Facebook's Timeline irks some users

Some Facebook users are irked that the social media network has decided everyone's profile pages willconvert toTimeline soon whether they like it or not.

Launched worldwide in September, Facebook Timeline is designed to be an online scrapbook that emphasizes "important life events" throughout users' lives, filed by year.

Timeline replaces a user's simple profile page to give a historical overview of a user since they first joined Facebook. However, what irkssome users is that Timeline also gives others easier access to view photos and posts made over the years that were previously well-hidden.

In a blog post Tuesday, Facebookwhichhas 18 million active users monthly in Canadaannounced it would change all profiles to Timeline over the next few weeks. Previously, the change was optional with users being able to choose whether they wanted to have Timeline.

But the social network said it intends to make previous profile page styles unavailable. It did not specify an exact date for the changeover.

"Over the next few weeks, everyone will get Timeline," Facebook engineer Paul McDonald wrote in his blog. "When you get Timeline, you'll have seven days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it."

To protest the change, some users set up a Facebook page, called Timeline Sucks.

"We the members of this social network would like for the new Timeline feature to be optional," they wrote. "You look exactly like Myspace an (sic) if you don't change this you will suck like Myspace too!"

Once users get an announcement at the top of their Facebook homepage that their profile is about to switch over, they have seven days to edit their Timeline.

During the editing process Facebook recommends users:

• Feature important stories and remove or hide others.
• Use the privacy dropdown to adjust who can see any of your posts. It's possible to make some visible only to yourself.

Facebook noted that users also have access to a new feature called "activity log," invisible to others, that allows them to review everything they have ever done on Facebook since they joined, and also to adjust the privacy settings and prominence of each post.