I just got an invite to a Facebook group titled “DISLIKE BUTTON is here - ADD it now!”. After looking this group over, I have very strong suspicious about it, and my first impulse is to recommend that everyone ignore it.
First: Facebook still isn’t adding a ‘dislike’ button. This is a third-party software hack, and has nothing to do with Facebook. Admittedly, the group does admit this on their info tab — but placed so far down the page that most people will never see it. This is shady.
Second: The instructions on how to add the dislike button have very little to do with adding a dislike button, and everything to do with getting as many people as possible to look at the group. Out of five ‘installation’ steps, only one — the last one — has anything to do with installing the button. The other four are just about spamming the group out to everyone on your friends list. This is shady.
Third: The dislike button itself is a Firefox browser add-on, and will not work for anyone using Internet Explorer, Safari, or any other browser. This is not mentioned anywhere on the dislike button group page. This is shady. Also, because they stress that you have to invite all your friends to the group before adding the button, many people will not realize that the button will not work for them until after they’ve already spammed all their friends. This is doubly shady.
Now, I don’t know what the dislike button Firefox add-on actually does or does not do once it’s installed on someone’s computer. However, given that they’re being sneaky about the entire process, and seem more concerned with getting their software on as many computers as possible, this doesn’t look good to me.
If you get an invite to the dislike button group, I strongly suggest ignoring it. if you use Firefox and have already installed the Firefox addon, I strongly suggest removing it. I don’t know that it’s bad, but from what I can see, I strongly doubt that it’s good.
8 Responses
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I got the same thing—it told me to join a group and then become a fan of some band. Hilarious, but thousands of people—including the niece who invited me—had fallen for it.
If you get this kind of crap, I highly recommend reporting the groups and pages as spam using the Report link in the lower-left.
Or you could ADD it and enjoy life playfully disrespecting your other friends who use firefox and have the app and can actually see it. Any coherent person with any sense of computer knowledge and their own virtual security has the brains to protect their own hardware/software form net based add on programs. Add the app and live a little. Or stay in a shell, scared to add apps that are fun and convenient.
If it causes a problem, just disable it. If its spawns into an virus that steals your soul through the screen (the way you make it sound), just flush your system, reformat and restore backups (those that any sensible person should already have on hand and be able to live without fear of all things “shady.”
Clowns.
I don’t think the group founder has anything to do with the author of the extension. Also, the sole purpose of the group is obviously just to spread the word around and has nothing to with the addon working. Nonetheless, I think you’re right on all accounts. I don’t like the way the extension is being spread, it’s spammy and annoying. Facebook has not added a dislike button for a reason.
I absolutely agree. “DISLIKE BUTTON is here > ADD it now!” is very shady - obviously meant to prey on the clueless. It is unclear what the promulgator of the group gets out of it, but I have to wonder about spy-ware etc.
The fact that there a no wall posts on the group is suspicious in itself.
try using words other than shady, just a thought. some readers get bored reading the same adjectives
Having problems!!!!
I am a very happy user of Ron Sharpp’s add-on Dislike button. I may not ever use it that often, but I have it for my own satisfaction.
The first release of it was shoddy. Ron Sharpp took it and fixed it. Now it does exactly like he claims it will do. True, if the poster is using MS IE then they will never know about it, but my friends with Firefox will see my displeasure.
FaceMod - Facebook Dislike Button (The Original) 1.0 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13672