3 ms·

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

by ethbr0 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
  Post-Harvard, pre-everyone

by ethbr0 3y ago

usrusr 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
Post-Harvard, pre-everyone