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Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

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Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#151

Post by 52-6F-62 »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #20

I think the idea is we need diversity in online social media. I'd like to see human editors come back. Here's how Benjamin Franklin dealt with his social media platform: "In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all libelling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally…

While it's not a social media platform of any kind, I know Apple News has some of their main user-facing pages actively curated by humans they've hired directly from editorial positions at various traditional media outlets.

I thought it was an interesting idea when it started. I'm not sure how much of a real impact that's had, though.

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#152

Post by indigochill »

davidw wrote: post #105
jerf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"BBSes and forums" Observe flamewars on BBSs and forums tended to drive people away, thus tending to confine them through natural mechanisms. Our current systems encourage and fan them, and by profiting from them, create a system that sustains them indefinitely instead of naturally isolating them to just the people who actively want to participate. As someone who has a low-grade hobby of kind of keeping track of this…

I'm always reminded of this quote from Larry Wall, the creator of Perl: "The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." It's tough to get all this right. Humans are ok at dealing with one another in person most of the time, but being behind a screen really doesn't happen in many cases. I have no idea what the solution is... it's a pe…

>The sheer amount of anti-science, poorly thought out political comments and plain hatred is really depressing at a time when a lot of things are not going well.

On this front, I prune my contacts when my feed starts stressing me out. It used to be you had to totally unfriend someone, but Facebook wised up and now you have a variety of options. You can put them on a 30-day timeout so their posts won't show up on your feed while they get their rant on, or you can unfollow entirely while remaining friends (so you can still actively check on them but won't get passively bombarded with dumb stuff). You can also opt out of seeing content from specific sources they share if the only problem is they're sharing dumb links.

It's still not perfect, but keeping in touch with people who post dumb stuff is always gonna be a balancing act and Facebook's come a long way in facilitating that act even though most of the options are not obvious (most of the above are found in the ellipsis icon in the upper right of every post).

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#153

Post by bhupy »

seneca wrote: post #133
bhupy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The steel-man argument is that the President's statements practically amount to an indirect call for violence. There's no other way for the state to enforce laws except to use the messy apparatus of the police, which may result in collateral damage/violence.

> The steel-man argument is that the President's statements practically amount to an indirect call for violence. There's no other way for the state to enforce laws except to use the messy apparatus of the police, which may result in collateral damage/violence. Which would mean that literally any discussion of government policy which could result in law enforcement is a call for violence. While I don't particularly di…

I actually don't think there's that much wrong with what the President tweeted/posted, but I do think it's inaccurate to compare what he said to just any old discussion of government policy. He wasn't just discussing government policy, he was talking about enforcing it in a very particular way ("the shooting starts").

There is definitely a qualitative difference between:

"Deadbeat fathers should have to pay child support"

and

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts"

I personally disagree that the difference matters, but you have to accept that it's certainly debatable.

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#154

Post by spoopyskelly »

artfulhippo wrote: post #44

I loved Max Wang’s point that Facebook has chosen to focus on political engagement over social engagement. Like many people who used FB early, I remember when it was more about friends than allies (and opponents). Facebook profits massively from the politics of outrage, and for Zuckerberg to claim that Free Speech is a moral imperative is for him to take a Strategy Credit[0]. While I strongly believe that Free Speech…

"wrongthink at scale"

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#155

Post by RussianBot34 »

orhmeh09 wrote: post #117
sowellecho wrote: post #103

"If a man is not a Socialist at 20 be has no heart, but if he remains one at 30 he has no head." I don't know who said this, but this is a great example of how our minds mature. The probably unintentional ageism in tech has a major, quite literally civilization changing consequence. We are creating power centers which have too many young people who haven't really thought a lot of things through, certainly not the uni…

That’s a crass dismissal of the people involved here and socialism. You think that the problem really is that everyone at Facebook is too young and is thus more inclined toward recklessness (somehow involving socialism)? PS: Would you be shocked to learn that some become socialists after age 30?

[dead]

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#157

Post by triceratops »

davidw wrote: post #105
jerf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"BBSes and forums" Observe flamewars on BBSs and forums tended to drive people away, thus tending to confine them through natural mechanisms. Our current systems encourage and fan them, and by profiting from them, create a system that sustains them indefinitely instead of naturally isolating them to just the people who actively want to participate. As someone who has a low-grade hobby of kind of keeping track of this…

I'm always reminded of this quote from Larry Wall, the creator of Perl: "The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." It's tough to get all this right. Humans are ok at dealing with one another in person most of the time, but being behind a screen really doesn't happen in many cases. I have no idea what the solution is... it's a pe…

> There are a lot of friends and family I have in Italy that I can't see often, and I do enjoy hearing what they're up to.

In the old days we had to actively do that using letters, or emails, or phone calls. I think it was a better system because it forced you to choose who you cared enough about to stay up-to-date with. Minimalism isn't just about things, it's also about relationships.

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#158

Post by boltzmann_ »

artfulhippo wrote: post #44

I loved Max Wang’s point that Facebook has chosen to focus on political engagement over social engagement. Like many people who used FB early, I remember when it was more about friends than allies (and opponents). Facebook profits massively from the politics of outrage, and for Zuckerberg to claim that Free Speech is a moral imperative is for him to take a Strategy Credit[0]. While I strongly believe that Free Speech…

In that case twitter is way more toxic than FB.

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#159

Post by Talanes »

shadowgovt wrote: post #75
Retric wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4Chan is only 4 months older than Facebook and is hardly that profitable. Which is what changed, online dumpster fires where not attractive to advertisers but add a veneer of social networks and some basic location / demographic data and suddenly things change.

And some moderation. 4chan wasn't ever going to attract ad revenue because nobody at Coca-Cola wants their brand run alongside a goatse link. But massive political fights aren't something that the advertisers (until recently) see as bad imagery for their brands.

4chan has moderation. They just tend to take their duties exactly as seriously as everything else on the website.

Re: Facebook's employees reckon with the social network they've built

#160

Post by davidw »

triceratops wrote: post #157
davidw wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always reminded of this quote from Larry Wall, the creator of Perl: "The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." It's tough to get all this right. Humans are ok at dealing with one another in person most of the time, but being behind a screen really doesn't happen in many cases. I have no idea what the solution is... it's a pe…

> There are a lot of friends and family I have in Italy that I can't see often, and I do enjoy hearing what they're up to. In the old days we had to actively do that using letters, or emails, or phone calls. I think it was a better system because it forced you to choose who you cared enough about to stay up-to-date with. Minimalism isn't just about things, it's also about relationships.

I only have so much time, and FB makes it easier to keep in touch with more people. Sure, I'll find the time for really good friends, but it's a benefit to be able to keep in touch with more people who I enjoy having in my life.
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