site-changes

This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.

Site changes happen when you use a 3rd party service (typically a silo) that changes in some way from the original service you signed up for. These changes can be related to user experience design, data storage and recovery, the ability to post privately, or how your data is used and sold.

When you don't own your own site or your data, you are dependent upon a 3rd party site. That 3rd party site can change rules, page layout or services at any time without your consent. Site Deaths are one another reason why you should own your own identity and content on the web.

Chronology

This is a chronology of content hosting sites that have changed their terms of service, privacy policy, or user interface in ways that have significantly changed the people use their site. This specifically for content hosting sites that permit end-user posting. For each example, include site links, citations and dates where possible. Also include the social or user impact the change has had on people using the site.

2013

2013-02-13 Facebook allows users to customize gender. [1]
- "The 50-odd options, which include "bi-gender", "transgender", "androgynous" and "transsexual", will allow people "to express themselves in an authentic way" [2]

2011

2011-07-21 Google+ mass deletes accounts that do not use "real names". [3]
- Flagged for suspension: Violet Blue [4]
- Suspended: Limor Fried "Ladyada" suspended [5] her account was unsuspended after complaints [6] but many other accounts were purged and not restored.
- 2013-01-21 Google+ published a revised policy on Google+ real names. [7]

2013-11-06 Google+ implements "real name" policy for YouTube usage. [8]
- Backlash: news articles [9] [10] [11], complaints on the Google product forums [12], Change.org petition that called for the company to roll back the Youtube commenting system to its former, anonymous state.[13] (2014-02-15: the petition has 232,908 supporters)
- 2012-01-21 The Google+ policy was revised to allow nicknames [14]

ToDo

????-??-?? Facebook announces friend's photos can be made into ads. **citation**
- **Explain social impact**

????-??-?? Facebook creates Timeline **citation**
- **Explain social impact**

????-??-?? Google+ timeline subscribes users automatically to people in their address book **citation**
- People were subscribed to content from abusive former spouses, exes.

????-??-?? Facebook made group memberships visible to friends **citation**
- Some students in marginalized groups were 'outed' by Facebook. Physical danger.

Redesigns

Significant site redesigns should be noted if the redesign makes a significant enough change to the way people use the site. If this list gets long enough it should be broken out into a new page.

????-??-?? StumbleUpon

????-??-?? Delicious

????-??-?? MySpace

????-??-?? Flickr