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Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

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Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#111

Post by ivenkys »

Legion wrote: post #33
ivenkys wrote: post #30

I never went in - i still don't understand the point of FB or others of their ilk. If i really want to keep in touch with far-flung family, friends - i pick up the phone or drop an email. If they are important to me i will make the effort. I also don't find the need to advertise on a daily/hourly basis what i am doing or tell people about the cool car/bike/tv/ipod etc. i bought. May be its just not for people like me…

Facebook is highly efficient for communicating with a large number of "fringe" acquaintances. Things you suggest - picking up the phone, dropping an email - require 1-on-1 contact. I am limited in the amount of time I can devote to 1-on-1 contact. But I can post on Facebook and people that know me but aren't necessarily people I want to devote a lot of 1-on-1 time to - more distant relatives, old friends, etc. - can…

I can see your point but my take is - that's what New Year, Christmas, ${Special_Occasion} are for, keeping in touch with fringe acquaintances. Send an email on those days.

Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#113

Post by jacquesm »

joshhart wrote: post #93
araneae wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you generally, but the most damning information about me that's on Facebook was posted by other people.

I had a fraternity brother in college who was gay. At some point in time, he realized that he was gay, but didn't want to come out. An incriminating picture was posted on facebook and he was forced to reveal his sexual orientation to all of us (well we kinda suspected anyway) before he was ready in a pretty awkward way. He had to do the same not that long after with his family and it didn't go well at all. All becaus…

I put the blame on narrow minded family members.

You should be able to 'come out' if you are gay without that kind of nonsense, presumably you have enough to deal with in a situation like that and your family should be supportive.

Especially your family.

Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#114

Post by jacquesm »

jamesjyu wrote: post #57
cmelbye wrote: post #40

No, I'm really happy with the service that they provide. If there's something that's actually private, I'm not going to be posting it on the Internet in the first place.

Hear hear to that! I'm always puzzled by all these privacy nuts that go on and on about privacy problems with social media sites like Facebook. If something is absolutely private and you do not want to share it outside of one or two people, DO NOT put it on a social media site! Period. In fact, I would go as far as to say never put any critically sensitive information on the web.

The sum total of a bunch of innocent stuff posted about you by others can add up to a lot more than the parts if someone decides to put it together.

I read this a few days ago:

http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/

Privacy is even more dead than I ever suspected.

Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#117

Post by steveklabnik »

zmmmmm wrote: post #96
steveklabnik wrote: post #2

Nope. I'm not. Yes, privacy is important. However, the only information that I've ever put on Facebook is information that I'd want everyone else to know. That's why I have a Facebook; to give people who don't know me an idea of who I am and what I'm like, and get a little bit of personal branding out there. For instance, there's at least one little portion of my life that I don't want to be broadcast out to everyone…

> However, the only information that I've ever put on Facebook is information that I'd want everyone else to know Congratulations, you already demonstrated your agreement with the author and effectively stopped using Facebook then. The whole point of Facebook is to enable a you to form a private community of friends that share things. If you've degraded that to "only what I will share with everyone in the universe" t…

Maybeyou've assumed facebook is for private things. I assume anything on the internet is public, at all ties, except for my bank.

Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#119

Post by sendos »

potatolicious wrote: post #107
tptacek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And me leaving Facebook solves that problem how? At least now I see when that kind of stuff happens.

It's a good point - leaving Facebook won't solve things like drunken pictures posted by your friends. It will, however, stop things like "Yooooo, did you hit that last night? Wasssuppp!" on your Wall that your family, colleagues and potential employers can see.

I always thought the best solution to all this is if we had multiple Facebook accounts, e.g. "Bob Smith (1)", "Bob Smith (2)", etc, and then invited family only to (1), close friends to (2), old high school classmates to (3), etc.

This way, if any of them posts something stupid on your wall, only that subgroup will know about it.

Then, of course, you'd need an app that lets you post the same status update on all your accounts.

Re: Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook.

#120

Post by GeneralMaximus »

Already done that, but for an entirely different reason. I realized that most "social media" websites are meticulously designed to get people hooked. The "Like" button, for instance, was not added to FB on a whim. It makes sure people keep posting new status messages and keep logging in every day (or shudder every few minutes) to see if someone liked them.

My hosts file currently blocks Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, among other websites.

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