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Is this the end of social networking?

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Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#491

Post by marcus_holmes »

dont__panic wrote: post #430
marcus_holmes wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of "who pays for this?" still remains. If it's free to the user, it has to be ad-supported (or I guess donation-driven; the Wikipedia/Guardian model, but I don't see that working so well for social media). If it's ad-supported that means the advertiser becomes the customer and the point of the thing gets subverted to maximise ad revenue. If it's not free to the user, then we have to educate everyone that…

That's easy, honestly. Give people an option: - host your own instance, no limits on usage because you're paying your own way, hosting your own images and content, running your own server - use someone else's instance, they can show you whatever ads they like (though preferably in a sidebar, not integrated into your main feed) and subject you to space limitations. In a truly federated environment where users can easi…

yeah, those are the options. And I agree, FB in 2009 was great.

But that's my point: companies have to keep moving, and optimising, and growing (because shareholders). If the revenue is supplied by advertisers, then they're the customers, and any optimisation is aimed to increase lock-in/revenues/etc based on their experience. The actual users get a worse experience as time goes on because their needs are secondary to the advertisers. Eventually the whole thing ends up where we are with FB: the user experience is shitty and people start leaving.

If this is really going to work properly, then we have to persuade people to pay for their social media service.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#492

Post by Minor49er »

csours wrote: post #111
Minor49er wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a small audience a requirement?

People interpret nuance differently. As the audience size increases, contention about nuance interpretation increases to the point where that overwhelms the original conversation.

Couldn't the conversation simply be between two people?

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#493

Post by midoridensha »

heywoodlh wrote: post #281
midoridensha wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there's truly a place for a hyper pared down "global phone book" type of application. We have this: Facebook. At least that's what I use it for. I keep a list of most of my friends there, and use it to chat with many of them, including video chat. I don't post anything, ever, and almost never look at anyone else's posts. It's just a glorified "friend phone book and chat app".

I don't have a problem with people using Facebook this way -- that's cool if it fills this function for you! It is unfortunate though that as "a glorified phone book" Facebook engages in so many practices that are creepy and intrusive. I think that if Facebook did just provide phonebook-like functionality I would be so interested in using it. Instead, it feels more like an application(s) built to serve ads that happe…

>I think that if Facebook did just provide phonebook-like functionality I would be so interested in using it. Instead, it feels more like an application(s) built to serve ads that happens to provide some phonebook functionality.

For me, this is exactly how it works. I never see any ads.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#494

Post by _nalply »

dont__panic wrote: post #431
XorNot wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal very obviously has a finite lifespan, but in the moment it's best in class for privacy.

Very obviously? Am I missing something? That being said, I'm strongly considering switching to a Matrix client these days, since I like the idea of encrypted chat that works across whatever client I prefer. If you're knowledgeable in the encrypted chat space I'd love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons.

Matrix has a very complicated server setup. I tried and failed. It's only for people who know Matrix deeply or have a lot of time to troubleshoot.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#495

Post by csours »

Minor49er wrote: post #492
csours wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People interpret nuance differently. As the audience size increases, contention about nuance interpretation increases to the point where that overwhelms the original conversation.

Couldn't the conversation simply be between two people?

One person is a small audience.

In other words, yes. The original post was about social media. You can chat on social media platforms, but that's not what most people think of.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#496

Post by intrasight »

vidarh wrote: post #408
s1artibartfast wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it seems like people are doubling down on a losing strategy. The real solution is usually involves going outside your front door and meet people. The same is true with dating.

> The same is true with dating Over the last 25 years, all but one of the people I've dated, have been people I met online, including the mother of my son. Most of them have been people who I'd never have crossed paths with if it wasn't for meeting them online. Under no circumstance do I want to go back to the horror of relying on meeting people offline, without being able to quickly filter out people I'm not compati…

It's the aggressive filtering that has caused online dating to fail

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#497

Post by midoridensha »

dont__panic wrote: post #420
midoridensha wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there's truly a place for a hyper pared down "global phone book" type of application. We have this: Facebook. At least that's what I use it for. I keep a list of most of my friends there, and use it to chat with many of them, including video chat. I don't post anything, ever, and almost never look at anyone else's posts. It's just a glorified "friend phone book and chat app".

But by participating in Facebook (even just leaving your account there!) you contribute to the network effect and make Facebook seem more useful to others. This helps Facebook snare other, less tech-savvy individuals in their dark patterns of ads and engagement. I don't it goes without saying that people who spend too much time on Facebook these days suffer psychologically for it. I know that for you it's just a "fri…

>But by participating in Facebook (even just leaving your account there!) you contribute to the network effect and make Facebook seem more useful to others. This helps Facebook snare other, less tech-savvy individuals

That sucks, but there's no better alternative just yet.

>Consider deleting your account and keeping in touch with your friends via other mediums (email, text, letters, and phone calls go a long way!)

Ok, I've considered it. No. It's stupid. Phone calls are horrifically expensive and don't have video, and letters cost a fortune to send across oceans. If you want to be a Luddite, go ahead.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#498

Post by nl »

timbit42 wrote: post #484
xbar wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Why do I want every community searched?

To find stuff. If most of the stuff is unsearchable, search engines become useless.

They can't find stuff on Facebook or TikTok now. Not really useless though.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#499

Post by Yhippa »

egypturnash wrote: post #12

Ending this with "tweet your comment" and "discuss this on twitter" is amusingly ironic, given that Twitter has always been a place that's actively hostile to any kind of rich, subtle discussion, and has pivoted away from "keep up with people you want to follow" to an official stance of "keep up with the news" and an actual stance of "here is an endless scroll of engaging content, mostly things to get angry about, th…

"anonymously dunk on other people with no repercussions"

"distribute misinformation to rile people up"

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#500

Post by jethro_tell »

cyphereal wrote: post #397
jethro_tell wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, the reason the phone number is used as an identifier is because because it's a pain to have more than 1 or 2. It's an anti spam measure not a technology problem. You can key a database by anything unique. Icq used chronological numbers for fuck sake. Blockchain doesn't solve anything here.

It's not the ID, it's that a phone number is relatively difficult to obtain (not hard, but still a limited resource) and unique. A crypto stake / wallet / something of value on the blockchain could easily meet such a criteria if well designed.

ok, I'll bite, how does blockchain solve spam, and how does it do it better than that same process using an email as an identifier?
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