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This is such a weird thing to think. You can turn off all notifications and they'll never contact you, ever. I stopped using Facebook 6 years ago and haven't g

This is such a weird thing to think. You can turn off all notifications and they'll never contact you, ever. I stopped using Facebook 6 years ago and haven't gotten a single email / sms from them since then, because I used the settings properly. Yeah, if you just ghost them and never click "update your email settings" at the bottom of every email they send, they'll keep sending them.

mcny 9y ago
If you think that is weird, consider what I have done. I manually went through 1100+ friends on facebook and unfollowed them all because facebook won't show me everything in the activity feed but rather tries to guess what I like best. My activity feed is now perfect because it is pretty much just me.
- volkk 9y ago
  Yep--that's certainly weirder.
  - mcny 9y ago
    Yup, in an attempt to avoid falling into Facebook's echo chamber I have created a news feed that is funnily enough just my posts. At least this means I don't have any incentive to look at my news feed anymore.
- godelski 9y ago
  Funny thing, I used to use Facebook for messenger and a news feed. Then they switched to this whole thing about forcing friends posts to come up first. Unfortunately this means now I get news I'm not interested in (memes, my grandma's crazy internet news, conspiracy theories from that guy I went to high school but have had 0 interaction on facebook with, etc). I also unfollow people that post crazy stuff and I keep getting their content. I've been trying to find that feed that you have, but good lord does facebook not want me to have it.
lkrubner 9y ago
An earlier story: "Facebook activated my dormant account and it won’t let me deactivate it" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965134
- Karunamon 9y ago
  The story there is an incredibly uncharitable reading of what actually happened. It appears as if the author's password was guessed and the account was reactivated. When he went to dispute this as account theft, they demanded ID to prove ownership. That doesn't strike me as particularly unreasonable, rather projection of ill will onto Facebook. They have no way of knowing which person is actually the account owner, actual ID would definitively settle the matter.
dahart 9y ago
> This is such a weird thing to think It's weird to expect that deleting your account will result in the account being deleted and notifications for the account you no longer have to go away? It's nice to know there's a workaround for when account deletion isn't respected, but you could skip the incredulity, you shouldn't have to go through your settings, and your settings shouldn't affect your notifications, if you delete your account.
- cowsandmilk 9y ago
  > It's weird to expect that deleting your account will result in the account being deleted and notifications for the account you no longer have to go away? But the person above just stopped using their account, didn't delete it (or disable it, which is what facebook sends you on the path towards), so that is why the notifications continued. They still had an active account, just hadn't logged in for some time.
  - dahart 9y ago
    Yes, but the person above only had an account to stop using because Facebook wouldn't delete it when asked, similar to the OP's post. Reasonable / normal expectation is that notifications should have stopped the first time.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - epicide 9y ago
      Regardless of account deletion attempts, they knew they had an active account and didn't change any notification settings. They still expected Facebook to magically know to stop sending them notifications. That is weird.
      - mariallery 9y ago
        "Regardless of account deletion attempts"? Seriously? First step of account deletion is, that Facebook deactivates the account, therefore, they should also know better to not send notifications. Why would they burden the user with notification settings, when the users wish/intent is clear enough? Spamming them with unwanted notifications is unethical behavior.
wpietri 9y ago
Is it? "I'll leave them alone and they'll leave me alone" seems like a pretty normal thing to think. Me, I think it's weird to think: "It's perfectly reasonable that if you once give somebody your email they will bother you until the end of time unless you jump through any arbitrary hoops they set up."
- imustbeevil 9y ago
  If every email they send has an unsubscribe link and you don't click it, you're kind of losing the reasonable grounds to expect them to stop emailing you. I've done this before, just let myself keep getting emails and hoped they stopped. Then I just clicked all of the unsubscribe links they are legally required to put in every email, and I never got an email again. You don't have to hope for what you want, you can act upon it.
  - wpietri 9y ago
    I understand that's the culture we've established. If a company has your address, it is currently acceptable for them to send you infinite electronic marketing nonsense in an attempt to manipulate you into being a profitable resource for them. My point is that it's not how it normally works with humans. If a person did this, it would be creepy and controlling. But when a group of people does it because it might make them money, it's ok to blame the person they're bothering. I get your perspective and agree that it is, for the moment, the dominant one. I just disagree that it's weird to think otherwise.
    - imustbeevil 9y ago
      I apologize if it seems like I'm making a moral judgement. I don't think it's any more ideal to have to opt out of communications, I'm merely saying that expecting not to have to opt out is a misjudgement. I'd rather more closely understand reality than hope it gives me exactly what I want. Facebook does not owe me anything.
    - celestialjeu 9y ago
      well to be fair it is how it normally works with humans. If someone has your physical address they can send you as much junk as they want in the mail. It's not really different online.
komon 9y ago
Anecdote incoming: I've turned off every notification setting possible on my Facebook account. The issue is that every time they add a new notification "feature" it seems like they flip all of them back on again. All as if to say, "Everybody wants a daily/weekly rollup of what happened on Facebook! Subscribe everybody by default!" So I feel the GP's pain, I've taken to marking them as spam as well because I know that my settings aren't guaranteed to stay where they are. It's not even in Facebook's best interest to try and keep my notification settings where they are.
- NikolaeVarius 9y ago
  I've had notifications disabled for at least a year and have never had this happen.
  - wiredfool 9y ago
    They're probably A/B testing it, and you're the control group.
    - giancarlostoro 9y ago
      Or resetting those settings to try to get back some high earning users. Ignoring those they don't profit from.
      - UweSchmidt 9y ago
        Or maybe observing country-specific laws and regulations
  - rockinghigh 9y ago
    Same here. For at least 5 years.
- r00fus 9y ago
  The growth hacker mentality was cute when FB was a scrappy little startup. Now they're dominant, it's just creepy.
ino 9y ago
they've reset my email settings twice I think
darioush 9y ago
Facebook "tricked" me into getting texts for 2fa, now texts me at weird times with crap like: your friends posted 84 updates since last week (why would I care). I never asked FB to send me any texts other than for 2fa and this is pushy and unwelcome.
jimmies 9y ago
Just curious, if you want to go and never visit it, why don't you just delete your account? That way you'd not have to worry about retroactive hacks, and you aren't bound by Facebook TOS anymore.

mcny 9y ago

If you think that is weird, consider what I have done. I manually went through 1100+ friends on facebook and unfollowed them all because facebook won't show me everything in the activity feed but rather tries to guess what I like best. My activity feed is now perfect because it is pretty much just me.

volkk 9y ago
Yep--that's certainly weirder.
- mcny 9y ago
  Yup, in an attempt to avoid falling into Facebook's echo chamber I have created a news feed that is funnily enough just my posts. At least this means I don't have any incentive to look at my news feed anymore.
godelski 9y ago
Funny thing, I used to use Facebook for messenger and a news feed. Then they switched to this whole thing about forcing friends posts to come up first. Unfortunately this means now I get news I'm not interested in (memes, my grandma's crazy internet news, conspiracy theories from that guy I went to high school but have had 0 interaction on facebook with, etc). I also unfollow people that post crazy stuff and I keep getting their content. I've been trying to find that feed that you have, but good lord does facebook not want me to have it.

lkrubner 9y ago

An earlier story: "Facebook activated my dormant account and it won’t let me deactivate it" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965134

Karunamon 9y ago
The story there is an incredibly uncharitable reading of what actually happened. It appears as if the author's password was guessed and the account was reactivated. When he went to dispute this as account theft, they demanded ID to prove ownership. That doesn't strike me as particularly unreasonable, rather projection of ill will onto Facebook. They have no way of knowing which person is actually the account owner, actual ID would definitively settle the matter.

dahart 9y ago

> This is such a weird thing to think It's weird to expect that deleting your account will result in the account being deleted and notifications for the account you no longer have to go away? It's nice to know there's a workaround for when account deletion isn't respected, but you could skip the incredulity, you shouldn't have to go through your settings, and your settings shouldn't affect your notifications, if you delete your account.

cowsandmilk 9y ago
> It's weird to expect that deleting your account will result in the account being deleted and notifications for the account you no longer have to go away? But the person above just stopped using their account, didn't delete it (or disable it, which is what facebook sends you on the path towards), so that is why the notifications continued. They still had an active account, just hadn't logged in for some time.
- dahart 9y ago
  Yes, but the person above only had an account to stop using because Facebook wouldn't delete it when asked, similar to the OP's post. Reasonable / normal expectation is that notifications should have stopped the first time.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - epicide 9y ago
    Regardless of account deletion attempts, they knew they had an active account and didn't change any notification settings. They still expected Facebook to magically know to stop sending them notifications. That is weird.
    - mariallery 9y ago
      "Regardless of account deletion attempts"? Seriously? First step of account deletion is, that Facebook deactivates the account, therefore, they should also know better to not send notifications. Why would they burden the user with notification settings, when the users wish/intent is clear enough? Spamming them with unwanted notifications is unethical behavior.

wpietri 9y ago

Is it? "I'll leave them alone and they'll leave me alone" seems like a pretty normal thing to think. Me, I think it's weird to think: "It's perfectly reasonable that if you once give somebody your email they will bother you until the end of time unless you jump through any arbitrary hoops they set up."

imustbeevil 9y ago
If every email they send has an unsubscribe link and you don't click it, you're kind of losing the reasonable grounds to expect them to stop emailing you. I've done this before, just let myself keep getting emails and hoped they stopped. Then I just clicked all of the unsubscribe links they are legally required to put in every email, and I never got an email again. You don't have to hope for what you want, you can act upon it.
- wpietri 9y ago
  I understand that's the culture we've established. If a company has your address, it is currently acceptable for them to send you infinite electronic marketing nonsense in an attempt to manipulate you into being a profitable resource for them. My point is that it's not how it normally works with humans. If a person did this, it would be creepy and controlling. But when a group of people does it because it might make them money, it's ok to blame the person they're bothering. I get your perspective and agree that it is, for the moment, the dominant one. I just disagree that it's weird to think otherwise.
  - imustbeevil 9y ago
    I apologize if it seems like I'm making a moral judgement. I don't think it's any more ideal to have to opt out of communications, I'm merely saying that expecting not to have to opt out is a misjudgement. I'd rather more closely understand reality than hope it gives me exactly what I want. Facebook does not owe me anything.
  - celestialjeu 9y ago
    well to be fair it is how it normally works with humans. If someone has your physical address they can send you as much junk as they want in the mail. It's not really different online.

komon 9y ago

Anecdote incoming: I've turned off every notification setting possible on my Facebook account. The issue is that every time they add a new notification "feature" it seems like they flip all of them back on again. All as if to say, "Everybody wants a daily/weekly rollup of what happened on Facebook! Subscribe everybody by default!" So I feel the GP's pain, I've taken to marking them as spam as well because I know that my settings aren't guaranteed to stay where they are. It's not even in Facebook's best interest to try and keep my notification settings where they are.

NikolaeVarius 9y ago
I've had notifications disabled for at least a year and have never had this happen.
- wiredfool 9y ago
  They're probably A/B testing it, and you're the control group.
  - giancarlostoro 9y ago
    Or resetting those settings to try to get back some high earning users. Ignoring those they don't profit from.
    - UweSchmidt 9y ago
      Or maybe observing country-specific laws and regulations
- rockinghigh 9y ago
  Same here. For at least 5 years.
r00fus 9y ago
The growth hacker mentality was cute when FB was a scrappy little startup. Now they're dominant, it's just creepy.

ino 9y ago

they've reset my email settings twice I think

darioush 9y ago

Facebook "tricked" me into getting texts for 2fa, now texts me at weird times with crap like: your friends posted 84 updates since last week (why would I care). I never asked FB to send me any texts other than for 2fa and this is pushy and unwelcome.

jimmies 9y ago

Just curious, if you want to go and never visit it, why don't you just delete your account? That way you'd not have to worry about retroactive hacks, and you aren't bound by Facebook TOS anymore.