So he wants to turn the newsfeed into an awkward and thorny thanksgiving dinner conversation about politics?
3 Likes
Given my attitude to and opinion of Facebook I am staggered that anyone gets here via there, but then again, all of what writebastard wrote resonated with me more than it probably should have.
Exactly. But the not infrequent cases of new commenters coming here for an argument, does perhaps prompt a new game? Next time someone feels moved to say to a new commenter “welcome to BB”, perhaps they should end it by also saying “you DO realise this is NOT Facebook, don’t you?”
4 Likes
It’s the 21st century’s AOL.
2 Likes
Quick rule of thumb on these articles. Ask yourself how you and others would react to the opposite of this announcement.
Facebook to shift news feed against things from friends and family, towards viral videos and to improve reach of publishers and media companies
I’m sure we’d all be applauding that right?
5 Likes
True, but there are healthier business models that can keep a for-profit business (including BB) going. For example, it was more difficult for the Russians to weaponise Google’s ad-based model due to its different focus and priorities, and Battelle in the linked article above makes the (non-greedhead*) case for FB to reject the ad-based revenue model in favour of a paid-subscriber one.
[* The greedheads can’t handle the comparatively small change we saw in the ad-based model:
]
4 Likes
Yep, healthier - but the people who run companies need sharp legal savvy and protection against the greedheads who stand to win / lose from their share price.
As an example, Shell Oil has many employees, including very senior, who wish for a less carbon intensive company, as they feel they are contributing (via their need to earn a salary to house their families) to all the oil ills of the world. A friend of mine sat with Shell’s very very senior representative on this, and the ultimate message that was delivered with sadness is that the board of Shell are legally obliged to their shareholders to maximise profit.
It’s something we don’t really think about in this world. Our 501(k)s and other savings in equities help drive the negative consequences we don’t want. And the people running those companies, most of them aren’t SOBs, but are at extreme risk of personal action piercing the liability veil, and are threatened with action by shareholders should they negatively impact the fortunes of the company.
People are often left helpless, with no choice.
2 Likes
People are blaming Facebook, when really it isn’t completely their fault. Sure, their algorithm has some blame, but the basic functionality makes sense. “Mister.44 likes KMFDM and The Shadow and Boba Fett, show him more shit like that.” Sounds like a sound idea.
Until that is applied to shady news sites and punditry posted political stuff, and then you can get an echo chamber of bleh.
I have said for a long time, FB spits out what you put into it. If you have asshole friends who cause a lot of drama and shit, that is how your social feed is going to look.
Personally, I don’t have a lot of issues with too much shit going on. And I do get to challenge some people who regurgitate BS memes.
Just yesterday someone posted some BS about “Smelling Rosemary can increase your memory by 75%” And I am like, “Yeah, it can increase your memory of what Rosemary smells like.”
7 Likes
Or from Facebook’s point of view - you do the work of improving their profile of you.
3 Likes
That’s why Charlie Stross and Ted Chiang point to the modern corporation as an example of what happens when a powerful AI is instantiated with a poorly thought out prime directive (e.g. “increasing shareholder value is the most important thing in the universe”).
Another problem with our current crop of “slow AIs” is that the second directive is “increasing the compensation of executives so as to create more shareholders is the second-most important thing in the universe.” The AI optimises greedhead behaviour.
7 Likes
I’ve been using the “Social Fixer for Facebook” extension in Firefox, with mixed results. Seems to behave better at home than at work (where we’re forced to use the ESR version of Firefox etc.). But FB is generally better with the extension than without.
2 Likes
The comments for BB’s posts at FB are measurably* shittier than the comments here at the BBS, that’s for sure.
*(No, really, you can use a tele-smeller and actually measure the shittiness, with geometric logic)
I can’t remember when I saw a BB post go by in the FB feed, but then I’ve really been curbing my time over there for the past month or two.
4 Likes
Yep, +1.
We need to remove scarcity, then we’re all fine.
2 Likes
What news I receive from family and friends* through the social media platform they use with me (this thing called e-mail) is filtered nicely through the quaint algorithm of a polite request. But it’s good to hear that FB provides tools for folks like you who can’t count on members of their social circles to respect such requests.
So you don’t use FB but still think that your comments on using a tool that is used by fewer and fewer younger people is germane? How adorably quaint you are.
For those of us who do use the subject of this thread (FB) as it is the most common tool used by far-flung family/friends, knowing how to not overshare and teaching friends & family how to do so as well is generally well accepted. But I’m sure that all of your family have the wisdom to avoid falling into that trap thanks to your “polite requests” to only use Email like you do.
How fortunate for you that you only have family/freinds that continue to use email. One supposes that you have little interest in following the lives of any distant younger relatives given how fewer & fewer use email. For those of us that use FB to keep in touch with those living on the other side of oceans, knowing how & how to teach others how to not post to all friends/family things that generally do not interest them is generally considered of value.
When every single FB “we thought you’d be interested in” is set to never show ads from that company to me ever again, one assumes that the profile is of little use to FB. At any rate I see much fewer of them than my wife who doesn’t ban every one she sees.
1 Like
By coincidence, this article out today-ish:
It’s the counter-side to the profit urge. Ultimately, not in the shareholders’ interests!
3 Likes
I use Facebook, just not for myself. For example, clients often give me admin access to their accounts so I can give them advice, help them optimise settings, etc. When I do use Facebook I’m usually being paid to do so.
You misunderstand. The polite requests (both positive and negative) generally have to do with news stories they send me via e-mail and the people they’re forwarding from. A lot of those family and friends do also use FB to communicate – just not with me. No-one complains about it or pressures me to join FB.
I’ve found that my younger relatives (local and far-flung) tend to use various stand-alone text messaging or video chat apps rather than e-mail, and I can work with that since there are plenty not owned by FB or Twitter. They all seem to regard FB proper (as opposed to the Instagram subsidiary) as something only “uncool” old people use.
2 Likes
I wonder if there will eventually be movement of hipster kids who will all start using it ironically…
6 Likes
well pahdnuh…right now it’s residin in Crawford, Texas. if you got enough cash you can move there
I quit Facebook because they kept deleting the content I posted from BoingBoing & other blogs.
Facebook is EVIL.
2 Likes
What were they deleting? What reasons (if any) did they give you for the deletions?
1 Like
