Oh Myyy! (17 page)

“GEORGE, I’M SORRY THAT YOU TOOK OFFENSE AT MY ATTEMPT TO BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO THE PLIGHT OF CHILDREN WITH MS. I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT A MAN OF YOUR STATURE WHO CLAIMS TO BE COMPASSIONATE WOULD NOT HAVE SO COLDLY DELETED MY MESSAGE OF HOPE. UNFRIEND.”

Good heavens, what a mess. I made a sincere effort to respond to each of these and explain that I never delete fan posts unless they contain hate speech or are obviously spam, that Facebook probably had swallowed up their posts temporarily, and they should be patient. But this happened so often that it became impossible for me to respond to each distraught fan, and so I endured post after tearful post from disenchanted fans.

The problem became acute enough that I actively had to monitor how my own posts were faring to determine whether there was an issue with any given one. In a particularly troubling week, it seemed every post I made failed to make it on to anyone’s newsfeed. I could tell something was wrong because the number of likes and shares would mysteriously drop to negligible numbers, or simply stop rising altogether — meaning they had vanished off of everyone’s feeds. Brad, of course, thought I was being paranoid, but the numbers spoke for themselves.

So I did what any customer would do. I complained.

“Fans,” I asked, “Facebook appears to be acting up today. Could you do me a favor and visit my wall, and let me know whether you saw my two posts from earlier today?”

Hundreds of fans responded that they indeed had not seen my posts. Many assumed I had taken a mysterious hiatus from my daily Facefix. Others asked how they could ensure that they saw all my posts (there is no real way to ensure this, as I explain in a later chapter).

After I posted my alert, imagine my surprise when I received wall posts from members of the Facebook Engineering team, alerting me, in turn, that they were investigating the issue. The nerd in me thrilled. One engineer, Mark Callaghan, blogged about the experience:

GEORGE TAKEI HAS A LOT OF FANS WITH US AND SINCE WE’VE ALL LIKED HIS PAGE, A WHILE BACK SOME OF US SAW AN UPDATE FROM HIM ABOUT AN INCONSISTENCY IN HIS FACEBOOK EXPERIENCE. WE REALIZED WHAT HE WAS EXPERIENCING WAS AN ISSUE WE WERE ALREADY TRYING TO FIX ON THE DATABASE SIDE, SO WHEN WE SAW HIM POST, IT GAVE US MORE INFORMATION THAT HELPED US GET CLOSER TO RESOLVING THE ISSUE. THIS ALLOWED US TO IMPROVE HIS EXPERIENCE, AND IN TURN, THE EXPERIENCE OF EVERYONE ELSE ON FACEBOOK.

In “tech speak,” on his blog, Callaghan was providing technical insight into challenges of scalability with MySQL on Facebook’s multi-core servers. Truthfully, I don’t understand this, but in plain English, it would appear my post had assisted their team with some real world troubleshooting.

Reading this, I suddenly realized what Dorothy must have felt like when meeting The Wizard. These are the live folks behind what happens on Facebook! I had peeked behind the curtain.

At times, I’ve come to the defense of Facebook, as when it rolled out its new Timeline user interface. The Internet was so abuzz with dire warnings and predictions, one would think a cataclysmic event had occurred, rather than an honest attempt to improve the product. So I did what came naturally: I spoofed it in a brief video. In it, I advised that the future of humanity was not threatened by the Timeline change itself, but by the possibility that one could go back in time to change one’s status. Metaphysical purists no doubt will point out here that the concept of backward time travel is theoretically problematic because of the temporal paradox, but that’s another book, probably in another parallel lifetime.

In my spoof video (
youtube.com/watch?v=1kNs4pxhRvc
) I had a great deal of fun imagining what my own Timeline would look like in the year 2293, with the help of some creative staff members. I’m sure it did little to quell rumors of a feud between Bill Shatner and myself.

Now, on the flip side, I haven’t always been a complete fan of what Facebook is up to. In June of 2012, I saw an advertisement for “promoted posts” and read some articles about how Facebook was planning to make more money by implementing them. Promoted posts, as I understand them, are a way to charge pages and brands to reach more of their fans. This alarmed me, because I wasn’t sure I would be able to maintain the engagement with my fans. I posted this on my page:

“FB USED TO ALLOW FANS TO ELECT TO SEE ALL POSTS BY SELECTING ‘ALL UPDATES’ FROM THE RIGHT HAND CORNER OF A POST. FOR COMMUNITY PAGES SUCH AS THIS, THOUGH, FB RECENTLY DECIDED THAT ONLY CERTAIN FANS WILL SEE CERTAIN POSTS, AND IT PLANS TO ASK ME TO PAY FOR MORE FAN VIEWS.

I UNDERSTAND THAT FB HAS TO MAKE MONEY, ESPECIALLY NOW THAT IT IS PUBLIC, BUT IN MY VIEW THIS DEVELOPMENT TURNS THE NOTION OF ‘FANS’ ON ITS HEAD.”

My general concern was that the wonderful, freewheeling marketplace of ideas was about to be gobbled up by the companies most able to pay to have their messages delivered. I certainly would not be able to fork out thousands of dollars per update to ensure my fans saw something I’d shared.

My frustrations did not go unnoticed. Another engineer at Facebook, Phil Zigoris, responded quickly, respectfully assuring me as follows:

TO THE ESTEEMED MR. GEORGE TAKEI, I SAW YOUR POST EARLIER (AT THE TOP OF MY FEED, IN FACT) ON SUPPOSED CHANGES TO THE WAY YOUR POSTS WERE DELIVERED TO FANS. I WORK AT FB AND EVEN WORK ON THE PRODUCT YOU DESCRIBE, AND I WANTED TO DROP A NOTE TO SAY THAT WE’VE CHANGED NOTHING ABOUT THE WAY PAGE POSTS ARE DELIVERED TO FANS. I STILL SEE YOUR POSTS IN MY FEED ALL THE TIME (KEEP ‘EM COMING). THE MAIN POINT OF CONFUSION WE’VE SEEN IS THAT PAGES DON’T REALIZE THAT THEIR POSTS WERE NEVER REACHING 100% OF FANS. IF YOU GO TO YOUR PAGE INSIGHTS, YOU’LL SEE THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE.

AND IT MAKES SENSE IF YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT: THERE IS JUST NO WAY TO SEE ALL OF THE STUFF HAPPENING ON FB IN YOUR FEED. PERSONALLY, I HAVE OVER 700 FRIENDS AND HAVE PROBABLY FANNED 1000S OF PAGES, THERE IS NO WAY I CAN SEE ALL OF THEIR POSTS IN MY FEED EVERYDAY. FORTUNATELY, FB DOES A PRETTY GOOD JOB RANKING CONTENT BASED ON THE PEOPLE AND PAGES I INTERACT WITH THE MOST. SO NATURALLY, GEORGE TAKEI AND TACO BELL ARE USUALLY AT THE TOP OF MY FEED.

ALL PROMOTED PAGE POSTS DOES IS OFFER AN EASY WAY FOR PAGE ADMINS TO PAY TO PROMOTE A POST USING FB ADS USING FUNCTIONALITY THAT ALREADY EXISTED. A LOT OF BUSINESSES USE POSTS TO PROMOTE SALES, CONCERTS, ETC AND ITS AN EASY WAY TO GET MORE DISTRIBUTION AND WE’VE GOTTEN A LOT OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM PAGES ABOUT THE PRODUCT.

While this addressed some of my technical ignorance, it left open the question of whether money was going to tip the balance in favor of big corporations when it came to Facebook “real estate.”

The question was ripe enough for even
The Wall Street Journal
to take interest. A reporter called and interviewed me about my thoughts on the matter.

Here is an excerpt from that interview:

WSJ: ARE YOU FRUSTRATED BY THIS NEWS?

MR. TAKEI: I AM STILL LEARNING HOW FACEBOOK WORKS AND TRYING HARD TO KEEP UP WITH ITS MANY CHANGES. AND I UNDERSTAND THAT FACEBOOK HAS TO MAKE MONEY. BUT WHAT IS FRUSTRATING IS THAT THIS OFFER COMES DURING A TIME WHEN I SAW MY GENERAL REACH (43 MILLION PER WEEK) INEXPLICABLY DROPPING BY 25% DOWN TO 34 MILLION, EVEN AS THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE PAGE WAS RISING (TO NOW OVER 2.5 MILLION PER WEEK) AND THE NUMBER OF FANS WAS GROWING AT AROUND 7,000 PER DAY.

I ASKED MYSELF, IS FACEBOOK DOING SOMETHING TO SHRINK MY FAN REACH, AT THE SAME TIME IT IS TELLING ME TO PAY TO REACH MORE OF THEM? SO YES, IT WAS FRUSTRATING TO FEEL PRESSURE TO PAY TO REACH FANS.

WSJ: ANY PLANS TO PAY FACEBOOK SO MORE FANS CAN SEE YOUR POSTS?

MR. TAKEI: I DON’T CURRENTLY HAVE ANY SUCH PLANS. NEARLY ALL OF MY POSTS ARE JUST THINGS I FIND FUNNY, OR TOUCHING, OR THOUGHT-PROVOKING. THEY HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH ME PERSONALLY, SO I CAN’T SEE MYSELF PAYING EXTRA FOR THOSE.

WSJ: WILL THIS HAVE ANY IMPACT ON YOUR FACEBOOK PRESENCE?

MR. TAKEI: FANS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BECOME EDUCATED ON HOW THE CONTENT THEY BELIEVE THEY HAVE SIGNED UP FOR IS ACTUALLY HANDLED, AND AT TIMES TAKE PROACTIVE MEASURES TO MAKE SURE THEIR “NEWS FEED” CONTAINS WHAT THEY WANT IT TO CONTAIN. FOR MY PART, I AM GETTING A CRASH COURSE IN WHAT CONTENT MAKES ITS WAY INTO WHAT STREAM, AND WHY. I KNOW THAT TO STAY RELEVANT IN SOCIAL MEDIA, YOU CAN’T GO RADIO SILENT FOR WEEKS ON VACATION AND EXPECT THE WORLD NOT TO HAVE CHANGED. AT LEAST, CERTAINLY NOT ON FACEBOOK.

Despite my initial concerns, the algorithm Facebook is using to determine post placement has caused my page to come out fine. Facebook continues to search for a way to satisfy its investors while maintaining the integrity and core of its free user engagement, a delicate balance that always threatens to set users on edge, myself included. We have become accustomed to this “free” service provided, and are quick to balk at any hint of commercialism, which of course makes no sense when you consider that Facebook ultimately must make gobs of money to justify its stock price. Well, perhaps not gobs any longer given its current stock price, but you get my drift.

After one more recent incident, Facebook Engineering extended an open invitation for me to ask them direct questions rather than post about them on my wall. This happened after I shared a concern that a French newspaper had reported. The rumor was that Facebook had published, in error, its users’ private messages as “wall posts” in the Timeline before the year 2009. This rumor spread rather quickly, in part because wall posts from that era did in fact more closely resemble what today’s more savvy users would identify as private messaging (in fact, private messaging wasn’t even available on Facebook back then). I shared this concern with my fans, but within minutes received contrary information from Facebook Engineering. I decided then to take down the post and investigate the claim more thoroughly.

I am still getting used to the idea that, because my posts reach so many fans so quickly, I have a higher responsibility to ensure that they are accurate, lest I become part of the reason a false rumor spreads. Whether I should be held to a higher standard is still an open question, as I’m neither a journalist nor an expert, but I do understand that sheer numbers have begun to make the question moot. Knowing that I can have a back channel to Facebook, if needed, is an unexpected honor, and I plan to take advantage of it when confronted again with technical questions.

Indeed, Facebook recently extended an invitation to me personally to come visit their headquarters, and I hope to be able to take them up on the offer if I can find a window when I will be in the San Francisco Bay Area. I don’t want to get too cozy with the company, mind you, as I’m still just a user and have my share of issues.

In the next chapter, I discuss some of the specifics about Facebook and its algorithms. It’s a bit on the technical side, but a lot of folks who use social media regularly wanted me to spill some secrets of my success on Facebook.

I have a great deal of respect for what is still a fledgling company, for despite its detractors Facebook has managed to connect over a billion people and certainly has changed my life in myriad unexpected and positive ways.

And let’s face it, we all still need our Facefix.

I’m on the Edge

Fans (and the press) often wonder how a 75-year old actor who had his heyday in a science fiction series from the 1960s came to have some three million fans on Facebook. I honestly often wonder the same thing. Looking back, there are a few reasons that come to mind, none of which I understood when I first started sharing online. It turns out, the success of my page is mostly tied up in something Facebook calls “EdgeRank.”

I should preface this by saying I am not certain exactly how
“EdgeRank” works. It’s a secret algorithm that Facebook guards closely. But I do understand some of its basic principles, and how they worked to my page’s advantage in the early going. So nerd out with me a bit in this chapter, and I’ll let you in on some secrets on why I think my page got the “edge” when it comes to fans and fan interaction, and why I worry that Facebook actually might be pushing some of its users to the edge.