4 ms·

The Facebook outrage mob reminds me of my slashdot days when everyone referred to Microsoft as Micro$oft. Doesn't it feel weird that there used to be positive

The Facebook outrage mob reminds me of my slashdot days when everyone referred to Microsoft as Micro$oft. Doesn't it feel weird that there used to be positive facebook stories, but now its all negative 24/7?

jjoonathan 8y ago
Sounds to me like the hivemind woke up. Isn't that a good thing?
wilkskyes 8y ago
I think Facebook outrage is more justified than past grievances. What exactly was the outrage toward Microsoft back then? A company trying to make money? Preposterous!
ams6110 8y ago
Part of that is just what happens when you go from small start-up to entrenched big player. I remember when PayPal started. It was so cool and everyone who understood what it was was very enthused about it. Now it's all gripes and complaints.
- eitland 8y ago
  > I remember when PayPal started. It was so cool and everyone who understood what it was was very enthused about it. Now it's all gripes and complaints. Not what I see here on HN: I see complaints from merchants (mostly with legitimate issues it seems) and praise from end users.
  - bartread 8y ago
    I actually used to hate PayPal as an end user because, used relatively infrequently, they'd often block or delay transactions, causing me headaches and wasting my time. They felt like they were actively trying to hinder rather than help commerce. They do seem to have improved in the last couple of years though.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
eitland 8y ago
> The Facebook outrage mob reminds me of my slashdot days when everyone referred to Microsoft as Micro$oft. The fight against old Microsoft is a win-win success story (for now, I'm keeping an eye on all big players and so should everyone else.) Microsoft is nicer and I think more profitable than ever. They don't call our code or favourite OS cancer anymore but actively support us. My understanding is even a lot of MS employees prefer the new Microsoft. If we can manage to do the same with Facebook then feel free to come up with a similar stupid name for them. Because right now I think they deserve it as much as old M$ did.
- opportune 8y ago
  It took Microsoft a top-level executive change (Satya) to fix itself. Facebook shows no signs of an executive change until Mark retires and devotes himself to full time philanthropy so the world doesn’t remember him as evil (who else does that remind you of...)
  - bilbo0s 8y ago
    The truth is MS never fixed itself, it just got too fat and lazy for any of us to care anymore.
  - finaliteration 8y ago
    Does that mean they’ll have to go through a “Steve Ballmer” phase first?
    - opportune 8y ago
      Probably when Sandberg takes over
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    I feel like this does a disservice to the prior open source efforts that Microsoft slowly went through during the Ballmer era. Sure they were not as impressive but they were the start of it all imho.
Angostura 8y ago
It's almost as if a mob tends to form when a company does outrageous things.
bad_user 8y ago
To be honest I can't remember a time when the stories on Facebook were good. I can remember such a time for Google. I can even remember such a time for Microsoft, back when people stayed in line for Windows 95. I was 13 back then and got my first computer. Sure, investors were pleased with Facebook's rapid growth and people liked it because its UI didn't suck like MySpace. But Facebook has always been morally bankrupt due to its leadership and this has been visible for quite some time. In our country we have a saying that applies perfectly: a fish rots from the head down ;-) Richard Stalman has a page documenting Facebook's wrongdoings and it's pretty good: https://stallman.org/facebook.html https://stallman.org/facebook.html
- chronid 8y ago
  In 2008 and 2012 FB got praised for being the platform that Obama used to win the elections - I remember multiple articles about it (and someone from the Obama campaign later admitted that they did the same thing that got the CA scandal started). In that period of time there were also multiple newspapers writing that "privacy is dead, and it's a good thing". There was not a lot of discussion about privacy when they bought whatsapp and instagram too, IIRC. Frankly newspapers really changed idea only after Trump won the elections. I find somewhat fun that some of the recent news about facebook being evil actually talk a lot about that period (ex: the recent news about the "friendly fraud" class action) and some are the consequences of the (naive, as we a lot of us were at the time - me included!) choices facebook made back them (wanting to be a platform, without really understanding what it meant) before pivoting to the current model (which is AFAIK far more similar to google's).
  - ascagnel_ 8y ago
    I think it’s less to due with the direct choices FB has made or even their impact on the election, but that FB’s complete and total lack of awareness of how their actions have impacted the world. It wasn’t Trump winning that did it, it was that Trump won with the assistance of data that Facebook was unable to properly protect. Facebook has lost the trust of the public in ways that other major tech firms haven’t.
rndgermandude 8y ago
Maybe if facebook wants some positive stories about them, they should... I don't know... do positive things?
- justapassenger 8y ago
  Easier communication between the apps, with e2e? How dare they!

jjoonathan 8y ago

Sounds to me like the hivemind woke up. Isn't that a good thing?

wilkskyes 8y ago

I think Facebook outrage is more justified than past grievances. What exactly was the outrage toward Microsoft back then? A company trying to make money? Preposterous!

ams6110 8y ago

Part of that is just what happens when you go from small start-up to entrenched big player. I remember when PayPal started. It was so cool and everyone who understood what it was was very enthused about it. Now it's all gripes and complaints.

eitland 8y ago
> I remember when PayPal started. It was so cool and everyone who understood what it was was very enthused about it. Now it's all gripes and complaints. Not what I see here on HN: I see complaints from merchants (mostly with legitimate issues it seems) and praise from end users.
- bartread 8y ago
  I actually used to hate PayPal as an end user because, used relatively infrequently, they'd often block or delay transactions, causing me headaches and wasting my time. They felt like they were actively trying to hinder rather than help commerce. They do seem to have improved in the last couple of years though.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

eitland 8y ago

> The Facebook outrage mob reminds me of my slashdot days when everyone referred to Microsoft as Micro$oft. The fight against old Microsoft is a win-win success story (for now, I'm keeping an eye on all big players and so should everyone else.) Microsoft is nicer and I think more profitable than ever. They don't call our code or favourite OS cancer anymore but actively support us. My understanding is even a lot of MS employees prefer the new Microsoft. If we can manage to do the same with Facebook then feel free to come up with a similar stupid name for them. Because right now I think they deserve it as much as old M$ did.

opportune 8y ago
It took Microsoft a top-level executive change (Satya) to fix itself. Facebook shows no signs of an executive change until Mark retires and devotes himself to full time philanthropy so the world doesn’t remember him as evil (who else does that remind you of...)
- bilbo0s 8y ago
  The truth is MS never fixed itself, it just got too fat and lazy for any of us to care anymore.
- finaliteration 8y ago
  Does that mean they’ll have to go through a “Steve Ballmer” phase first?
  - opportune 8y ago
    Probably when Sandberg takes over
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  I feel like this does a disservice to the prior open source efforts that Microsoft slowly went through during the Ballmer era. Sure they were not as impressive but they were the start of it all imho.

Angostura 8y ago

It's almost as if a mob tends to form when a company does outrageous things.

bad_user 8y ago

To be honest I can't remember a time when the stories on Facebook were good. I can remember such a time for Google. I can even remember such a time for Microsoft, back when people stayed in line for Windows 95. I was 13 back then and got my first computer. Sure, investors were pleased with Facebook's rapid growth and people liked it because its UI didn't suck like MySpace. But Facebook has always been morally bankrupt due to its leadership and this has been visible for quite some time. In our country we have a saying that applies perfectly: a fish rots from the head down ;-) Richard Stalman has a page documenting Facebook's wrongdoings and it's pretty good: https://stallman.org/facebook.html https://stallman.org/facebook.html

chronid 8y ago
In 2008 and 2012 FB got praised for being the platform that Obama used to win the elections - I remember multiple articles about it (and someone from the Obama campaign later admitted that they did the same thing that got the CA scandal started). In that period of time there were also multiple newspapers writing that "privacy is dead, and it's a good thing". There was not a lot of discussion about privacy when they bought whatsapp and instagram too, IIRC. Frankly newspapers really changed idea only after Trump won the elections. I find somewhat fun that some of the recent news about facebook being evil actually talk a lot about that period (ex: the recent news about the "friendly fraud" class action) and some are the consequences of the (naive, as we a lot of us were at the time - me included!) choices facebook made back them (wanting to be a platform, without really understanding what it meant) before pivoting to the current model (which is AFAIK far more similar to google's).
- ascagnel_ 8y ago
  I think it’s less to due with the direct choices FB has made or even their impact on the election, but that FB’s complete and total lack of awareness of how their actions have impacted the world. It wasn’t Trump winning that did it, it was that Trump won with the assistance of data that Facebook was unable to properly protect. Facebook has lost the trust of the public in ways that other major tech firms haven’t.

rndgermandude 8y ago

Maybe if facebook wants some positive stories about them, they should... I don't know... do positive things?

justapassenger 8y ago
Easier communication between the apps, with e2e? How dare they!