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Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

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Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#61
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO privacy alone IS enough to negate the utility of Facebook. Privacy is not about just your name, gender and address. Nor even about what movies, music and books you enjoy. It's down to how you express yourself in words and what can be inferred by them. Your pics might seen harmless, but there's plenty you can infer from them too. Sure, there's controls on which groups of facebook friends can see things, but in th…

> this all goes into a FB database somewhere, which who knows has access to it, or backups to it. Enjoy being harvested voluntarily. Are you being ironic with a statement like this, or are you serious? The second there's even so much as a bug that affects some obscure privacy setting, the TechCrunch pitchforks are out, and the brand is on the line. Do you really think that FB is just gonna let anyone rummage through…

The way I see it is this: Would I invite Mark Zuckerberg to be permanently and pervasively privy to my friends, my conversations with them, and all of my pictures?

Seriously - Facebook is Zucker's brain-child in that it face-scans, categorizes, and picks apart your words and photos. Its like inviting Zucker himself into your photo-album, allowing him to think and learn more about you while you are away.

Facebook is fucking creepy. I want a place I can go to have conversations with my friends privately, not a place I can put all of my friends conversations and hope that it doesn't get disclosed somehow later.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#62

The funny thing is that in the last one year I use hacker news much more than Facebook. The stream of news here is way more interesting and heterogeneous.

Similar. I never bought into idea that my social friends are a good source of knowledge on topics that interest me most. For professional questions I use RSS and forums, while many of my old buddies can't tell RSS from SSD. For shopping, I google reviews and check prices online. And for keeping track of lives of some 10-15 people that I care about, facebook is too noisy.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#63
post #58
post #30

We have a 18yo intern at the office this summer, who keeps saying "Facebook is becoming a ghost-town", when we task him with using FB API.

Where are the people in your intern's circle of friends going? I'm honestly curious. The people in my facebook feed are the usual set of people who post. Nothing has seemed to change of late.

He says text and email, and still FB, but not updating as frequently, and mostly updates from apps, like instagram.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#65

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

> These functions in times past were done with the laborous process of making a million letters or phone calls or in many cases (like my hometown page) scarcely made or not made at all. Or with Geocities? FB hardly invented the concept of a page on the internet where events are listed. I'm sure it provides some nice functionality around calendaring and networking, but we didn't go from xeroxed fliers to Facebook with…

>FB hardly invented the concept of a page on the internet where events are listed.

They however popularized and refined it, which is what really matters. Look at Apple and the iPod. MP3 players existed, but they were weak and relatively unknown.

Who cares about the page on the internet where events are listed unless all your friends are there too?

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#66
post #60
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this DAU indicate, actually - are these pageviews on a facebook.com website that are associated with potential advertising? Or are they related to the numerous and growing uses of FB as an identity provider?

Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users

He's not asking what the acronymn stands for; he's asking whether it counts as a 'use' if you use Facebook to login to a third party site, or hit a like button, but you don't visit Facebook itself that day.

I'd like to know as well.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#67

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

> These functions in times past were done with the laborous process of making a million letters or phone calls or in many cases (like my hometown page) scarcely made or not made at all. Or with Geocities? FB hardly invented the concept of a page on the internet where events are listed. I'm sure it provides some nice functionality around calendaring and networking, but we didn't go from xeroxed fliers to Facebook with…

> I don't have to wade through 50 Farmville clone updates to get to an important message someone sent me. It's in my email now.

And no offense, but you suck at Facebook then. Blocking apps is a two click operation. Sending a message to your friends/relatives along the lines of "Don't send me game requests" isn't difficult either.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#68

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

> Without facebook, I'd have no idea cousin X is having a baby...

You mean you can't use a phone to stay in contact with your family and friends? That's a bit strange...

What bothers me the most is that a lot of the comments have totally forgotten about MySpace. That was a site where you could truly customize your homepage with a little html knowledge. And they didn't force things like retarded timelines where I can basically see your entire Facebook history recorded on your page. Now that's creepy...

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#69

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

Yes, despite the purported technical rigor of this community there are an awful lot of comments here of the form, "Facebook is doomed, I stopped using it."

That's like saying because you don't drink soda/use tampons/own a gun that Coca-Cola/Tampax/Remington are doomed companies.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#70
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Facebook has turned into a stream of blabber and pictures of people's kids (no offence). What is NOT noisy is: * Path (just my close friends) * Pair (just my girlfriend) * Google+ (the "what's hot" news feed is actually pretty interesting)

Out of curiousity, what's the value-add of Pair versus just using SMS/MMS? I looked at their website but I didn't "get it".

Part of it is certainly the novelty factor. You can only be "paired" with exactly 1 other person.

Part of it (for me), is that communications with my wife are via a separate stack, separate notifications that are easier to manage, and the ability to share more than you can in MMS (a silly sketch, or a map location).

Pair cuts out all the "noise" of other systems and gives you something that makes you feel like communications with that one other person are something more unique and "out of band" than all your other notification streams.

Personally, I haven't figured out if Pair is a product or a feature, but that doesn't really matter to me right now.

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