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...Wait, so you thought there was ever a point when "good for Facebook" == "good for society"? IMO "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society" has always been tru

...Wait, so you thought there was ever a point when "good for Facebook" == "good for society"? IMO "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society" has always been true. It's not a "sad place to be as community", they are a corp and their bait-and-switch was expected ever since they got created, at least from the people who don't idolize corporations that is. It was extremely obvious they'll position themselves as helpful, pull tons of people in, and will then start to make use of all that precious data. It would boggle my mind if somebody was actually surprised by this.

ethbr0 4y ago
I'd say Facebook was on-the-whole good when it was limited to .edu users. It had a purpose, it solved it better than previous options, and (critically!) it had a ceiling on total addressable userbase. Once it metastisized into "extract maximum revenue from maximum number of people," I think its soul was lost to greed.
- usrusr 4y ago
  Oh, even long after Facebook has turned sour as a company there have still been very good things running on top of Facebook as infrastructure for linking up disconnected local groups and individuals with shared interests. But eventually they burnt so much goodwill trying to justify their stock valuation that at least were I am, all those informal groups have moved away from Facebook. Some managed to substitute the infrastructure quite well, some suffer quite noticeably. But none of them would consider going back. And openness to newcomers, discoverability, that has all suffered quite considerably.
- ryandrake 4y ago
  To be fair, many, many corporations start out as a tiny kernel of something that solves a problem for people, and then metastasize into "extract maximum revenue from maximum number of people" cancer once Wall Street takes over. So, honestly, you can generalize this to "bad for corporations" ~= "good for society." A topic for another discussion is why society allows corporations to become parasitic and cancerous without any checks or balances.
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    Well, in a global sense it's a race to the bottom: if X doesn't claim efficiencies of scale then Y will, and put X out of business. Germany would probably be the best counter-example to look at? Re: how to create and maintain medium-sized businesses that are still efficient.
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  > Facebook was on-the-whole good when it was limited to .edu users. You mean, when it was a sort of amihotornot for Harvard students?
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    Post-Harvard, pre-everyone
Izkata 4y ago
> ...Wait, so you thought there was ever a point when "good for Facebook" == "good for society"? At least for a subset, 2005-2006, back when they had network pages. You'd gain access based on your email's domain, it has a shared calendar and worked as a planning location for everyone at the same college/university.
pseudopersonal 4y ago
[flagged]
dspillett 4y ago
> IMO "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society" has always been true. I'd say there is a case for it being neutral for society for a fair chunk of time in its early days. Things don't have to be good/bad binary.
soraminazuki 4y ago
Considering that the precursor to Facebook was a site that ranked pictures of women obtained without consent whatsoever, it was inarguably evil from the very start.

ethbr0 4y ago

I'd say Facebook was on-the-whole good when it was limited to .edu users. It had a purpose, it solved it better than previous options, and (critically!) it had a ceiling on total addressable userbase. Once it metastisized into "extract maximum revenue from maximum number of people," I think its soul was lost to greed.

usrusr 4y ago
Oh, even long after Facebook has turned sour as a company there have still been very good things running on top of Facebook as infrastructure for linking up disconnected local groups and individuals with shared interests. But eventually they burnt so much goodwill trying to justify their stock valuation that at least were I am, all those informal groups have moved away from Facebook. Some managed to substitute the infrastructure quite well, some suffer quite noticeably. But none of them would consider going back. And openness to newcomers, discoverability, that has all suffered quite considerably.
ryandrake 4y ago
To be fair, many, many corporations start out as a tiny kernel of something that solves a problem for people, and then metastasize into "extract maximum revenue from maximum number of people" cancer once Wall Street takes over. So, honestly, you can generalize this to "bad for corporations" ~= "good for society." A topic for another discussion is why society allows corporations to become parasitic and cancerous without any checks or balances.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  Well, in a global sense it's a race to the bottom: if X doesn't claim efficiencies of scale then Y will, and put X out of business. Germany would probably be the best counter-example to look at? Re: how to create and maintain medium-sized businesses that are still efficient.
denton-scratch 4y ago
> Facebook was on-the-whole good when it was limited to .edu users. You mean, when it was a sort of amihotornot for Harvard students?
- ethbr0 4y ago
  Post-Harvard, pre-everyone

Izkata 4y ago

> ...Wait, so you thought there was ever a point when "good for Facebook" == "good for society"? At least for a subset, 2005-2006, back when they had network pages. You'd gain access based on your email's domain, it has a shared calendar and worked as a planning location for everyone at the same college/university.

pseudopersonal 4y ago

[flagged]

dspillett 4y ago

> IMO "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society" has always been true. I'd say there is a case for it being neutral for society for a fair chunk of time in its early days. Things don't have to be good/bad binary.

soraminazuki 4y ago

Considering that the precursor to Facebook was a site that ranked pictures of women obtained without consent whatsoever, it was inarguably evil from the very start.