8 ms·

To play devils advocate, Facebook is more essential to my life than it ever was before. * Marketplace was a huge success in terms of subsuming Craigslist. The

To play devils advocate, Facebook is more essential to my life than it ever was before. * Marketplace was a huge success in terms of subsuming Craigslist. The quality of posts and the volume of postings makes me rarely even check Craigslist anymore. * Small forums for various hobbies are almost entirely driven by Facebook groups now, instead of in the past where you’d find some custom bulletin board where the last post on most subforums was 3 years ago. It’s better than Reddit for certain things. Groups for communities (ie: your neighborhood or small town) are thriving, too. * Messenger is the sole mechanism I have to keep in touch with friends from school that are now back overseas. I think their general success is assured, even if the metaverse isn’t ready yet. They can afford to lose some money on a big bet. On the other hand, I think that they missed the boat with the metaverse not being a big thing during covid lockdowns, because the cultural rebound of covid yields zero appetite for virtual existence. People want to make up for lost time.

pishpash 4y ago
This must be cohort-dependent. For me, Marketplace buyers have flaked out more than Craigslist ones. Forums are less useful/dynamic than anonymous Reddit. And I don't even touch Messenger vs. numerous other chat apps.
k__ 4y ago
I used FB only for events before the pandemic, so I didn't use it much in the last years. I like Instagram and WhatsApp, but Meta's "core" business is non of my interests.
chrisseaton 4y ago
> The quality of posts On Marketplace?! This blows my mind that you think this. It's a chaotic nightmare. Sellers post everything as free and then separately negotiate a price. Buyers repeatedly ask you if something's still available. Both of these mean something's very wrong with how people understand to use the system.
- lokar 4y ago
  Also, how does a buyer including the text "money order" not trigger automatic fraud enforcement?
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    craigslist also has this problem, and it does seem pretty easily fixable, to my naive eyes: someone has said "your price is fair, my agent will be over to pick it up with a cashier's check" for every single thing I've sold on craigslist. I don't think filtering out scumbags like this is a terribly hard problem.
    - MichaelBurge 4y ago
      Is the cashier's check fake? What happens if you meet them at the listed bank and ask them to convert it to cash right there?
      - chrisseaton 4y ago
        Why would any reputable person be dealing with a cashier’s cheque in this century?
        krallja 4y ago
        Earlier in this century they were often required when signing an apartment lease in the NYC metro area.
        alsetmusic 4y ago
        I had to get one literally yesterday for my security deposit on a new apartment. This is in SF Bay Area.
        dreamcompiler 4y ago
        The last few times I've bought cars I used a cashier's check on a local bank. Car dealers don't like credit cards because they don't want to pay a 3%-5% fee on a $35K purchase.
glofish 4y ago
Each of these: Markeplace, Forums, Messenger are non sticky and with countless alternatives. For example one could easily have two-three chat apps and use each with different people. I still use Craigslist, I think it works better and has better organization of categories. The main Facebook app, now that is a unique product - yet frankly, from my perspective it feels completely marginalized, the content there is in worse shape than ever. I find the news feed absurdly bad, GAG videos and ads.
- lumost 4y ago
  The degree to which the main FB product rotted during the last few years was extreme. Scrolling FB was still a daily activity for me until the medium was overtaken by outrage. It seems like FB goosed conflict on the platform until everyone decided they’d had enough and left or stopped posting. There is nothing in the newsfeed from my contacts at this point, the feed is either entirely ads or bottom barrel MLM scams. Instagram is going the same direction with everyone growing exhausted from competition for likes. TikTok seems successful in part because the primary purpose isn't to engage with your friends. So where does that leave social networking amongst your peers? SMS seems to be making a comeback.
  - LegitShady 4y ago
    have you considered that maybe facebook is giving you content based on other datapoints about you? Aside from the occasional scam ad, I mostly get animal videos from facebook.
    - lumost 4y ago
      Possible, but what does that say about their algorithm that they only give me stuff I don't want? At this point I login to FB maybe once a month to check community groups for my neighborhood. Animals could be a similar “no fill” response reflecting that your network doesn't have much going on.
      - LegitShady 4y ago
mywaifuismeta 4y ago
Opposite experience for me. I barely know anyone who uses FB marketplace, FB groups, or messenger. The only use case for Messenger is keeping in touch with "old people" who used it with me 10-15 years ago. That's like 2-3 people who are left and haven't moved off yet In my experience, the FB ecosystem, other than Instagram and WhatsApp, is totally irrelevant to the younger generation. If FB didn't own Instagram and WhatsApp I think it'd be dying in the next few years. These acquisitions are IMO what's keeping it relevant.
lawgimenez 4y ago
From where I'm from (Southeast Asia), Facebook is very essential too. From catching up with family, friends and most of the businesses here prefers transacting on Messenger. We don't really care about Metaverse or anything of the same nature. I think that is just an American thing.
- ksec 4y ago
  >I think that is just an American thing. While that the line I normally use, I will give them some benefits of doubt, it is the Silicon Valley / US Tech / US Mainstream media thing.
- discordance 4y ago
  The role Facebook plays in SE Asia cannot be understated. They are still taking money and being used to manipulate the outcome of elections, the most recent example being with Marcos in the Philippines. Foreign Correspondent covered this well: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/foreign-correspondent/series/2022/video/NC2210H012S00 https://iview.abc.net.au/show/foreign-correspondent/series/2...
  - lawgimenez 4y ago
    I am aware of this. This is rampant in every country regardless.
irrational 4y ago
And yet, I do those same tasks and don’t use Facebook for any of them. None of those are special and people could switch to one of the alternatives with barely a hiccup.
atoav 4y ago
I haven't logged into Facebook in the past 4 years and I don't know why I should. Most people I deal with (a decade younger) never had an account at all.
throwawaymanbot 4y ago
april_22 4y ago
What I think is interesting though is that they aren't too dominant in the gaming space. Apple has Apple Arcade and Microsoft recently bought Activision. What game companies does Facebook own?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dbbk 4y ago
To add to this, Facebook Events have been (and continue to be) almost exclusively how sports teams and societies organise events in UK universities. I don't think there really is even a viable competitor to this... Meetup charges organisers to use it.
2143 4y ago
We probably live in different universes. I quit FB for good about 5 years ago. At that point it was all trash. > Marketplace was a huge success Whoa they have a marketplace?! Since when? > Small forums for various hobbies For my hobbies there are still bulletin boards! Of course, Reddit's very useful as well. It's likely that there's good conversations I'm missing out on because I'm not on FB, but I'm not aware of what I'm missing out. Don't really care. > Messenger is the sole mechanism I have to keep in touch WhatsApp (owned by FB) is ubiquitous. Nobody uses Messenger, even if both parties are on it. Where I'm at (I'm not in USA), FB was all the rage about 12 years ago. But now none of my friends — people who I actually know — use it. However, I think a lot of people use Instagram (again, under FB), which I've never tried.
- nickysielicki 4y ago
  > For my hobbies there are still bulletin boards! Of course, Reddit's very useful as well. Find me a forum with 10k members and hundreds of active users that’s dedicated almost entirely to the North American use of the BMW M57. Because that’s the sort of thing Facebook has. You might think that you’re getting along fine without these forums but I promise you, if you’re not on the site you’re missing conversations.
  - 2143 4y ago
    Ah, happy to see a fellow car enthusiast :) Well, I'm not from North America. I'm from India. But I do know a forum here with 100k+ car enthusiasts: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-bhp-reviews/ https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-bhp-reviews/ In case you were wondering, 6 cylinder diesel BMWs are infact very popular in India. All powered by the N57 engine. Couldn't find too much with the older M57, but to be fair BMW sales really picked up in India only after the F10 5-series was launched at around 2010, and I'm not sure if they ever had the M57 engine. Among car enthusiasts in India, the 530d is perhaps the most coveted sedans. (535d and 540d were never sold here. North America gets plenty of cool cars which aren't sold here). Here are a couple of great reviews of the 525d and 530d with that engine on the aforementioned forum: (530d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/107436-bmw-530d-test-drive-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/1074... (525d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/82610-bmw-525d-test-drive-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/8261... Other owner reviews that I could find: (530d; I personally felt this was especially well written) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/167550-bmw-530d-m-sport-f10-my-pre-worshipped-beast.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/1... (530d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/209459-my-pre-owned-bmw-530d-f10-edit-sold.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/173241-power-corrupts-my-bmw-x3-xdrive30d-m-sport-now-5-5-year-64-000-km-update.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/1... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/155261-xdrive-power-my-bmw-x3-30d-10k-kms-up-page-6-a.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/247376-my-pre-owned-bmw-x3-30d-f25-ownership-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership...
dathinab 4y ago
Counter point: Outside of the US I don't know anyone using any of this except Messenger for keeping in contact with some people. And the last point is generally seen as a necessary evil, i.e. something they would love to change asap if they could. EDIT: Correction, anyone below the age of 60.
baby 4y ago
Same for me. Just a few days ago I realized that my hotel in Milan was next door to a hostel where an old friend was staying. I went out and walked there to say hi. The “nearby friends” feature let us realize this. How insanely awesome is that? It was like 30min before my train so he walked me to the station and we managed to get coffee and croissant before I departed.
makk 4y ago
To play devil’s advocate to the devil’s advocate: I’m not on Facebook for anything. Been this way for so many years I can’t remember when I had an account. It feels like I’m missing exactly nothing. Spent some time recently going out of my way to see people in person. To me, it feels like that’s where it’s at: IRL.

pishpash 4y ago

This must be cohort-dependent. For me, Marketplace buyers have flaked out more than Craigslist ones. Forums are less useful/dynamic than anonymous Reddit. And I don't even touch Messenger vs. numerous other chat apps.

k__ 4y ago

I used FB only for events before the pandemic, so I didn't use it much in the last years. I like Instagram and WhatsApp, but Meta's "core" business is non of my interests.

chrisseaton 4y ago

> The quality of posts On Marketplace?! This blows my mind that you think this. It's a chaotic nightmare. Sellers post everything as free and then separately negotiate a price. Buyers repeatedly ask you if something's still available. Both of these mean something's very wrong with how people understand to use the system.

lokar 4y ago
Also, how does a buyer including the text "money order" not trigger automatic fraud enforcement?
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  craigslist also has this problem, and it does seem pretty easily fixable, to my naive eyes: someone has said "your price is fair, my agent will be over to pick it up with a cashier's check" for every single thing I've sold on craigslist. I don't think filtering out scumbags like this is a terribly hard problem.
  - MichaelBurge 4y ago
    Is the cashier's check fake? What happens if you meet them at the listed bank and ask them to convert it to cash right there?
    - chrisseaton 4y ago
      Why would any reputable person be dealing with a cashier’s cheque in this century?
      - krallja 4y ago
        Earlier in this century they were often required when signing an apartment lease in the NYC metro area.
        alsetmusic 4y ago
        I had to get one literally yesterday for my security deposit on a new apartment. This is in SF Bay Area.
      - dreamcompiler 4y ago
        The last few times I've bought cars I used a cashier's check on a local bank. Car dealers don't like credit cards because they don't want to pay a 3%-5% fee on a $35K purchase.

glofish 4y ago

Each of these: Markeplace, Forums, Messenger are non sticky and with countless alternatives. For example one could easily have two-three chat apps and use each with different people. I still use Craigslist, I think it works better and has better organization of categories. The main Facebook app, now that is a unique product - yet frankly, from my perspective it feels completely marginalized, the content there is in worse shape than ever. I find the news feed absurdly bad, GAG videos and ads.

lumost 4y ago
The degree to which the main FB product rotted during the last few years was extreme. Scrolling FB was still a daily activity for me until the medium was overtaken by outrage. It seems like FB goosed conflict on the platform until everyone decided they’d had enough and left or stopped posting. There is nothing in the newsfeed from my contacts at this point, the feed is either entirely ads or bottom barrel MLM scams. Instagram is going the same direction with everyone growing exhausted from competition for likes. TikTok seems successful in part because the primary purpose isn't to engage with your friends. So where does that leave social networking amongst your peers? SMS seems to be making a comeback.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  have you considered that maybe facebook is giving you content based on other datapoints about you? Aside from the occasional scam ad, I mostly get animal videos from facebook.
  - lumost 4y ago
    Possible, but what does that say about their algorithm that they only give me stuff I don't want? At this point I login to FB maybe once a month to check community groups for my neighborhood. Animals could be a similar “no fill” response reflecting that your network doesn't have much going on.
    - LegitShady 4y ago

mywaifuismeta 4y ago

Opposite experience for me. I barely know anyone who uses FB marketplace, FB groups, or messenger. The only use case for Messenger is keeping in touch with "old people" who used it with me 10-15 years ago. That's like 2-3 people who are left and haven't moved off yet In my experience, the FB ecosystem, other than Instagram and WhatsApp, is totally irrelevant to the younger generation. If FB didn't own Instagram and WhatsApp I think it'd be dying in the next few years. These acquisitions are IMO what's keeping it relevant.

lawgimenez 4y ago

From where I'm from (Southeast Asia), Facebook is very essential too. From catching up with family, friends and most of the businesses here prefers transacting on Messenger. We don't really care about Metaverse or anything of the same nature. I think that is just an American thing.

ksec 4y ago
>I think that is just an American thing. While that the line I normally use, I will give them some benefits of doubt, it is the Silicon Valley / US Tech / US Mainstream media thing.
discordance 4y ago
The role Facebook plays in SE Asia cannot be understated. They are still taking money and being used to manipulate the outcome of elections, the most recent example being with Marcos in the Philippines. Foreign Correspondent covered this well: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/foreign-correspondent/series/2022/video/NC2210H012S00 https://iview.abc.net.au/show/foreign-correspondent/series/2...
- lawgimenez 4y ago
  I am aware of this. This is rampant in every country regardless.

irrational 4y ago

And yet, I do those same tasks and don’t use Facebook for any of them. None of those are special and people could switch to one of the alternatives with barely a hiccup.

atoav 4y ago

I haven't logged into Facebook in the past 4 years and I don't know why I should. Most people I deal with (a decade younger) never had an account at all.

throwawaymanbot 4y ago

april_22 4y ago

What I think is interesting though is that they aren't too dominant in the gaming space. Apple has Apple Arcade and Microsoft recently bought Activision. What game companies does Facebook own?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dbbk 4y ago

To add to this, Facebook Events have been (and continue to be) almost exclusively how sports teams and societies organise events in UK universities. I don't think there really is even a viable competitor to this... Meetup charges organisers to use it.

2143 4y ago

We probably live in different universes. I quit FB for good about 5 years ago. At that point it was all trash. > Marketplace was a huge success Whoa they have a marketplace?! Since when? > Small forums for various hobbies For my hobbies there are still bulletin boards! Of course, Reddit's very useful as well. It's likely that there's good conversations I'm missing out on because I'm not on FB, but I'm not aware of what I'm missing out. Don't really care. > Messenger is the sole mechanism I have to keep in touch WhatsApp (owned by FB) is ubiquitous. Nobody uses Messenger, even if both parties are on it. Where I'm at (I'm not in USA), FB was all the rage about 12 years ago. But now none of my friends — people who I actually know — use it. However, I think a lot of people use Instagram (again, under FB), which I've never tried.

nickysielicki 4y ago
> For my hobbies there are still bulletin boards! Of course, Reddit's very useful as well. Find me a forum with 10k members and hundreds of active users that’s dedicated almost entirely to the North American use of the BMW M57. Because that’s the sort of thing Facebook has. You might think that you’re getting along fine without these forums but I promise you, if you’re not on the site you’re missing conversations.
- 2143 4y ago
  Ah, happy to see a fellow car enthusiast :) Well, I'm not from North America. I'm from India. But I do know a forum here with 100k+ car enthusiasts: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-bhp-reviews/ https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-bhp-reviews/ In case you were wondering, 6 cylinder diesel BMWs are infact very popular in India. All powered by the N57 engine. Couldn't find too much with the older M57, but to be fair BMW sales really picked up in India only after the F10 5-series was launched at around 2010, and I'm not sure if they ever had the M57 engine. Among car enthusiasts in India, the 530d is perhaps the most coveted sedans. (535d and 540d were never sold here. North America gets plenty of cool cars which aren't sold here). Here are a couple of great reviews of the 525d and 530d with that engine on the aforementioned forum: (530d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/107436-bmw-530d-test-drive-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/1074... (525d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/82610-bmw-525d-test-drive-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/8261... Other owner reviews that I could find: (530d; I personally felt this was especially well written) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/167550-bmw-530d-m-sport-f10-my-pre-worshipped-beast.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/1... (530d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/209459-my-pre-owned-bmw-530d-f10-edit-sold.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/173241-power-corrupts-my-bmw-x3-xdrive30d-m-sport-now-5-5-year-64-000-km-update.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/1... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/155261-xdrive-power-my-bmw-x3-30d-10k-kms-up-page-6-a.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership... (X3 30d) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/247376-my-pre-owned-bmw-x3-30d-f25-ownership-review.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership...

dathinab 4y ago

Counter point: Outside of the US I don't know anyone using any of this except Messenger for keeping in contact with some people. And the last point is generally seen as a necessary evil, i.e. something they would love to change asap if they could. EDIT: Correction, anyone below the age of 60.

baby 4y ago

Same for me. Just a few days ago I realized that my hotel in Milan was next door to a hostel where an old friend was staying. I went out and walked there to say hi. The “nearby friends” feature let us realize this. How insanely awesome is that? It was like 30min before my train so he walked me to the station and we managed to get coffee and croissant before I departed.

makk 4y ago

To play devil’s advocate to the devil’s advocate: I’m not on Facebook for anything. Been this way for so many years I can’t remember when I had an account. It feels like I’m missing exactly nothing. Spent some time recently going out of my way to see people in person. To me, it feels like that’s where it’s at: IRL.