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The Facebook experiment has failed

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Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#81

Post by icebraining »

nextw33k wrote: post #69
graue wrote: post #35

People really just don't seem to understand that experiences with social media are specific to the individual. I guess it's understandable. I see the same Google Maps as everyone else does. I see the same Hacker News as everyone else who visits HN. But Facebook isn't like that. Your Facebook timeline is based entirely on your friends and how you interact with Facebook. And so, every few weeks it seems, we get these p…

I feel that you are missing his point. There is a trend towards emotional populist content on social networks. It's interesting to you because it's your friends and it feels personal. However in a broader context its creating a society that is inward looking (walled garden of your friends) and concerned with re-enforcing social norms (the like button). How does this activity improve us as a society? Where is the crea…

A single social networks doesn't have to be everything and all-encompassing to be useful; the place where you organize a family lunch is usually not the same where you run a LAN party or perform body painting.

I do wish that social network wasn't Facebook, though.

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#82

Post by joshAg »

zt wrote: post #73
nostromo wrote: post #51

Lately I've noticed something odd. When I find a story I find interesting, I email it to some of my closest friends and we talk about it in email. It feels very 2003, but it works and feels more private and intimate. Similarly, when I take a picture I want to share with my family, I sms it to them. Facebook is still great, but it's different than what it used to be. It's (for me) evolved into my less-close friends' v…

My best friend and I actually run a ~100 person listserv to this end. We call it "Feed Your Brain" and people send out interesting articles, music, poetry, etc, they find on the internet. Sometimes there is a great discussion or debate, sometimes not. It is very private and intimate and it feels closer to early Reddit or HN than anything else I have found.

seems you stumbled on the secret of keeping a good online community: don't let a person's contacts exceed the network's dunbar number[1].

non-default subreddits can still be quite good, but many/most/all of the default subreddits are wastelands ravaged by a silent majority of up- and down-voters while the huddled masses of commenters cling together for safety. of course, there's the same phenomenon within the commenters community, where insightful comments are buried amongst puns and prejudice and adolescent jokes that get upvoted much quicker.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#83

Post by iffyuva »

weavie wrote: post #79
icelancer wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do the same thing. I have different groups of people and just talk over email threads. Works far better than G+ or FB.

Likewise. So much for people saying email is broken and outdated. It's the one medium I've been using for 20 years now and keep coming back to.

so true. i respect people who put an effort to compose an email to share something, rather than hitting share button. most of the time they dont even remember what they have shared over fb!

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#84

Post by jeswin »

Author here. Didn't think this would show up on HN.

These were my thoughts when I wrote it:

1. Most stuff being shared is of no value to most people. Does not encourage exchange of good ideas. Sharing, as it works now looks like a fad. It has peaked. Most people I know are bored now, it's just the inertia that keeps them there.

2. If someone is genuinely interested in something, they will seek out good communities to join. HN is a good example. And Slashdot (much more so earlier, but even now), gamer forums, some reddits, astronomy forums, photography etc.

3. There would probably need to be a tool to share with family and close friends. But that doesn't need to look like FB. Then again, Social networks help fight against totalitarian regimes. FB would be missed here, although I think Twitter plays a bigger role.

Josh Miller in "The Next Facebook" makes an interesting point: The next network could be about making it easy to talk to people you don't know so well. Example, again Hacker News. https://medium.com/musings-about-text-boxes/8157c364d26a

I am working on some related ideas, for open communities and forums. This will be open source, and I'll document, share and collaborate on the entire process of designing this application (like discussions, whiteboards, sketches etc) . Plan to start this week, if interested add me on Twitter (@jeswin). Code isn't committed yet, but it will be here: https://github.com/jeswin/fora

PS: This was written in a hurry. I apologize for mistakes. I have to leave now; I'll check comments later in the day.

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#85

Post by taproot »

hkmurakami wrote: post #60
graue wrote: post #35

People really just don't seem to understand that experiences with social media are specific to the individual. I guess it's understandable. I see the same Google Maps as everyone else does. I see the same Hacker News as everyone else who visits HN. But Facebook isn't like that. Your Facebook timeline is based entirely on your friends and how you interact with Facebook. And so, every few weeks it seems, we get these p…

I'm not a heavy FB user, but having lived in various places around the world, it's one of the few ways I can passively keep in touch with what my dear friends have been up to half way around the globe. That is real value that Facebook does deliver, something I must admit despite my wide ranged mistrust and distaste for various other aspects of the service.

And that thin veil is held together by its complicated breakups, baby pictures and cat memes. If it wasnt that everyone enjoyed sharing these things id hate to think what might happen.

Im in the same boat as you here. And it worries me. Imagine if we had to go back to the old days of using msn status updates and actually having to gasp converse with one another in order to get our fill of socal interaction.

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#87

Post by _k »

hkmurakami wrote: post #62
nostromo wrote: post #51

Lately I've noticed something odd. When I find a story I find interesting, I email it to some of my closest friends and we talk about it in email. It feels very 2003, but it works and feels more private and intimate. Similarly, when I take a picture I want to share with my family, I sms it to them. Facebook is still great, but it's different than what it used to be. It's (for me) evolved into my less-close friends' v…

I tend to have a hard time discerning whether commenting on a shared item will make my comment appear on the original thread or the "sharer"'s thread, and I usually end up not commenting even when I have something I could say.

Comments don't appear on both ? How weird is that ?

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#88

Post by myoffe »

graue wrote: post #35

People really just don't seem to understand that experiences with social media are specific to the individual. I guess it's understandable. I see the same Google Maps as everyone else does. I see the same Hacker News as everyone else who visits HN. But Facebook isn't like that. Your Facebook timeline is based entirely on your friends and how you interact with Facebook. And so, every few weeks it seems, we get these p…

I Agree. The difference between a blogger and a researcher is that the former can say what the heck he wants on the internet and state it as an objective and universal truth. While a researcher, on the other hand, must back his claims with some evidence.

So this post should just be downvoted. Another guy with an opinion on the internet, nothing to get too excited about.

It seems that the more controversy you create, the more popular you get on HN, regardless of whatever you have any ground to your claims.

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#89

Post by taproot »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #48
graue wrote: post #35

People really just don't seem to understand that experiences with social media are specific to the individual. I guess it's understandable. I see the same Google Maps as everyone else does. I see the same Hacker News as everyone else who visits HN. But Facebook isn't like that. Your Facebook timeline is based entirely on your friends and how you interact with Facebook. And so, every few weeks it seems, we get these p…

Completely agree. Most every point he makes doesn't apply to my use of Facebook. The one that is interesting is his comparison to Google and SEO. In Google's world there are three players: (1) the searchers, (2) the advertisers and (3) the black hats who try to game the system. Unfortunately for Facebook, (2) and (3) are the same, so the people they make money from are also the people who are degrading the system. Th…

Muddling the term black hat and "black hat seo" on the internet, hn no less. You certainly have the balls I lack.

Re: The Facebook experiment has failed

#90

Post by zby »

Caring about the receiver - this is what is lacking. The sender should think about the receiver and send only stuff that would be interesting to him, or help him even if he does not like it at once. The sender should have means to target his messages only to people who would like it. The receiver should have means to express what he liked and what he did not. Channels should be negotiated between the receiver and the sender.

I call this 'social routing'. I hoped that Google+ would do that - but they only covered half of the idea - they let the sender target the message, and they let the receiver choose their sources (in a tangled together way) - but they don't let them negotiate the connection.

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