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Should we be trying to educate them on merits and benefits on an open source alternative?

• Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  I mentioned something similar in one of the other threads on the same subject, but here it goes: Right now, using facebook isn't like choosing an email account or cellular provider. It is more like one of the old telecoms. And unfortunately, if you move to one of the 'others', it isn't compatable with facebook. It is truly more akin to a phone company that won't connect to other companies. Which means that switching definitely has its costs if friends, family, etc are already on the network. This is a huge advantage in Facebook's favor, and part of what makes entry into the social media realm somewhat difficult. Folks have attempted, but none have taken hold well enough to be worth the time. Not a hopeless situation, just has challenges. I'm not sure what the answer is to solve the stuff outside of passing some sort of regulations, either protecting speech to a point and/or demanding cross-communication so choice seems reasonable.
• throwanem 10y ago
  If that were going to work, it would have done by now. Diaspora was the closest, and Diaspora is the kind of joke you tell as a joke because it's better than crying. We should be trying to make it possible for people to have the very real benefits Facebook offers, without having to suffer the miseries both subtle and gross which Facebook has no reason not to inflict. I don't have a good answer yet as to how we go about doing that. But as it becomes more clear that Facebook is a problem, it becomes also more likely that someone will invent the thing which will not only kill it, but make it impossible for anything of its like to come along again. So even if I don't have a solution, talking about the problem is still worthwhile.