While you were sleeping the news broke that Facebook will be the WSL’s exclusive streaming partner for the next two years.
Since Facebook does not yet have a VOD service like Youtube or Vimeo, we presume this means that, contrary to rumours, the tour will remain free to stream for at least another two seasons, however some people are still really really unhappy.
Since the news broke, the instagram post announcing it has garnered a whopping 721 comments with a pretty clear theme running through them that can be concisely summarised thusly: the people are fuming.
As well as deeming it a sell out move, it turns out a very large and very vocal mass of WSL followers aren’t on facebook and don’t want to be. There have been whispers that users have been deserting the social media platform in their droves in recent years, but, based on the comments on the post, it seems vitriol directed at Zuckerberg’s creation is at unprecedented levels.
The WSL have re-assured commenters that the viewing experience will be ‘will be the same or better on Facebook.’ But questions remain; will we be able to get rid of the constant stream of hearts? Will there be a side panel with the scores? Will there be a way to hide the interminable virtual cacophony of comments next to the stream? Will anyone actually even notice the difference?
I guess time will tell.
Speaking of Facebook, for the folk who still frequent it, the tech giant just announced they’re going to be making some changes to their news feed algorithm, which will soon prioritise content from your ‘friends’ over the sort of stuff pumped at you by media outlets such as ourselves.
If, once these changes are rolled out in the coming months, you get sick of pictures of that person from school you haven’t spoken to in 10 years standing smugly with their estate agent boyfriend outside their new house, or people asking for plumber recommendations and want some beautiful surf imagery and stories back in your news feed, here’s what to do:
Navigate to our page, click the ‘following’ button below our cover photo
Then, select ‘See first’ under ‘In your news feed’.
Or, if you’re keen to ditch facebook entirely as seems to be the growing trend, you can keep up with us on instagram, and get our finest content piped directly into your inbox once a week via our newsletter by signing up here.
Cover photo: Kirstin Sholtz // WSL
