Facebook to activate Timeline Profiles for all users in Autumn
Timeline profiles became available on Facebook at the end of the year 2011 as an optional feature that Facebook users had to actively enable. The change shocked many users of the social networking site, but since no one was forced to switch to the new profile, the outcry quickly died off again, especially since a forced switch to the new profile never happened. Users of Facebook who switched to the new profile on the other hand had to face the fact that they could never go back to the old profile that the majority of users on Facebook were still using.
We explained how to avoid Facebook Timeline profiles back in January, but the solutions back then were only temporary, and the only viable option right now is to install userscripts or browser extensions that modify the Timeline profile locally so that you do not see it in your browser (whereas everyone else sees the Timeline profile).
It may come as a shock to everyone who is still using the old Facebook profile that the company seems to have made the decision to turn on Timeline profiles for all users in Autumn of 2012. According to Techcrunch, every Facebook user who has not made the switch over to the new profile will be migrated automatically to it by Autumn.
Users still on the old profile will receive a prompt eventually that is informing them about the switch to the Timeline profile. As before, there is a seven day migration period in which the old profile will remain active on the site. This is done to give everyone enough time to configure the Timeline profile before it is pushed to the server and becomes visible for everyone on Facebook. Some of the things that you can do in that time is add a profile cover photo and make sure only information that you want to share is shared.
You may ask yourself why the company is enforcing the change now, and one of the reasons may be a consistent profile page on the site. Still, there will certainly be some outcry over the forceful migration, but I can't really see many users quiting the site as a consequence.
Are you a user on Facebook? If you are, do you use the new Timeline profile or the old user profile on the site?
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Dear all,
Y all u need to stick to older version.
As get upgraded with your fashion get upgraded with technology also
Try to under stand abt how to use and if once u get used to new timeline time theme sure u gonna love it
Well, I for one will probably leave FB. I hate the new timeline. What I have seen on my friends pages, it looks untidy and hard to find anything.
Ahem …. Surely you meant “in the fourth quarter of this year”? Because Autumn of 2012 has already come and gone for a lot of us here in the Southern Hemisphere :)
Yes it is the fourth quarter of the year, sorry for the confusion.
Wow Martin is cute! ;D
And I never cared for FB.
I created a fake profile just to continue posting on some sites that got rid of their forums in favour of FB posting.
I hated it with the old layout but with the new one is just unbearable even with the Firefox addon.
I wonder if this will have the same effect than the Digg redesign.
I have given up complaining about layout changes. My new policy is to cope with whatever changes Google, Facebook etc. bring. Coz sooner or later they will force it on all users. It’s not very logical for a company to support two layouts side by side for a longer time.
facebook marketing is a great strategy for business
The appeal of Facebook has always eluded me.
I joined a couple of years ago simply because far-flung family and friends were on it. But I was off it within a few months, after finding it the most tedious way of keeping up to date, not to mention the spam and security risks. The minutae – of just a few family and friends – quickly became mind-boggling. I love them all dearly, but I *don’t* want to know every aspect of every day of their lives, nor see every single picture they ever take. In fact with every ‘new feature’ FB seemed to become even more tedious.
I have friends and family all over the UK and the world. I visit those I can, phone, write and email those I can’t, and even webcam a few. I think it’s called having a life. But Facebook seems to be little more than a modern version of gossiping over a garden fence.
Mind you, it’s been worth cancelling Facebook just to see the continuing astonishment of so many people unable to comprehend a life without Facebook, Tweet or blog. “Not on Facebook?? You’re joking!….”
Happily – I’m not.
I’m using old user profile. Timeline is bloated and I rate it as “sucking”.
In general, IMHO Facebook as resource sucks too, because of it’s highly-bloated pages, bad design (only Social Fixer, former Better Facebook makes that pig-site barely usable) and tons on unneeded things like all that “trending crap”.
I hope once some less sucking resource emerge, which won’t be bloated, overadvertising, promoting unneeded things and pushing freaking timelines.
Like most of the replies, I still have the old profile. It might not be pretty and/or modern, but it works and I know how to use it. Much like MS and the ribbon, FB is going to force this thing on the users whether we like it or not.
My daughter has moved to the timeline profile. Just last night I was trying to find her photos. I had to get her to show me where they were. So if the interface is supposed to be intuitive, it failed. It looked like a complete mess to me.
I avoid using FB as much as possible. I’ll probably use it even less now because it will be downright irritating.
Too bad Facebook is not providing for a solution to come back to old profiles design. I really dont like this one…
Once wife turned Timeline and was realy dissapointed by it`s unusability, so now i use TimelineRemove addon to Firefox to get rid of it.
I have been able to avoid the time line profile till yesterday, but since yesterday Facebook has been showing a message that my profile is going to be updated to the time line one in a week’s time’, it’s the same thing for my other friends too.