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This really hits home. So what ruined Facebook? The Wall was replaced by an algorithm which sunk original content below a flood of ads, fake news, and external

This really hits home. So what ruined Facebook? The Wall was replaced by an algorithm which sunk original content below a flood of ads, fake news, and externally shared content "you might like". We stopped seeing original content. Then, people stopped sharing personal stuff, as nobody interacted with it.

agumonkey 8y ago
Isn't it part of the usual pattern of .. maybe everything ? Things catch wind, and they try to leverage and survive long term .. changing their "core" value in the process, much to the despair of users. Twitter did change a lot too .. you could say the same for artists also.
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  It's not about survival. These companies are making billions to satisfy the unquenchable thirst for profit of their investors.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    oversurvival may I say ? I think in survival there's no real good measure of balance. If you don't overdo it, you're wasting "meals" and giving them to competitors. I don't condone it, but it seems a natural law of systems.
system16 8y ago
I quit Facebook many years ago, but one of the reasons I stopped engaging with it was after they started creepily sharing interactions made on the site. Seeing "Pam liked this photo" or "Dave commented on this post" in my feed - almost certainly without them knowing I was seeing it - made me very hesitant to interact with the site at all. I'm sure they have a ton of metrics proving it increases engagement for the majority of users, but it was enough to turn me off the site completely.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- jwalton 7y ago
  This is exactly what made me stop using it. I didn't post anything for a few weeks, and I started getting these fake "notifications" that had nothing to do with me. It felt like Facebook was some sort of stalky overly clingly ex, trying way too hard to get me to engage. So creepy.
SantalBlush 8y ago
>So what ruined Facebook? The need for growth. When facebook has roughly maxed out its user base, how does it proceed to grow? 1. Infiltrate comment sections on major websites and require commenters to log in via facebook. 2. Optimize facebook content to increase user engagement and keep their eyeballs moving across advertisements. Facebook could have remained a simple and fun social network app for much longer, but the need for growth is destructive.
- geddy 8y ago
  That’s every web site these days though. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, things were built because “it’d be cool if...” The commonality between everything created today is “this will be great at serving people ads” as the primary focus.

agumonkey 8y ago

Isn't it part of the usual pattern of .. maybe everything ? Things catch wind, and they try to leverage and survive long term .. changing their "core" value in the process, much to the despair of users. Twitter did change a lot too .. you could say the same for artists also.

rorykoehler 8y ago
It's not about survival. These companies are making billions to satisfy the unquenchable thirst for profit of their investors.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  oversurvival may I say ? I think in survival there's no real good measure of balance. If you don't overdo it, you're wasting "meals" and giving them to competitors. I don't condone it, but it seems a natural law of systems.

system16 8y ago

I quit Facebook many years ago, but one of the reasons I stopped engaging with it was after they started creepily sharing interactions made on the site. Seeing "Pam liked this photo" or "Dave commented on this post" in my feed - almost certainly without them knowing I was seeing it - made me very hesitant to interact with the site at all. I'm sure they have a ton of metrics proving it increases engagement for the majority of users, but it was enough to turn me off the site completely.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jwalton 7y ago
This is exactly what made me stop using it. I didn't post anything for a few weeks, and I started getting these fake "notifications" that had nothing to do with me. It felt like Facebook was some sort of stalky overly clingly ex, trying way too hard to get me to engage. So creepy.

SantalBlush 8y ago

>So what ruined Facebook? The need for growth. When facebook has roughly maxed out its user base, how does it proceed to grow? 1. Infiltrate comment sections on major websites and require commenters to log in via facebook. 2. Optimize facebook content to increase user engagement and keep their eyeballs moving across advertisements. Facebook could have remained a simple and fun social network app for much longer, but the need for growth is destructive.

geddy 8y ago
That’s every web site these days though. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, things were built because “it’d be cool if...” The commonality between everything created today is “this will be great at serving people ads” as the primary focus.