Facebook is making a change to how groups are created and defined on the social network, limiting options to a simple common-sense model. Currently, a group on Facebook can be classified as one of three, Public, Secret or Closed.
A Public group is one which is open and visible to all, while Secret and Closed groups were more private affairs with the distinguishing feature being that one needed a direct link to access a Secret group on Facebook. The firm is simplifying it y changing it to two classifications, Private and Public.
“We’re making this change because we’ve heard from people that they want more clarity about the privacy settings for their groups. Having two privacy settings — public and private — will help make it clearer about who can find the group and see the members and posts that are part of it,” Facebook’s Jordan Davis, Product Manager for Facebook Groups said on Wednesday. “We’ve also heard that most people prefer to use the terms “public” and “private” to describe the privacy settings of groups they belong to.”
Here’s a graphical explanation of how the new privacy structure maps onto the old way of doing things.
click to enlargeThe first is a regular ‘Public’ group, the second is what used to be known as a ‘Closed’ group while the last one is a ‘Secret’ one. With the new classifications, it is now more clear both to users and admins what their group classification entails.
The change is rolling out from today onwards.
source
