Live data from Hacker News

I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

wired.com

111–119 of 119 posts

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#111
post #87

I was thinking of a way to destroy my facebook account because you can't actually delete it, this is pretty much it, like everything. Also I guess you could check-in every where at once all the time. I didn't think about the collateral damage it could cause to others, which is to bombard your "friend's feeds". This is also interesting because, well you can destory facebook in this manner. If enough people are peeing…

>I was thinking of a way to destroy my facebook account because you can't actually delete it "Maybe that was true in the past, but today when you delete your data it is gone. Trust me, I wrote it myself. The law enforcement guidelines that have been circulating recently corroborate this."[0] "If you don't think you'll use Facebook again, you can request to have your account permanently deleted. Please keep in mind th…

I've erased my facebook account this way, and created a new one from scratch with the same name.

Somehow it still suggests me friends from the old account. I can't figure out the way it could fetch this data without actually restoring it from the previous account.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#112
post #111
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I was thinking of a way to destroy my facebook account because you can't actually delete it "Maybe that was true in the past, but today when you delete your data it is gone. Trust me, I wrote it myself. The law enforcement guidelines that have been circulating recently corroborate this."[0] "If you don't think you'll use Facebook again, you can request to have your account permanently deleted. Please keep in mind th…

I've erased my facebook account this way, and created a new one from scratch with the same name. Somehow it still suggests me friends from the old account. I can't figure out the way it could fetch this data without actually restoring it from the previous account.

If the people that you are no longer friends with have your contact information (email, phone, etc.) and sync their contacts to Facebook, and you have the same details associated with your new account, then a relationship can be inferred and Facebook could show these people as suggested friends.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#113

This made me think about creating a second profile on facebook, adding myself as a friend and liking whatever I post on my original - just to find out what "advertising value and quality" I create. Anyone got any ideas on how to automatise this?

I tried this (not automated). It was nice to have someone actually read and like my posts. I quickly found I was pretty boring however and so got tired of myself and stopped doing it after a while.

Sometimes it was fun to set up a joke in a back and forth comment thread with myself though.

I still log in as my alter ego every now and then to see what my profile looks like from someone else's perspective.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#114

Confirmation bias bubbles like a social media feed like this are atrophying the debate muscles of our society. When we don't actively participate in two-sided discussions we lose the empathy and scope of how so few things are really black and white. I wish there were more discussion venues where the quality of your participation was based on the value to the discussion, not as to whether or not you supported what tha…

Nonsense. If anything, the nature of our civilizations have caused the atrophying of "debate muscles" and technology has allowed us, more than any other time in history, to actively research more viewpoints and narratives than ever before. The information/medium is there, the problem is the people.

Agreed. Anything framed as a 'debate' has only ever been two sides arguing their point, whilst studiously ignoring any potential validity in the other side's opinion. Confirmation bias is an issue, but not because of social medial. It's because people want validation of their existing opinions, not complex worldviews.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#115
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing there are legal requirements that prevent them from truly deleting your content. Abusive ex-husband posts pictures of himself making threatening remarks to his wife. Other potentially incriminating documents. If he was able to delete it, then that evidence is lost. My only thought of how to preserve privacy rights is to have the "deleted"-not-deleted user files sent to a legal-compliance department and o…

In the US, at least, I believe there is no such legal requirement unless the party doing the deleting is aware of pending legal action relevant to the documents being deleted. I'm not a lawyer though and may be wrong.

Accurate. Many corporations exploit this with "document retention" policies, which are more often about document destruction.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#116
post #96
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was thinking of a way to destroy my facebook account because you can't actually delete it, this is pretty much it, like everything. This kind of bloody-minded civil obedience is something that I very much like. Many years ago the supermarket (20? 25?) Safeway (UK) started a customer loyalty card. My flatmates and I applied for one in the name of "Ivor Trotts". That card was only ever used to buy loo paper. So a b…

I like Facebook. It helps me keep up with friends in distant places. If you find it to be pernicious and intrusive, don't use it (or use it differently). Don't impose your dislike on others. "Peeing in the pool" is a great metaphor in that regard.

I agree that it can help people keep in touch with other, and i never considered the network effects of doing what I was thinking, which is actually why I'm glad I didn't get around to doing it.

Also another commenter mentioned that facebook does actual get around to deleting things, albeit slowly.

As for imposing my dislike on others, that is a fair arguement, but there is also the other side of the coin to consider. To impose your like of facebook on others. People who want to remain off facebook get pulled into it via tags. While i'm not saying you are doing the tagging, but opting out isn't really an option in a network as vast and pervasive as facebook is.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#117
post #111
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I was thinking of a way to destroy my facebook account because you can't actually delete it "Maybe that was true in the past, but today when you delete your data it is gone. Trust me, I wrote it myself. The law enforcement guidelines that have been circulating recently corroborate this."[0] "If you don't think you'll use Facebook again, you can request to have your account permanently deleted. Please keep in mind th…

I've erased my facebook account this way, and created a new one from scratch with the same name. Somehow it still suggests me friends from the old account. I can't figure out the way it could fetch this data without actually restoring it from the previous account.

you deleted only your account, not of your friends, they have uploaded phonebooks, email directory ... of there own which refers back to you.

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#118
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not going to work. Facebook will block you from liking on account of "going way too fast". Calling a sleep() function after every like might help...

So i guess the script would need to include some kind of gradually escalating random "like" increase.

I made this and it seems to work pretty well. http://pastebin.com/bfhw3R7H

Re: I ‘Liked’ Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days

#119

Confirmation bias bubbles like a social media feed like this are atrophying the debate muscles of our society. When we don't actively participate in two-sided discussions we lose the empathy and scope of how so few things are really black and white. I wish there were more discussion venues where the quality of your participation was based on the value to the discussion, not as to whether or not you supported what tha…

The alternative to confirmation bias bubbles is, especially for social media, showing people stuff they might not like or agree with--the problem is that this isn't great for business, and generally get's people up in arms.

A great, very recent, example of this was reddit making /r/TwoXChromosomes, a subreddit dedicated to women's issues, a default sub (meaning everyone, even non-users, are automatically subscribed). The stereotype demographic for reddit is young white males. I have no way of actually verifying these demographics--I'm not sure they do either.

Yesterday, a comic about the casual sexual harassment caused by men was posted[1] and although there was some valuable discussion, most of it was pretty awful to read (the further down you scroll, the worse it gets). Although we'd like to believe that engaging in debate / conversation / dialogue generally cause us to have empathy for and understand the other side, the opposite tends to happen, especially in large, anonymous communities. And this is in a venue where the quality of participation IS (supposedly) based on the value of the discussion.

Although I think you're right that most websites (Hacker News included) suffer from only having up and / or down votes. It's possible that a more complex system might be more useful. Maybe in addition to the like / dislike paradigm, it might be useful to add quality / not quality functionality.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/2d85wt/next...

Post reply on HN