March 19, 2009, 4:24 PM — Facebook is alerting its members that time is running out for those who want to put in their two cents regarding the governing concepts and policies the popular social-networking site plans to draft and adopt.
Members have until 3 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on March 29 to chime in, Facebook said. To date, it has received almost 3,000 comments, a low number considering the site has 175 million members.
Facebook is seeking feedback after a change to its terms of use in February ignited a fierce controversy over concerns the company was claiming perpetual ownership of all content ever loaded to the site.
In response to the outcry, CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled back the changes but announced that Facebook wanted to do away with its terms of use statement altogether and draft from scratch new documents for its governance that are simpler and clearer, taking into account members' feedback.
To that end, Facebook created two "town hall" sections on its site on Feb. 26 for members to leave ideas and opinions regarding, respectively, the site's principles -- its philosophy and values -- and the site's rights and responsibilities towards its users.
"If you haven't had a chance to read the documents and comment yourself, we encourage you to do so now," wrote Simon Axten, an associate on Facebook's Public Policy team, in an official blog post Wednesday.
"We want to govern our system in an open and transparent way, and your involvement in this process is crucial," he added.
