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Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

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Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#91
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you choose “freedom” over stability. (iOS is not necessarily what I mean by “stability”. Not anymore at least.)

I'm not sure Android is a shining example of freedom.

Compared to iOS? Yes it is.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#92
IMO there's still a lot of room for Snap to do something. They still have an opportunity to seize, same for Twitter.

For example, there's a subset of content creators on Snap that charges for premium content (a separate private account w/ more content). Subscription and payment is done outside of the Snap app. Cancellations and payment confirmations are all done manually. I'm not even sure if Snap realizes this but they can totally make money off of it.

Now that Evan is being more open and less dictatorial, someone will notice and bring opportunities like these to his attention.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#93

Mastodon is growing on me. These big ol' VC driven social media giants are all overgrown and the cracks are showing. With mastodon, if one instance screws up, just go to another and still contact friends. I can even choose an instance with the economic and decision making model of my choosing, or run one myself and just engage with the federation on my own terms.

Mastodon will go nowhere unless they fix their branding and user experience first.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the point. It's not about MZ's motivations or even how FB thinks about things internally. It's about the perception by significant numbers of people - and, critically, their elected representatives - that FB is fundamentally shady. There is a very good chance the path we're on ends with FB and potentially all of the social networks being considerably more regulated than they are currently, and…

Although this seems like a popular opinion here, the only thing that concerns me about Facebook is the potential for the govt to get access to the data fb has on me. I actually trust fb with my data because I know that they don’t care what I do online and no one will ever look at it individually. They are just going to Hoover up as much data as possible to target me with better ads, but it’s not like a human being is…

What about where Facebook has wholesaled your information to companies like Cambridge Analytica?

You could say they "learned their lesson" and will focus on ads now, but this pattern of behavior is exactly why people distrust Facebook and find it shady.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#95
post #64

Based on my brief time at FB (in 2016-2017), FB is not evil. MZ is trying to do the right thing, overall. Using this as a major piece of positioning/propaganda is not going to work for Spiegel. Also, if they ever want to make money, they'll be playing the exact same game as FB. That's going to be tough, as by now Snapchat is just a feature (of FB). Also, I can tell you, FB employees are laser focused on executing and…

There is unfortunately a big disconnect between C-level people and regular users. C-levels believe, truly believe, that they are creating a good thing with spying(1) on users to create more and more customized web experience and of course custom ads. They also consider ads as good in general.

(Some) users think that instead it's an uncontrolled full speed descent towards mountain cliff. Other users just aren't thinking about this at all, but I highly doubt that any one of them would ever join side of C-levels in this.

(1) I'm using correct word instead of what C-levels prefer, because "metadata is spying" obviously. Just like it is spying even if I don't record your private conversations, but "only" stalk you 24/7 from afar and record all around you, who you communicate with etc.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#96
post #64

Based on my brief time at FB (in 2016-2017), FB is not evil. MZ is trying to do the right thing, overall. Using this as a major piece of positioning/propaganda is not going to work for Spiegel. Also, if they ever want to make money, they'll be playing the exact same game as FB. That's going to be tough, as by now Snapchat is just a feature (of FB). Also, I can tell you, FB employees are laser focused on executing and…

> MZ is trying to do the right thing, overall. But results matter. If I am trying really hard not to kill people but inadvertently kill a few while providing employment for thousands of soldiers, won't a judge completely ignore that good side of me when sentencing? This is why we need laws and regulations to prevent FB from inadvertently killing democracy.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#97
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The correct phrase, IMO, would be "cumulative shadiness" for FB... Individually, and within groups, the work of the employees and teams at FB is nothing short of amazing (and apple, google, etc)... cumulatively though? The nature of these companies are not in the best interests of individual users, and when looked at the power and impact the company as a whole has over any individual in specific, is pretty obviously…

I have a great time on FB/Messenger. It's a tool, it's up to everybody to use it in a way that is a net positive for them. I have friends/acquintances in 10+ cities, and it's a great way to keep in touch. As you mention, this "way" is very different then if we would meet in person, but that is out of the question, as we are separated by 1,000 - 10,000 km. The alternative, on average, is not to hear anything about the…

If only there were other ways to send messages to people over the internet

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#98

Takes three paragraphs to get to the answer: Instagram stories. Snapschat is busy trying to remain relevant as Instagram one-ups it again and again. Other than teenagers using it to sext, Snapchat is largely useless compared to Insta.

Google+ tried to copy facebook functionality too, right?

While instagram already has the users, I think the point is that you can build it, but you can't make people use it. Instagram can prevent existing users from leaving snapchat for 'stories', but will it really entice snapchat users to come over to instagram, given that social networks are a function of people who use it?

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, I've seen performance issues on some of the instances out there. Also, the UI could use a lot of work before it goes mainstream.

Fail Whale on line three. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-s...

Yeah but Mastadon has to compete with Twitter, which already works pretty well. To go mainstream, they'll need to do better.

Re: Nobody Trusts Facebook, Twitter Is a Hot Mess, What Is Snapchat Doing?

#100
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although this seems like a popular opinion here, the only thing that concerns me about Facebook is the potential for the govt to get access to the data fb has on me. I actually trust fb with my data because I know that they don’t care what I do online and no one will ever look at it individually. They are just going to Hoover up as much data as possible to target me with better ads, but it’s not like a human being is…

What about where Facebook has wholesaled your information to companies like Cambridge Analytica? You could say they "learned their lesson" and will focus on ads now, but this pattern of behavior is exactly why people distrust Facebook and find it shady.

Re "Facebook has wholesaled your information": FB does not sell user data (it doesn't need to, it makes so much on ads). CA gained user information on people who installed one of their FB apps whose purpose was to specifically get user data, and additionally because of a shitty choice FB made, it allowed apps like this to also access friends-of-friends data, afaik. Additionally, there was no monitoring in place to detect when an app is mass-downloading user data [through the API]. Overall, I think the most accurate thing to say is that CA was "scraping" user information, saying it like "Facebook has wholesaled your information" is misleading, nothing was "sold" by FB.
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