On the casting of that Facebook notification story

balimbahoo says: Or rather, why telling people important news in their lives over Facebook is a terrible idea. 

» SFB says: The problem is, they didn’t do that. They never directly informed the person over Facebook, but used it as a way to contact the person to let them know to call the police. Which, in some circumstances (unlisted/broken number, questions of next of kin, other means tried first unsuccessfully, etc.), may be fair. Instead, they asked the family to call using the messaging system—only to have that message eaten by the “other messages” folder. “The woman’s daughter eventually responded to the message some three weeks after her brother had gone missing, and was subsequently informed of the tragic news,” The Verge’s article states. The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s original article confirms this. Now there are other issues here (the usage of an account with a photo of T.I. being one) but using a Facebook account to tell someone to call you on the phone is a perfectly reasonable thing to do in certain cases. I’ve seen a couple of people frustrated with my note in the reblog of The Verge’s post, but I think that it’s because that context was misrepresented in their blurb.  — Ernie @ SFB