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DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

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Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#21

Post by oldsklgdfth »

Freak_NL wrote: post #19
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #10

I'm reposting this comment because I would like to open the discussion up beyond facebook and social media and into the reality that technology has provided marketing with some pretty ridiculous tools. : I feel like you used to be able to avoid getting swindled by ignoring the swindler, ex. close the door to the saleman, or ignore the gypsy pear salesmen at the market. Today, marketing is engineered at such a level t…

> gypsy pear salesmen Did you mean pearl?

Nope, I meant pear - like the fruit. Maybe I got a little carried away and painted a silly picture.

My point is that you can ignore a salesmen and he can't possibly be THAT good that he can swindle everyone. But modern ads, IMO, are designed for high levels of success. Much more difficult to deal with that on a personal level.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#22

Post by w0utert »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #8

I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched.

>> I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched.

Why? History has proven at least a few times that he who controls information can control people, and it never ends well. Even if Facebook is not deliberately trying to implant any ideas or spread misinformation and fake news, its platform can be (and has been, demonstrably) used for this purpose.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#23

Post by pyjammas »

Mortiffer wrote: post #9
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #8

I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched.

while Cambridge Analytica is clearly a horrible company the idea of gathering data and building some models to better target advertisement to them is something totally normal happening all over the place. And i don't think we can really dismantel the core of online advertising because of one shady company

I remember not thinking much of the whole CA story back when I read about it (few years ago?), but what makes me less certain about this is that they might have vastly more data to work with than I initially thought.

I'm not a data scientist though, so I'd really like to hear why that is/isn't a problem. Basically: assuming one has massive datasets that can be combined, how dangerous can even basic analysis be?

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#24

Post by kerkeslager »

Mortiffer wrote: post #9
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #8

I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched.

while Cambridge Analytica is clearly a horrible company the idea of gathering data and building some models to better target advertisement to them is something totally normal happening all over the place. And i don't think we can really dismantel the core of online advertising because of one shady company

One? Have you been not been paying attention to the last decade of internet advertising?

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#25

Post by 215163831328308 »

pyjammas wrote: post #20
cornholio wrote: post #12

> Mastodon [...] No real name policies Lacking a very rarefied community capable of self-moderation, like this site has or some specialized reddits and forums, the no-real-name becomes a major drawback. A minority of douche-bags will generate a majority of noise and will come to shape that world in their image. This is quite visible when browsing Mastodon instances, many of which look like a crossbreed of 4chan with…

> Furthermore, the whole "no data collected" has any value from the perspective of the user only when using real names. That might be true for you, but I've more than once had to ditch an old nick because over time I'd let slip enough specifics that identifying me would be (theoretically) possible. It's all a matter of degrees, but 'no data collected' is definitely valuable.

Yeah, that's why I switched to using just random names. Old nicknames and gamertags became even easily googleable.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#26

Post by dictum »

w0utert wrote: post #22
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #8

I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched.

>> I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched. Why? History has proven at least a few times that he who controls information can control people, and it never ends well. Even if Facebook is not deliberately trying to implant any ideas or spread misinformation and fake news, its platform can be (and has been, demonstrably) used for this purpose.

There's some irony in the fact that the ongoing scandal is about Facebook partially relinquishing control of information to a third-party (in fact, all third parties), and that the implied remedy was for Facebook to keep total control of information to itself.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#27

Post by nopreserveroot »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #10

I'm reposting this comment because I would like to open the discussion up beyond facebook and social media and into the reality that technology has provided marketing with some pretty ridiculous tools. : I feel like you used to be able to avoid getting swindled by ignoring the swindler, ex. close the door to the saleman, or ignore the gypsy pear salesmen at the market. Today, marketing is engineered at such a level t…

I do not understand how anyone in 2018 finds the internet remotely usable without some form of ad blocker. This is how you ignore the modern salesman.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#28

Post by [deleted] »

cornholio wrote: post #18
bitumen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real name policy doesn’t seem to stop duplicate accounts, bots, and spammers on FaceBook or Twitter, it just ensures they have vaguely human names.

That's quite a different issue, is it not? The spam bots come because the social network is successful, as they will come to any other network regardless of real name policy. What I'm saying is that anonymous accounts will prevent that success in the first place, because of the behavior of non-spam users. At least for a mass market product most regular folk would want to use, like Facebook.

[deleted]

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#29

Post by Slansitartop »

kolbe wrote: post #13

LOL at the popup I get. "You've read over 3 articles this month. Let's make it official. Log in with Facebook or Google."

Comments like yours are tiring an meaningless.

Facebook and Google have their tentacles in nearly everything. If you want to get a message out, it's going to intersect with their platforms in some way, even if you're directly criticizing them. AFAIK, there are no purist corners at this time that attract enough eyeballs.

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