If you don't wanna use the Facebook integration, then don't. I know I sure won't since, like you, my real life friends don't want to read what I post here. Also, I don't even have a Facebook. But some people are into that stuff or it wouldn't have been implemented. Just ignore it.

i agree with you completely,sweep. I don't think it was that necessary to add facebook here.

" If you don't wanna use the Facebook integration, then don't. I know I sure won't since, like you, my real life friends don't want to read what I post here. Also, I don't even have a Facebook. But some people are into that stuff or it wouldn't have been implemented. Just ignore it. "

If you have adblock plus, you can block the facebook button if for some reason it's existence drives you insane.

Show me one place on Giant Bomb where we force your content onto Facebook? Show me one place where we don't ask you to click a button to push your content somewhere. Find the place where Giant Bomb spams you. Find the preference that sends you tons of email as a new user without your permission.
 
Reality: Facebook is huge. It's the largest site in the world. We can't avoid it. It's just there and people use it everyday. There are many ways this integration could have gone down. We could have forced every comment/post/review you made to automatically push to facebook and twitter. We could have been THAT company. We didn't. We did the best we could. We made it no more than 25 pixels in height and asked you if you wanted to share your content with others instead of just doing it without your permission. We asked you to not only push one button, but push many other buttons after that to make sure you were OK with it. We did this because we hate when other websites force that decision on us.
 
Facebook is what it is. You having to see a very small blue button on your page is not the end of the world. This is beyond reactionary. It's just silly. Will we eventually add a preference to turn them off? Yeah, probably, when we're done capitulating to the dozens of other bugs we deal with on a daily basis. When have we not caved into user concern over this kind of stuff? When has Giant Bomb not been the site that doesn't take ethical user procedures to heart? When have we not been clean with our audience about our intentions? We have fucking preferences to turn off god damned editorial off from OUR OWN message board, how does that even make sense? That's why you are here, because we're not fucking IGN. But to simply assume in so calice a tone that we're evil for giving people the option to share their interests with their friends is just wrong. 
 
Seriously. Show me one place on this site where we don't expressly ask your permission for something. Show me one place where the action you took requires an extra click of bullshit to get through. It doesn't exist. I know because I designed every part of it. And it was designed with a purpose. To be the best mother-fucking best gaming website in the world. We're either that or we're some evil monopoly forcing ad, Twitter, Email and  Facebook spam on you without your permission.
 
This is the most ethical site on the Internet of its size. From its Editorial team to its Engineering team. Sweep. Love you tons, followed your stuff and you've been an amazing contributor to the site over the years. But you're just wrong here. We've done nothing to your experience but add a couple avoidable small footprint buttons to the site. You're over-reacting. You're causing a fuss.
 
As for your community rants over the past couple weeks. Giant Bomb is no different than the rest of the Internet. If you want to have your shit seen, you need to market yourself. We provide the best tools we can to allow you to create your content, but it's up to you to make sure that content is viewed. That is not our responsibility. I didn't sit on GeoCities for years trying to plug my Xwing VS TIE Fighter site, I went outside to other sites to try and get my stuff seen. There's really only so much we can do. Show me a large editorial site that does it better and I'll do my best to imitate it. Fuck man. Show me one site that even allows your blog to be broadcast outside of a profile page!  
 
You've got plenty of options when it comes to gaming sites. Gamespot, 1up, IGN and the like. When it comes to community, I know we're better. So do you. You want a site that focuses on the community over the editorial? Go to any of our game pages. You'll see small summaries of editorial comment and large sections of community content. That was and is still fucking risky for us. We get shit about it every day from advertisers. Show me one other editorial game site (scratch that, editorial site in general) where you can search for a topic and see the editorial content as the minority of the page layout. I'm not talking wikipedia, this site has professional, best of breed reviewers. We're literally gagging them on game pages to push user content forward. It's insane. We shouldn't be doing it. But we realize our content gets stale and only a thriving community of fans can keep game pages fresh.
 
As for everyone who doesn't want their "friends" to know about their life on Giant Bomb... you have two options. Find better friends who accept you as you are or don't click the small ass buttons that pop up. It's a pretty easy decision. But don't blame Giant Bomb because you're trying to hide your passions from your friends.  Do not be afraid of who you are.
 
Gaming is fucking cool. Don't be ashamed. IceWind Dale II love needs to be spread!

I believe someone "jus got own'd"

I see where Sweep is coming from. While I don't mind if other users take advantage of these features, I only wish for a way to hide them for myself. I'd rather not see a Facebook button every time I'm on the site. It may be small, but it's still there. It's not a huge complaint, and there are so many other things that should be taken care of, but regardless, I understand Sweeps perspective. 
 
Does no one else see that Sweep isn't trying to hide gaming, he's just not trying to show it through every medium.

Your all being fucking children here, snide included.
 
Sweep was merely blogging his opinion that in his life theres no sensible connection between facebook and giantbomb. It's and interesting topic.
 
Theres no need for the "WELL ITS OPTIONAL SHUTUP NOOB" comments because as Sweep said:

" @Milkman said:

" If you don't wanna use the Facebook integration, then don't. I know I sure won't since, like you, my real life friends don't want to read what I post here. Also, I don't even have a Facebook. But some people are into that stuff or it wouldn't have been implemented. Just ignore it. "

I am ignoring it. I just wanted to explain why i'm ignoring it :D "

"This is beyond reactionary."

I feel like this is one of those things that will make gaming "better for the future".  Maybe some people may judge based on perceived nerdy activity, but as younger kids have access to it, it will become more commonplace, and as they grow up around it, it will be the norm.
 
Fade out with after school special PSA music.

C'mon, guys. Don't worry about a thing...

" @Sweep:  So now that they added Facebook to the Xbox 360, am I supposed to stop gaming? "

There's absolutely no way i want any connection between facebook and giantbomb

"There are some users who don't post their blogs to the forums and, like me, don't use the forums too often. If you aren't following them, how would you find that blog? The only answer is Users > Activity Feed. And the Activity Feed is a mess. Or go to the "Community Blogs" section on the frontpage, but that only shows when there is nobody logged in."

"Every time you suggest that people post their blogs to the forums: Not all blogs are forum material. Some blogs are too personal for the forums, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be read? The fact that all blogs are not automatically posted to the forums is testament to this."

"Sure people can find my blogs because I have used the site for years and have earned a reputation as a dude who writes blogs. But I could forward you right now to 10 great bloggers who are writing every day but who you probably didn't even know existed."

"All your solutions require that the writers in question be "Followed" prior to the blog being found - what about new members joining the site? Am I supposed to just randomly visit profile pages on the off-chance I find someone with a decent blog?"

" @Rowr: I would agree if it wasn't for the last paragraph, and specifically that bold sentence. 
 
"I find it sadly ironic that it's now easier for people to find my blogs on facebook than on giantbomb." It's obvious that this whole thread is just a loaded arguement in order for him to once again start up the whole "community spotlight" arguement. This isn't about Facebook. It's about Sweep and some of the other people on this site not being able to get over the fact that there content isn't as prominent as the staff's. And quite frankly, it's getting old. "

@MrJared

" @Rowr said:

There's absolutely no way i want any connection between facebook and giantbomb

I'm still greatly interested in hearing why some of you want absolutely no interaction between the two. In my experience with dealing with dozens upon dozens of other social sites, the only negative I've ever come across is when an application spams your friends and as Snide pointed out, GiantBomb doesn't do this.
 
So why all the rage again? It seriously can't be "I don't want to see a button," can it? Let's keep in mind that this is an entirely optional feature. "

I agree with both of them. But I do declare, I do declare, that maybe things are getting out of hand?

There is a serious lack of Icewind Dale II discussion in this thread. My tangent was apparently left unseen.

Now I'm just lost in it. Too many changes. Stats lost on user profile is wrong, just wrong. Fuck Facebook, I'm talking my stats... on this site. Fuck it.

ITT: People freaking out over nothing, and the Snide being awesome.  
 
Yep, this is definitely the internet.

" @Rowr:  Okay, well if he didn't want people on Facebook looking at his blogs then he could have just said "Well, I won't be using that" and moved on. What reason is there to post this? Not everything is for everyone. So, either he REALLY likes to complain about minuscule issues or he might say something else with this post.  He says himself that never posts blogs to the forums so obviously he wanted to say something "important" if he decided to post this particular blog to the forums. "

" @Milkman: I think he's asking WHY FACEBOOK? FOR WHO? And Dave answered that pretty well. "

"There is a serious lack of Icewind Dale II discussion in this thread. My tangent was apparently left unseen. "

Completely agree, Sweepy-boy. 
In real life, the people who I know who might know what Giant Bomb is are dorks.

"   "

The fact that any of this sort of drama from the last couple of days is a real thing that actually exists is fucking blowing my mind right now.
 
Sweep, I agree about ignoring the FB feature and about there being some usability issues when it comes to looking for user content from certain angles. Dave, you're right about the usual implementation of these features and the triviality of the complaints.
 
But please, can everybody in the forums just turn down the hostility knob by about 15000%? I mean this thread is nowhere near here yet, but the tension is fucking palpable. I'm not even involved in any of this and it's still hampering my enjoyment of the site this week, and I'm sure I'm not alone there.

People who complain do so because they care about GB.

Whatevs, I think it's fine that they connect. If I could then attach everything to my Twitter so I could only ever have to post one thing, that'd be awesome.
 
You think trying to people to look at your blog on Giant Bomb? I'm trying to get people to look at my blog at The Examiner, where I actually get paid freelance. :/ Now, that sucks.

If you don't like it don't use it. I'm not using it. Why complain over this?
 
ps. Dave fuckin' destroyed this, awesome.

Ok I'm calling it Kumbaya time! 

" Ok I'm calling it Kumbaya time!  "

It seems rather silly how this blog turned into yet another war of words. One dude's simple opinion leads to all of this chaos. Honestly most of the people involved in this are acting pretty immature. 
 
So I will leave you all with this 
 
  

I have to get my fucking wisdom teeth out at like 9 am tomorrow I'd rather have the flu.

" @Red12b: GOD DAMNIT  I see your Kumbaya and raise you one Hakuna Matata. "

" @Cube: Duder I had my wisdom teeth out a few months ago. Pretty sucky experience, but not as bad as you would think. Good luck with that. "

" Completely agree, Sweepy-boy. In real life, the people who I know who might know what Giant Bomb is are dorks. "

Making it out like sweep's just going for an attention grab is absolute bullshit. I've talked to him about it long before he was going about it publicly and like most of us he just wants the site to be better. Whether or not hes got the right idea is up for grabs.