Why I will not selectively remove you from my ticker and why YOU are responsible for YOUR OWN security on Facebook.

So here’s the thing. The new Facebook. We love it (TIMELINES ARE AWESOME!!) and we hate it (new news feed? Sucks ass).

And then there’s the ticker. Oh, the ticker. People seem to be REALLY REALLY upset about the ticker. But here’s the thing, all that stuff that people are seeing, they are seeing because of the privacy settings YOU and YOUR FRIENDS have set up. If you comment on an update that was posted as “public” (or “friends of friends”), everybody can see it (or everybody you are friends with) in the ticker, on the wall itself, on your wall, it’s… you know… PUBLIC. If you post on a status that was marked as “private” or “friends only” then nobody can see it but you and your friends. It won’t show up in the ticker or anywhere else except on that person’s status update.

Here:

Facebook says that the new News Feed and the ticker do not affect your privacy settings. Ticker will only display information that you’re already able to see anywhere else on Facebook. Facebook does say, however, that if you start seeing stories that you haven’t noticed before, it’s likely because “ticker makes things easier to discover. It doesn’t mean that privacy around Facebook has changed.”

To control who sees your posts in the News Feed and ticker, be sure you use the privacy control in the Update Status box. Also remember that the comment privacy is tied to the privacy of the post: If you comment on someone’s public post, your comment is thereby also public.(source)

And I love all of my facebook friends, ALL OF YOU. DEARLY. A LOT. But I will not respond to this request:

Do me a favor: please hover over my name here, wait for the box to load and then hover over the “Subscribe” link. Then uncheck the “Comments and Likes” option. I would rather my comments on friends’ posts not be made public. Thanks!

Repost, if you don’t want your EVERY MOVE posted on the right for everyone to see! I’ll do the same for you if you want; just click “like.”

Because all that stuff? It’s stuff I can see just by clicking on your profile! It’s been there ALL ALONG, it’s just more convenient to see it now because it takes one less click and is streamed right there on the right. It’s not showing anything I couldn’t see already!

I highly suggest you take a second to check your privacy settings and have it set “friends” if you don’t want people’s comments on YOUR POSTS to be public or show up in the ticker. The thing that bugs me the most is that I’ve seen people with PUBLIC Facebook profiles ask me to do this. I JUST… WHAT!?

Instead of asking ME to censor you, take the time to do it yourself and if you don’t want your comments to show up publicly, don’t post comments on people’s status updates that are public.

This to me is common sense but at the end of the day, follow this common rule: Don’t post ANYTHING online that you wouldn’t want the entire world (and everybody on facebook) to read.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

Like most good geeks I downloaded and installed the 2.0 software yesterday and then downloaded EVERY SINGLE FREE APP AVAILABLE (and one paid app). Special thanks to TechCrunch for being on top of things and posting all downloads and links early. The app store is awesome. So far I’m pretty happy with most apps, especially the AIM, Twitterific, and the Faceobook app.

AND!

[StarWarsGeekGirl]

PhoneSaber! That was the first app I showed Ben. I’ve played with this app far too much. I can’t help it. I chased the cat around this morning and it was an epic battle that ended with him fleeing with his tail between his legs. HA!

Okay, I’ll stop now.

[/StarWarsGeekGirl]

The Facebook app is CRAZY fantastic and the developers should be very proud. It’s like a contact list on steroids. From now on instead of asking for a phone number to put into my phone I’m just gonna say “Add me on Facebook!” I’ve never really gotten fully into the Facebook craze even though I have a lot of friends that use it. Having to log in EVERY TIME I visit and the cluttered feeling have kept me away. Now that this is available, I expect that I’ll be much more active in that community… because, you know, what I really need is ANOTHER online community to become addicted to.

One thing I’d really love to see is a way to push info from Facebook to our contact lists, that would be the ultimate in coolness. GET ON THAT DEVELOPERS! kthxbye.

Twitterific is SO VERY PRETTY. I felt kind of bad for ditching Hahlo so quickly (for about 2.4 seconds) then The Pretty won me over. Twitterific is so easy to read and very well laid out for @replies and the integrated Safari browser with the option to also open in the browser for bookmarking was GENIUS. They really captured what twitter users want, I’d say better than even twitter does.

Now, if WordPress can just get it’s app out, I’ll be the happiest little blogger geek. From what I’ve seen though it will be awesome too. Easy to post, integrate pictures from the iPhone gallery on the fly, etc. It, combined with Typepad’s already available app, will take mobile blogging to the next level. It will be cool to see people doing more real time blogging of events.

I won’t be getting a 3G anytime soon because we close on the house today and we can’t really afford to be spending the money on new toys but a little part of me is happy that I got the App Store 24 hours before the 3G users. And my phone will always have the pretty metal back that I’ll flash around like a badge of geeky honor.