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Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

whatever.scalzi.com

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Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#81

Post by Vivtek »

I honestly hadn't expected this outpouring of vitriol here against John Scalzi, of all people. The things I'm reading here - that he's "just jealous" or what have you - are frankly blowing my mind.

I thought his point was pretty clear: FB is rolling in cash and is the target of the latest 15-minute hype and 50 billion dollars of Goldman-Sachs paper valuation, but isn't really breaking new ground in providing the best possible platform for the Web, and he predicts that this will cause it to fail, like other non-ideal repackaging efforts in the past, because it is limited. And he has some experience in this, because he was an employee of AOL in the day.

And weirdly, here at HNN, of all places, I am witnessing a deluge of rabid Facebook fanboys, many of whom apparently think he's just an old fogie who doesn't understand the new generation. The world never ceases to amaze me.

EDIT: more words are always good, right?

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#82

Post by phlux »

Vivtek wrote: post #81

I honestly hadn't expected this outpouring of vitriol here against John Scalzi, of all people. The things I'm reading here - that he's "just jealous" or what have you - are frankly blowing my mind. I thought his point was pretty clear: FB is rolling in cash and is the target of the latest 15-minute hype and 50 billion dollars of Goldman-Sachs paper valuation, but isn't really breaking new ground in providing the best…

Umm, in case you haven't noticed, HN is full of FB echo-chamber fanbois who have a combined age still in the 2 digits.

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#83

Post by spiffworks »

MartinCron wrote: post #5
paul wrote: post #2

Clearly someone who "once handrolled his own html code and then uploaded it using UNIX commands" is simply too Awesome for Facebook.

Only if he uploaded it via his own hand-crimped ethernet cables.

I did that in 2007.

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#85

Post by marknutter »

Facebook is top dog right now, so I get that every highly intelligent hacker out there is going to take their potshots at it. I think everyone needs to take a step back and seriously thank Facebook, Myspace, AOL, etc. Why? Because they got normal people to use the internet. Grandma is now a customer for us hackers thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. We can all remember a time when the internet was our personal nerd playground, and yes it was awesome; but it wasn't very profitable. Now, everyone and their mother is on the internet, and their chosen platform of choice right now is Facebook. Yes, things have been dumbed down, yes privacy isn't what it used to be, but us geeks are now pulling down 6 figure salaries for doing the same stuff we'd be doing for fun in our free time anyways. We can't have our cake and eat it too..

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#86

Post by phlux »

ladon86 wrote: post #51
axod wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why reinvent the wheel badly? They should just give users @facebook.com email addresses and put in a webmail UI.

That's exactly what they have done with the new version of messages.

But isnt that just plain retarded?

Look, in VERSION 2 we added NEW features to our messaging platform that you all have known and loved for YEARS! In fact! since the freaking invention of email!

Also, given that the creator of gmail has joined FB, wouldn't he have said "uh, guys - I think we forgot something. guys??"

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#87

Post by phlux »

randallsquared wrote: post #77
sans-serif wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, are you serious? Since 90% of my non-techie friends can figure out who's going to see what you write in walls, messages and photo comments, I'm pretty devastated to hear that 5 HN users find it a challenge.

I think your non-techie friends are just assuming that the folks that they want to see what they write, will, and those they don't want to see what they write, won't. And, mostly, they're right. The biggest problem, for me, is that who can see these things is not up to only those involved in the conversation. It hardly even matters what the exact effect is of the rules currently in place, since they could change at a…

hint: don't use facebook.

I know a lot of people. I don't have an account on FB. Absolutely zero % of the people I know have stopped talking to me even though 95% of them all have an account.

I trust FB far less than any site online.

Fun Fact: pretty much every other social network, HI5, Tagged, MySpace etc. were all started by spammers. Friendster and FB were just started by douchebags.

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#88

Post by phlux »

Supermighty wrote: post #61
Lewisham wrote: post #21

A mail system that doesn’t have a Bcc function doesn’t belong in the 21st Century. This reminds me of a comment that we almost always get on HN when Facebook comes up, and its almost always right: it's not for you. If you want Bcc, it's not for you. The millions of people who are younger than you don't think to CC, let alone BCC. They want to communicate, and they want to do it now, and email is just that formal thin…

> If Facebook isn't for you, then that's that. But when my whole family is on facebook, and have stopped checking their email. Then yeah, it is for me too.

Or you can have some balls and not have an account and tell your whole family "If you love me, just call me, or email me at Supermighty@gmail.com"

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#89

Post by alexgartrell »

phlux wrote: post #82
Vivtek wrote: post #81

I honestly hadn't expected this outpouring of vitriol here against John Scalzi, of all people. The things I'm reading here - that he's "just jealous" or what have you - are frankly blowing my mind. I thought his point was pretty clear: FB is rolling in cash and is the target of the latest 15-minute hype and 50 billion dollars of Goldman-Sachs paper valuation, but isn't really breaking new ground in providing the best…

Umm, in case you haven't noticed, HN is full of FB echo-chamber fanbois who have a combined age still in the 2 digits.

I don't really think your snarky attitude is adding to the discussion, but, more than that, it's not even correct. The vast majority of replies here are decidedly anti facebook, and the ones that arent tend to be luke warm at best. Additionally, if you look at the front page over the last couple days, he popular facebook related articles have been very anti facebook.

I'm not trying to make any claims about face book's virtue (as a future facebook engineer, I doubt I would have much credibility anyway), but it is unfair to be so dismissive about people who might argue that it isn't completely awful, when they certainly aren't just part of hn groupthink (as you seem to have suggested.)

Re: Facebook is what happens to the Web when you hit it with the stupid stick

#90

Post by smackfu »

phlux wrote: post #88
Supermighty wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Facebook isn't for you, then that's that. But when my whole family is on facebook, and have stopped checking their email. Then yeah, it is for me too.

Or you can have some balls and not have an account and tell your whole family "If you love me, just call me, or email me at Supermighty@gmail.com"

Love = facebook accounts now.
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