Everything is Rubbish

So, for a while now I’ve been using FaceBook. I’m enjoying the site and I’ve got back in contact with a good few people I used to know in school, so that’s all good. What’s not so good is the way that their regional networks.

FaceBook has the concept of networks. You can be a member of many work/school/college related websites, but only one regional network. For most people being a member of one regional network makes sense - you tend to live in the same place that you work. However, if you’re a university student you quite conceivably might live in a vastly different place during term time than holiday time, and quite happily feel that you “belong” in both places.

So it is for me. I currently live and work in London, but in a couple of weeks time I’m going to be moving to Bedford, a town outside of London, and then commute in every day. In doing so I feel that I really will belong in both networks. Because of the way FaceBook works though, I’ll have to choose.

So, yesterday I decided to go and have a look at the Bedford network. I popped along to the page that lets me change my regional network and typed in “Bedford”. A dropdown appeared and I selected “Bedford UK” from it and told FaceBook that I would like to join that network. The next thing I knew, I’d been added to the Leicester network! Sacre Bleu! So, I tried again. Once again I found myself in the Leicester network.

Realising that I probably wasn’t going to actually make it onto a Bedford network, even though I was being told that one existed, I decided to cut my losses and go back to the London network. At this point I discovered that I couldn’t because FaceBook has chosen to implement a completely arbitrary limit on the number of times you can change your regional network to twice in 60 days! So, now I’m stuck with “living” in Leicester for two months. Bloody hell.

I’m furious about this for two reasons. Firstly, I was not told that I wouldn’t be able to change my regional network a third time before I attempted to change it to Bedford the second time. When you’re going to restrict what a user is going to do, you need to tell them about it first so that they can make an informed decision. Secondly, I didn’t actually change my regional network twice - the second time I attempted to change it I was left on the same network as I was already on!

I’ve asked FaceBook to update my regional network so that I am once again part of London. In the mean time, I’m fuming. Bah.