In case you haven't become aware of it yet, at this present time there is quite an uproar in the Facebook community. This uproar -- which is growing as I write this -- revolves around the fact that many people are discovering that the assumed "temporary" trial of the new Facebook "Timeline" page layout is not so temporary after all.
While Timeline early adopters are being informed that they have a week to tweak the new page design to their liking before their Timeline will go public, what they are not being told is that once they hit the "Get It Now" button, there is apparently no going back to the former Facebook page layout. There is no way to remove or delete Timeline.
In other words, while Facebook users are being given a week to tweak their new Timeline, unless they choose to hit the "Publish" button beforehand, their new Timeline will be automatically published when the week expires, whether they like it or not. In my case, I was given until January 2nd.
Problems With Timeline Layout
The problem is that many people -- myself included -- are discovering that we don't like Timeline. We find it unorganized, confusing and difficult to use; and I am not a novice computer user. I have been a dedicated Macintosh user since 1990. Imagine the confusion that this issue is causing for new computer users and elderly people who struggle just to use a computer.
Personally, I have really tried to like Timeline since I took the plunge yesterday, but there are a few things about it which I really don't like. Primary among these is the way that it displays new posts from my self-hosted WordPress blog, which are syndicated to my Facebook page via Facebook's own Networked Blogs service.
With the original Facebook page layout, whenever a WordPress blog entry is posted to my wall by Networked Blogs, it is placed near the very top of my Facebook wall, which is where I want it to be. After all, it is my newest post. Not so with the new Timeline page layout. Aside from the fact that there is a delay in my new post being published on my Facebook wall -- which also often occurs with Networked Blogs as well -- the real problem is that new WordPress posts are not being published at the top of my Timeline as they should be, and as I want them to be. Rather, they are being published lower on the page.
I suspect that this oddity is due in part to something in Facebook's timeline algorithm. In other words, if I make a new post on my WordPress blog, between the time that I make it, and the time that it is actually published on my Facebook Timeline, if someone posts a comment on my Timeline, that comment will result in the whole post that they are responding to being moved higher up in the timeline, while my new WordPress entry will be lower in the Timeline.
I was hoping that Timeline's "Star" feature would give my syndicated WordPress blog entries more prominence, and possibly even move them higher up on the Timeline; however, that does not seem to be the case. In fact, even though I have moused around, I haven't even found a way to use the "Star" feature with my WordPress blog posts. It seems that the "Star" feature is only available for posts that you actually make in your Facebook status field.
That is not all. What some people will also find quite confusing -- I know that I did at first until I understood how the Timeline works -- is the way that posts zigzag back and forth, left to right, on the timeline, depending on when the post was made. To many people, it will come across as being both confusing and unorganized, compared to the original Facebook page layout where everything is linear from top to bottom.
Let me give you an example.
I made a post on my Facebook wall regarding the new page format, in which I asked my visitors for their opinions regarding the new Timeline layout. This was before I actually switched to Timeline. One of my friends came along and offered a response. However, instead of adding her comment to my original post, she used the status field at the top of the page instead. As a result, her comment was separate from my original post. The problem is that when I switched to the Timeline page layout, my original post was placed on the right side of the center timeline -- and lower on the page -- while her response was placed on the left side of the center timeline, and higher up on the page. In other words, in order to even know what she was responding to, you have to first find my original post in the lower right column, and then read her response in the upper left column. Now how confusing is that?
Responding to new message and comment notifications in the Facebook toolbar at the top of the page is equally as confusing. This is due in part to the fact that new messages and comments do not instantly appear on your Timeline. Sometimes there is a delay. I repeatedly found myself looking around on my Timeline, trying to figure out where the comment had been made of which I was being notified in the toolbar. I repeatedly had to wait a bit, and then refresh my browser page, to finally see it. It is easier to just click on the notification in the toolbar and see where it takes you. Again, it is confusing and fills one with uncertainty.
I also don't like the fact that Facebook intentionally reduced the quality of the nice "Cover" image that I made for my Timeline in Adobe Photoshop. Even though I made the image to the correct pixel dimensions -- 851 x 315 -- and optimized the image prior to uploading it, Facebook apparently still optimized it further, so that it contains a degree of pixelation, and looks crappy compared to the original image that I made.
These are just some of the reasons why I don't like Timeline, and why I prefer the original Facebook page layout; and apparently, quite a few other people feel exactly the same way. Other users are also seriously concerned regarding the apparently broken privacy mechanism that has been incorporated into Timeline. Some users are complaining that other people -- including complete strangers -- can see some of their older Facebook data from years ago, which even they -- the original Facebook poster -- cannot see.
No Way to Return to Original Facebook Page Layout
So, the bottom line is this: Because of these problems -- and others which I may not even be aware of -- many of us want our original Facebook page layout back, but there appears to be no way to do this; unless Facebook has simply decided to not tell us how to do it yet, because they hope that the storm will pass, and that we will all just quietly acquiesce to what they have dictated to us.
Quite frankly, I feel that the way that Facebook has introduced the new Timeline page layout, and enticed their users to switch over to it, is quite deceptive. They should make it very clear that once a user hits the "Get It Now" button, there is no one-week trial period with an option to return to the former page layout, as many of us have assumed, even though Facebook does not outright say this on their website.
That is the deceptive part. To my knowledge -- and I looked -- there is no obvious, public place on the Facebook site where they actually state that the one-week period is a test period, or a trial period. They just let us assume that is the case when we hit the "Get It Now" button. That approach is just plain wrong in my view. I have no doubt that if we end users knew ahead of time that there was no turning back, and that the change was permanent, many of us would not have clicked on the "Get It Now" button. No doubt, Facebook knows this too.
How to Hide -- Not Remove or Delete -- the Timeline Page Layout
Well, there is a small ray of hope -- at least temporary hope -- for those of you who don't like the new Timeline page layout, for whatever your reasons. While researching this problem, I discovered that there is a workaround which will hide Timeline from your web browser, so that you will only see the original Facebook page layout. Please understand, however, that this workaround does not actually remove or delete the Timeline page layout; it only conceals it for you, and it will only work for you, and not for other people who are visiting your Timeline; unless they likewise follow the same procedure that I am about to describe to you.
There is a web browser add-on called "User Agent Switcher". I am currently using it with Firefox 9.0b6 on a 27" iMac. I believe that there are versions of this add-on for other web browsers and platforms as well. What this add-on does is give you the option to tell Firefox to identify itself as another user agent, instead of as Firefox, when you visit websites, and click on links. It is really a developers tool, but it serves our purpose here.
Once you install this add-on, you need to set it so that Firefox will identify itself as "Internet Explorer 7" instead. No doubt, just mentioning Internet Explorer 7 will cause some red flags to go up in the Macintosh community. To allay any fears, the reason why you must select the "Internet Explorer 7" option is because, apparently, Internet Explorer 7 does not recognize the new Timeline code, and so your web browser displays the original Facebook page layout instead, which is what we all want to happen.
While I am not absolutely certain of this, it may be that when you use this add-on to tell your web browser to identify itself as Internet Explorer 7, Facebook may not even send the Timeline code to your web browser in response to your HTTP request.
So to reiterate, while some Macintosh users may have an aversion to all things Microsoft, and while it may seem strange to some of you to tell you to do this, yes, you must select "Internet Explorer 7" in the "User Agent Switcher" add-on, even if you are using a Macintosh computer.
Let me emphasize here that, to my knowledge, this add-on does not alter your web browser, or your computer, in any way. All it does is tell your web browser to identify itself as a different web browser when it sends an HTTP request to Facebook, or to any other website for that matter. On a side note, one other advantage of using this add-on is that it restores your ability to find new friends, which apparently is not possible with the Timeline page layout; at least I personally have not discovered it yet.
How to Set Up the User Agent Switcher Add-On in Firefox
1. If you are using Firefox 9.0, under the "Tools" menu in Firefox's menubar, you will see an option which says "Default User Agent" after you have installed the add-on.
2. Mouse over the "Default User Agent" option to reveal the "Internet Explorer" option, and then select "Internet Explorer 7" in the submenu that appears.
3. That's it. Refresh your Facebook web page and the Timeline format will be gone.
A Temporary Solution and Other Options
Please note that the aforementioned procedure is only a temporary solution to this problem until Facebook decides to give us the option to return to the original Facebook page layout. Personally, I think that it is highly unlikely that they will ever do so, and this view appears to be the general consensus. Timeline appears to be a permanent change on Facebook which we will never be able to remove or delete. They may possibly tweak it a bit in order to meet some of our demands, but it is more than likely here to stay; at least until they dream up something newer at some point in the future.
It seems that the only other solution at this time is to abandon Facebook altogether in protest of their practices, and join some other social network. A number of dissatisfied Facebook users have already mentioned the possibility of doing this. In fact, ever since Google+ was introduced, there has been talk by some Facebook users of jumping ship.
Realistically-speaking, however, I sense that many people will not jump ship, because of the fact that they are already very heavily entrenched in Facebook, have invested a lot of time and energy into it, have made some wonderful friendships there, and are comfortable with using it. For these people, abandoning all of that may not be as appealing as going elsewhere and starting all over again. So, they will just grin and bear their current dissatisfaction with Timeline.
No doubt, Facebook realizes this as well, and that is the problem. They have no motivation to listen to their user base, unless that user base sends them a very strong signal. Right now, that signal is being generated by perhaps a few hundred vocal Facebook users at best who want to remove/delete the Timeline page layout, which is nothing compared to the millions of Facebook users worldwide.
A Few Caveats to This Temporary Solution
As I said, using the "User Agent Switcher" add-on is only a temporary solution. Don't be surprised if Facebook soon figures out a way to override this web browser identity trick. But if you do decide to use this add-on, please be aware that there are a few caveats to consider.
For example, if you use the "User Agent Switcher" add-on and set it to "Internet Explorer 7", it creates a large, empty white space at the top of Facebook pages. I assume that this is a formatting issue with Internet Explorer 7, although I am not absolutely certain of this, being as I am not a Windows user.
In other words, after activating the add-on and setting it to Internet Explorer 7, you will still see your profile image, menu options, and friends list in the left sidebar on the page where they should be; but in order to see your five-frame Facebook banner, personal info, status field and the actual entries on your wall, you will have to scroll down the page a bit. This is a small inconvenience, if you consider that it will hide Timeline from you.
The second caveat is that once you are done using Facebook, you need to remember to change the "User Agent Switcher" setting back to "Default User Agent", so that Firefox will once again identify itself as Firefox to websites; otherwise, web pages may display in an odd fashion for you, just as the Facebook page does.
For those of you who are using web browsers other than Firefox, you can find similar solutions on the following web page:
http://pureinfotech.com/2011/12/17/how-to-disable-facebook-timeline-temporary-workaround-trick/
Again, please be reminded that this web browser user agent trick only hides Timeline from you. It does not hide it from your page's visitors, or remove or delete it from your Facebook page. Visitors to your Facebook page will still see Timeline, unless they too have installed this add-on.
As a final note, let me also mention that in my attempts to try to circumvent having to use this add-on, I tried using seven other Macintosh-compatible web browsers, in order to determine if any of them would still display the original Facebook page layout on their own. In fact, I even tried Firefox 3.6.25 on my last working Macintosh PPC machine. In every case, and with every web browser, Timeline is displayed. So again, it clearly looks like Timeline is here to stay, unless there is a massive mutiny on the part of Facebook users worldwide. That is probably what it would take before Facebook would even consider giving us the option to return to the original Facebook page layout.
I wouldn't hold my breath.
