Yes, but if a company is in my feed then I /want/ to catch up with them on a regular basis (because of quality of content, to make sure I don’t miss something that comes up for sale that they may only have 1 of, etc)
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So you’re saying the messages of commercial enterprises should be prioritized over those of real people you might actually know? I’m not sure that that is something most people (or BB) would be comfortable with.
That’s not at all what I’m saying. I’m saying that if I invite a business into my feed I expect to see all of their posts regardless of whether or not they pay a toll. I expect the same from “real people” that I know.
BTW, “real people” and the businesses who’s feeds I subscribe to can (and frequently do) overlap…
My point is that Facebook already inserts enough unwanted paid ads on the side of my page. That, combined with the marketing information that they scrape from my account and sell should be more than enough…
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Holy wackadoo, have you people not heard of AdBlocker yet? I haven’t seen an ad on Facebook for, well, ever.
Then why did you say “yes” in response to my point that facebook is already editing down what you see? You don’t see every single thing that every one of your “friends” posts, and you almost certainly don’t want to (especially if you have a lot of friends).
This isn’t simply about Facebook making more money: it’s about Facebook not wanting to spam everyone with hundreds of posts per day, be they from their friends or the companies they follow. I suspect that many/most people are happy with business posts being pruned more aggressively than those of their friends, and if the companies pay Facebook their posts are simply pruned less aggressively. I’m sure that if you really want to be sure to get advertising from companies they have mailing lists you can be included on… and then there’s no chance you will ever miss them even if you don’t check Facebook for a while.
Sorry, that ‘yes’ was not a response to your point, it was more of an interjection. I don’t want Facebook editing anything. I have fewer than 200 friends on my list and follow fewer than another 40-50 bands, businesses, etc. I think I can handle an unfiltered feed and if not, I can always clean up. Facebook does not “spam” me, friends/businesses do. And if they do, they don’t stay on my list for long.
If it’s not about money, then why do they offer to unfilter postings for money? If they were just doing it for the altruism of keeping my feed uncluttered, then certainly they would be opposed to cluttering it for cash.
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i am not sure that this is totally proper !! facebook is still free to the end user , but already has a large-ish ad space on every page that it shows to me ~ if facebook treats their user base in an improper fashion , then a more ethical competitor , perhaps with fewer ads even , would seem to be able to find a space in which to thrive ?? ( i wrote this when i ’ shared ’ this boing post on facebook , it seems redundant now , but eh ?? i feel that i would like to post it anyway !! i did , perhaps , phrase the same content slightly differently , ey ? )
I suspect that if you don’t have that many friends or institutions you follow, they probably don’t filter much.
And Facebook isn’t completely unfiltering postings. They just filter less, and probably still filter businesses more than they filter actual friends. They do want to keep your feed uncluttered, but this is not altruistic: they want to remain an attractive platform that keeps you coming back, because you are the product they offer to advertisers.
Facebook + [privacy issues, profit gouging, reputational damage] => MySpace
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