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Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
11–20 of 113 posts
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#12Just boycott Facebook already. 'but everyone uses it', yes but you have a choice. If you don't like the Facebook, then gtfo and make the effort to build something to replace it. But I guess that is too much work. People whine about Facebook, yet they do nothing to change the situation. You change the situation by making a choice. If your choice is to have Facebook account, then you are part of the problem, not the solution.
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#13Even though their formats are different NYT et al. and FB are competitors. Even though there is kernel of truth, the media witch-hunt of Facebook is out of proportion. Long story short, its not concern for democracy (if NYT was concerned about democracy it would not be a rabid partisan) its just jealousy and hate that Zuckerberg is eating their cake.
"Rabid partisan". I do love coming onto to HackerTheDonald to get my hot takes.
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#14Even though their formats are different NYT et al. and FB are competitors. Even though there is kernel of truth, the media witch-hunt of Facebook is out of proportion. Long story short, its not concern for democracy (if NYT was concerned about democracy it would not be a rabid partisan) its just jealousy and hate that Zuckerberg is eating their cake.
>it would not be a rabid partisan
I'm sorry, what?
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#15Even though their formats are different NYT et al. and FB are competitors. Even though there is kernel of truth, the media witch-hunt of Facebook is out of proportion. Long story short, its not concern for democracy (if NYT was concerned about democracy it would not be a rabid partisan) its just jealousy and hate that Zuckerberg is eating their cake.
What an uneducated answer from what I assume is a techy. Facebook is a treat to democracies. There are more articles on this than the other way around.
> Facebook is a treat to democracies.
Funny that you should mention education in your comment, since commentary based on the lack of it is a real threat to democracy.
> There are more articles on this than the other way around.
Appeal to popularity. Facebook might indeed be a threat to democracy, in the same way that radio or TV were in their heyday. It's for us to deal with it and turn it into something positive, not try to turn back the technological clock.
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#16Even though their formats are different NYT et al. and FB are competitors. Even though there is kernel of truth, the media witch-hunt of Facebook is out of proportion. Long story short, its not concern for democracy (if NYT was concerned about democracy it would not be a rabid partisan) its just jealousy and hate that Zuckerberg is eating their cake.
Probably a grain of truth to that, but no more. Sure, there are plenty of valid concerns and discussions to be had about Facebook (where I work BTW). OTOH, a lot of the most vitriolic commentary, from both fellow techies and from traditional media, seems to have at least a tinge of Tall Poppy Syndrome to it. Does anyone really think $newspaper or $startup would be any less problematic if they grew to the same size? G…
That's a good point. The government broke up Bell Labs when it got too big for the public good. It's high time a few of the modern telecommunications giants have the same done to them.
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#17Eben Moglen's FreedomBox project -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomBox -- is more democratic. It would enable social media functionality without privately-owned central servers.
It needs work, but what part of democracy doesn't?
What does it take for widespread support for the project?
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
What an uneducated answer from what I assume is a techy. Facebook is a treat to democracies. There are more articles on this than the other way around.
Treat or threat?..
One of the most annoying things to me about HN, or any forum site in general, is when people jump on obvious typos or grammar errors when they could easily ignore them and respond to the actual content of the comment instead.
Use context. It's so incredibly obvious that this person didn't mean treat, and yet here it is, a little jab to say "I'm just a little bit better than you" because I noticed a missing h and just couldn't help but point it out to everyone else, who also noticed it but didn't care.
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#19Correct. Your democracy is not his laboratory. His website, however, is. If you want to control the behavior of Fbook, buy it. If you want pageviews from people's news feeds, make things which people decide are worth sharing.
From a user perspective, doesn't moving non-person-related (actually social media) things to a separate feed make the ux better?
Re: Facebook's experiments with user behavior in Serbia
#20Correct. Your democracy is not his laboratory. His website, however, is. If you want to control the behavior of Fbook, buy it. If you want pageviews from people's news feeds, make things which people decide are worth sharing. From a user perspective, doesn't moving non-person-related (actually social media) things to a separate feed make the ux better?
When a corporation's actions with its own private property becomes a threat to the public good, it is well within the purview and established precedent of government to regulate that specific corporation.