Facebook users still claiming to see private messages in their timelines

Considering the near unbelievable user idiocy I deal with every day as a developer for a startup, I'm confident that the complaints are entirely false alarms by people who are unable to wrap their head around the idea that Facebook used to be very different than it is today, and that the way they used it years ago is likely to have reflected that difference.

In my own experience, even with things as simple as logging into our site, I've had users file angry complaints and bug reports INSISTING that I deleted their account, because they KNOW they're using the right email, and they've tried every single password they've ever used and can't seem to get on the site. Ten minutes later I'll get another email saying "Nevermind, I forgot logged in with Facebook."

Point is, users frequently don't know what they're talking about.

Facebook is just plain lying. I have zero doubt. No error here.

A friend of mine, software developer as I am, hardly use Facebook because it doesn't like it. And when it does it is through _private_ messaging. And there, on my timeline was a private of his.

It appears to be just an issue related to the rollout of timeline and people freaking out.

I joined in 2004 and remember how people always just wrote on each others walls myself (if you were an early user you probably also remember that people would have full conversations back to back on each others walls as you couldn't leave comments on wall posts). It's probably just a matter of people not recalling this was how Facebook used to behave.

All signs point to user error. I think it's safe to say we've all seen at least one friend post their phone number or email address on someone else's wall.

I won't believe these rumors until I see examples of intimate exchanges – whether they be sexual or personal details one would surely not publish such as a bank card PIN or SSN.

I'll confirm that this seems to be a case of people not knowing what the hell they did years ago... I looked at everything I had in my timeline, and there are only posts from people who have always, and will always, write only on my wall instead of messaging me privately.

I've seen this headline recently and it turned out to be false