6 ms·

I think another thing that is a huge factor is the dilution effecting interaction. The spam from timeline advertising and the hundred different pages that ever

by zodPod 10y ago

I think another thing that is a huge factor is the dilution effecting interaction. The spam from timeline advertising and the hundred different pages that everyone is subscribed to throughout the years, I barely see anything that anyone DOES post anymore. I have something like 175 people on my "Friends" list and, when I post something, I usually only get a like or two if that. I've stopped scrolling through my timeline because it's mostly filled with bull crap that I don't care about from random pages that paid to be in my face or random pages that I liked 5 years ago and would now rather they just shut up. Why would anyone put effort into writing a post out? No one sees it and no one does anything with it if they do. It's pointless. Like @overcast said, people are just sick of posting. It used to have a purpose. 50 people would see it, they'd all like it and comment their opinions on it. Now nothing. It's still Facebook's fault partially for laying out the groundwork for Facebook to become total garbage.

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
>It's still Facebook's fault partially for laying out the groundwork for Facebook to become total garbage. The moment I stopped using Facebook - hell, the moment I stopped enjoying Facebook - was when they published their findings that they could manipulate people's moods by what they show them. Ever since I've felt like a rat in a cage, being prodded and tested not as a human being, but as a user. And so if that is Facebook's way of looking at me, then as far as I am concerned, Facebook is just a website. A website I barely use.
- turaw 10y ago
  Don't you feel that way on most sites? I mean, conceivably, HN could be manipulating your feelings as well by fingerprinting your browser and using a different ranking algorithm.
  - rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
    Precisely. It is unnerving how many websites and corporations try to "play God", so to speak. Any instance of manipulation makes me feel used, and that lack of trust never really goes away. I get that services want me to see stuff that is "most relevant" to me, but there is no room in relevance for serendipity, and it brings to mind the line from Equilibrium: "..The comfort of knowing your life has been lived before."
  - falcolas 10y ago
    Personally, I try and trust most of these sites until they prove that they can not be trusted. Granted, it gets harder and harder to provide any level of trust, given how intrusive web sites become (with ads, trackers, dark patterns, etc).
    - voodootrucker 10y ago
      Why? Wouldn't a more informed view be to assume that the sites (and companies, politicians, etc) will behave in the way that economics favors them to behave? In this case, you're not paying, so you're not a customer and they don't really care about your needs as long as you stick around. They make their money from the companies that the article goes on about, and they will do whatever they can to make more. In short, wouldn't it be better to assume that if the NSA can listen to you, they will? And if a company can make money from your data, they will? And if a politician could be taking bribes, they are?
onewaystreet 10y ago
> I've stopped scrolling through my timeline because it's mostly filled with bull crap that I don't care about from random pages that paid to be in my face or random pages that I liked 5 years ago You can unlike things, you know. You can also mute things.
- zodPod 10y ago
  lol I was waiting for this. I probably should've thought of something to say in response. Then, what would be on my feed? No I'm clear that you can but it's still a lot of effort that isn't worth the lack luster content that still remains.
  - Declanomous 10y ago
    It really isn't worth the effort. You need to manually unlike each page individually. There is no way to unsubscribe from multiple sources individually. Once you have unsubscribed, your newsfeed will be wonderfully straightforward. After a few days it will be cluttered with sponsored likes. I assume this is however long the batch process takes to catch up. I only go on Facebook to respond to invites at this point. I stopped going on because their mobile app is literally the worst software I've ever installed on my phone though. It's huge and bloated, and it doesn't even include messaging, which they broke out to another app for god-knows-what reason.
    - takno 10y ago
      I've found that as long as I go to "I don't want to see posts from this page" on every single sponsored link, they stopped appearing at all fairly quickly. No defence of the app though - I strictly use the mobile website. The separate chat app is actually pretty useful for that reason
    - jkaunisv1 10y ago
      Also the mobile app listens to what you say and targets ads appropriately (and who knows what else they do with the audio).
takno 10y ago
I counted almost 10% of my friends list posting either an update or a photo yesterday. Given that I have a few people hidden for prolific boring posts it's likely closer to 15%. There were also posts from half a dozen organizations I'm interested to hear about. On the other hand, I've very actively hidden/unliked pages I wasn't interested in, and shares from a whole bunch of viral "news" sources, and the interesting stuff was still less than half of the total. I'm still fighting the fight, but between the remaining boring shares, people clicking that they are attending events (which they probably won't go to), liking or commenting on stuff from people I don't know and whatever ads I haven't rejected yet it's really not a good hit rate.
jwegan 10y ago
I think this is a lesson in how optimizing for short term metrics can hurt long term engagement when you forget your core product value. I signed up for FB in 2004 and would have been classified as a core user since I would check the site frequently to see what people were up to and would often post updates myself. However over the past 5 years FB has been trying to drive up engagement off the News Feed through allowing apps to publish to timeline, and encouraging people to post links to articles and videos, etc. For me, Facebook today fundamentally is no longer fulfilling its core product value of helping me stay connected to what is going on in my friends lives. Apps like Snapchat have now taken that role because they are able to deliver on that value in a way Facebook is no longer able to.
- sfifs 10y ago
  Until of course they run out of investor provided runway and need to start making money...
  - sangnoir 10y ago
    It's the circle of life. It wouldn't need to be that way if the investors do not expect outsized returns for the runways.
greggman 10y ago
I solve that by ruthlessly unfollowing people. Just briefly met at some random event and have't talked to you since? Unfollowed. Friend-ish I haven't seen in 4 years? Unfollowed (unless you're really close). Friend who posts too damn much? Unfollowed (or filtered with FBPurity). Group List (unfollowed or unjoined the list). I've got 3x/4x more people on my friend list but I mostly only see stuff I want to see. I've also quite often picked "hide post" and then when it asks why I pick "see less of so-and-so".
- haywirez 10y ago
  It's too much effort & management. This is why Snapchat and similar things are taking off.
api 10y ago
I'm also annoyed by the nature of the ads on Facebook. A whole lot of them seem to be for quack medical products... I mean we're talking stuff that Deepak Chopra would roll his eyes at. Facebook's main advertising niches seem to be "spammy" things.
xemoka 10y ago
Absolutely. I've gone as far as using extensions [1] to disable the timeline altogether so I'm not tempted to waste my life scrolling through mindless shared drivel. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator-for/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg?utm_source=chrome-app-launcher-info-dialog https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
You can control which pages (or people) can put content on your timeline. I felt the same way and actually deactivated account for nearly three years before I came back, cleaned house, and now actually enjoy my feed.
taurath 10y ago
What I've noticed is that if I do not touch facebook for a month, when I come back ALL I see are personal mostly text, sometimes photos posts from people doing actual updates of their lives. Gone is the absolute DELUGE of clickspam, shared political links, quick videos and ads. But spend more than a day on it and it all comes back. Its /r/all or imgur. Its unusable again for the prime reason I have a facebook account, keeping up with friends and family. My suspicion is that since their feed algorithm tracks how long you look over things, and HIGHLY prefers videos and click links over text or photos. If you spend a few more seconds over a gif thats pretty much designed to grab your attention than grandma's witty comment about the old days you're doomed to never see grandma again, unless you comment, like or otherwise engage with the grandma post in a metric-capturable way. This is the problem with social media - the more you try to monetize it via advertising the less you succeed at your core value proposition. If not for the network effect I suspect people would have moved on a long time ago.

by zodPod 10y ago

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago

>It's still Facebook's fault partially for laying out the groundwork for Facebook to become total garbage. The moment I stopped using Facebook - hell, the moment I stopped enjoying Facebook - was when they published their findings that they could manipulate people's moods by what they show them. Ever since I've felt like a rat in a cage, being prodded and tested not as a human being, but as a user. And so if that is Facebook's way of looking at me, then as far as I am concerned, Facebook is just a website. A website I barely use.

turaw 10y ago
Don't you feel that way on most sites? I mean, conceivably, HN could be manipulating your feelings as well by fingerprinting your browser and using a different ranking algorithm.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
  Precisely. It is unnerving how many websites and corporations try to "play God", so to speak. Any instance of manipulation makes me feel used, and that lack of trust never really goes away. I get that services want me to see stuff that is "most relevant" to me, but there is no room in relevance for serendipity, and it brings to mind the line from Equilibrium: "..The comfort of knowing your life has been lived before."
- falcolas 10y ago
  Personally, I try and trust most of these sites until they prove that they can not be trusted. Granted, it gets harder and harder to provide any level of trust, given how intrusive web sites become (with ads, trackers, dark patterns, etc).
  - voodootrucker 10y ago
    Why? Wouldn't a more informed view be to assume that the sites (and companies, politicians, etc) will behave in the way that economics favors them to behave? In this case, you're not paying, so you're not a customer and they don't really care about your needs as long as you stick around. They make their money from the companies that the article goes on about, and they will do whatever they can to make more. In short, wouldn't it be better to assume that if the NSA can listen to you, they will? And if a company can make money from your data, they will? And if a politician could be taking bribes, they are?

onewaystreet 10y ago

> I've stopped scrolling through my timeline because it's mostly filled with bull crap that I don't care about from random pages that paid to be in my face or random pages that I liked 5 years ago You can unlike things, you know. You can also mute things.

zodPod 10y ago
lol I was waiting for this. I probably should've thought of something to say in response. Then, what would be on my feed? No I'm clear that you can but it's still a lot of effort that isn't worth the lack luster content that still remains.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  It really isn't worth the effort. You need to manually unlike each page individually. There is no way to unsubscribe from multiple sources individually. Once you have unsubscribed, your newsfeed will be wonderfully straightforward. After a few days it will be cluttered with sponsored likes. I assume this is however long the batch process takes to catch up. I only go on Facebook to respond to invites at this point. I stopped going on because their mobile app is literally the worst software I've ever installed on my phone though. It's huge and bloated, and it doesn't even include messaging, which they broke out to another app for god-knows-what reason.
  - takno 10y ago
    I've found that as long as I go to "I don't want to see posts from this page" on every single sponsored link, they stopped appearing at all fairly quickly. No defence of the app though - I strictly use the mobile website. The separate chat app is actually pretty useful for that reason
  - jkaunisv1 10y ago
    Also the mobile app listens to what you say and targets ads appropriately (and who knows what else they do with the audio).

takno 10y ago

I counted almost 10% of my friends list posting either an update or a photo yesterday. Given that I have a few people hidden for prolific boring posts it's likely closer to 15%. There were also posts from half a dozen organizations I'm interested to hear about. On the other hand, I've very actively hidden/unliked pages I wasn't interested in, and shares from a whole bunch of viral "news" sources, and the interesting stuff was still less than half of the total. I'm still fighting the fight, but between the remaining boring shares, people clicking that they are attending events (which they probably won't go to), liking or commenting on stuff from people I don't know and whatever ads I haven't rejected yet it's really not a good hit rate.

jwegan 10y ago

I think this is a lesson in how optimizing for short term metrics can hurt long term engagement when you forget your core product value. I signed up for FB in 2004 and would have been classified as a core user since I would check the site frequently to see what people were up to and would often post updates myself. However over the past 5 years FB has been trying to drive up engagement off the News Feed through allowing apps to publish to timeline, and encouraging people to post links to articles and videos, etc. For me, Facebook today fundamentally is no longer fulfilling its core product value of helping me stay connected to what is going on in my friends lives. Apps like Snapchat have now taken that role because they are able to deliver on that value in a way Facebook is no longer able to.

sfifs 10y ago
Until of course they run out of investor provided runway and need to start making money...
- sangnoir 10y ago
  It's the circle of life. It wouldn't need to be that way if the investors do not expect outsized returns for the runways.

greggman 10y ago

I solve that by ruthlessly unfollowing people. Just briefly met at some random event and have't talked to you since? Unfollowed. Friend-ish I haven't seen in 4 years? Unfollowed (unless you're really close). Friend who posts too damn much? Unfollowed (or filtered with FBPurity). Group List (unfollowed or unjoined the list). I've got 3x/4x more people on my friend list but I mostly only see stuff I want to see. I've also quite often picked "hide post" and then when it asks why I pick "see less of so-and-so".

haywirez 10y ago
It's too much effort & management. This is why Snapchat and similar things are taking off.

api 10y ago

I'm also annoyed by the nature of the ads on Facebook. A whole lot of them seem to be for quack medical products... I mean we're talking stuff that Deepak Chopra would roll his eyes at. Facebook's main advertising niches seem to be "spammy" things.

xemoka 10y ago

Absolutely. I've gone as far as using extensions [1] to disable the timeline altogether so I'm not tempted to waste my life scrolling through mindless shared drivel. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator-for/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg?utm_source=chrome-app-launcher-info-dialog https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

lazzlazzlazz 10y ago

You can control which pages (or people) can put content on your timeline. I felt the same way and actually deactivated account for nearly three years before I came back, cleaned house, and now actually enjoy my feed.

taurath 10y ago

What I've noticed is that if I do not touch facebook for a month, when I come back ALL I see are personal mostly text, sometimes photos posts from people doing actual updates of their lives. Gone is the absolute DELUGE of clickspam, shared political links, quick videos and ads. But spend more than a day on it and it all comes back. Its /r/all or imgur. Its unusable again for the prime reason I have a facebook account, keeping up with friends and family. My suspicion is that since their feed algorithm tracks how long you look over things, and HIGHLY prefers videos and click links over text or photos. If you spend a few more seconds over a gif thats pretty much designed to grab your attention than grandma's witty comment about the old days you're doomed to never see grandma again, unless you comment, like or otherwise engage with the grandma post in a metric-capturable way. This is the problem with social media - the more you try to monetize it via advertising the less you succeed at your core value proposition. If not for the network effect I suspect people would have moved on a long time ago.