BECAUSE FACEBOOK LIMITS USERS to 5,000 contacts, I had to migrate from a conventional user account to what used to be called a “fan” page and is now called an “Artist, Band or Public Figure” page. (Page, not account, notice.)

There’s a page on Facebook called “Create a Page” that is supposed to seamlessly migrate from a conventional user account to a public figure (aka “fan”) page.

The page says it will only migrate your connections—it will lose all your content, photos, apps, and so on—and Facebook means it. After migrating, all my stuff is gone. Years of photos, wall posts, blog posts, tweets, you name it. Even the “help” page link is gone once you’ve migrated, so you can’t refer to any help documentation to find out where all your stuff went and if any of it can be saved.

Custom URL breaks on migration

Because of an idiocy in the database, you can’t keep your existing custom URL, since, when you request it, Facebook tells you it is “taken.” My Facebook page was “jzeldman,” but that URL is “taken” by a fellow named “Jeffrey Zeldman,” so I can’t use it on my Jeffrey Zeldman page. So I had to change to a new URL (“JeffreyZeldman”) and now all my admin links (for instance at facebook.com/happycog) are broken, as they point to the old user page instead of the new fan page. At the very least, Facebook should seamlessly redirect from facebook.com/jzeldman (my old URL) to facebook.com/JeffreyZeldman (the new one), but it does not.

So all my other social media sites that point to the old Facebook account need to be updated by hand, and any third-party links will now be broken because Facebook doesn’t let you keep your custom URL during a migration.

Third-party apps disappear completely

Likewise, none of the third-party functionality (Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, RSS, and so on) has migrated from the user page to the fan page, and there is no information explaining how to reconnect these apps.

No reasonable app like the ones I’ve mentioned appears in the “apps” section of the sidebar on my new page. When I look for additional apps, I get treated to a bloated browse of crappy apps nobody on earth uses, whose creators probably made deals with Facebook in hopes that newbies would be persuaded to hook up these contraptions. You can find “PhotoMyButt” but not Flickr.

I, however, use Flickr.

So, since I can’t find it in the big dull browse, I resort to Facebook’s Apps’ “Search” box. Typing Flickr in that box is exciting. Instead of being taken to the Flickr apps on Facebook, I’m treated to endless redirects courtesy of a broken PHP script that loops infinitely forever suffering like Christ on the cross world without end amen while never actually resolving. Each new partial page that loads for an instant before being replaced by the next is undesigned and unbranded and contains only the sentence fragment, “Please stand by, redirecting…”

The devil will see you now.

So much for content

My photos are gone. My existing writing is gone. Facebook does seem to be migrating human beings who were “friends” on my old page, but nothing else works.

Oh my God, I can’t Admin my own page

I can’t Admin my new Facebook page because the “Admin” is “jzeldman” (me at the old account, which Facebook deleted). Perhaps this is why it’s impossible to post content, no apps work, etc. Nice.

Kids, don’t try this at home

All these bugs are probably known to Facebook, and there are probably nice people at Facebook whose job is to execute known secret internal workarounds when helping an actual “celebrity” migrate his or her page. I’m just guessing of course, but it stands to reason that Ashton K or Lady Gaga, if they want a Facebook page, probably don’t have to deal with all this frustrating brokenness. They have people for that.

But I don’t. I’m a web guy. And web stuff should just work.

Filed under: Design, editorial, experience, facebook, findability, glamorous, industry, Information architecture, interface, Layout, Marketing, privacy, Products, Scripting, social networking, software, State of the Web, The Essentials, This never happens to Gruber, Usability, User Experience, UX, Web Design History, Websites, work, Working, Zeldman

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SHOW YOUR LOVE for The Talk Show, The Big Web Show, and the network and Internet pal that bring them to you—by buying fine, authentic, officially sanctioned 5by5wear in the spanking new 5by5 Store. Accepting orders until 11 February 2011, shipping the following week.

Filed under: Design, Products, Stuff

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… And “merging” Upcoming to make way for exciting, can’t-miss features like Yahoo! Babel Fish, Yahoo! Deals, and Yahoo! Avatars.

Photo: yfrog.com/f/h3z89p/.

Hat tip: Andy Baio.

Burn, Alexandria, burn!

Filed under: Jerks, Products, Publications, Responsibility

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Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers is now available as an epub at books.alistapart.com.

If you bought the paperback, watch your inbox for a special discount on the ebook. (To take advantage of this offer, enter the discount code in page 2 of the shopping cart’s checkout process, after you put in your billing information.)

Also, be on the lookout for our second book, CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm, forthcoming this Fall. Upcoming A Book Apart topics include progressive enhancement, content strategy, responsive web design, and emotional design by industry-leading authors Aaron Gustafson, Erin Kissane, Ethan Marcotte, and Aarron Walter.

Filed under: A Book Apart, Design, E-Books, editorial, HTML, HTML5, Products, Standards, State of the Web, Web Design, Web Design History, Web Standards

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Sacrebleu! The French edition of the ebook of Monsieur Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 For Web Designers is in the top five sellers in the iTunes Store Français.

To answer your other questions: an eBook version in English is coming to books.alistapart.com next week, will soon thereafter also be sold via the iTunes Store, and will be followed by a PDF version. Get those downloading fingers in shape now!

Filed under: A Book Apart, Acclaim, Advocacy, Announcements, Apple, Best practices, Formats, HTML, HTML5, industry, Jeremy Keith, Products, Publications, Publishing

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I have known 37signals CEO Jason Fried since he was a young copywriter who reminded me of me, only smarter and more confident. Like many of you, with a mixture of awe and pleasure, I have watched him change our industry, along with book publishing and business generally. Dan Benjamin and I are delighted to announce the mercurial Mr Fried as our guest on The Big Web Show. Join us today, 1 July 2010, for the live taping at 1:00 PM ET.

Jason’s official bio is brief, but he can write at length when he wishes: see Rework, Getting Real, and Defensive Web Design, each a classic, and to each of which he was principal co-writer and guiding force. Besides saying no to meetings, contracts, and VC money, Jason and 37signals are famous for godfathering a speedy, iterative form of web application design; for gifting the industry with Ruby on Rails; for creating a suite of beloved (yes, really) business productivity web apps; for mastering and then abandoning client services in favor of making stuff; for somehow, in the midst of all that busyness, churning out tons of fine content on their popular blog; and for being roommates with the equally fantastic Coudal Partners.

Can’t wait to interview Jason Fried in front of a live internet audience today. Hope you’ll join us.

The Big Web Show is taped live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards (often within hours of taping) via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.

Photo © John Morrison – Subism.com

Filed under: 37signals, Acclaim, Announcements, Appearances, Applications, apps, Authoring, Best practices, better-know-a-speaker, business, Chicago, client services, Code, Coudal Partners, Design, ethics, HTML, Ideas, industry, interface, Interviews, Journalism at its Finest, Press, Products, Publications, Publishing, Respect, Ruby on Rails, Small Business, State of the Web, The Big Web Show, The Essentials, The Profession, User Experience

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Support Web Standards: A collection of limited edition products, created so you can show your love and support for web standards.

Filed under: Design, Products, Standards, Web Standards, Websites

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Coming soon to a web store near you.

Filed under: Design, Products, Publications, Standards, Web Design, Web Standards

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TypographyShop presents the first design in its new series, the Ten Commandments of George Lois, created with the approval and cooperation of the hall of fame art director himself.

The new shirt reads: “Great ideas can’t be tested. Only mediocre ideas can be tested.” Sport it at your next client meeting. Wear it, live it.

Younger readers may ask, “Who is George Lois?” Typography Shop supplies a mini-bio:

From his groundbreaking work at Doyle Dane Bernbach to his controversial Esquire covers to “I want my MTV,” George Lois has carved a career sans equal in the advertising industry. … George chose this design from among our treatments. Set in Franklin Gothic No. 2, designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902 and News Gothic, a related 1908 Benton creation.

Look for more George Lois shirts coming soon from Typography Shop.

Full disclosure: there will be Zeldman shirts coming as well.

Filed under: art direction, Ideas, Products

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