5 ms·

>It isn't an alternative to Facebook unless my grandma can use it, and she couldn't set this up for herself. Facebook isn't an alternative to email if my grand

>It isn't an alternative to Facebook unless my grandma can use it, and she couldn't set this up for herself. Facebook isn't an alternative to email if my grandma can't use it. Computers aren't an alternative to telephones if my grandma can't use it. Telephones aren't an alternative to mail if my grandma can't use it. etc. --- It'll get easier and simpler, I promise.

squeaky-clean 9y ago
My Grandma definitely skipped from a corded phone to an iPad with Facebook and right over email. It's still too complicated for her.
- guelo 9y ago
  And yet billions of people use email. Goes to show the grandma argument is not very useful.
  - ThurmaUman 9y ago
    Most of them using an interface like gmail, which unsurprisingly looks a lot like (facebook) messaging.
    - strypey 9y ago
      Sure, thinking about user experience and designing user-friendly UI is important. But multi-million dollar UI and the ability to scale without losing performance (due to deep pockets) are the only reasons to use FB, goOgle or any of The Stacks. Once more UX people and graphic designers start working on decentralized, free code apps, and organic growth via community-hosting (userOps) allows them to scale as well as corporate server farms, where does that leave The Stacks?
TheDong 9y ago
This is a variant of survivership bias and says effectively nothing. Just because things have gotten more complicated and people have used them doesn't mean that people will start to use any complicated thing. For example: Google+ / Google Wave isn't an alternative to email if my grandma can't use it. GPG isn't an alternative to talking in-person communication if my grandma can't use it. ... etc Yes, you have valid examples where things that are relatively complex did become popular, but there are many many more examples of things that were more complicated and failed. Just because scuttlebutt is complicated is not a reason it will succeed, but is indeed a valid reason it might fail.

squeaky-clean 9y ago

My Grandma definitely skipped from a corded phone to an iPad with Facebook and right over email. It's still too complicated for her.

guelo 9y ago
And yet billions of people use email. Goes to show the grandma argument is not very useful.
- ThurmaUman 9y ago
  Most of them using an interface like gmail, which unsurprisingly looks a lot like (facebook) messaging.
  - strypey 9y ago
    Sure, thinking about user experience and designing user-friendly UI is important. But multi-million dollar UI and the ability to scale without losing performance (due to deep pockets) are the only reasons to use FB, goOgle or any of The Stacks. Once more UX people and graphic designers start working on decentralized, free code apps, and organic growth via community-hosting (userOps) allows them to scale as well as corporate server farms, where does that leave The Stacks?

TheDong 9y ago

This is a variant of survivership bias and says effectively nothing. Just because things have gotten more complicated and people have used them doesn't mean that people will start to use any complicated thing. For example: Google+ / Google Wave isn't an alternative to email if my grandma can't use it. GPG isn't an alternative to talking in-person communication if my grandma can't use it. ... etc Yes, you have valid examples where things that are relatively complex did become popular, but there are many many more examples of things that were more complicated and failed. Just because scuttlebutt is complicated is not a reason it will succeed, but is indeed a valid reason it might fail.