Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

lists.csail.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 300 posts

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#191

Post by stcredzero »

noduerme wrote: post #187
stcredzero wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When 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. When I was a kid, my parents sent me to a computer camp. We sat around and wrote text adventures in BASIC, while we weren't sneaking bit copies of games. (Someone wrote a bit copier that let you play Pong in the foreground so the camp counselors couldn't catch you by looking over…

And you would have been one of my three best friends, and I would've begged my mom to let me stay at your house so we could stay up all night talking hypercard and c++ and compiling perl scripts for mac os 6, and figuring out what a regex is. My best friend from back then doesn't talk to me anymore, he went & joined the circus at burning man ;) Everything I ever learned was against my parents' wishes. They bought me…

... would've begged my mom to let me stay at your house so we could stay up all night talking hypercard and c++ and compiling perl scripts for mac os 6, and figuring out what a regex is.

Well, actually this was like in 1979 or 1980 and the Macintosh wasn't out yet. I don't think C++ even existed, but my dad did get his hands on UCSD Pascal.

You are the luckiest dude in the world.

A few years later, they sent me to a military academy in Indiana. No, seriously. I wasn't a bad kid. It's complicated, and maybe everything balances out.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#192

Post by alain94040 »

fudged wrote: post #59
victork2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one think it's a great analogy (having been in a camp I can definitely say that I didn't enjoy it and I was rejected based on that). I silently deleted my facebook account about two years ago because I didn't like losing my time looking at stupid stuff. I found out that falling into the Facebook time vortex was too much of an inconvenience and the only way around that was to delete Facebook. Now when I say that…

To many people, Facebook is the default communication channel. To delete your Facebook account is like to be offered a free iphone + unlimited contract and refuse it; the idea of removing your name from the social phonebook is beyond the comprehension of many people. And subconsciously, you're removing value from other people's valued medium/experience. By not having account, you must have some opposition to somethin…

To many people, Facebook is the default communication channel

Exactly. Many of us geeks have dreamed of improved e-mail clients, better to-do lists... but frankly for the average person, they want to hear from their kids and relatives, easily see pictures of birthdays. Guess what: Facebook is years ahead of email clients for that purpose. Come up with a better client if you want to, but understand that some people have "simple" needs and your decade-old technology (what has changed since UUCP?) gets in the way.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#193

Post by Tichy »

coffeemug wrote: post #149
noduerme wrote: post #10

When 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…

There is a world of difference between citizens complaining how their governments are corrupt, and husbands complaining how their wives boss them around. The former is a macro problem - if you're unhappy there's very little you can do to make a difference, you really need everyone to get behind your cause but because of weird behavioral science quirks this happens very rarely. The latter is a micro problem - learn to…

"carefully select privacy settings (which are quite extensive)"

That's ridiculous. Maybe you'll try a couple of times to keep up with their changes, but eventually you'll just give up. Besides, they will constantly tempt you to share more (that is how they grow).

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#194

Post by itmag »

anon808 wrote: post #129
gavinlynch wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but there's something wrong with people liking camp because they're supposed to like camp" Huh? Don't understand what you are talking about... A quick study of human history and psychology will show that this is a bedrock of human behavior. For good and ill, it is what I would regard a well-accepted facet of human nature. We wouldn't be the species we are without the pressures of 'social norms'

Just because things are (or have been) a certain way, doesn't mean they should be that way. We all get a choice. I do believe though that most social norms are good, not because they're social norms, but because they actually serve people and as such became social norms. But some social norms (as history has shown: slavery, etc.) are accepted by a lot of people not because they make sense, but simply because they are…

There are also plenty of social norms that are harmless but still insipid. For instance, here in Sweden, every other male between 20-30 seems to be some kind of ironic lumberjack judging from their clothes. Which I just find to be utterly ridiculous, albeit harmless to all but my aesthetic sense.

That's right, a sizeable portion of Sweden's population would fit right in on this blog: http://hipsterorlumberjack.tumblr.com/

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#195

Post by r00fus »

Sanddancer wrote: post #68
praptak wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, he did a lot. 25-30 years ago. What's he done lately?

You know what, he shipped. GNU is still important today, and so is FSF. So stuff your attitude. If you don't like his opinions, ignore them. You can't ignore his achievements.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#196

Post by fl3tch »

koeselitz wrote: post #132
rbarooah wrote: post #29

Many of Stallman's complaints about Facebook ( http://stallman.org/facebook.html ) apply equally to Google. Does anyone know whether he regards them in the same light?

If you follow the first link on the page you linked to there ("I don't use it") there is a brief discussion of his view of Gmail and Google+: "As for Facebook and Google+, I reject them on principle because they require people to give their 'real names'. I am proud to identify myself when stating my views; I can afford to do that because I am in a fairly safe position. There are people who rationally fear reprisals (…

One problem with the privacy-protectionist view is that half of my email recipients use one of the three major email services (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail), so even if I decided not to use them, half of my email would end up on their servers. Taking that into consideration, and adding the fact that I haven't found an email service that I've liked within an order of magnitude of Gmail, it doesn't make sense to boycott it. You just have to assume that the email providers are reading your messages and act accordingly. Some things I talk about over email, and some things I don't.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#197

Post by zem »

hackermom wrote: post #31
franciscoapinto wrote: post #13

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.

the combination of a pertinent observation (that facebook's "800 million active users" userbase was perhaps less relevant than one might think, or why spam mailing lists with a link to a facebook poll), and the over-the-top comedic writing style used to point it out. i laughed pretty hard at it too.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#198

Post by EricDeb »

noduerme wrote: post #10

When 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…

I think as intelligent men (I'm assuming most people on this forum are intelligent men) we struggle with the issue of participating in society and thus being exposed some opportunity to meet women, and avoiding society and pursuing our academic interests.

I know on a deep level, Facebook is a part of this dilemma in my experience. I would personally rather avoid it, but I know it connects me to society and society connects me to women... so I tolerate it.

Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

#200

Post by jfoster »

coffeemug wrote: post #149
noduerme wrote: post #10

When 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…

There is a world of difference between citizens complaining how their governments are corrupt, and husbands complaining how their wives boss them around. The former is a macro problem - if you're unhappy there's very little you can do to make a difference, you really need everyone to get behind your cause but because of weird behavioral science quirks this happens very rarely. The latter is a micro problem - learn to…

I don't have any serious concerns about privacy because of Facebook, but I do want to point out an aspect where Facebook's privacy controls don't apply.

If someone takes a photo of you, they can upload it to Facebook. If they tag you, you can remove the tag. The photo will be there regardless of whether you accept/remove any tagging, and it will be outside the jurisdiction of your privacy controls. The uploader controls the privacy level of a photo, regardless of who the subject of the photo is.

Post reply on HN