Skepticism
Facebook Admits It’s Not THAT Complicated
Finally, Facebook has done something to change the profile pages that doesn’t make me want to stab myself in the eye with a spork.
Instead of forcing people to pick from, “married, single or it’s complicated” now you can pick from all of these:
A small nod to the LGBT community and those in open relationships. It may not be much but it’s worth giving the thumbs up to!
More info in this article from the San Francisco Chronicles.
PS: Did you like my actual taken with a camera screen shot. ;)
shift+command+4 will let you select any portion of the screen. if you go shift+command+4 then the spacebar, you can highlight specific parts of the screen.
@terryp: Yeah, I know. It was supposed to be funny.
@terryp: …or ironic. Oh never-mind…
I am profoundly disappointed that “hetero-life-partner” did not make the list.
I’ve been “in an open relationship” since I created my FB profile years ago. What’s new about this?
As long as they don’t add, “it’s illegal” to the list.
Where is “single and happy, thank you very much”?
I don’t think you’re allowed to add more than one relationship, however. Although I haven’t checked (be right back)…
Yep, you can’t. I actually had complained to FB about this before. Not useful for the polyamorous who would like to be out of the closet about their significant others (like me when I have more than one).
It needs to have the ability to write in whatever the fuck you want.
I guess Facebook’s advertisers finally decided they wanted that information about us!
@Vene: Don’t you mean “Write in ‘I fuck whatever I want'”?
Now if only they’d change “Religion” to “Worldview” as well.
But wait… according to CNN (not always the most reliable news source, I know):
“The option is now available for Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia, the group said.”
So does this mean it doesn’t work in the rest of the world?
@Evelyn: The two options are not available to me here in Norway, but since gay people can marry here they’re not really applicable either.
@Felicia: Norwegian facebook has “Livssyn” (Life stance / worldview) rather than “religion”.
I want the “I’m not dead yet” option.
What about “Friends with benefits”?
@Evelyn: Rolling out a new feature on a system as massive and intricate as Facebook is a complex and fairly risky process, so no new feature gets rolled out to everyone immediately.
You may notice Google doing the same thing with GMail and other products; some accounts get the new toys first, and some have to wait a few days.
@Felicia: I think “Worldview” and “Religion” would be nice as *separate* fields. So people who consider themselves, say, “atheist Jews” could have a more meaningful way to indicate that.
Or, hey, maybe they could give us some user-defined fields. Would that lead us down a slippery slope to MySpace-land?
Where’s, “None of your damn business”?
@mikespeir: It’s called “not filling in any information”.
@spurge: Where’s the “Married without…”…Oh, never mind…
Seems to me that adding those just furthers segregation between groups based on the gender they choose to marry. Doesn’t seem like a win at all.
@Geekoid: Really? Adding “Civil Union” and “in a Domestic Partnership” as options is in your opinion, more gender specific than forcing people who can’t legally marry (yet) to pick between married, single or it’s complicated?
@spurge
FWB could be listed under “open relationship” or it’s complicated”, I guess. But it is a little different.
And yeah, open relationship has always been an option. Civil union and domestic partnership are the only additions here.
I just don’t understand!!!
…how anything other than “It’s complicated” could possibly be the right choice!
>;->