Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#21

Post by endlessvoid94 » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:28 AM UTC

The idea that facebook doesn't have a vision for the future is 100% asinine. In 20 years I'll have detailed memories and archives of most of my past because facebook has made it easy. Contrast this with what our parents or grandparents' generation has. Younger kids and older folks will all interact more and more through facebook in the coming years.

Facebook just cares less about what the industry looks at. They're looking way down the line and figuring out what human beings will want.

The "post-facebook era" is something that journalists invent to point fingers at and justify ad impressions.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#22

Post by RandallBrown » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:37 AM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #9

Facebook jumped the shark when all those horrible, ugly apps started polluting the thing with idiocy. The editorial incompetence and general awfulness of the ecosystem was astonishing. Farmville was the end of the beginning of the end. In 2004, Facebook wasn't garbage. It was simple, it served a purpose very well. It changed the social experience of being in college, a sharp contrast against "social" today which is l…

I think Facebook has mostly corrected the app garbage problem. I'm no longer bombarded with invitations to Ninjas vs. Pirates and my news feed is very rarely invaded by Farmville.

I lost most of my interest (although I still use it daily) when they added the news feed. It took away the importance of profiles and took away the fun of "stalking". It used to be a regular problem that people would spend too much time poring over profiles. Now I hardly ever get past the first 20 posts on my news feed. Maybe I just grew up. Of course the news feed is what turned Facebook into what it is today.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#23

Post by mechanical_fish » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:37 AM UTC

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #21

The idea that facebook doesn't have a vision for the future is 100% asinine. In 20 years I'll have detailed memories and archives of most of my past because facebook has made it easy. Contrast this with what our parents or grandparents' generation has. Younger kids and older folks will all interact more and more through facebook in the coming years. Facebook just cares less about what the industry looks at. They're l…

In 20 years I'll have detailed memories and archives of most of my past

Or Facebook will, anyway. Assuming they're still in business.

If you think the idea of Facebook eventually going bankrupt and deleting their archives, or selling those archives to a recycler in a fire sale, is somehow ridiculous I invite you to contemplate the fate of Geocities. Or Netscape, or Sun Microsystems, or the decline of Yahoo.

Is there anything in Facebook's terms of service where they even promise to preserve any of your data, let alone allow you to download it free of charge in perpetuity? Perhaps the ultimate fallback Facebook business model will be to erect a firewall and charge folks tolls for admission to their own cherished memories.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#24

Post by saraid216 » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:43 AM UTC

Pheter wrote: post #5

The article claims that Facebook's messaging features are a failure. I disagree; they have massive potential. Facebook chat is the primary real time chat system that I use these days and has replaced MSN for me and my friends. I recently installed the Messenger app on my iPhone and it certainly has the potential to kill off whatsapp and similar apps due two reasons: all my contacts are already available, and that I c…

> The article claims that Facebook's messaging features are a failure. I disagree; they have massive potential.

Not realizing its massive potential is a failure.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#25

Post by j_baker » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:45 AM UTC

I call contrarianism. And no, I don't mean the good type that makes you question all you hold dear. I mean the "Look at me! I think differently from the uninformed masses." variety. The part where the author's analysis starts to break is when they mistake Facebook adopting its competitor's good ideas for running out of ideas.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#26

Post by jeffreyrusso » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:46 AM UTC

Billions of users or not, becoming boring is a huge problem for Facebook. With a revenue model so heavily dependent on pageviews, they need to keep their users engaged and on the site... and that doesn't appear to be the case over the long term. New users ride a wave of heavy usage, but over time, Facebook takes on more of a role as a utility than a diversion. It has for me and most everyone else I know who started using it when it was a shiny new toy exclusively for college students.

Facebook can't keep up the rate of new user acquisition it has enjoyed for the past couple of years forever - and as the userbase collectively ages, interest wanes, pageviews decline, and revenue drops off. Right now, it looks like they will inevitably be caught in the same race to the bottom, doing whatever they can to scrounge up page views, that Yahoo is in.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#27

Post by jeffreyrusso » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 3:48 AM UTC

daleharvey wrote: post #14

On joining my company last year, one of the first things I heard my boss tell me was that we were aiming to be boring Getting nearly a billion users, being one of the most influential companies in the world and not being exciting enough for tech pundits is an awesome problem to have.

Fair point, but when each user adds less and less value over time, that billion plus userbase can be as much of a liability as it is an asset.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#28

Post by ericras » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 4:03 AM UTC

res0nat0r wrote: post #19

acangiano wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook jumped the shark when all those horrible, ugly apps started polluting the thing with idiocy. Flickr and MySpace come to mind, too. Generally, don't let a user pollute other users' posts/streams/walls with ugly invitations, apps, or animated glitter. Many people have no taste or lack the ability to judiciously use such features. If you let them, your site will quickly become garbage.

I've fixed this long ago. Block all crap from Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc and goodbye spam.

Most people don't change default settings. Therefore most people have a pretty crappy experience with all the gunk on facebook. Therefore people will get bored with it and you will have less reason to go yourself.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#29

Post by technomancy » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 4:10 AM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #3

Facebook smart lists are not a copy of circles. Circles were an improvement on Facebook's lists, that they've had for years. Smart lists are an improvement on lists. Facebook's messaging has effectively killed AIM at least for me and everyone I know. Huge failure...

I stopped hearing about AIM at all within about two years of Google Talk being released. It may have died out for you around the time Facebook messaging showed up, but this is a great example of correlation not indicating causation.

Re: Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring

#30

Post by MartinCron » Sun, Sep 18, 2011, 4:49 AM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #23

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #21

The idea that facebook doesn't have a vision for the future is 100% asinine. In 20 years I'll have detailed memories and archives of most of my past because facebook has made it easy. Contrast this with what our parents or grandparents' generation has. Younger kids and older folks will all interact more and more through facebook in the coming years. Facebook just cares less about what the industry looks at. They're l…

In 20 years I'll have detailed memories and archives of most of my past Or Facebook will, anyway. Assuming they're still in business. If you think the idea of Facebook eventually going bankrupt and deleting their archives, or selling those archives to a recycler in a fire sale, is somehow ridiculous I invite you to contemplate the fate of Geocities. Or Netscape, or Sun Microsystems, or the decline of Yahoo. Is there…

I wonder if both Facebook and Google have become essentially too big to fail. That is, the collateral harm caused by them going down would hurt so many other people and organizations that not propping them up would be considered a policy failure.