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

Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

sling.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 161 posts

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#121

Post by unclebucknasty »

mcfunley wrote: post #69
jameshart wrote: post #30

We live in the age of wonders. The internet and mobile devices create endless possibilities for people to communicate, learn and interact. And at Facebook, a company which can, if it chooses, pick from among the brightest engineering minds and focus their efforts on any problem it chooses, the power to concentrate years of programming knowledge on the capabilities afforded to us by this astonishing bounty of personal…

Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it. Facebook is a large company with a number of revenue streams. Every single feature they undertake does not need to individually earn its keep. (And I'm not sure why that aspect would concern you in any case.)

>Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it.

On the other hand, the "meaning" that people derive from sharing can be defined in some basic terms (e.g. interaction, connection, etc.). At what point does the incremental "improvement" in sharing mechanics no longer justify the resources required to produce that improvement? First, we share it. Then, we share it and it disappears. Next, we can't see what's shared until we share something back. Is this really improving on the basic "meaning"?

Sure, Facebook gets to decide how their resources are applied. But, I don't think we should pretend that there's some great and noble effort to bring still more meaning to billions of lives. Facebook wants a novel way to keep you on Facebook where you can bring more meaning to their bottom line. Period.

And, you know what else has meaning? Talking to people. Having lunch with people. Seeing people; not watching their latest "broadcast", but actually seeing them.

I'm just over it, and I'm guessing others are as well. There's just this constant, vapid, soul-sucking effort to endlessly distract people with some novel piece of nothingness as a means of generating still more revenue.

Gets a little old.

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#122

Post by silverbucket »

Great, another place jockeying to collect my data. Using fun social rewards to force people to submit more and more videos to their silo, but no, it's for you! Until we have enough of your data to make money off selling it to others and placing more and more restrictions on our service. Innovation?

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#123

Post by robotresearcher »

ed209 wrote: post #47
jameshart wrote: post #30

We live in the age of wonders. The internet and mobile devices create endless possibilities for people to communicate, learn and interact. And at Facebook, a company which can, if it chooses, pick from among the brightest engineering minds and focus their efforts on any problem it chooses, the power to concentrate years of programming knowledge on the capabilities afforded to us by this astonishing bounty of personal…

Did you know there are over 150 varieties of Finches? Each slightly different, maybe color difference or a larger beak or bigger wingspan. They came about by iterating on the Finches that came before. In fact, that's how most advancements come about in nature, poetry, art, and yes, even technology. We take what came before an iterate on it. I'm trying to think of a giant leap that came out of nowhere, but I can't. Ph…

> I'm trying to think of a giant leap that came out of nowhere, but I can't.

This isn't exactly a Manhattan Project or golden-age Bell Labs kind of deal. Some iterations are a bit more ambitious than others.

Unlike evolution, engineers can be goal directed. We can do better than Yet Another Finch that is Slightly More Yellow.

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#124

Post by gavinpc »

aye wrote: post #111
jameshart wrote: post #30

We live in the age of wonders. The internet and mobile devices create endless possibilities for people to communicate, learn and interact. And at Facebook, a company which can, if it chooses, pick from among the brightest engineering minds and focus their efforts on any problem it chooses, the power to concentrate years of programming knowledge on the capabilities afforded to us by this astonishing bounty of personal…

This is more about about promoting sharing as a cultural behavior than making money on this particular product. By incentivizing sharing, companies end up with more personal information. It forces lurkers to participate (some might argue that's a good thing). The service forces you to pay for content with your own content, whereas before the payment was implicit, or at least invisible -- as long as you were in the st…

> It forces lurkers to participate

This line of iambic pentameter is the first one that gets to the point of the OP.

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#125

Post by npizzolato »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #121
mcfunley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it. Facebook is a large company with a number of revenue streams. Every single feature they undertake does not need to individually earn its keep. (And I'm not sure why that aspect would concern you in any case.)

> Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it. On the other hand, the "meaning" that people derive from sharing can be defined in some basic terms (e.g. interaction, connection, etc.). At what point does the incremental "improvement" in sharing mechanics no longer justify the resources required to produce that improvement? Firs…

It's these comments that get a little old. Yes, obviously Facebook wants to make more money, and they do that by selling your information to advertisers. Thanks for the reminder. At the same time, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Facebook has enriched the lives of millions of people. I know it has allowed me to stay in touch with family and friends who I otherwise would probably speak to more rarely. That's meaningful to me.

I'm also tired of the "why don't you go out and have a REAL conversation" comments. I would love to have lunch with the friends I keep in touch with primarily on Facebook. Unfortunately, they live halfway across the country, so it's not that easy.

Just because the interactions happen online doesn't mean they're not real or meaningful. The fact that your comment on an online forum suggests otherwise is particularly rich.

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#126

Post by edgyswingset »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #121
mcfunley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it. Facebook is a large company with a number of revenue streams. Every single feature they undertake does not need to individually earn its keep. (And I'm not sure why that aspect would concern you in any case.)

> Sharing photos and videos is an activity that brings meaning to billions of lives, and it's not unreasonable to try to improve upon it. On the other hand, the "meaning" that people derive from sharing can be defined in some basic terms (e.g. interaction, connection, etc.). At what point does the incremental "improvement" in sharing mechanics no longer justify the resources required to produce that improvement? Firs…

I suppose this can depend on the context of the users. Personally, I've gone through the beginnings of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat (the last of which I've uninstalled and never use). Having more than a decade of various types of social networking, I've "grown up" on what amounts to a more wordy, involved kind of interpersonal communication.

The generation of people who are just turning 18, though, have grown up with more immediate forms of social networking. Snapchat, Secret, etc reign supreme in younger demographics.

An interesting parallel is the concept of a meme. For people who were around for the growth of the meme, they're stories or actions. For younger folk, they're image macros.

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#127

Post by interg12 »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #53
jameshart wrote: post #30

We live in the age of wonders. The internet and mobile devices create endless possibilities for people to communicate, learn and interact. And at Facebook, a company which can, if it chooses, pick from among the brightest engineering minds and focus their efforts on any problem it chooses, the power to concentrate years of programming knowledge on the capabilities afforded to us by this astonishing bounty of personal…

So don't work for Facebook. Build something that matters, or work for someone who is. Simple as that.

You don't think they're building things that matter? have you seen their app install ad network?

Re: Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

#128

Post by interg12 »

theg2 wrote: post #2

The catch is a pretty big deal, and by deal I mean a deal breaker for me. Why do I have to share something back with someone in order to see what they've shared back at me? I understand it's great for engagement but who would use this over Snapchat or Instagram.

I like the idea. It could shake up the whole lurker pool of users or fail miserably. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a community of users that are 100% engaged?
Post reply on HN