Saturday, January 19, 2008

Facebook Event Guest list security

One of the difficult things with privacy is the need to offer functionality, but not to provide informatiom that otherwise isn't meant to be shared.

With Events on facebook, you can have a hidden guest list, however, on accepting the RSVP you can then view the guest list via the 'invite people to come' link.

Which can be seen as justifyable but is also a bit counter intuitive.

The guest list is hidden doesn't explain the concept very well, it is infact somewhat misleading, especially as after you can access the group list via the invite link.

The solution would to have a third privacy option like "Limited to Members & Invitees", if i have been invited i should be able to see the guestlist before I accept.

Forcing a user to RVSP maybe attend is 'counter-productive-action-coercion' which when combined with the lack of a Member List when the list is (only partially) hidden sucks...

It defeats the localised momentum building opportunity that Facebook could achieve and offer for Private Events... Google really did something amazing with the threaded conversations in Gmail, I remember the revival of the old massive thread party discussions once Gmail started... and then I shudder at how limited the Facebook version is (up there with using Outlook!).

Writing this made me thing about Corey

I guess I'm ranting :), Facebook is a scroll site. the Home page news page list is great. Most recent information is at the top of the page. Events would be vastly improved with more of a news feed interface.

Multiple 'content boxes' all sorted by date, and only with limited info, keeping track becomes is a very demanding exercise (or skipped) activity for the user. Just reading the Wall for an event, the area of most activity requires scrolling as depending on the content

Why not accept that we are living in a 16:9 world, screens are getting wider and unfortunately often shorter (1400x900) therefore we are back to content where, with start menus, browser chrome, etc we have less than 800 pixels of vertical visible browser content.

It means with it's 800px wide layout, Facebook is a 800 by 800px application.

Kinda explains why most apps are so crappy from an interface perspective! The viral invite friends to this application thing is tiresome, humans are organic creatures!

I reckon the inability to Trial an Application or Preview Application actually impedes uptake.

That said i enjoy really do enjoy Facebook and it's refreshing to see facebook sceptics give it a go and see what people enjoy about it.

In Australia, Facebook has spread like wildfire in the last 6 months and enjoys a very large user base which is the key to it's popularity...

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