips on how to solve a couple of the Facebook problems I've written about in the past.

Reader Question: When Your Facebook Posts Don't Show Up on Friends' Home Pages

Reader Mari wrote to say that some of the things she was posting on Facebook weren't appearing on her friends' home pages. She had checked her privacy settings and all her friends had permission to see them. She also knew they hadn't hidden her, so that wasn't the problem either.

Reader Questions: More About Facebook Pages

Since I posted my series on Facebook Pages a couple of weeks ago, I've received several additional questions through comments and e-mails. I'm going to respond to a number of them here so everyone can benefit from the answers.

Reader Question: Sending Messages to Facebook Friend Lists with More Than 20 Members

Reader Diane recently sent in this question regarding friend lists on Facebook: I found that the message section doesn't allow you to send to a list that has more than 20 people on the list. Is there a way around this issue?

Is Facebook Really Giving Your Pics to Third-Party Advertisers?

Yesterday a reader sent me a question about a note that's been making the rounds of the Internet re. Facebook, advertising, and users' photos.

Whose Facebook Profile Is That? Could It Be... SATAN?

You won't walk away with any great tips from this post, but hopefully it will give you a good chuckle to finish off the week.

QuickTip: Finding the Pages You Administer on Facebook

In last week's series on Facebook Pages, I provided information on how to set up a Page, adding Applications to it, and various other tips to help you administer one for yourself or for a company or an organization you're involved with. One thing I didn't include that would be helpful is how to get to your Pages quickly.

Facebook Pages: Odds and Sods

This final installment in series of Facebook Pages will provide some additional info and tips that should help you as you continue to work with your Page.

Adding Applications to Your Facebook Page

In yesterday's post, I've Got a Facebook Page! (Now What?), I mentioned that one way to add more compelling content to your Page is by installing additional applications. Today I'm going to talk about how to do that and describe one app in particular that I've found extremely useful.

I've Got a Facebook Page! (Now What?)

In yesterday's post, Setting Up Your Facebook Page, I explained that you have the option of creating a Page that is tied to your personal profile or one that is independent of anyone's profile. Once you've made your decision and created your Page, there are a number of things you'll want to do before making your Page live. That's what this post will discuss.

Setting Up Your Facebook Page

Yesterday, I explained some of the basic concepts of Facebook Pages, so you're probably all just itching to set one up yourselves! :) But before you do that, there's an important choice you need to make about HOW you're going to set up your Page. If you don't give this some consideration in advance, it could cause you problems down the line.

Getting Started with Facebook Pages

In an earlier post, Reader Question: The Benefits of Facebook Pages, I mentioned that I would soon be posting a series about creating and using Pages. Well, ignoring the "soon" part of that statement, this is what I'm going to be writing about every day this week. Today's post is simply going to discuss some of the general concepts regarding Pages for those readers who are unfamiliar with them.

More Info About Facebook Privacy Controls Pt. 2

In my previous post, More Info About Facebook Privacy Controls Pt. 1, I provided some details and clarifications re. Facebook's current privacy settings that I had written about before. This post discusses three more topics related to FB privacy.

More Info About Facebook Privacy Controls Pt. 1

This post and my next one will clarify some points from some of my earlier posts about Facebook privacy controls as well as add some new things I've since discovered.

Update on Usernames for Facebook Pages with Fewer than 1,000 Fans

In my earlier update about Facebook usernames, I noted that Pages that have fewer than 1,000 fans would be eligible to register for a username as of today.

QuickTip: Post Links to Facebook Via Facebook, Not Twitter

In my earlier posts, Read, Send, and Share Tweets on Facebook and Send Tweets to Facebook Using TweetDeck, I gave instructions on different ways to have your Twitter tweets automatically post to your Facebook profile as your status line.

Update on Facebook Usernames Launch

Well, the big day came and went and it seems to have gone by without any technical glitches.

Facebook Is Getting Usernames! (Should You Care?)

Over the last week, you've probably seen this notice about Facebook usernames at the top of your Facebook home page.

Send Tweets to Facebook Using TweetDeck

In my earlier post, I explained how you can import your Twitter timelien to Facebook as well as send tweets from there by installing the Twitter application. When you do that, you also have the option of having your own tweets appear as a Facebook status update. If you're only interested in the latter feature, you can use the TweetDeck client to send tweets to both Twitter and Facebook at the same time.

Bug Alert: Pages Section Missing from Facebook Info Tab

Normally, there's a section on the bottom of the Info tab on a person's Profile page that lists some of the Pages the person is a fan of (with a link to the full list). However, recently this section seems to have disappeared from some people's profiles.

Facebook Moved Their Applications Links Again

In several previous posts, I've referenced the Applications link at the bottom left of the Facebook page.

More Changes to Facebook

Since the launch of the new Facebook home page a couple of months ago, they seem to be making at least a little effort to respond to some of the complaints they've received.

Huge Correction re. Facebook Wall Privacy

I'm really annoyed about having to write this post because I believe the wrong info I posted is mainly the fault of Facebook's Bad Interface Design. And the worst part is that, because it's related to protecting your privacy, it could have serious consequences for some people.

The Latest on How To Unhide Friends on Facebook

When I look at my web stats to see what's driving people to this blog, BY FAR the number one source is a Google search asking how to unhide friends on Facebook.

Update on Bug Alert: Missing Boxes Tab on Facebook

In my original post about missing Boxes tabs from a few weeks ago, I provided a solution that worked for some people. However, yesterday, reader Robert contacted me to let me know that he'd tried the procedure several times with no success.

Reader Question: The Benefits of Facebook Pages

In my post last week, Where Did Facebook Groups and Pages Go?, I mentioned how frustrating it is that the new design makes it really difficult to find the Pages that you're a fan of. I also said, "[Pages] updates do appear on your News Feed, but [they] have additional features as well, that you can only access from their main page."

Where Did Facebook Groups and Pages Go?

One of my writing buddies and frequent visitor to this blog, Charmian, recently commented on the Facebook topic, What do you think of the new Facebook layout? One of the things she mentioned was how difficult it is to find Groups and Pages now.

Updates to the New Facebook Home Page

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote two posts about using the new Facebook home page, since a lot of functionality had changed from the previous version. Since the launch, Facebook has responded to some of their users' comments (aka complaints) with some minor changes, so I'm going to point out the ones that have changed from what I had written earlier.

Bug Alert: Missing Boxes Tab on Facebook

In yesterday's post, Read, Send, and Share Tweets on Facebook, I explained how to add the Twitter application to your FB profile. One of the steps referred to going to the Boxes tab on your Profile page.

Read, Send, and Share Tweets on Facebook

When I was doing my series on Facebook last week, I mentioned that I had wanted to do a post about synching different social media sites. Well, I've been doing some research into the various options and have discovered that there's so much out there that it would be impossible to write a single entry about it all. So instead I'm going to write individual posts about the different options available.

Bug Alert: Hiding/Unhiding Friends in Facebook Using Internet Explorer

Update 04/22/09: This unhiding bug seems to be a bit of a moving target, so I've written a post that consolidates all the possible fixes I've found to date (as well as how it's supposed to work in the first place): http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/04/the-latest-on-how-to-unhide-friends-on-facebook.html.

Reader Question: Restricting Access to Wall Posts on Facebook

Reader Lorna recently sent me this question: "Do you know if there is a way to direct your news/status updates to only a select group of Facebook friends, as you can with other Facebook apps? My daughter has lots of very casual Facebook friends but a core of 'real' friends. She would prefer that the things she writes on her wall go only to the 'real' friends. Any way to do this?"

Privacy Controls in Facebook Pt. 2

Yesterday, I introduced you to some of the privacy settings that you can use to control who sees your profile info in Facebook. Today I'm going to look at the Privacy Settings that govern other aspects of the site.

Privacy Controls in Facebook Pt. 1

One of the concerns a lot of people express when they've decided to join Facebook is about protecting their privacy. Kids don't want their parents to see their party pictures; employees don't want their bosses to read their not-always-flattering comments about their companies; teachers don't want their students to know about their personal lives.

Create Friend Lists on Facebook

I didn't even know about this feature until recently, but it's a really useful one that's become even more valuable with the addition of filters to the home page.

Memo to Facebook: Put Friending Info Back on the Home Page

In yesterday's post, I said that Facebook's new home page has changed its news feed so that all of your friends' activities are now posted in real time. I had thought the new feed included all the same types of info as the old one. I was wrong.

Using the New Facebook Home Page Pt. 2

In my introduction to the new News Feed, I mentioned that it could be a bit overwhelming and showed how you can hide the posts from specific friends. Today, I'm going to talk about another helpful way to manage the stream.

Using the New Facebook Home Page Pt. 1

Well. It looks like Mark Zuckerberg and his band of wacky Facebook developers have done it again. A mere 8 months after the last redesign of the site--one which launched a level of wrath not seen since the introduction of New Coke--they decided it would be a good idea to force their users to learn an entirely new system of navigating their home page.

Resize Images with Office's Built-In Graphics Editor

Not all that long ago, the only people who had to know how to manipulate photos and other digital images were graphic designers.

TinyURL: What Is It and How Do You Make One?

I discussed TinyURLs in my earlier post, Four Ways To Engage Your Tweeps, but it has many more uses than just Twitter so it's worth its own post.

Facebook: Where Was That Page Again?

A recurring theme for this blog is my extreme annoyance with Bad Interface Design.