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Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

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Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

I have mentioned this before here - instagram ads are a bit too creepy. I have had multiple personal ads that were eerily accurate and I hadn’t even discussed these things over any written form. I’m not paranoid to think they are listening to the microphone but the coincidence is super uncanny. It crossed the line for me twice in the past few months alone.

They are all over the place for me. I also get a ton of strange ones that are made to look like regular people just taking pictures of themselves, I guess aspiring models? I don't even engage with IG models...I swear.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#82
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reliance on facebook where I live now in Denmark is disgusting. I lived in SV for 4 years, and basically any information of importance reached me by word-of-mouth or mailing list. Craigslist is also used and awesome. Worst is that information meant for public dissemination, like training times or open event details, are now de facto private and require login. I've gone from logging in once every 3 months to once…

FB Messenger is the standard messaging service in Denmark, nothing else comes close. At least for everyone I know, it has completely replaced anything else they previously used, and ordinary text messages are seen as old-fashioned and obsolete. I've tried to get people to use Signal instead, but nobody cares enough to make the switch. "Everyone else is on Messenger, and I have an account already" is the most common r…

I've seen a shift towards Slack and Discord, which seems good.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#83
post #70
post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

This has been my experience as well. Equally annoying are the notifications menu (the actual notifications, I disabled a long time ago). I've been relying on them since the feed is useless but now they too have become cluttered with things like "posts you may have missed". I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews. Kinda like ho…

> I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews.

I've got this vague idea in my head of a WordPress plugin that cooperates with other WordPress installations with the plugin, such that your own blog could turn into a social network. So you publish content to your blog, and your blog pulls content from your friends' blogs with the plugin, and you can all comment on each other's posts and stuff. Tack on some kind of slick mobile app for uploading pictures and the like. I dunno.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#84

This is why, as Ben Thompson points out in his Stratechery emails, we should focus more of our anti-trust efforts on blocking mega-acquisitions than on regulating the giants. If Facebook were currently competing with Instagram and WhatsApp, it would be in a lot more trouble.

just curious, this assumes that companies being in more trouble would be a good thing. why is that the case?

Because they would be inclined to offer a better service as their competitors? They'd have to make more effort to please users. My guess is this would mean show less ads.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#85
post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

I don't know how anyone still uses Instagram. It was an amazing app pre-aquisition, and Facebook managed to completely destroy everything that was good about it

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#86
post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

I actually browse Facebook just for the ads. I used to get awful ads on Facebook and then I noticed that my wife had all these fun or interesting ads. Lots of meme-sized content, not just funny stuff but fun baking or crafting videos 30 seconds long. They all said something like “suggested based on posts you’ve interacted with.”

So, I waited and waited and eventually Facebook showed me an interesting ad instead of the non-stop barrage of Blue Apron clones. I interacted with the ad and overnight Facebook ads transformed into a better Reddit.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#87
post #83
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my experience as well. Equally annoying are the notifications menu (the actual notifications, I disabled a long time ago). I've been relying on them since the feed is useless but now they too have become cluttered with things like "posts you may have missed". I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews. Kinda like ho…

> I would love a platform that is just original content (text and original media), and where any links are just text WITHOUT previews. I've got this vague idea in my head of a WordPress plugin that cooperates with other WordPress installations with the plugin, such that your own blog could turn into a social network. So you publish content to your blog, and your blog pulls content from your friends' blogs with the pl…

Did you just invent webrings and RSS?

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#88
post #55

I can say what has reduced my Facebook use, if anybody in a relevant position at the company is reading. It's the content Facebook shows me. A decade or so ago, most of the content I saw on Facebook was original content from people I know. Most posts were either text written by someone I knew, or a photo taken by someone I knew. Perhaps not everybody shares this position, but what I most want from Facebook is to keep…

My FB top-20 (viewed via web page, not app, which I don't use) 6 friends photos, 4 ad, 3 friends post, 3 marketplace listing, 3 memory (from friend’s feed), and 1 “Stories” widget???

There are two things keeping me on FB's main app - 1 - parents and other older relatives/friends - 2 - a small number of friends use it for event planning/invites.

Instagram is 100% friends posts (again, webpage, not app). When viewed through the app, Instagram is about 25% ads, with 2 "stories" widgets, and the rest is new content. Slightly better content/noise ratio, but the web page is better.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#89
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Context is everything. The things you're talking about are innocuous with no negative loading or reputation. Facebook isn't innocuous and has a high negative load and reputation. Tack the word "secret" in front of some internal research they did and it puts a darker shade on something every company does (internal research).

"Facebook Isn't innocuous" This is 100% your opinion.

And that of the FTC...

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy insta while it lasts. They are having more and more sponsored posts creep into the feed. I don’t expect this trend to reverse. It’s how they make money.

Confirmed. Last time I checked, every 6th post was an ad. Just checked and it’s now every 5th. There’s several large magazines that are 50% ad content. I bet that’s the ceiling.

Just checked mine. Every third post was a sponsored ad. This is why I have mostly stopped going on Instagram.
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