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Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

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Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#21

Post by pastor_elm »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #17
jordan801 wrote: post #12

Anyone who has written a few scrappers knows how brutally ineffective this is. Yelp tried to pull the same thing and it took me about 3 minutes to rectify my "for fun" scraper. It's also really not that difficult to write a smart scraper that you say, "Look for these things in this post. However you find them, replicate it for the others". Which is ultimately what I made my Yelp scraper do. If there's a pattern, I wi…

Yep, seems like a total waste of time. The people scraping will spend the necessary time to get around this (and then distribute that knowledge to the masses) so it seems like a pointless arms race. Facebook employees could better use their time on developing actual features that bring value.

Value doesn't keep the lights on.

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#22

Post by badgers »

locklock wrote: post #11

I'm really thankful I haven't yet had a job where all I'm developing is new ways to force people to see ads. Imagine working on a 'feature' like this for weeks or months, and the end result is simply that people who don't want to see ads now have to see ads.

That reminds me of a quote about dentistry: "You're in a career where nobody wants to see you and you're the last place they want to come back to and it's depressing." (https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/5344jz/are-dentists-rea...)

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#23

Post by ceejayoz »

ionforce wrote: post #16
guest2457533 wrote: post #15

Does this meet the required standard for accessibility users? Do they have any such obligations?

No one cares about accessibility when ad dollars are at stake.

They do when regulators come calling with significant penalties.

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#24

Post by IntelMiner »

pastor_elm wrote: post #21
eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, seems like a total waste of time. The people scraping will spend the necessary time to get around this (and then distribute that knowledge to the masses) so it seems like a pointless arms race. Facebook employees could better use their time on developing actual features that bring value.

Value doesn't keep the lights on.

Uh. Yes it does?

You can't make money off something without any value to people. People have to "want" the thing

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#25

Post by matz1 »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #17
jordan801 wrote: post #12

Anyone who has written a few scrappers knows how brutally ineffective this is. Yelp tried to pull the same thing and it took me about 3 minutes to rectify my "for fun" scraper. It's also really not that difficult to write a smart scraper that you say, "Look for these things in this post. However you find them, replicate it for the others". Which is ultimately what I made my Yelp scraper do. If there's a pattern, I wi…

Yep, seems like a total waste of time. The people scraping will spend the necessary time to get around this (and then distribute that knowledge to the masses) so it seems like a pointless arms race. Facebook employees could better use their time on developing actual features that bring value.

How is this waste of time / pointless ? They do bring value for fb, they reduce the loss of ad money.

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#28

Post by ryanSrich »

locklock wrote: post #11

I'm really thankful I haven't yet had a job where all I'm developing is new ways to force people to see ads. Imagine working on a 'feature' like this for weeks or months, and the end result is simply that people who don't want to see ads now have to see ads.

There's a reason why they have to pay people $300k+. Money talks.

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#29

Post by ergothus »

I interviewed at FB recently (didn't pass the in-person) and the one question I asked each interviewer was "tell me about the parts of FB I don't see" - because they have an odd hiring process where you don't figure out what team you'd be working with until after you are hired...and I had no interest in pushing Ads, but understood that wouldn't be a great pitch from my side.

Turns out there is a LOT about ads at FB. Not everything, but a lot. Particularly in the Seattle office.

I was surprised I hadn't passed the interview (thought I did well), but in retrospect I'm glad. Whether that's sour grapes on my part, the fact the news has been full of reasons to be glad not to work at FB, or that I was very concerned that anything I did would end up pushing ads is something I can't be 100% certain of.

Re: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

#30

Post by yoz-y »

myroon5 wrote: post #18

If you don't mind getting rid of every post in the timeline, there's News Feed Eradicator for Facebook: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

Got the same effect by unfollowing all of my contacts.
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