The ensuing discussion is good. I recommend you all read this reply; I laughed pretty hard https://lists.csail.mit.edu/pipermail/csail-related/2012-Jan... .
I can't quite see what's funny about the response.
Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
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Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#32This is the only time I've ever agreed with RMS. Facebook is a disease. Please do not require me to log in to it for your cause.
> Please do not require me to log in to it for your cause.
The worst part about it is oftentimes it makes the most sense to require Facebook for login. The gains are: 1) development and maintenance of only one login system. and 2) Easy integrated sharing/liking to expand support for your cause.
You can't really expect to win a rational argument with a site owner who sees how the benefits of requiring Facebook outweigh the perceived costs.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#33I was an outspoken Facebook-hater for a long time. Perhaps my most quotable moment on HN to date was saying "I have no love for their product or their business model, but their engineering is diesel."
My wife recently convinced me to give it another try. I didn't use my complete name, and was judicious about the information I associated with my profile. And yet, I proceeded to connect in a deep and healthy way with some people that I'd fallen out of touch with, and nurtured some newer relationships.
It's a tool that has a Tendency to be dangerous, prying, and abusive to its members. But even as a field of vast moral hazard, I've come to view it as "navigable and worth the risks."
Perhaps not the most glowing endorsement, but if they can convince me they're more valuable than they are dangerous, they've really done some things right in the last few years.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#34When I was a kid, my parents sent me to camp, even though all I wanted to do was sit home and write text adventures in BASIC. I hated camp. I hated the kids, and the counselors, and most of all I hated how everyone acted like if you didn't like it, if you weren't having fun, then there was something messed up about you . Facebook = camp. The most oppressive and authoritarian thing about it is, at root, that most peop…
As much as I agree with ALL the criticisms of Facebook, the dependency on the platform isn't due to stupidity or ignorance... the dependency is by design. There isn't much freedom to leave the network, due to the lack of worthwhile alternatives, the useful features that it provides people, functional user lock-in, and the strength of the social ties between people. Some of the features are so useful to people that citizens are protesting the government to reverse privacy laws that are there to protect them.
Google had a huge shot at making an alternative, and although the G+ community is vibrant, the product has failed to reach the potential that it had. And there are many privacy concerns with that platform as well, because every massive social network needs revenue.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#35I love rms, but he needs to learn to spend his time speaking for things and not against things. How'd the campaign against Apple go, rms?
Here's a good counterargument, entitled "In Defense of Negativity": http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20110903-00
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#36When I was a kid, my parents sent me to camp, even though all I wanted to do was sit home and write text adventures in BASIC. I hated camp. I hated the kids, and the counselors, and most of all I hated how everyone acted like if you didn't like it, if you weren't having fun, then there was something messed up about you . Facebook = camp. The most oppressive and authoritarian thing about it is, at root, that most peop…
None of my colleagues have Facebook. They have fine lives. They don't give a shit about Facebook, it doesn't have to be part of your life at all.
Every social group is different.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#37Said the man who reads web pages through an email client.
Thanks for the downvotes, everyone. My point was that even though he happens to be spot-on in his very pithy remark about the disease that is Facebook, if you know anything at all about RMS -- or have interacted with him personally, for a minute or two -- you'll know that he's so far off the page from the vast bulk of humanity (in terms of how he communicates) that it's difficult to take anything he says about the pr…
I didn't understand that comment, either. Was your argument "he's right, but nobody agrees with him, so he's wrong"?
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#38Outspoken misanthrope with poor social skills and a tendency towards an absolutist black/white view of the world dislikes social networking? Color me surprised...
Compare RMS' achievements in the social field (you know, like starting the social movement to popularize free software) with, well, just about anyone else on this planet before judging his social skills as poor.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#39Using Facebook as a platform for international development projects is actually abhorrent. If you do then you are requiring people who need your help, or that you want to work with, to enter into an entirely unnecessary secondary contractual agreement with an intrusive marketing company, for no reason other than sheer lazyness.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#40I can relate to his feelings. Socializing does come easy to scientists. Yet, even with all its shortcomings, I guess Facebook makes us waist less time in trivial social interactions with distant friends while still keeping in touch.
Stallman is almost always polarizing, but there's something here. Does FB make society less or more efficient? Where's the proof?