peterfeld:

paintthetownred:

Last night, while still under the influence of painkillers after having dental work done, I stopped by the 92YTribeca to hear Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg speak with BusinessWeek’s Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler.

• She reminded the crowd that Facebook’s users have protested against redesigns before, including the news feed which they eventually came to like.

This is what in logic is known as a fallacy. From a strong premise — users have protested before and come around — to a weak conclusion that they will come around again this time. It is like saying, because you ended up liking the restaurant I took you to that you didn’t want to go to, you will like it when I lock you out of your house.

The news feed was an instance of adding functionality that hadn’t previously been there. This redesign is an instance of removing worthwhile information (events, new friends and updates from the people who you are closest to) that users had come to depend on, and replacing it with a constantly updated stream of spam from people you may have little interest in. Facebook spin fail.