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Comment by cargo8 | Hacker News Reader

Don't agree 100%, but the quality of FB overall as a product has definitely degraded as of late as they've been pushing Gifts, Commerce, and other revenue streams onto users very strongly.

I've noticed several annoying redesigns / changes that hide convenient functionality in order to make the user click through "No, I don't want to give a gift"... Very annoying, definitely makes me less pleased and less engaged with the site.

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As obnoxious as those gift suggestions can be for some people I'd never think of sending a gift, I've found the actual experience of sending a gift on Facebook to be great. You can send something across the country the day of someone's birthday (as opposed to sending something with a belated birthday card), because a lot of them give the receiver an option between a couple of gifts (say a bottle of red, white or rose wine).

I'm not saying I don't like the Facebook gift product. I tried it out a few times, and you're right - they nailed it. The virtual card and slow reveal as the user clicks through (then it shows up unwrapped on the wall, etc) is awesome and a great end-to-end addition to the site.

What I really hate is that because this great new feature makes money, as opposed to the previous goal of driving growth, engagement, what have you, it is pushed first and foremost and hides many more useful features behind additional clicks to first say "No, I don't want to buy a gift". For example, the one-click write-on-everyone-whos-birthday-it-is-in-one-dialogue feature was unbelievably useful. Now you have to click twice for each person to write on their wall (once on the thing that says "Buy a gift", then once on "Write on their timeline").

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