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Please, somebody, create a facebook competitor! Don't wait for Diaspora; I don't think their idea will work for the average user. This market desperately need

Please, somebody, create a facebook competitor! Don't wait for Diaspora; I don't think their idea will work for the average user. This market desperately needs competition!

ars 16y ago
Facebook only works because everyone is on the same site. A competitor would never gain enough traction to reach critical mass (defined as when the average person has an account on both) without some help from facebook in the form of a stupid business decision. Or if they managed to think of some killer feature. But simply a copy will never work. And BTW, the main reason you hate facebook is because they are big. So adding a competitor will not help you - eventually they will get big too, and you will hate them as well.
- jimbokun 16y ago
  "So adding a competitor will not help you - eventually they will get big too, and you will hate them as well." Two big competitors are much better than just one.
  - whatusername 16y ago
    not in this case. (Not for the users) In one sense - facebook becomes a natural monopoly. Back in say 2007/8 I had to log in to both facebook and myspace to see what my friends were up to. Now I just have to use facebook. That is much simpler and easier for me as a user.
    - bcaulf 16y ago
      That is the way facebook wants it to be but that could change. For now, you must log on to their service, see their ads and be exposed to their new mesmerizing features in order to connect to your facebook friends. The goal of this lawsuit is for applications like Power to be allowed to let users not need to log on to the facebook website to do this.
    - tomjen3 16y ago
      Maybe now, but a new competitor could do two things: Be better in some way than facebook (not selling users private information would be an easy one) Make it so that you could see what you friends were upto on facebook, but without being a user yourself. Suddenly you cracked the chicken and egg problem, which is exactly why facebook goes after this with the force of the law. A monopoly based on technology never lasts, but if you can build one on some kind of legal issue, you are golden.
- megablast 16y ago
  No, the main reason we hate facebook is because they are trying to press criminal charges on a company. Also, they keep changing what data they make accessable publicly, without warning, and have a ridiculous system of letting you chnage what is private/public.
- techiferous 16y ago
  "the main reason you hate facebook is because they are big" Incorrect.
Joeboy 16y ago
I don't think they've entirely thought it through, but I understand they're working with open standards and talking to other similar projects. I think eventually some standards-based distributed alternative will come together, although I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed when Diaspora launches.
Tichy 16y ago
How do you propose getting 2 Billion users on the new site? (Or however many users FB has by now)
- tomjen3 16y ago
  A couple of people at a time? What I miss is some website where I can choose who gets to read what I write: this post is for everbody, this is only for my family, this is for my work mates, this is for the general public, this is for my brother. The advantage of this would be that you could move groups over one at a time (since they would get some benefit from it, people would want to use it) and it is something facebook can't do and don't want to.
  - mseebach 16y ago
    > What I miss is some website where I can choose who gets to read what I write: this post is for everbody, this is only for my family, this is for my work mates, this is for the general public, this is for my brother. Try this site out: http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ - they have a nifty feature that does exactly that.
    - techiferous 16y ago
      As I understand it, facebook applications can see your data and the data your friends share with you, so I don't think facebook has that feature.
      - mseebach 16y ago
        If an application can see some data that wasn't shared with me, then I agree that's a pretty big problem. That an application I give access to see my data can see, well, my data, isn't a problem in my view. http://imgur.com/dzMVN http://imgur.com/dzMVN
        techiferous 16y ago

Please, somebody, create a facebook competitor! Don't wait for Diaspora; I don't think their idea will work for the average user. This market desperately needs competition!

ars 16y ago

Facebook only works because everyone is on the same site. A competitor would never gain enough traction to reach critical mass (defined as when the average person has an account on both) without some help from facebook in the form of a stupid business decision. Or if they managed to think of some killer feature. But simply a copy will never work. And BTW, the main reason you hate facebook is because they are big. So adding a competitor will not help you - eventually they will get big too, and you will hate them as well.

jimbokun 16y ago
"So adding a competitor will not help you - eventually they will get big too, and you will hate them as well." Two big competitors are much better than just one.
- whatusername 16y ago
  not in this case. (Not for the users) In one sense - facebook becomes a natural monopoly. Back in say 2007/8 I had to log in to both facebook and myspace to see what my friends were up to. Now I just have to use facebook. That is much simpler and easier for me as a user.
  - bcaulf 16y ago
    That is the way facebook wants it to be but that could change. For now, you must log on to their service, see their ads and be exposed to their new mesmerizing features in order to connect to your facebook friends. The goal of this lawsuit is for applications like Power to be allowed to let users not need to log on to the facebook website to do this.
  - tomjen3 16y ago
    Maybe now, but a new competitor could do two things: Be better in some way than facebook (not selling users private information would be an easy one) Make it so that you could see what you friends were upto on facebook, but without being a user yourself. Suddenly you cracked the chicken and egg problem, which is exactly why facebook goes after this with the force of the law. A monopoly based on technology never lasts, but if you can build one on some kind of legal issue, you are golden.
megablast 16y ago
No, the main reason we hate facebook is because they are trying to press criminal charges on a company. Also, they keep changing what data they make accessable publicly, without warning, and have a ridiculous system of letting you chnage what is private/public.
techiferous 16y ago
"the main reason you hate facebook is because they are big" Incorrect.

Joeboy 16y ago

I don't think they've entirely thought it through, but I understand they're working with open standards and talking to other similar projects. I think eventually some standards-based distributed alternative will come together, although I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed when Diaspora launches.

Tichy 16y ago

How do you propose getting 2 Billion users on the new site? (Or however many users FB has by now)

tomjen3 16y ago
A couple of people at a time? What I miss is some website where I can choose who gets to read what I write: this post is for everbody, this is only for my family, this is for my work mates, this is for the general public, this is for my brother. The advantage of this would be that you could move groups over one at a time (since they would get some benefit from it, people would want to use it) and it is something facebook can't do and don't want to.
- mseebach 16y ago
  > What I miss is some website where I can choose who gets to read what I write: this post is for everbody, this is only for my family, this is for my work mates, this is for the general public, this is for my brother. Try this site out: http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ - they have a nifty feature that does exactly that.
  - techiferous 16y ago
    As I understand it, facebook applications can see your data and the data your friends share with you, so I don't think facebook has that feature.
    - mseebach 16y ago
      If an application can see some data that wasn't shared with me, then I agree that's a pretty big problem. That an application I give access to see my data can see, well, my data, isn't a problem in my view. http://imgur.com/dzMVN http://imgur.com/dzMVN
      - techiferous 16y ago