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OT: I don't get social networks. Till today, I don't see any value in real name social networks like Facebook. They should present content I want but they don'

OT: I don't get social networks. Till today, I don't see any value in real name social networks like Facebook. They should present content I want but they don't, they show upvoted content from my connections which is wrong from a consumer and entertainment perspective. My friends like or share mostly content of people because those people are kind of high-profile in their circles. Not because they post good content. The typical example, we all know, is some boring dude working at a VC that just raised a new fund who hourly posts really crappy content on FB and gets hundreds of likes every single time. Now, guess why. This happens all the time, everyday, every minute, just go to your FB feed right now and check how many of those high-status animals post again and again some random content which is liked and shared by too many likers. So, the status of my connections determine which (lousy) content I have to see? No thanks and this is why I prefer interest-driven platforms such as HN.

nerdponx 9y ago
Unfortunately, you missed out on the brief time in history when they did exactly what you were asking for. MySpace had no likes and no algorithm to filter your activity. Neither did Facebook for several years, nor did LiveJournal (and all the other social blogging platforms), or even Instagram at first.
- waytogo 9y ago
  > they did exactly what you were asking for No, MySpace and Facebook didn't what I was asking for because they didn't have any feed then. With MySpace and Facebook in its early days, I could just stalk profiles and both didn't serve me any content based on my interest. On MySpace I could browse through some music genres but this is not my understanding of an interest-driven site.
  - yoz-y 9y ago
    Twitter has had a feed from the beginning and served you content you wanted, as long as you subscribed to the right people. It still does, as long as you only follow a few people.
    - waytogo 9y ago
      The grandparent post was about FB and MySpace, not Twitter. However, Twitter is a different beast. They got better over time because Twitter evolved from a friends network to kind of a interest-driven network. At the beginning people were following friends and then you had the same dissatisfying outcome like with FB (nobody wants to unfollow a crap-posting friend and muting wasn't available then). But nowadays you rather follow people on Twitter based on interest or because you share the same industry, etc.
    - lloeki 9y ago
      > It still does, as long as you only follow a few people And only if you use a third party client.
  - nerdponx 9y ago
    That's what Myspace bulletins were. Your friends posted a bulletin, and you saw it. End of story. Likewise with Facebook when they first introduced the newsfeed. It was literally just a feed of recent activity as far as I remember.
- snaky 9y ago
  Do Livejournal have likes now?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
username223 9y ago
Thankfully, RSS lives on. I follow 40-50 feeds using a native app, and pay a few bucks a month to host an ad-free blog that offers its own feed. My blog software even automatically posts links to Facebook for the weirdos who try to follow it there. I'm not sure how well that works, though, since I refuse to pay to "boost" those links.
dyim 9y ago
I like seeing pictures and videos of my friends having fun! I love all the travel/holiday memorabilia and baby pics - it reminds me that life is short, it's a big world out there, and that you should be good to your loved ones. You can also hide posts from your bitcoin friends and your boring VC friends ;)
brandonmenc 9y ago
> I don't see any value in real name social networks like Facebook The value is that they're usable, least common denominator (not in a bad way) networks where you can keep in touch with your 80 year-old grandmother. > The typical example, we all know, is some boring dude working at a VC that just raised a new fund who hourly posts really crappy content on FB You're in a bubble. For nearly every Facebook user, this is not the typical experience.
- burgerdev 9y ago
  > some boring dude working at [some company] that just [happens to offer coupons for the first 300 likes] I'd say that sentence generalizes pretty well.
paulie_a 9y ago
Also ot, Facebook news feed is pretty terrible and filled with garbage. LinkedIn news feed is just a garbage truck off pointlessnes. I was trying to update my contact list and got so frustrated with the experience, I had a moment: do I need LinkedIn? Nope. Delete account.
yakitori 9y ago
> OT: I don't get social networks. Your comment indicates you understand it very well. > No thanks and this is why I prefer interest-driven platforms such as HN. What interest drives HN? HN is no different than FB. Except instead of "high profile" accounts, you get a mod selected drivel. Ultimately what you are saying is that you want stuff you agree with. That's it. That kind of thinking is why we got the facebook we currently have.

nerdponx 9y ago

Unfortunately, you missed out on the brief time in history when they did exactly what you were asking for. MySpace had no likes and no algorithm to filter your activity. Neither did Facebook for several years, nor did LiveJournal (and all the other social blogging platforms), or even Instagram at first.

waytogo 9y ago
> they did exactly what you were asking for No, MySpace and Facebook didn't what I was asking for because they didn't have any feed then. With MySpace and Facebook in its early days, I could just stalk profiles and both didn't serve me any content based on my interest. On MySpace I could browse through some music genres but this is not my understanding of an interest-driven site.
- yoz-y 9y ago
  Twitter has had a feed from the beginning and served you content you wanted, as long as you subscribed to the right people. It still does, as long as you only follow a few people.
  - waytogo 9y ago
    The grandparent post was about FB and MySpace, not Twitter. However, Twitter is a different beast. They got better over time because Twitter evolved from a friends network to kind of a interest-driven network. At the beginning people were following friends and then you had the same dissatisfying outcome like with FB (nobody wants to unfollow a crap-posting friend and muting wasn't available then). But nowadays you rather follow people on Twitter based on interest or because you share the same industry, etc.
  - lloeki 9y ago
    > It still does, as long as you only follow a few people And only if you use a third party client.
- nerdponx 9y ago
  That's what Myspace bulletins were. Your friends posted a bulletin, and you saw it. End of story. Likewise with Facebook when they first introduced the newsfeed. It was literally just a feed of recent activity as far as I remember.
snaky 9y ago
Do Livejournal have likes now?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

username223 9y ago

Thankfully, RSS lives on. I follow 40-50 feeds using a native app, and pay a few bucks a month to host an ad-free blog that offers its own feed. My blog software even automatically posts links to Facebook for the weirdos who try to follow it there. I'm not sure how well that works, though, since I refuse to pay to "boost" those links.

dyim 9y ago

I like seeing pictures and videos of my friends having fun! I love all the travel/holiday memorabilia and baby pics - it reminds me that life is short, it's a big world out there, and that you should be good to your loved ones. You can also hide posts from your bitcoin friends and your boring VC friends ;)

brandonmenc 9y ago

> I don't see any value in real name social networks like Facebook The value is that they're usable, least common denominator (not in a bad way) networks where you can keep in touch with your 80 year-old grandmother. > The typical example, we all know, is some boring dude working at a VC that just raised a new fund who hourly posts really crappy content on FB You're in a bubble. For nearly every Facebook user, this is not the typical experience.

burgerdev 9y ago
> some boring dude working at [some company] that just [happens to offer coupons for the first 300 likes] I'd say that sentence generalizes pretty well.

paulie_a 9y ago

Also ot, Facebook news feed is pretty terrible and filled with garbage. LinkedIn news feed is just a garbage truck off pointlessnes. I was trying to update my contact list and got so frustrated with the experience, I had a moment: do I need LinkedIn? Nope. Delete account.

yakitori 9y ago

> OT: I don't get social networks. Your comment indicates you understand it very well. > No thanks and this is why I prefer interest-driven platforms such as HN. What interest drives HN? HN is no different than FB. Except instead of "high profile" accounts, you get a mod selected drivel. Ultimately what you are saying is that you want stuff you agree with. That's it. That kind of thinking is why we got the facebook we currently have.