Are they just trying to help google win? Why the **** can't I hide offline people anymore?

No idea. I've had it for a week and a half and it's just a straight up terrible idea.

It's pretty dumb and pointless.

LET'S MAKE CHANGE FOR CHANGE'S SAKE

it's the american way

I was about to make a post here about this a week or two ago after I made the mistake of clicking "I'll try it!". IT'S F'ING TERRIBLE.

At least let me opt out. I've since synced my Facebook with Digsby and I don't even go to facebook.com anymore. Take that.

Any other ideas how we can make our voices heard on this? I already joined/liked a couple "New facebook chat sucks" type groups and sent something to their suggestion box.

You want to make your voice heard? Change services. As long as people are still using it, Facebook doesn't care about what you think.

Yeah I loathe the sidebar, the old method where you clicked the button to bring up a list of everyone who's online was infinitely superior (even if that wasn't perfect either because sometimes the button stopped working until I reloaded the page), this sidebar business is just all kinds of inconvenient.

Click gear icon (which, presumably, represents "Settings" - not sure how that convention came about) and click "Hide sidebar".

Not that it helps. If you want to chat with somebody you still have to bring it up. It's a step backwards from what they already had. Not to mention they fail miserably with the whole "people you've interacted with recently/the most" bit.

I guess I do not have the new UI yet. Perhaps because I don't use Facebook anymore.

I cancelled my account ages ago. My wife merely added my name to her profile (e.g: Bob et Sue) & tells me if someone sends a message for me. I'll occasionally upload a photo from my iPhone via Instagram but that's about it. I have been playing around with Google+ but so far it's just more of the same. I suppose that as I get older & older I don't much feel the need to belong to a mutual admiration society where people pretend to be interested in my bull**** in hopes that I'll pretend to be interested in theirs.

I think you completely missed the point of G+. The idea is that you share things only with people who are genuinely interested, and they share similarly.

I had this happen a month ago... it suddenly vanished and restored to how it used to be. Very odd, very annoying though.The most awful thing about it was that there appeared to be no way to go offline.

No, I get it. I'm just one of those sad individuals that doesn't really have anyone that genuinely gives a **** about anything that I'd post. I have little in common with my family & the only close friends that I've ever had are too busy with their new lives in new places with new friends. You'd think that living across the ocean would make me want to use these services more but it doesn't. Elijah Craig can ride ride across the Buffalo Trace with Four Roses & give out a Rebel Yell all day long but at the end of the day they (my only friends) don't talk back.

I know the feeling, Mentat.

Fear not Mentat, we are all your friends (except MacFarlane). And we will always be here.

Well, then if you don't engage in the public displays of appreciation and constant status updates, leave a minimalist profile that filters out bull**** like farmville and only gives you email updates when someone sends you a message or something.

It's like a dropbox so that when people DO care (and they're out there) they can find you more easily than scouring phonebooks.

God damn luddites, the point is to use internets properly. Just because 90% of the idiots in the world use facebook to replace their real life doesn't mean you can't use it to augment yours.

Bingo. Discounting services like Twitter/Facebook/Google+ because the majority of people are obsessed with them/use them "poorly" does not mean that it automatically becomes an annoying place. Arguments against Twitter piss me off the most, because it's usually "omg, i don't care about seeing if you just went to Walmart, hur hur hur hur". WELL THEN DON'T ****IN FOLLOW ME, EASY AS THAT. It's not like these sites force you to actually wade through the 90% of bull****. Facebook comes close, but you can still widdle it down if you try hard enough.

Regarding Google+, I like it so much because it is a great blend of Twitter and Facebook. It obviously has the interface of facebook (although much more streamlined), but it also has the best feature of twitter in that people can follow you without following them. So far, Google+ is what I wanted out of facebook without having to do all the work of defriending certain folks, changing my privacy settings, changing my picture sharing settings, etc. Google+ does it all at once with circles.

I definitely do see Google+ being a bit more "adult" though. I think you start caring about your privacy/true friends a bit more as you grow older. Back in high school, having 1,000 friends means YOU ARE SUPER POPULAR. I don't know many folks above my age that care about that anymore. I think it's that older crowd that is shifting from facebook to Google+. I'd love to see demographic comparisons, I could be completely wrong.

Thanks for excluding me from that. Makes me feel better. You dick.

I've actually just become desensitized to the whole mess. Even before the whole 'new look' thing. I still get crap in my newsfeed & on my wall from people using an app and 'sent me a request' or 'answered a question about me'... but i just ignore it. I have more important things that I could care about and actually give some of my mental time to. The sidebar? Just another thing that I could care less about.

I have no urge to 'streamline' my facebooking experience. I don't even need to know who's online half the time. If I REALLY wanted to get a hold of someone quickly I will call, text, or go to see them. Making facebook run smoother or faster just seems kind of pointless for me.

Seriously, what is the point of it? Can someone give me a reason?

I still like facebook. Screw all you haters.

We laugh at you on G+!!

We? Who, like you and two other friends? LOLOLOLOLOL

Arrgh. Satan told you that!

What the hell, Jim?

I have been playing with Google +, but so far it's just more of the same. I think as I get older and older, I do not much feel the need to belong to a mutual admiration society, people pretend bull in my hope....

Are you feeling lucky, bot? Well, do ya?