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Facebook isn't the Internet anyone envisioned, mainly because it isn't the Internet. It's possible to block them completely and still participate meaningfully.
by oldmanjay 11y ago
Facebook isn't the Internet anyone envisioned, mainly because it isn't the Internet. It's possible to block them completely and still participate meaningfully.
- SwellJoe 11y agoI agree with you, generally speaking. That said, facebook wields a tremendous amount of power, and they often wield that power in ways I am uncomfortable with. I think it's valid to express that discomfort, especially in places where the people who may be building the "next facebook" (whatever that looks like) happen to be hanging out. It's a complicated topic, but when you break it down there are billions/trillions of dollars on one side of the equation, and the values of human dignity and privacy and the open web on the other, with very little profit to be made from respecting those values. I think it's OK to call it out when a company that employs a lot of good people is doing something that is at odds with good values. Maybe they'll think about it, and take the conversation up the chain. Or, maybe they'll laugh at the grumpy old UNIX beard on the Internet for not "getting it". I dunno.
- rodgerd 11y ago> It's possible to block them completely and still participate meaningfully. It's not that long ago that conventional wisdom on HN was you should delegate auth to Facebook and the hell with anyone who didn't want to use it to sign up to your startup.
- nikatwork 11y agoI've noticed a number of yung'uns ditching FB completely for Instagram. Delegating auth to FB alone is an insanely self-defeating move.
- onewaystreet 11y agoFB owns Instagram.
- eecks 11y agoAccounts are not linked though.
- ambicapter 11y agoYeah, sure.
- DataWorker 11y agoIt didn't defeat Tinder or any number of other major apps.
- api 11y agoThe conventional wisdom on HN changes every 30-60 minutes.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y agounderrated
- rodgerd 11y agoOpinionOps: We push new opinions to frontal lobes 40-60 times a day.
- Gigablah 11y agoNext, we complain about HN being an echo chamber.
- onewaystreet 11y agoIt's still good advice considering Facebook is nearing 2 billion users the vast majority of which don't care about any of this controversy.
- dasil003 11y agoMm, I was actually around here when we hit peak Facebook Connect (I think it was when Spotify launched in the US with no other auth method), and I call bullshit. It was never conventional wisdom on HN that you should delegate auth to Facebook. There were some people advocated that, and then some people who would loudly decry how stupid that was, but there was never consensus.
- bigbugbag 11y agoNot sure where you get that. To me conventional wisdom has always be not to rely on a third party if you want to make it in the long run, specially not on facebook.
- coldtea 11y agoAnd yet your friends can still be there, talk about you, tag you in photographs etc -- not to some niche site, but to a potential audience of 1 billion people.
- voltagex_ 11y agoThe wider internet? Yes. My social group? I'd be a pariah. I use Facebook as an event calendar these days. I'm hopeful for upcoming.org.