1/13/08
Facebook No Longer Wants Random Play
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There was a change at Facebook recently that seems to allude to a change in focus. For a long time, in the “looking for” area, there have been two options that often made people laugh when they saw them… “random play” and “whatever I can get”… but those options have now been *removed* and have been replaced with “networking”.
*Note: it would appear that people currently using them are not affected, but you can no longer choose these options if they are not currently checked.
Another change that they did quietly (which I found amusing because it was a *great* addition) is that you can now also add a “former name” - which most people would use to list their maiden name. But, it could also be used to add a screen name if you chose (for instance, I could put Sugarrae in the field) or to list your full name if you go by a nickname of vice versa (mine is a combination of my maiden name and full first name).
These two changes aren’t huge deals, but it does say to me that Facebook might be trying to “grow up” and take away some of the more “brass” features that were a hit with their (former) target user base and try to morph themselves into something bigger. Picture myspace merged with linked in and classmates.com… now if they could control the spam issues allowing applications has created, and keep working on the ability to monetize their user base without annoying them, this might be interesting.
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Rae Hoffman
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I’m pretty sure you can’t put a nickname like Sugarrae into the alternative name box, or at least you couldn’t when they first released it in early December. I tried putting in a few nicknames at the time and it kept spitting them back as inappropriate. They want a full name, not what your friends call you when they’ve had a few. :)
No, you can add nicknames, you just can’t add “one name”… So, while I can’t put just “Sugarrae” into that box, I can put “Sugarrae Hoffman” and “Sugar Rae Hoffman”… attempting to put “bite me barone” into the box gave me this message:
“Our automated system will not approve this name. If you believe this is an error, please contact us.”
But, I COULD put “BiteMe Barone” as my name… so it appears to be trying to figure out what is a legit name and what isn’t, but there are tons of ways around it.
That said, it’s stupid to abuse this function… people should only be putting names people will actually search for and mean them.
I think if you put “Sugar Rae Hoffman” it will also ask you to update what you do for a living and what bar it is you work at.
I think your observation about “Random Play” being removed might be a symptom of a larger decision. I think they’re trying to move to make Facebook more of a professional tool, than something that College students use to find parties.
Their initial user base has matured, and is getting jobs, and they’re trying to take advantage of that.
That said, if such changes continue, I have a feeling the college crowd might begin abandoning facebook. Not yet though.
You can still only add up to 5 jobs… dammit.
shadey
looking for a party wasnt what i got from “Random Play” which i sudenly realised that my profile said maybe thats why Bele De Jour Poked me :-)
Im moving to the states at the end of this year and was trying to use Facebook just to search/add random friends ahead of time but it is not as easy as it should be! You have to search for a name!
As opposed to just viewing people in a location!
Is there a way to do this???
Log into Facebook and then click the networks tab. If you belong to the new network you are moving to, it will be what shows up when you click the networks tab and then you clock browse over to the upper right next to “People in whatever network”.
You can also click the arrow pointing down next to the networks tab and click on “browse all networks” and click on the geographical network you want and then browse again as mentioned above.
