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> plain text is simply a better data model for what should be a simple "here's who I am." I disagree. Plain text is ambiguous. Links to pages aren't. The links
by natrius 17y ago
> plain text is simply a better data model for what should be a simple "here's who I am."
I disagree. Plain text is ambiguous. Links to pages aren't. The links also create a graph of people and their interests, which could have useful applications.
The changes that Facebook has made will make it more useful. Other than Instant Personalization, the privacy implications of the changes have been clearly communicated, and it's easy to choose what you do or don't want to share. The parts of the profile that can't be made private weren't very private in the first place.
- jfarmer 17y agoThey're only ambiguous to machines. Humans can read it just fine.
- natrius 17y agoIf someone lists "curling" as an interest, it's ambiguous even to humans. Weightlifting or obscure winter sport? Even if it were only ambiguous to machines, there are probably useful things that can be done by machines with the data that will now be disambiguated, which sounds like a plus to me.
- bonaldi 17y agoThey linked LaTeX to a page for fans of latex. What was that about ambiguity?
- natrius 17y agoMy point wasn't that their auto-linking would be great. My point is that after the changes sort themselves out and people fix things that Facebook got wrong, the data will be more useful to work with than plain text.
- bruceboughton 17y agoI'm not sure there could be two more different interests...