Ask HN: Are you with me? Leaving Facebook. • Hacker News Board

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

#11

Post by philcrissman » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:20 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #7

philcrissman wrote: post #5

I've stopped using mine, removed all apps, unfollowed (er, unliked?) all pages. I'd guess the market is ripe for a fb-type site that, for lack of a better phrase, isn't evil. And doesn't have a horrible ux.

What features should it have? (Or not have?)

I mentioned a few things that bug me in the above reply-to-myself...

Should: - Be able to export all friend/contact information anytime. CSV is fine.

- Be able to _easily_ block/remove applications & notifications. It's fine people can create "which star trek appliance are you?" quizzes, but let's make it _easy_ for these to be removed from my feed if I don't want to see them.

- Maybe have a more twitter style follow where it does not need to be a mutual follow. Obviously less information is shared if I don't follow back; etc. Just pondering this, it might or might not be better.

I actually don't think there's _that_ many things. There are a few key things that, if done right, would make it a better facebook. I'm just stabbing in the dark though.

Can this post be considered a YC application? ;-)

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

#12

Post by cschep » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:25 PM UTC

I recently deleted mine.

I had it for a long time, and I just felt like it was keeping the most brain dead relationships barely alive. I was constantly seeing people in real life and saying, "oh yeah, I read that on facebook." I didn't like that, and the privacy concerns were just the last straw.

So yeah, I'm with you.

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

#13

Post by ihodes » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:26 PM UTC

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…

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, and I'll miss Facebook for the very reason you like it, too.

But I'm often more worried about what my friends do that can effect the amount of information out there, about me. Facebook makes it easy to inadvertently share information about your friends. That, I don't like.

I'd love a replacement Facebook, one that is a little bit like Facebook used to be: relatively simple, unintrusive and benign. I want fine-grained control over what I can share, and not to have to worry about what will be given away. Or at least know upfront what will be. Opting IN to things is great.

Basically, Facebook has treated me (and those who feel similarly) like crap.

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

#14

Post by Qz » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:28 PM UTC

I've never really used it for much, so I don't see much gain in deleting it.

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

#15

Post by ihodes » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:29 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #7

philcrissman wrote: post #5

I've stopped using mine, removed all apps, unfollowed (er, unliked?) all pages. I'd guess the market is ripe for a fb-type site that, for lack of a better phrase, isn't evil. And doesn't have a horrible ux.

What features should it have? (Or not have?)

Those basic ones allowing communication: essentially directed and non-directed asynchronous sharing.

And those you 1) opt-in for 2) pay for.

There's a long list I have, but that's a startup for another day. (Or for a time a month from now... when school lets out.)

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

#16

Post by Ixiaus » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:35 PM UTC

Stop placing your trust in other people.

I considered committing Facebook suicide but decided against it for the primary reason that many casual friends I'm able to keep in touch with/share media with that would normally be quite difficult.

I have my privacy settings locked down, all 3rd party apps removed, and I never...ever say anything on Facebook that I would encrypt/sign in email.

I'm sure people had a similar upset over the postal service when it was first suggested! It has more to do with being mindful of your mouth and being aware of the options you have as an individual for privacy (GnuPG).

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

#17

Post by enomar » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:40 PM UTC

I left and advised everyone I know to do the same. Privacy was never an issue for me, but Facebook keeps changing the rules. I can't keep up.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline/ http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-further-reduce...

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

#18

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:47 PM UTC

ihodes wrote: post #13

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…

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, and I'll miss Facebook for the very reason you like it, too. But I'm often more worried about what my friends do that can effect the amount of information out there, about me. Facebook makes it easy to inadvertently share information about your friends. That, I don't like. I'd love a replacement Facebook, one that is a little bit like Facebook used to be: relatively simple, u…

Even with the way Facebook used to be (I signed up in 2004), people could have still shared information about you. One wall post is all it takes.

For that matter, this could happen anywhere on the Internet. Someone could write a blog post about you, or tweet about you, or any number of ways to publish information about others. The web is increasingly becoming read/write, and Facebook privacy settings aren't going to change that.

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

#19

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:48 PM UTC

philcrissman wrote: post #8

philcrissman wrote: post #5

I've stopped using mine, removed all apps, unfollowed (er, unliked?) all pages. I'd guess the market is ripe for a fb-type site that, for lack of a better phrase, isn't evil. And doesn't have a horrible ux.

My reason isn't entirely the privacy concern, though, I just think their UX and some of their design/application decisions are _horrible_. It's an excruciating site to use if you want to do anything other than the two or three things they _want_ you to do. * Sharing information: Easy! * Removing information: Okay, not _too_ hard, but not as easy as sharing it! * Adding applications/pages: Easy! * Removing application…

It's because their incentives aren't aligned with yours. Of course they want to make it easy to share, and hard to wall yourself off.

I'm not sure how to properly align those incentives, but you can't really blame them.

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

#20

Post by maxwin » Sat, May 01, 2010, 11:50 PM UTC

We need a decentralized social graph. I should host and own my data not facebook or any other organization. Maybe browsers should innovate and solve this problem.