Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 228 posts

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#171

Post by IshKebab »

dfee wrote: post #95

I wonder if enough of the core-base was eroding that they were forced to make this change. I've been logged out of Facebook since October, and I know a few other friends who have as well. That's not really relevant, except that this group all had membership on Facebook at the 1 year mark - early 2005.

Yeah exactly the same for me. Friends communicate and share photos and news on WhatsApp now, not Facebook.

Facebook has become a kind of shit version of Reddit where everything in the news feed is basically stuff from Reddit that has been shared by friends. It used to be original messages from friends.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#172

Post by tzahola »

iokevins wrote: post #15

Josh Marshall just now: "Announcement to publishers who reshaped business models around Facebook. Bye." https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/951615904760172545

Golly! Who would have thought it was a bad idea to shape your business model exclusively around facebook’s news feed algorithm without any contractual relationship with them?!

Seriously, I won’t shed a single tear for these “”””publishers””””.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#174

Post by hickeygareth »

adventured wrote: post #128
Avshalom wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right I mean, driving a click through to a website due to rage has to be less profitable than driving a click through to say DeWalt power tools due to delight. Right? I mean some fraction of a fraction of of an ad for DeWalt must be worth less than keeping your friends pro DeWalt status update on top. (This is not a paid ad for DeWalt but seriously, fucking DeWalt. Them and Stihl: just gorgeous power tools)

No question. The value of sales engines - driving sales referrals - as ecommerce in the US doubles over the next ~10 years (and in many developed economies), is extraordinary. If you want to make a billion dollars, build the next generation of sale referral monsters (RetailMeNot or Coupons.com being a primitive, unsophisticated first generation version; Groupon & Co were/are also primitive early sales referral engine…

Are your thoughts that Facebook et al would - instead of charging for an ad 'impression' - charge ecommerce sites a sales commission for the referral? (Disclaimer; I think/imagine they do this already to some extent, but it's not the main revenue driver.)

If this were the case, then it would absolutely be in Facebook's interest to present ads based on a persons likelihood of purchase (perhaps using a deep neural recommendations network (akin to YouTube's) to power it all).

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#176

Post by Severian »

thinkloop wrote: post #74
archiepeach wrote: post #45

Good intentions or not, we must remember that history has proven time and time again, when any entity has far too much unchecked power, it is inevitably exploited by bad actors. A user base of two billion users without any real accountability is a scary thing. The only people policing Facebook are Facebook. We would never agree to a having a single dictator who answers to no one, why should Facebook be treated any di…

Because unlike a dictator Facebook has zero real power over your life? It's a site of puppies and horoscopes, you think we should be dealing with them like we do Kim Jong Un? How have we moved so far on the personal responsibility scale. Why aren't people partly responsible for not making better use of their time? Facebook is an "evil echo chamber", "wasting people's lives", "catering to business", etc - ALL THEY DO…

Facebook can affect your life by being a rumor mill and bullying platform. Yes, it is easy to stop using Facebook, but the consequences of rumors can greatly affect a person offline.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#177

Post by mrweasel »

Animats wrote: post #73

"Sharing" is spamming. I'm interested in what my friends write . I have little interest in what they share , especially if it's commercial content.

I've noticed that very few actually write or post content to Facebook at this point. Of cause it may just be within my circle of friends, but it's mostly just stuff people liked or shared. At this point, if Facebook would allow me to just view friends posted content, chronologically, then I could browse a weeks worth of posts in five minutes.

The trend of people posting updates on their lives on Facebook is dead I think. Either people have moved to snapchat, or they don't want to play that game anymore. Facebook has been reduce to a platform for party invites and messaging.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#178

Post by mrweasel »

nepotism2018 wrote: post #173

The fact that I'm not allowed to order my newsfeed by latest permanently is a big problem!

I have the same issue, I wouldn't call it a big problem, just annoying. What it does is show us where Facebook believe there's a possibility to make a profit, and it's not by keeping you up to date with your friends lives.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#179

Post by lmm »

untog wrote: post #35

I very much hope this isn't just words. The core problem, IMO, is that content that makes us angry, anxious or jealous is a much better driver of clicks than content that makes us happy. I'm sure Facebook knows this. If they really mean it, they'll accept that they will make less money as a result of this change. It would be the right decision in the long term, but the short term will hurt.

Facebook shows us what we click on. My own feed is, if anything, too saccharine, because I pay more attention to happy stuff than politics.

If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change, and all that.

Re: Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

#180

Post by amelius »

untog wrote: post #35

I very much hope this isn't just words. The core problem, IMO, is that content that makes us angry, anxious or jealous is a much better driver of clicks than content that makes us happy. I'm sure Facebook knows this. If they really mean it, they'll accept that they will make less money as a result of this change. It would be the right decision in the long term, but the short term will hurt.

> content that makes us angry, anxious or jealous is a much better driver of clicks than content that makes us happy

Especially considering there's only a "like" button and not a "dislike" button. It's frustrating!

Post reply on HN