Facebook Home Page "Revolt Group" Passes 1.7 Million Members

Facebook just gets done defusing the huge blow-up about an updated Terms of Service agreement, when it rolled out a new Twitter-like Home Page, which has turned into just as big an issue, with a group, Petition Against the "New Facebook" with more than 1.7 million members.

The site says it wants to reach 2 million members. It says:

By now, most of us have realized that the Old Facebook isn't coming back. In fact, it seems as though Facebook is going to continue to make large changes without asking what the users want. (the "new facebook", the new terms of service, and the new homepage.) This is unfortunate, but it doesn't change our purpose. Although we can't make things the way they were, what we can do is petition Facebook to make small changes and make the transition easier to deal with. That is what our group is now about: principle. We stand by the fact that the new facebook needs a lot of improvements. Perhaps, with time, it can be more than an advertisement-monger.

That is where you, our members, come in. With your support, we can, perhaps, effect meaningful change. We still need members to make a difference, so continue to invite your friends! Only in numbers can we hope to change the "New Facebook" for the better.

It's pretty much the same argument as was made with regards to the "Terms of Service." Users liked the old layout, and many are not happy about not being consulted about the changes, or at least being given the option to switch their home page back to the old one.

Here's what Facebook says:

"The new Facebook home page is one step in the continued evolution of the site, designed to give people more ways to share and filter all types of content, such as status updates, photos, videos, notes and more. We are grateful to have 175 million people worldwide using Facebook to connect with the people and things they care about most, and we take their feedback very seriously. We are listening carefully to what people are saying about the new home page through a variety of channels - including through a popular application, built by outside developers on our platform, that allows users to vote and express their opinion. Also helpful have been the many comments we're reading on industry blogs, the Facebook company blog, Mark Zuckerberg's public profile, Facebook user groups, and through the link on the Facebook new home page tutorial. We encourage people to send us constructive, detailed feedback and are committed to using it to inform how we build and improve the site for everyone.

Even Facebook's own poll on the new homepage shows an overwhelming negative view of it. At the time of this writing, it's 76,414 for and 1,186,118 against, or 94% against.

At the same time, the Terms of Service comment period ends on March 27th, which is rapidly approaching.