My Facebook is a tidy and structured as anything on my pc. Just the way I like it. Facebook is a tool, just like anything else. The effectivity largely depends on how you use it. I started using Facebook once I went travelling a lot and met people from literally around the world. It is the best way to stay in contact with friends and acquaintances that aren't in you immediate sphere. For me, Facebook has been a huge benefit in life. Organizing parties, group gifts, get togethers or even get some not to complicated work done. Sure, you can do all that with E-Mails and phones, but it is just way more easy and efficient with Facebook. And that is important for me. The privacy concerns are easily managed. It is more the user who often is an idiot. Google on the other hand knows way more about me than Facebook ever will...
I fairly sure I've got a general "app block" or something like that in place. It's been ages since I gotten any invite for something.

Edit: looks like they change their settings. I remember checking this and the warning (but then you won't be able to use those apps" Bummer. Apparently it is still in check, as I never receive any notification. My current "blocked app" list is empty, so it has to be something else.

I agree with SimonG. Facebook is a mess only when it's user is either messy or incredibely stupid.

You may tailor your facebook annoucement as you like. I disabled notifications from Facebook whores, attentiont whores, spammers etc and I have a tidy spot to keep up with friends.

Also, Facebook is THE BEST thing to look up about things you like. Your favourite resturant, band, game dev company, tv series, you want to know about any promos in your pizzeria, bookshop, anything - facebook is the best tool to keep all news in one place. Just like RSS was back in the day, but with way better functionality.

Why would I want to disable notifications from whores?!

Oh wait, now I see what you mean.

It depends on a whore's type. I like tiny brunettes, so I disable all blonde whores who spam with their duckfaces all around, but leave some brunettes to keep my facebook interesting when there's nothing to read about Homeland. :P

Stereotypes: gotta love 'em.

As I said, I never used the thing myself (I simply have no use for a Facebook account). I only saw several fleeting glimpses and those were, without exception, absolutely awful. But I'll happily admit seeing other people's Windows desktops tends to have the same effect on me.

I was doing that before even email was common. Ah, to be young and naive.

I swear, the generation growing up now would not be able to continue existing without Facebook, smartphones, and touchscreen interfaces to everything.

Fuck, I'm not even 30 yet and I'm starting to sound old ...

It was possible, but now it is easier. It's like a smartphone. I don't really need one (well, I need mobile e-mails, but the rest is just a "life bonus" on many things).

Eg. Podcasts. Before I was just downloading them of the internet with my pc and then copying them onto my MP3 player. Not a big issue. But sometimes I forgot them, was in a hurry, etc. Nowadays, my smartphone just does that for me. Every morning I have the podcasts I want ready and complete.

And this goes for a lot of things. Remember, people said Win 95 was pointless, because Dos was already everything you needed and Norton commander was a better interface anyway.

And that is the same with Facebook. You don't need it. But it makes everything a lot easier.

I've been messing around a bit with diaspora lately. I haven't actually posted anything on it, but in theory it should be a lot less of a mess than FB is. I won't be doing anything serious with it until I'm sure that it's not going to end up like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, in terms of becoming completely evil.

I'm just messing around with it right now. At this stage they're still quite a ways from me trusting them with any meaningful data. In theory I should be able to use it for the things that people use FB for, but with somewhat more control over my data.

I'm waiting to see what the practice looks like after it's been around for a while. It's still at the initial public release stage.