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

I miss Facebook

cfenollosa.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 123 posts

Re: I miss Facebook

#91

Post by larkeith »

jugg1es wrote: post #66

This article reminds me of a complaint I've had about online gaming. I'm 36 and I remember when all online FPS games were played on centralized servers. If you logged on at the same time of day, you would see the same players you saw yesterday. Over time, you would develop relationships with those people and perhaps you would eventually meet them in real life. I have 2-3 very good real-life friends that I originally…

IMO Minecraft is the big example of this nowadays - servers are self-hosted with their own rules and communities, and the nature of the game highly encourages social interaction. I've certainly played on servers that are closer to chatrooms than games, and some that have close-knit groups that have remained together for years.

Re: I miss Facebook

#93

Post by hateful »

This article reminded me of what Facebook was and the fact that I did actually like it when I first joined. The major complaint I see is usually centered around politics. But for me, I never saw any of that. The main reason I've stopped using it is simple: I used Facebook as a tool to see what people were doing in a passive way that I wouldn't have otherwise. But now the feeds are geared towards the advertisers, not what my friends are doing. Therefore it is no longer a good tool. It's bad software, plain and simple. I really wish there was a better alternative. I know a lot have tried, but they don't seem to "get" what Facebook was for some reason. They all seem to be Twitter alternatives rather than Facebook ones.

The number one feature about the way Facebook works is simple: I can share something on someone else's wall/feed/timeline and all of their friends can see it and comment. No other site/network seems to have that feature. Google+ didn't have it, Mastodon doesn't have it. Everything is post on your own page.

Re: I miss Facebook

#94

Post by frosted-flakes »

eljimmy wrote: post #8

Everything that he mentions he misses is now in a group chat for me. A group of 20 or so friends have a Telegram group where we spit out random thoughts, talk about news, day to day life, spontaneously throw together plans to hang out or go for dinner, post candid/embarrassing photos of stuff we’re doing, etc. Some days only a few people are active, other days you’ll open it up to hundreds of unread messages from eve…

I feel like everybody I know is part of a private group chat with their family. With some, it extends out to all the first cousins (40+ people), but for me it's just my siblings and their spouses and my parents. Baby pictures, jokes, vacation pictures, random questions--stuff that Facebook was known for, but not like Instagram at all. There's no posturing, since it's all family and close friends.

We used to use WhatsApp, but recently switched to Signal.

Re: I miss Facebook

#95

Post by clydethefrog »

jugg1es wrote: post #66

This article reminds me of a complaint I've had about online gaming. I'm 36 and I remember when all online FPS games were played on centralized servers. If you logged on at the same time of day, you would see the same players you saw yesterday. Over time, you would develop relationships with those people and perhaps you would eventually meet them in real life. I have 2-3 very good real-life friends that I originally…

There is an interesting video essay about this phenomenon, using TF2 old servers and Overwatch new game matching as examples.

Errant Signal: Social Spaces & Payload Races - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hj1haLcdI0

Re: I miss Facebook

#96

Post by chillacy »

hateful wrote: post #93

This article reminded me of what Facebook was and the fact that I did actually like it when I first joined. The major complaint I see is usually centered around politics. But for me, I never saw any of that. The main reason I've stopped using it is simple: I used Facebook as a tool to see what people were doing in a passive way that I wouldn't have otherwise. But now the feeds are geared towards the advertisers, not…

Ah the old days of having a wall and poking people

Re: I miss Facebook

#97

Post by emerongi »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #94
eljimmy wrote: post #8

Everything that he mentions he misses is now in a group chat for me. A group of 20 or so friends have a Telegram group where we spit out random thoughts, talk about news, day to day life, spontaneously throw together plans to hang out or go for dinner, post candid/embarrassing photos of stuff we’re doing, etc. Some days only a few people are active, other days you’ll open it up to hundreds of unread messages from eve…

I feel like everybody I know is part of a private group chat with their family. With some, it extends out to all the first cousins (40+ people), but for me it's just my siblings and their spouses and my parents. Baby pictures, jokes, vacation pictures, random questions--stuff that Facebook was known for, but not like Instagram at all. There's no posturing, since it's all family and close friends. We used to use Whats…

If only Signal had reasonable multi-device support.

I don't use Facebook, but the rest of my family uses it for group chat. It honestly makes sense as it's more usable. We also have a Signal group, but it's fallen out of favour.

The other thing that I know people like about Facebook is groups (different from group chat). If Signal also had the equivalent of that, it would be much easier to get people to switch.

Re: I miss Facebook

#98

Post by [deleted] »

OrgNet wrote: post #25
surfsvammel wrote: post #11

I share the feeling. I too am in my mid-thirties, still know my ICQ number by heart (8 digits by the way), was on IRC and used Facebook in the early days. Nowadays I often wonder if my sentimental feeling about the social networks of yesterday is just a function of me getting old. The world changes. It is probably neither better nor worse. It’s just different.

I had a 6 digit ICQ number and I'm about the same age... someone deleted my account using my unlocked computer and I was never able to get it back...

[deleted]

Re: I miss Facebook

#99

Post by mszcz »

hateful wrote: post #93

This article reminded me of what Facebook was and the fact that I did actually like it when I first joined. The major complaint I see is usually centered around politics. But for me, I never saw any of that. The main reason I've stopped using it is simple: I used Facebook as a tool to see what people were doing in a passive way that I wouldn't have otherwise. But now the feeds are geared towards the advertisers, not…

Aside from the stuff mentioned everywhere else, my biggest complain was ephemeral nature of the feed.

If I saw something interesting I had to act on it at that percise moment or never ever see it again. No scrolling, no page reloads, no "I'll do it in a sec". Once something was out of my sight the Facebook fold seemed to devour it forever ;p

If I recall correctly the feed wasn't always like this, but once it became like that it took only a couple of frustrating months for me to start truly hating FB.

Nowadays, just because of that, I use FB only maybe once per month and usually only when I have to. Hell, maybe that ephemeral nature of the feed did some good afterall? ;P

Re: I miss Facebook

#100

Post by snvzz »

earenndil wrote: post #51
jaabe wrote: post #13

I miss IRC, for a lot of the same reasons the author misses Facebook. Being above 35 like the author, I think it’s more the fact that people just aren’t chatty anymore. It’s anecdotal of course, but if I look at myself, I’m really not that chatty anymore either. I too used to have late night chats about random stupid things, but right now, I can even remember when I last saw 3AM unless it was to feed a baby or clean…

I still use IRC. People are still plenty chatty.

Idem. I don't miss IRC because I'm still on IRC and it's still the same as always.
Post reply on HN