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Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

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Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#101

Post by burlesona »

alkibiades wrote: post #73
burlesona wrote: post #72

This is why, as Ben Thompson points out in his Stratechery emails, we should focus more of our anti-trust efforts on blocking mega-acquisitions than on regulating the giants. If Facebook were currently competing with Instagram and WhatsApp, it would be in a lot more trouble.

just curious, this assumes that companies being in more trouble would be a good thing. why is that the case?

What all the other posters said. If Facebook had real competition then it’s likely they wouldn’t be soaring in the stock market while in the midst of so much controversy and negative attention. It’s more likely that their competition would be pouncing on them by offering more distinct alternatives, forcing Facebook to either reform or fade away.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#102

Post by jgroszko »

Zak wrote: post #87
coldpie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews. I've got this vague idea in my head of a WordPress plugin that cooperates with other WordPress installations with the plugin, such that your own blog could turn into a social network. So you publish content to your blog, and your blog pulls content from your friends' blogs with the pl…

Did you just invent webrings and RSS?

I think they're reinventing ActivityPub

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#103

Post by coldpie »

Zak wrote: post #87
coldpie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews. I've got this vague idea in my head of a WordPress plugin that cooperates with other WordPress installations with the plugin, such that your own blog could turn into a social network. So you publish content to your blog, and your blog pulls content from your friends' blogs with the pl…

Did you just invent webrings and RSS?

Hahah! Well, modern tech is all about re-inventing what we already had in the 90s isn't it?

But seriously what I have in mind is a lot more interactive than that. Roughly, your blog becomes your "account". You can follow other "accounts" (blogs), and you give other "accounts" permission to post on your blog in the form of comments, etc. When you change details on your account, like a profile image or whatever, it will get updated on all the linked accounts that follow you. I dunno, it all works pretty elegantly in my head.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#104

Post by coldpie »

jgroszko wrote: post #102
Zak wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just invent webrings and RSS?

I think they're reinventing ActivityPub

Indeed, that might be a good fit for the networking layer. So it could be an ActivityPub server/client built on top of WordPress. Quick, someone give me $50M to build a product with zero monetization options.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#105

Post by brokensegue »

untog wrote: post #54
mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

Internal doesn't necessarily mean "not public" though. "Private" is perhaps a better term.

people don't typically call reports "internal" if they are released to the public. what would "internal" mean in that context?

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#106

Post by fapjacks »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #56
Zak wrote: post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

I quit Instagram for a couple of months or so, and came back last week, and now I'm shown one ad every 2-3 posts, no exceptions. It was so overbearing that I started counting, and I did not get a single stretch of more than three posts without an ad thrown in. So I just uninstalled it.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#107

Post by about_help »

8ytecoder wrote: post #76
deanclatworthy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

I have mentioned this before here - instagram ads are a bit too creepy. I have had multiple personal ads that were eerily accurate and I hadn’t even discussed these things over any written form. I’m not paranoid to think they are listening to the microphone but the coincidence is super uncanny. It crossed the line for me twice in the past few months alone.

You should be, the Facebook app explicitly does listen to the mic unless you opt out. It has also come out that Google and Amazon are storing people's personal voice requests, and aside from that the mics are always on waiting to hear the trigger words. This means by default that the apps are listening and analyzing everything, though how much of the non word-triggered speech gets recorded is unknown.

Facebook's initial foray into the app/mic biz was troubled and their statement was "we only listen for popular music / TV in the background in order to help you." It also came out that they mine personal messages between users.

"I’m not paranoid to think they are listening to the microphone but the coincidence is super uncanny."

We need to get past the block where we label people as paranoid for thinking these big corps might invade user's privacy.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#108

Post by [deleted] »

joncrane wrote: post #97
8ytecoder wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have mentioned this before here - instagram ads are a bit too creepy. I have had multiple personal ads that were eerily accurate and I hadn’t even discussed these things over any written form. I’m not paranoid to think they are listening to the microphone but the coincidence is super uncanny. It crossed the line for me twice in the past few months alone.

For me this only started happening after I offered feedback aka "Don't show me ads like this any more." Of course I realized shortly thereafter: "Do I really want better targeted ads on my Instagram feed?" It's a little too late now but if I had to do it over again I would let it guess, mostly poorly, and that makes it easier to filter out the sponsored content.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#109

Post by apazzolini »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #56
Zak wrote: post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

If you have a content blocker turned on in iOS, install the PWA version of Instagram - it will remove all sponsored posts.

The PWA version is almost as good as the native app. It lacks a pull to refresh feature as far as I can tell, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#110

Post by ouid »

mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

the content is the responsibility of the author, but the headline is the responsibility of the marketing department.
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