I’ve gone back to Facebook for a while to learn about some of the changes happening there, and have just been reading an article by Jesse Stay about new possibilities regarding Facebook lists. Facebook lists are interesting, and, like Twitter lists, could be used to manage Facebook when one is dealing with thousands of friends (I’m not, and most people aren’t – but if the intention would be to use facebook as more than a way of staying in touch with a few friends, then it might become relevant).
Lists seem to have 2 main purposes, but these can be mutually contradictory:
(a) To enable broadcast to a specific group of people who may be interested in a certain kind of posting (below the status box, click the lock icon, then Customize, then “Specific People”, then choose name of list).
(b) To enable a filtered view of activity (click Friends on left margin, then choose the list name).
I just made a list called M.E. Peace, Israel & Palestine Issues. I could use this list to (a) broadcast links to news stories on these issues. And (b) I could use it to read stories from people who have something to say about these issues.
The problem is that not everyone who is interested in this kind of posting would have something interesting to say about the subject area.
It would therefore be necessary to create 2 similar lists – one for broadcast (which would be kept private) and the other for receiving, which could be visibly placed on the profile page.