Why I Hate TweetDeck's Integration With Facebook

A new version of TweetDeck was released today (0.24 beta) which includes some Facebook support. Download: http://tweetdeck.com/beta/TweetDeck_0_24.air (Note this is a beta update and is installed at your own risk.) Install the software (your current settings won't be affected) and you'll be presented with a new checkbox with 'Facebook' written next to this. Check this, and every time you tweet your Facebook status (after you've given TweetDeck permission) will be updated as well. I hate this. I try really hard not to be a hater, but I draw the line here. This I hate. I've written before about why I believe status managers of any kind are a bad idea and I stand by it. No matter how much Facebook has tried to capture some of Twitter's magic with its recent update the two platforms, and the two status features, are quite different. Hence, after trying out this feature on the new TweetDeck, I unticked the box immediately. I urge everybody to do the same thing. The last thing I want to see are new users to Twitter being encouraged to use any kind of cross-platform status updater. It's a bad habit. Stop it, stop it, stop it. (You can use TweetDeck to just update your status on Facebook, but why would you ever do that?) There's also a new Facebook icon on your taskbar. Click on this and you'll open a Facebook pane within TweetDeck which allows you to monitor the status updates of all of your friends. This updates every 60 seconds, and you can use this feature to re-tweet your Facebook buddies' status updates and if they're online open a chat window (within TweetDeck) to communicate with them. I'm sure some people would find this useful but again it's not a feature I like. I'm not entirely sure of the point of integrating Facebook within Twitter at all - I don't think they complement each other particularly well for various reasons - but why I'd need a window to monitor my friend's profile updates within TweetDeck when I can just have Facebook open in Firefox is a bit lost on me. Also, I don't believe you can implement any kind of filter within the Facebook pane on TweetDeck, nor does it seem to acknowledge your Facebook settings, which means if you've taken advantage of Facebook's welcome update in that area you'll continue to see status updates from people within TweetDeck, even if you wouldn't on Facebook. Doesn't make a lot of sense and is to be honest quite unwelcome. I also don't like the idea of re-tweeting the status updates of my Facebook friends, and I'm not sure they would, either. Unless they're already on Twitter and you give credit to them with an @reply, why would you do this? It's not as if it's going to lead to them getting any more follows or anything like that. There's also potential for massive breaches of privacy here. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family; I use Twitter to meet new people and share links and content. Again, two very different things. I don't want my Facebook stuff being re-posted to Twitter. Of course one could easily copy and paste anything from any external service into Twitter, including Facebook, but it's quite a bit easier with one-click functionality. It also gives it a sense of credibility; like it's acceptable behaviour and good etiquette. It isn't. (I'm also not sure what it does with Facebook statuses longer than 140 characters; my guess is they get cut off at the end, which is going to be pretty ugly.) As said this update is beta and I found it quite buggy. TweetDeck repeatedly asked Facebook to log back in even though I'd clicked on the checkbox to remember me, and after a while the Facebook pane seemed to stop working altogether. I was also repeatedly logged out of Facebook itself. These problems likely will be rectified in the next version. There are some other non-Facebook cosmetic changes to TweetDeck 0.24. Click on the 'other actions' button on any avatar and instead of one single drop-down menu as before it is now broken up into 'user' and 'tweet' sub-categories, although I believe the functionality is the same. I really like TweetDeck and I believe it makes Twitter a much better place, especially once you move above the comfort level of followers (which I think is somewhere between 150-200). Everything is easily manageable and core features like re-tweeting and direct messages are just one click away. But I hate the changes that have been made in version 0.24 of the software and I'm nervous about the direct in which it's now heading. I can absolutely understand trying to put more functionality into the client but in the opinion of this fan, the integration with Facebook is not only a bad idea, but potentially a very negative one for users of both platforms. Not only are we now looking at waves of really ugly status updates on Facebook, but the ramifications of re-tweeting the statuses of non-Twitter users adds up to a huge pile of ugly. My advice: wait until the next major update before installation. Unless these Facebook features seem really great to you - and if they do, I'm kinda worried about the future of Twitter, to be honest - you're not going to get anything out of this upgrade. If you do install, share the same reservations I do or think it's a positive step forward, please hit the comments section below. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts.

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Why I Hate TweetDeck's Integration With Facebook

Shea Bennett

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Shea Bennett