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

Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–38 of 38 posts

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#31

Post by xirium »

chaostheory wrote: post #15

Your profile being disabled may have been unfair. However some of the examples you cite from Google make sense: "Facebook just disabled my account. I started a group for people with the same last name as me and i started sending messages to people with the same name to join." "I added a number of friends from my College because of the mere fact that people in the same school should know one another." "My account was…

> nor do I want constant emails or notices

Is Facebook unaware of Nagle's algorithm? It is trivial to reduce bandwidth by batching notices. You could even set the maximum frequency yourself. Or is this not implemented because it would make the service less addictive and less viral?

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#32

Post by xirium »

chaostheory wrote: post #15

Your profile being disabled may have been unfair. However some of the examples you cite from Google make sense: "Facebook just disabled my account. I started a group for people with the same last name as me and i started sending messages to people with the same name to join." "I added a number of friends from my College because of the mere fact that people in the same school should know one another." "My account was…

> I started a group for people with the same last name as me

This is blatant discrimination against people with common names and common surnames! They obviously wouldn't like the Lloyd Woods' Newsletter: http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/others/newsletter...

(If you're wondering how hundreds of people called Lloyd Wood refer to each other then the convention is to use middle name and/or location.)

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#33

Post by axod »

dgabriel wrote: post #23
axod wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That assumes he wasn't doing anything wrong, and they blocked him in error. If he was spamming, trying to amass 'friends', I'd say that is doing things the wrong way, and concentrating on real friends is a better plan.

We don't know that any spamming was involved. While concentrating on "real friends" is certainly a fine thing to do, if he were, say, a musician in an urban area, he could easily have 1000+ useful contacts, including fellow musicians, promoters, fans, his old college buddies, immediate and extended family, coworkers, and, of course, the "real friends." Different people use facebook for different purposes. I completel…

It's all in your definitions. I define "friend" to be someone you know properly. You can't know 1,000 people. Sorry, but that just doesn't happen. Apart from on social networks of course, where 1,000 friends is nothing.

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#34

Post by ctingom »

jonknee wrote: post #19
prakash wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you email Mark Z directly? That will probably help you much more than dealing with customer service. Also keep us posted on how it goes. Good luck.

Yea, he seems like a reasonable guy. Just make sure to not mention any business ideas in your email.

Also, don't mention that interview at SXSW.

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#35

Post by jrockway »

axod wrote: post #33
dgabriel wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know that any spamming was involved. While concentrating on "real friends" is certainly a fine thing to do, if he were, say, a musician in an urban area, he could easily have 1000+ useful contacts, including fellow musicians, promoters, fans, his old college buddies, immediate and extended family, coworkers, and, of course, the "real friends." Different people use facebook for different purposes. I completel…

It's all in your definitions. I define "friend" to be someone you know properly. You can't know 1,000 people. Sorry, but that just doesn't happen. Apart from on social networks of course, where 1,000 friends is nothing.

Yeah, people on social networks have an interesting definition of "friend". To me, a friend is someone who I interact with regularly. To users of social networks, it's anyone that you have perhaps maybe heard of or seen in the hallway. I used to use Facebook, and people I didn't know added me as a friend. I reciprocated ("yay, I have a new friend") but still never interacted with that person.

Now I don't bother with social networks. I have contacts that I keep in touch with regularly (mostly on IRC), and if I need a drinking buddy or a job I have no trouble finding it.

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#36

Post by dgabriel »

axod wrote: post #33
dgabriel wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know that any spamming was involved. While concentrating on "real friends" is certainly a fine thing to do, if he were, say, a musician in an urban area, he could easily have 1000+ useful contacts, including fellow musicians, promoters, fans, his old college buddies, immediate and extended family, coworkers, and, of course, the "real friends." Different people use facebook for different purposes. I completel…

It's all in your definitions. I define "friend" to be someone you know properly. You can't know 1,000 people. Sorry, but that just doesn't happen. Apart from on social networks of course, where 1,000 friends is nothing.

That's fine for you, and I tend to agree with you and refuse requests from people I don't really know, but it strikes me as the height of arrogance to define how others should use a social network based on your own preferences and preconceptions.

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#37

Post by axod »

dgabriel wrote: post #36
axod wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all in your definitions. I define "friend" to be someone you know properly. You can't know 1,000 people. Sorry, but that just doesn't happen. Apart from on social networks of course, where 1,000 friends is nothing.

That's fine for you, and I tend to agree with you and refuse requests from people I don't really know, but it strikes me as the height of arrogance to define how others should use a social network based on your own preferences and preconceptions.

If you're using a social network to build an email list, or to amass as many people as possible for some purpose, that's probably what Facebook objected to. There are other ways to build email/contact lists.

I didn't say it was not the way they should use it, it just seems like this is probably the issue...

Re: Facebook needs to quit with its thuggish attitude

#38

Post by jonny_noog »

jonknee wrote: post #5
stats101 wrote: post #2

...oh, and should anyone wish to re-enable my account, it was registered under: miahs101[at]hotmail.com (yes, it's a desperate attempt, but I might aswell).

Why would you even want your account back? Facebook doesn't deserve your page views.

Agreed. I knew there was a good reason why I have never put anything of any real value on FaceBook... Or any social networking site for that matter.

The only reason I even joined up on FaceBook to begin with is that a friend invited me, and I thought being in the web industry, I should see what all the fuss was about. I joined, clicked around for a bit, found no value, left and never really looked back.

Post reply on HN