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While a great idea the problem of course is there isn’t a ready replacement for what Facebook provides. Where would families migrate to for communication/colla

by mrkstu 7y ago

While a great idea the problem of course is there isn’t a ready replacement for what Facebook provides. Where would families migrate to for communication/collaboration/community? The closest free alternative is of course Instagram, owned by Facebook. Who can build a privacy oriented alternative that charges and also gains a sufficient network effect?

dawhizkid 7y ago
Snapchat's stock has tripled in the last few months. Disclosure: I own a small amount of $SNAP.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  It’s great for people who went in on Snap at its bottoming out. But Snap itself is volatile. A year ago or more it had an earnings where it rose 50% on the day. The stock was in an insanely bad spot at the beginning of the year. It’s either an anomaly or shows again that Snap is really volatile, but not volatile enough to get really high for long. Also a lot of stocks were down (though not that much) at the time. Snapchat stock is doing okay. It isn’t going triple again or anything. It’ll be lucky if it stabilizes at IPO public opening price ever again. Edit: I do think it’s entirely possible Snap goes up 50% again or something from where it is now for a short period during some earnings. I don’t think it’ll stay at that level for long any time soon though.
Angostura 7y ago
For families? Our uses a mixture of e-mail, text/iMessage, iCloud photos and Dropbox
- dangus 7y ago
  It's rather unrealistic to consider those alternatives enough to replace everything all the features contained within Facebook can accomplish. Facebook has discussion forums, rich messaging, groups and events, classifieds, image and video editing/enhancement, and many more features all bundled into one platform. You'd probably need 15 other websites and services to replace it. If we just had truly protective privacy laws and standards we could just use Facebook and enjoy what it is capable of doing without guilt.
  - rubidium 7y ago
    The point is a family can do great without all that stuff. Mine does. We do big group texts. Does the job just fine with 16 of us on it.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
bilbo0s 7y ago
I don't have a Facebook, never have, so take any opinion I give with a grain of salt. That said, a lot of us really need to come to the realization that these are social networks. They are not called private networks. So even if you pay, it is highly unlikely that you would get privacy. And please everyone, if only for the protection of your own privacy, consider thoughtfully whether a company promising "Private" "Social" networks makes any sense? Like dish washing detergents that promise to make your dishes virtually spotless, there is no promise at all actually being made. These networks are fundamentally about sharing. Once you share something with someone, you can't really control what they are going to do with the screenshot of it. You're at the mercy of the mob. The only real protection you can get is not from companies, but by having the government make a HIPAA like law with real teeth in it that punishes personal information sharing for commercial purposes. No real need for any new companies, because the new companies will just do the same thing. Pass a law that starts throwing people in prison for sharing, or receiving illegally shared personal information for commercial purposes, and you stop all of that nonsense in its tracks.
- tjr 7y ago
  When I was a Facebook user (closed my account six years ago), I was mindful about what I shared. The privacy concerns that eventually prompted me to close my account were not due to the information that I willfully shared, but rather, due to Facebook's behavior collecting more information about me (and about others, through me) that I was not intentionally sharing. E.g., tracking users across the web at large, building shadow profiles of non-users, trying to obtain information about non-users through users, etc. In my observation, most Facebook users share way more personal information than I ever did. Which makes me wonder, given how much information people are sharing willfully, why does Facebook feel the need to try to secretly collect even more information? Scary.
ulfw 7y ago
You can share photos and videos and comment on them easily with Google Photos (or iCloud/Apple Photos). Not sure what Facebook offers families more. Facebook is great if you want to go beyond families and follow what your long-lost fourth cousin or way-back-when classmate from twenty years ago has been up to. I really wouldn't bother using it for immediate family.
tomjen3 7y ago
I don't friend family on fb, so we ended in that situation when g+ shut down. I have used e-mail with multiple receivers a couple times, but in general people seems reluctant to answer them. I don't have a good suggestion, except if we could find somewhere to run a private forum.

by mrkstu 7y ago

dawhizkid 7y ago

Snapchat's stock has tripled in the last few months. Disclosure: I own a small amount of $SNAP.

skinnymuch 7y ago
It’s great for people who went in on Snap at its bottoming out. But Snap itself is volatile. A year ago or more it had an earnings where it rose 50% on the day. The stock was in an insanely bad spot at the beginning of the year. It’s either an anomaly or shows again that Snap is really volatile, but not volatile enough to get really high for long. Also a lot of stocks were down (though not that much) at the time. Snapchat stock is doing okay. It isn’t going triple again or anything. It’ll be lucky if it stabilizes at IPO public opening price ever again. Edit: I do think it’s entirely possible Snap goes up 50% again or something from where it is now for a short period during some earnings. I don’t think it’ll stay at that level for long any time soon though.

Angostura 7y ago

For families? Our uses a mixture of e-mail, text/iMessage, iCloud photos and Dropbox

dangus 7y ago
It's rather unrealistic to consider those alternatives enough to replace everything all the features contained within Facebook can accomplish. Facebook has discussion forums, rich messaging, groups and events, classifieds, image and video editing/enhancement, and many more features all bundled into one platform. You'd probably need 15 other websites and services to replace it. If we just had truly protective privacy laws and standards we could just use Facebook and enjoy what it is capable of doing without guilt.
- rubidium 7y ago
  The point is a family can do great without all that stuff. Mine does. We do big group texts. Does the job just fine with 16 of us on it.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

bilbo0s 7y ago

I don't have a Facebook, never have, so take any opinion I give with a grain of salt. That said, a lot of us really need to come to the realization that these are social networks. They are not called private networks. So even if you pay, it is highly unlikely that you would get privacy. And please everyone, if only for the protection of your own privacy, consider thoughtfully whether a company promising "Private" "Social" networks makes any sense? Like dish washing detergents that promise to make your dishes virtually spotless, there is no promise at all actually being made. These networks are fundamentally about sharing. Once you share something with someone, you can't really control what they are going to do with the screenshot of it. You're at the mercy of the mob. The only real protection you can get is not from companies, but by having the government make a HIPAA like law with real teeth in it that punishes personal information sharing for commercial purposes. No real need for any new companies, because the new companies will just do the same thing. Pass a law that starts throwing people in prison for sharing, or receiving illegally shared personal information for commercial purposes, and you stop all of that nonsense in its tracks.

tjr 7y ago
When I was a Facebook user (closed my account six years ago), I was mindful about what I shared. The privacy concerns that eventually prompted me to close my account were not due to the information that I willfully shared, but rather, due to Facebook's behavior collecting more information about me (and about others, through me) that I was not intentionally sharing. E.g., tracking users across the web at large, building shadow profiles of non-users, trying to obtain information about non-users through users, etc. In my observation, most Facebook users share way more personal information than I ever did. Which makes me wonder, given how much information people are sharing willfully, why does Facebook feel the need to try to secretly collect even more information? Scary.

ulfw 7y ago

You can share photos and videos and comment on them easily with Google Photos (or iCloud/Apple Photos). Not sure what Facebook offers families more. Facebook is great if you want to go beyond families and follow what your long-lost fourth cousin or way-back-when classmate from twenty years ago has been up to. I really wouldn't bother using it for immediate family.

tomjen3 7y ago

I don't friend family on fb, so we ended in that situation when g+ shut down. I have used e-mail with multiple receivers a couple times, but in general people seems reluctant to answer them. I don't have a good suggestion, except if we could find somewhere to run a private forum.