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Reasons not to use Facebook

stallman.org

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Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#231

Post by MisterWebz »

SeanDav wrote: post #218

There seems to have been a sea change in opinion of many HN posters here, especially among the more recent visitors to HN. A couple of years ago Facebook was considered by many here to be an invasion of privacy and just not worth the effort. That general opinion seems to have changed for some. A lot of newer posters seem to be of the opinion that lack of privacy is a cost worth paying for convenience and will apologi…

When you're highly invested in the tech scene and are depending on its continuing profitability, then it's only natural that you denounce people who attack it.

What we're seeing here is a conflict of opinion between the so called hackers and the people who think they're working on something that will be acquired by one of the tech giants.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#232

Post by throwawaykf05 »

quanticle wrote: post #133
MCRed wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example? For instance, I was aware of Stallman in the 1980s, read his writings back then, didn't think they were correct, and the future he predicted has not come to be. Yes there are some of us who are that old. Specifically, he said that without the virility of his license, there would be no free/open source software and that all software would be locked down and proprietary. The entire open source…

Stallman predicted the rise of e-readers and the problems that would arise from DRM protected e-books.

"Predict"? There were patents that describe e-readers and DRM before Stallman wrote "Right to read", and we all know how innovative patents really are, right? Here's an example: https://www.google.com/patents/US5715403

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#233

Post by timdaub »

ramigb wrote: post #61

From an avid FB user who spent three hours a day to someone who has his account deactivated for more than a month, that is how much convinced i am that FB is nothing but utter garbage and i just had enough with it.

Complete agree, deactivated also about a month ago or so.

The thing is, once you ask everyone you truly want to be in touch with for their phone number, "staying connected" isn't that hard anymore.

Also interesting: my friends tend to never talk about their online-facebook experience ever! I never noticed it, but there is literally no talk about their facebook-usage in real-life, while all of them still use it multiple hours a day.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#234

Post by FanaHOVA »

leni536 wrote: post #212
Dramatize wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I don't understand what the issue is. I know that anything I add to Facebook will be used to sell advertising to me(I use AdBlock). The best feature of Facebook is groups. It's the easiest way to keep up to date with my gym group, motorcycle group etc.

What was wrong with mailing lists? > It's the easiest way to keep up to date with my gym group, motorcycle group etc. Of course it is the easiest if they use a Facebook group in the first place. They could use a mailing list (or Google group) and you could keep track of it with any mail service (even your own) of choice.

Mailing list? What year is it? Barely anyone outside of the tech world still uses emails regularly.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#236

Post by maxerickson »

emilsedgh wrote: post #228
MCRed wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example? For instance, I was aware of Stallman in the 1980s, read his writings back then, didn't think they were correct, and the future he predicted has not come to be. Yes there are some of us who are that old. Specifically, he said that without the virility of his license, there would be no free/open source software and that all software would be locked down and proprietary. The entire open source…

The entire open source movement is a disproof of stallman's position from that period. Open Source movement did not happen in vacuum. It was a direct followup to 'Free Software' movement. He has repeatedly claimed that companies won't contribute to open source, and so you have to force them to with the GNU license, and yet history has disproven this one. You do know that the Linux Kernel, among the most important sof…

BSD doesn't owe any of its origination to GNU, and it is impossible to say what it would look like if GNU never happened.

(The point being, capital letter Open Source as a movement owes something to Free Software, the notion of sharing liberally licensed source code does not)

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#237

Post by jessaustin »

tedunangst wrote: post #222
jcrawfordor wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who interacted closely with RMS for several days recently, I think I should set the record straight on one important fact. RMS absolutely uses cellphones. He just doesn't own one himself. Instead, he borrows the phones of the people around him, and his assistant collects those people's phone numbers in order to call him. What this says about his philosophy probably depends significantly on how irritating y…

I guess the question is, what would happen if everybody actually listened to RMS and stopped using cell phones?

This is not a valid way of judging RMS or his claims. He isn't complaining about the concept of a technology that allows people to talk while on the go. Rather, he is complaining about the specific implementation of mobile tech with which we're currently saddled.

To answer seriously, however, the largest effect of reduced cell phone use would be that automobiles would be much safer, for their passengers and for everyone else.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#238

Post by msabalau »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #223
apetrovic wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is a "problem"? I don't live in US. Ordering books online and shipping them to my house used to be slow and expensive process. Now I can buy books from Amazon, for a half the price than printed books (3x the price if I account the shipping). Yeah, I can't read that book on anything except Kindle (device or Kindle app). But I know what I'm buying, and I'm ok with that. I enjoy the option to have my books…

> Without DRM e-readers e-books would never exists That is a strawman. Three are certsinly booksellers who never went near DRM and argue strongly against DRM. Exempel: http://www.baenebooks.com

And such sellers and their customers can leverage the well designed e-readers that exist because Kobu and Amazon have business models supported mostly by the sales of DRM'd books.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#239

Post by jessaustin »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #163
_ak wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course phones were used to track people 10 years ago. And it wasn't even a secret. Location-based services were the hot shit back then for mobile carriers (at least in Europe). Making that to be a big conspiracy to infringe upon everybody's freedom and privacy is what makes Stallman's position so ridiculous. It always sounds like the rambling of a technophobic. No, that's not entirely true. Like the rambling of an…

Everything about mass survaillance shifted from "stuff of crackpot conspiracy theories" to "retroactivelly obvious all along".

It's as if the useful idiots haven't even noticed that their rhetoric today contradicts entirely their rhetoric from five years ago.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#240

Post by mark_l_watson »

Another good article by Richard Stallman - his ideas keep gaining even more relevance for me.

I do use Facebook to plug my books and to hopefully drive traffic to my blog articles, but I have been considering cancelling my account.

I have similar issues with Google, but with Google I get much more value: using G+ to promote my own web properties, and generally really useful services.

That said, I have switched to using my GMail address as a secondary email that I don't often check, and having the people most important to me use my own email address. Also, I give this advice all the time: choose one web browser like Chrome for use just with social media (Google, Facebook, and Twitter web properties) and another web browser for everything else.

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