4 ms·

The tone-deaf responses of tech people to normal peoples' plights never ceases to amaze me. The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die with

The tone-deaf responses of tech people to normal peoples' plights never ceases to amaze me. The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die without, either. And yet the phone companies were regulated as utilities. Such regulation ensures that normal people with no monetary/social/political clout wouldn't be denied participation in society or burdened with undue hardships (communication, socializing, transportation, etc). This is a not-insignificant part of government's function in service to its citizens. Just because you may be rich/powerful enough to not need such services does not mean that they are unneeded.

throwaway290 4y ago
Utilities have to conform to the same standard while FB is fully closed and does not interoperate with anybody. Think carefully before elevating it to the level of public good. If you want to force FB to open and interoperate that'd be a different thing though.
dspillett 4y ago
> The tone-deaf responses of tech people to normal peoples' plights never ceases to amaze me. In this case though it is a response to another tech person. Maybe the general public would get some sympathy here, but this person had a vanity domain that they used for something important then let expire, and should know better. > The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die without, either. There are obvious circumstances where this is very much not true, so your call for empath back at you: just because you have never been in a position where phone comms are that important…
- pieter_mj 4y ago
  > There are obvious circumstances where this is very much not true, so your call for empath back at you: just because you have never been in a position where phone comms are that important… True, and you just proved GP's point.
  - throwaway2037 4y ago
    Yes, many farmers in poorly developed nations, now use SMS on ultra-cheap mobile phones to discover prices at the local markets. If they lose mobile phone service, it absolutely harms their income. And, many of these people are barely above substinence farming.
- jasode 4y ago
  >it is a response to another tech person. Maybe the general public would get some sympathy here, but this person had a vanity domain that they used for something important then let expire, and should know better Fyi... the person in question (Emily Cordes) doesn't appear to be a techie. Her "About" page says: Emily is an Exercise Physiologist She's a non-techie that happened to get a domain name. She let it expire without realizing the interconnected consequences (email address recovery) which seems realistic for non-techies to overlook. Even a tech company like Microsoft with dedicated IT department made the news when they accidentally let their domains expire: passport.com, hotmail.co.uk
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Even more, she indicated that she added an updated email to her FB account. But, the old expired address remained, so was still a target for hackers.
throwaway2037 4y ago
This is a great point. I was thinking this week: If my water was turned off, my home would be practically unlivable. Maybe you can survive for a couple of days, after that -- move out! Heh... can you imagine getting "Banned" by the water company? Just go live in the woods, off-grid!
vel0city 4y ago
> The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die without, either. As someone who has been in situations where calling 911 and getting emergency services to a location ASAP I can 100% argue having telephone service available saves lives. More people would absolutely die if telephone service wasn't as widespread.
browningstreet 4y ago
If you regulated Facebook in the way that the telephone was regulated, it would essentially become a requirement to use Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account and would very much object to regulating Facebook in a way that our local governments would suddenly be validated to use. Telephones connected people in a specific way because there weren't really alternatives. Not sure that entirely applies to Facebook.
- quadrifoliate 4y ago
  The regulation might mean that Facebook is forced to interoperate with your social network of choice (this reply [1] goes further into that idea), though. If you're an AT&T user, you can talk to Verizon users just fine even though you might not like Verizon as a company. ---------------------------------------- [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31579553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31579553
scarface74 4y ago
The phone company is a “natural monopoly” you can’t just choose another phone company. You can just go to another website. It’s more tone death to think having government have more power over social media can possibly be good.

throwaway290 4y ago

Utilities have to conform to the same standard while FB is fully closed and does not interoperate with anybody. Think carefully before elevating it to the level of public good. If you want to force FB to open and interoperate that'd be a different thing though.

dspillett 4y ago

> The tone-deaf responses of tech people to normal peoples' plights never ceases to amaze me. In this case though it is a response to another tech person. Maybe the general public would get some sympathy here, but this person had a vanity domain that they used for something important then let expire, and should know better. > The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die without, either. There are obvious circumstances where this is very much not true, so your call for empath back at you: just because you have never been in a position where phone comms are that important…

pieter_mj 4y ago
> There are obvious circumstances where this is very much not true, so your call for empath back at you: just because you have never been in a position where phone comms are that important… True, and you just proved GP's point.
- throwaway2037 4y ago
  Yes, many farmers in poorly developed nations, now use SMS on ultra-cheap mobile phones to discover prices at the local markets. If they lose mobile phone service, it absolutely harms their income. And, many of these people are barely above substinence farming.
jasode 4y ago
>it is a response to another tech person. Maybe the general public would get some sympathy here, but this person had a vanity domain that they used for something important then let expire, and should know better Fyi... the person in question (Emily Cordes) doesn't appear to be a techie. Her "About" page says: Emily is an Exercise Physiologist She's a non-techie that happened to get a domain name. She let it expire without realizing the interconnected consequences (email address recovery) which seems realistic for non-techies to overlook. Even a tech company like Microsoft with dedicated IT department made the news when they accidentally let their domains expire: passport.com, hotmail.co.uk
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Even more, she indicated that she added an updated email to her FB account. But, the old expired address remained, so was still a target for hackers.

throwaway2037 4y ago

This is a great point. I was thinking this week: If my water was turned off, my home would be practically unlivable. Maybe you can survive for a couple of days, after that -- move out! Heh... can you imagine getting "Banned" by the water company? Just go live in the woods, off-grid!

vel0city 4y ago

> The telephone is not an essential utility that people will die without, either. As someone who has been in situations where calling 911 and getting emergency services to a location ASAP I can 100% argue having telephone service available saves lives. More people would absolutely die if telephone service wasn't as widespread.

browningstreet 4y ago

If you regulated Facebook in the way that the telephone was regulated, it would essentially become a requirement to use Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account and would very much object to regulating Facebook in a way that our local governments would suddenly be validated to use. Telephones connected people in a specific way because there weren't really alternatives. Not sure that entirely applies to Facebook.

quadrifoliate 4y ago
The regulation might mean that Facebook is forced to interoperate with your social network of choice (this reply [1] goes further into that idea), though. If you're an AT&T user, you can talk to Verizon users just fine even though you might not like Verizon as a company. ---------------------------------------- [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31579553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31579553

scarface74 4y ago

The phone company is a “natural monopoly” you can’t just choose another phone company. You can just go to another website. It’s more tone death to think having government have more power over social media can possibly be good.