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Facebook Should Pay All of Us

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Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#91

Post by soylentcola »

Yhippa wrote: post #9

I'm not the biggest fan of FB or for the fact that I pretty much have to use it to keep up with friends and family these days. These are some things that you get in exchange for giving up your information: A place to store photos A platform to publish your photos A communications platform (Messenger) A platform to stay officially connected to things you "like" and their updates Near instant publication of your brain…

I definitely agree with the list but as far as offering something else that nobody else has done or having any legit alternatives, that's where my main problems with Facebook lie.

Others have come up with legit alternatives and doubtless more would try if not for the fact that their biggest asset is lack of interoperability or common protocol. They managed to get just about everyone, techie and non-techie, to sign up and a lot of those people just won't pull up stakes to move to another platform as long as the rest of their "contacts" are using Facebook.

When compared to other communication services that are often hosted by third party companies (webmail is the easiest example) there's really just no way to use something else without still using Facebook in addition. It's not like switching to Gmail or Hotmail because you got tired of your old @aol.com account. In that case you can use any competitor and still communicate with people regardless of whether they switch or ever use the same service as you.

But with Facebook, I can't just start using Google+ or some other service to keep up with friends and family unless they all switch over as well. Or rather, I can switch over but I still need to use Facebook in addition. Same would go for another service even if it was built on a common protocol.

That's the main problem I have with Facebook (or any other service that uses the same model). It's not that I can't find or build something that works better for me. It's that it doesn't matter unless everyone does the same and that simply isn't very likely right now or in the near future.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#92

Post by [deleted] »

crazypyro wrote: post #68
[deleted] wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

How is a platform that supports over a billion people not a meaningful investment into the content? Even if they are not directly producing content, they are more like an aggregation/distribution content system. That's not really a fair comparison.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#93

Post by michael_h »

aw3c2 wrote: post #85
austenallred wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know no one forces you to use Facebook, right?

Society kinda does. If all your peers use it to communicate, you would be a hermit if you did not participate.

I don't participate and am not a hermit. When I want to communicate, I use the phone or SMS. If my peers want to contact me, they use the same.

My wife has an account. Sometimes I'll scroll through it for a bit, just to see. It seems like people mostly use it as a semi-broadcast medium, rather than a communication mechanism amongst a tight group of peers. The less armchair punditry in my life the better. If people like it, that's great for them, but I can't do it.

My wife attempted to use the messenger thing for a while, but it was such an unreliable software disaster-pile that she had to drop it.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#94

Post by Nadya »

aw3c2 wrote: post #85
austenallred wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know no one forces you to use Facebook, right?

Society kinda does. If all your peers use it to communicate, you would be a hermit if you did not participate.

Still not forced to. I get along fine with the people I stay in touch with, and I've never had a FB.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#95

Post by williamcotton »

austenallred wrote: post #90
williamcotton wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever kinds of creative accounting that they're currently using cannot be as accurate as properly pricing the value and costs in a standard double-entry manner. While having the overall inputs and outputs accounted for is enough to give earnings reports for public investors, it certainly doesn't give their management very much to work with! How would they have enough information to make strategic decisions on, as…

Facebook isn't optimizing for value-per-user accounting accuracy. They're maximizing profits. Say they could charge per user, and they would know each user was worth exactly $.20/year. That would make for easier accounting, certainly - they could pin that down to an exact number. But what if alternative is more complex, but much higher? It would be something like "Most users are worth $14/yr, some are worth $6/yr, an…

Spending time and money optimizing for accounting accuracy is one of the best ways to help maximize profits!

I'm having a hard time following your examples. Are you saying that they can make a fictional $7/user-per-year appear higher than the actual $0.20/user-per-year?

The goal wouldn't be to have an accurate average, rather the goal would be to segment the market in to different buckets, and then perhaps use different user acquisition strategies (with differing costs) for these different kinds of users.

The point is, no matter how management decided to use this more accurate information about their business, they would be able to make better decisions.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#96

Post by austenallred »

williamcotton wrote: post #95
austenallred wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook isn't optimizing for value-per-user accounting accuracy. They're maximizing profits. Say they could charge per user, and they would know each user was worth exactly $.20/year. That would make for easier accounting, certainly - they could pin that down to an exact number. But what if alternative is more complex, but much higher? It would be something like "Most users are worth $14/yr, some are worth $6/yr, an…

Spending time and money optimizing for accounting accuracy is one of the best ways to help maximize profits! I'm having a hard time following your examples. Are you saying that they can make a fictional $7/user-per-year appear higher than the actual $0.20/user-per-year? The goal wouldn't be to have an accurate average, rather the goal would be to segment the market in to different buckets, and then perhaps use differ…

I'm not sure what you're saying anymore; I thought you were advocating that they charge per user to make the accounting more simple, instead of a more variable advertising model. Now I think you're advocating best accounting practices? I'm sure they have great internal accounting.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#97

Post by cousin_it »

austenallred wrote: post #75
wahsd wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that so many people fail to realize is that the internet needs a totally different structure or service that operates on a totally different premise that retains data with their owner, their person. I relish seeing the day that Facebook is jettisoned for a system of distributed and individual ownership of profiles and data, like the internet should be. Humanity strayed at some point when the nefarious actor…

You know no one forces you to use Facebook, right?

Do you think people should always walk away rather try to fix flaws (in governments, companies or relationships)? I think it's a tradeoff, and many people feel that fixing Facebook's policies is worthwhile.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#98

Post by wahsd »

austenallred wrote: post #75
wahsd wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that so many people fail to realize is that the internet needs a totally different structure or service that operates on a totally different premise that retains data with their owner, their person. I relish seeing the day that Facebook is jettisoned for a system of distributed and individual ownership of profiles and data, like the internet should be. Humanity strayed at some point when the nefarious actor…

You know no one forces you to use Facebook, right?

That's not a valid argument and rather telling of your immaturity. As has been pointed out on many occasions in many different contexts, facebook has become the dominant social network. It's really not even a question of using it at all, especially when there are dependencies and compulsion to use it. So your choice of social self-exclusion or abdication of rights is a patently false one choice. In fact, many time you actually are forced to use Facebook if you want to participate in social things. It should not be a valid choice to have to make. It's kind of sad that something so simple has to be explained.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#99

Post by wahsd »

Nadya wrote: post #94
aw3c2 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society kinda does. If all your peers use it to communicate, you would be a hermit if you did not participate.

Still not forced to. I get along fine with the people I stay in touch with, and I've never had a FB.

Ok, what happens when everyone is like "hell, facebook does it. We will also all do the same thing." Your point is simply not valid and should not be a choice someone has to make because one social network's goal is to dominate all of society.

Re: Facebook Should Pay All of Us

#100

Post by austenallred »

cousin_it wrote: post #97
austenallred wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know no one forces you to use Facebook, right?

Do you think people should always walk away rather try to fix flaws (in governments, companies or relationships)? I think it's a tradeoff, and many people feel that fixing Facebook's policies is worthwhile.

I'm by no means saying Facebook is perfect, but I take issue with the the "You are not a free person [because Facebook exists]" trope.
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