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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.

#81

Post by electromagnetic »

steveklabnik wrote: post #53
nostrademons wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the "it's for cool kids" selling point took a big hit when they started letting high schoolers on it, and lost all credibility when I started getting friend requests from senior citizens and friends' parents. And most of my friends don't actively use it, though most of us at least have a FaceBook account. I find that I'm getting bombarded by sheep from weak connections that aren't really doing anything with the…

It's true, but by that time, they were so big and huge that it didn't really matter. I don't actually log on to Facebook that much either. I do have my Twitter hooked up to post status updates, and I generally get as much engagement as I do on Twitter itself, so I log in to continue discussions with people commenting on my status. But that's about it. If you're getting bombarded by sheep, try clicking the 'block upda…

I'm similar. I use it to keep in contact with some far-flung family, but without Facebook I'd be using Skype more than I already do, or I'd just go oldschool and pick up a phone and call on a weekly basis.

Facebook is a mild convenience to me, like finding a good time to make an international call was a mild inconvenience. Once it becomes a mild inconvenience, facebook will be long gone.

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

#84

Post by davi »

tbrownaw wrote: post #79
davi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you see the internet providing built-in ACLs? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_control_list Even if it did, your assertion is like equating assembly to a high level language. Just because you theoretically can do anything in assembly that you can in a high level language doesn't mean you would want to. I am trying to specify a set of attributes for a non-existent tool that would let me more fluidly publish…

The internet provides something like ACLs using something similar to a password capability model: I post stuff as "tbrownaw" or "Timothy Brownawell" and anyone can know it's me, but I also have logins to various message boards under pseudonyms, which you can only tie back to me if I tell you.

Thanks. That is indeed an inverted form of what I was wishing for, and I didn't get the idea from the initial response to my post.

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

#85

Post by jrockway »

Reminds me of this: http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mention...

If you want to give up Facebook, just fucking do it... but realize that nobody else cares.

(For the record, I haven't updated facebook in about 5 years, because it bores me. But I don't go on and on about it...)

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

#86

Post by theli0nheart »

maxwin wrote: post #20

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.

I actually architected something for this on the last airplane ride I was on. Here's the gist.

First of all, there is a basic protocol that any social application can adopt to. It basically consists of a few URIs like /user/login/, /user/register/, etc.

Secondly, since "virality" is key in getting something like this implemented, I propose that there is a form of global identity database that is accessible by anyone. Only email, user_id (depends on provider), and provider_id information is stored (I'll get to the provider bit in a second). Any identifying information is hashed to protect private information. The issue is making this database publicly run (similarly to Bittorrent) and being able to publish the hashing algorithm used. It would obviously have to be more complex than MD5 or SHA1.

Thirdly, there are what I call "providers". Providers are basically apps like Facebook and Twitter. They are capable of deciding what information is public. There aren't any privacy "settings" for each provider. Each provider's privacy policy is static and will not change. I.e. provider A will display to the world your SS#, name, and phone number, whereas provider B will display just your name. This is done to eliminate any gray areas.

Thirdly, the idea of "notifications" and connections. Connections are one-way (like Twitter). So, you might be wondering, how do you connect between two "social networks"? You search for the person you're looking for by email and are given their user_id and provider_id. Your provider then has all it needs to connect with this person (it sends a message to the friend's provider to a notification endpoint, and the friend's provider then can do whatever it wants with that information).

Notifications consist of updates, connections made, and other things (possibilities are endless).

Rules:

1) Users can only use one provider at any given time.

2) Users can choose to delete their profiles on demand.

3) User data can be exported so that provider migration is quick and easy.

I should write a blog post about this. There's way more. I called it OpenConnection.

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

#87

Post by bcl »

Nope, I'm not leaving.

But what I have done is sanitize my profile info and remove all of my 'likes'. I joined FB to communicate with friends, not to be a cog in another marketing machine. I'll still use it to keep up with friends and share pics, but that's the limit of it.

Their recent announcement that they are going to be sharing their databases with 3rd parties is what pushed me to take these steps.

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

#88

Post by minalecs »

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.

well sometimes its your friends.. that will put pictures up of you without knowing, or will tag you in and can't remove it yourself

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

#89

Post by ryanjkirk »

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.

There is one actually, it's called spokt.com.

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

#90

Post by codexon »

nfnaaron wrote: post #73
codexon wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another interesting question would be: how will it make money? Websites like Facebook and Myspace are shunning the simple advertisement model. Selling private data will become the new standard. A website similar to scope and feature like Facebook will probably not be able to sustain a positive cash flow or break even without selling people's data. UNLESS...they cut features like photo storage, or make a technological…

"Websites like Facebook and Myspace are shunning the simple advertisement model." ? Every one of my facebook pages (feed and profile) always has two or three prominent ads over on the right.

What I mean is they are selling your personal information __in addition__ to regular ads (which are selected by datamining your personal information).

As opposed to just regular ads.

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