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Facebook Timeline Shows Who Has Unfriended You

Posted by timothy on from the but-aunt-lucy-it-was-just-a-figure-of-speech dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Currently, Facebook does not notify you when someone unfriends you on the social network. That may soon change with the upcoming Facebook Timeline feature, which will soon replace your current Facebook profile. Unless Facebook changes this, you can actually see who has unfriended you during any point in time while you've been on the social network."

26 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Moar drama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Expect 43% more butthurt in the coming weeks.

  2. Done With That by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I unfriended Facebook. Google may not be any less evil, but they make it dead easy to control who my posts go to, don't spam me with game spam bullshit every couple of days and they don't change my profile and settings every couple of months without so much as a "by-your-leave."

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Done With That by zullnero · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should check out Diaspora*, just saying. If you are concerned about having to choose between the lesser of two evils and all. They're currently rolling out invites for the beta, so be patient.

    2. Re:Done With That by interkin3tic · · Score: 2

      I'm still hoping to get my invite to diaspora, and I'll be delighted if it takes off, but lets be honest: it's never going to reach where even google+ is right now. Quitting facebook and google+ for diaspora is basically quitting social networking altogether. As I understand it, diaspora had two selling points: one it was not under the control of a large corporation who could abuse you, and two you were able to choose who you shared what with. Google+ scooped that second feature already, and it probably won't be long before facebook does too if they haven't already.

      I don't think highly enough of my friends to be that they'll make the switch due to privacy reasons alone.

      (Now seems like a good time to remind mods not to mod the messenger down just because they don't like the message...)

    3. Re:Done With That by Riceballsan · · Score: 2

      Diaspora is a wonderful concept, unfortunately it will never have any chance to take off. Development is far too slow, I think it had a small chance back at the timeframe they released the pre-alpha demo. At that timeframe they were newsworthy enough and actually getting positive media focus. Then we found out they fscked everything up, their security bugs were so ubundant, the code seemed so poorly cobbled together that most developers coders, possible investors who were interested in the product with a promise of security and control, pretty much freaked out and ran away. Next they basically haven't made any real announcements or anything for about a year. Bottom line is, they need to get a shit ton of users converted at once. That is not something that has ever been possible with the only real advantage toted is "it's open source" "it's not run by a big evil company". Especially when they can't even guarantee security.

    4. Re:Done With That by __Paul__ · · Score: 3, Informative

      As I understand it, diaspora had two selling points: one it was not under the control of a large corporation who could abuse you, and two you were able to choose who you shared what with. Google+ scooped that second feature already, and it probably won't be long before facebook does too if they haven't already

      Facebook has had that for a while - at least a year, anyway, using Lists. You can choose to post updates/photos/whatever to people who are members of a list, and only those people will see it. It's worked well for quite a while - until this week, as they have changed it so that people on those lists can now see who else is on the list, which is quite a step backwards. Unfortunately, it mirrors Google+ behaviour in this regard.

      --
      worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
  3. Sooo? by happylight · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When you unfriend someone all they have to do is look at their friends list and see you missing to deduce that you've unfriended them.

    It's not like some big secret. People can already easily find out.

    1. Re:Sooo? by somersault · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's like saying you can easily find that you've lost something by taking a full inventory of your house each week. If you don't suspect something has gone missing, why would you be checking/making the list?

      --
      which is totally what she said
    2. Re:Sooo? by blackest_k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      sometimes friends go missing for a while and pop back up, sometimes its because they want to get away from facebook sometimes it is just random. it used to bother me when friends came and went, you always think it's something you did. After a while you realise that you have just drifted apart so far there is only memories in common.

      it's almost as bad as friends reunited, which is more people who used to go to the same places as me years ago.

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
    3. Re:Sooo? by bitt3n · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's like saying you can easily find that you've lost something by taking a full inventory of your house each week. If you don't suspect something has gone missing, why would you be checking/making the list?

      because the bar doesn't open till noon

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
    4. Re:Sooo? by Nursie · · Score: 2

      I agree that if you don't notice someone is gone then they weren't a friend to begin with.

      The rest is drivel though. Social networking itself has made it easier to have continued involvement in each others' lives when geographically disparate.

      Yes, you could call, write or email. But people don't do that to tell you they just stubbed their toe, or found a great new band, or are redecorating the kitchen, and it's precisely these trivia that keep people involved and keep friendships going.

      And if you think a true friend is someone you see every 2-3 days then I would suggest that you're in for a shock when you graduate college.

  4. Re:Yet Another Erosion Of Privacy by Tatarize · · Score: 2

    Protecting the privacy of some hasbeen jackass who dumped me. Pah.

    --

    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
  5. doesn't work any more. by dirtyhippie · · Score: 4, Informative

    i just tried it. i even gave fb my phone number to do it. There was someone i know who unfriended me in 2009 (long story!), but after following all the steps, they don't show in any of the boxes. My guess is FB changed the UI to have the box show friends made that year *that are still friends* recently. Nothing to see here (anymore), move along.

    1. Re:doesn't work any more. by darkjohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it appears FB 'fixed' this already - there is a note about it on the original 'how to' page.

  6. This isn't new... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have had a userscript do this for me for quite some time.
    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/58852

  7. Wasn't your friend in the first place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you cannot tell by looking at your friends list whom has dropped you as a friend. You weren't really friends with that person anyways.

    I find people who have 300-400 "friends" rather ridiculous, they need to have an "I met this person once" list instead of a friends list.

    1. Re:Wasn't your friend in the first place by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Which in itself is another social - stress-or. Everybody has "close" friends and every on in a social group can usually tell who each others best friends are. You are kinda in a person's top three and they are almost always in yours or you are not.

      Its always pretty clear and there is really no way to conceal it. Its tolerated we all understand we can't all be each others best friends. Beyond that I think its really rather impolite to rank and classify your "friends". I think I generally have a pretty thick skin but I certainly would not feel good about X effectively making a public announcement that I mean less to him or her than Y. I would not want to make such an announcement about X or Y myself.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    2. Re:Wasn't your friend in the first place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The obvious engineering solution is to replace the close/distant friend dichotomy with a sliding scale from 0 to 100.

      Now imagine how much arguments and hurt feelings THAT could generate... "I thought we were at least 75 % friends but you put me at 62 %, how dare you"

  8. And this is a problem because? by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 2

    Seriously, is there a problem with this feature?

  9. Re:Yet Another Erosion Of Privacy by That+Guy+From+Mrktng · · Score: 2

    and start all kinds of crap over it.

    That would make this people spend more time in FB ergo more page views for Facebook's ads: they don't just annoy you, the do the annoyance/profit ratio calculations and the later probably is 70% of the priority.

  10. Mandatory Munroe Mention by KingAlanI · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/276/

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  11. Aha! by KingAlanI · · Score: 3, Funny

    So that's what happened to the person who did not Like my social and political commentary...
    I thought so, would like clear indicators

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  12. Re:This could suck by cosm · · Score: 2

    I unfriend people all the time, to keep my friends list at the right number.

    Over 9000?

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  13. You can already do this... by Stenchwarrior · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...with a script for Greasemonkey called Unfriend Finder. You have to install Greasemonkey addon for Firefox first.

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    Loading...
  14. People do not actually care by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most people do not actually care. They love being able to follow what all their friends, acquaintances, and former boyfriends and girlfriends are doing. They love the idea that other people are following what they are doing. If people really cared about their privacy, they would ditch Facebook entirely.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  15. BetterFacebook by thomp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get BetterFacebook for your browser. You can see all kinds of activity that FB doesn't show you.

    Also, you can already make lists of people in Facebook, so you can separate your close friends from your not-so-close friends.

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    .sig