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Wow, this is incredibly stupid (on Meta's part). Way to shoot yourself in the foot. Is it just me, or does it seem like Facebook/Meta has always been much dum

Wow, this is incredibly stupid (on Meta's part). Way to shoot yourself in the foot. Is it just me, or does it seem like Facebook/Meta has always been much dumber about how to actually run a business than other big tech companies? I think they just got where they are because they filled a void with Facebook and took advantage of network effects. Nothing they've ever done has really seemed all that "good" to me overall, except little bits and pieces. Most recently, I got forced onto their "Messenger" app, because they basically disabled the "Messenger Lite" app. This new app is MUCH larger and more bloated, has a bunch of features I don't care about, and now won't even let me log in because "waiting for network". A little searching online seems to show this is a common problem and everyone hates this app, and many more are pissed that they've been forced off the Lite app.

mandmandam 3y ago
> I think they just got where they are because they filled a void Don't forget the brazen theft (remember Stories and 'Suggested for You', aka Snapchat and TikTok). Or the cozy relationship with power, or all the ad money from scammers that would be easily blocked (were there any intention to do so). I guess all that could be called 'taking advantage of network effects', in the same way you can call torture 'enhanced interrogation' or a coup 'regime change'. My point may be murky - I'm saying, they're not just dumb; they're immoral bullies too... I don't expect high morality from giant corporations, but I wouldn't Occam's handwave all this away as incompetence either.
entuno 3y ago
Have they shot themselves in the foot though? As long as the money they save from not employing people to manually review cases is less than the profit they're losing by OP (and others in this situation) not advertising on their platform then a few false positives is fine for them. Sure, they might also get the odd bit of bad publicity somewhere like HN, but I imagine that most people here already have plenty of reasons to dislike them.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  >Have they shot themselves in the foot though? As long as the money they save ... then a few false positives is fine for them. Yeah, I've made this point before, just today in fact about a Netflix discussion (and I like to bring it up with Microsoft too when people complain about Windows...), and agree: it seems like these companies can get away with some horrifically stupid and customer-hostile behavior while remaining very profitable and dominant. Of course, unlike Netflix, Facebook isn't primarily funded by its users, but rather by advertisers (who are other businesses, not consumers), so I'm not sure if that's better or worse here; it might be worse for Meta. I guess time will tell: bad publicity like this isn't going to help them. >but I imagine that most people here already have plenty of reasons to dislike them. True, but again, most people here aren't customers of Facebook, they're just users.
  - b112 3y ago
    True, but again, most people here aren't customers of Facebook, they're just users. No, instead, they're the product.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  > Have they shot themselves in the foot though? Shooting them self in the foot implies instant effect. A better idiom would probably be something like "they are cutting the branch they are sitting on".
marcus_holmes 3y ago
I uninstalled the Facebook app, because it literally makes me depressed. Messenger stopped working. I wasn't able to log in on Messenger (it just kept cycling around the same 3 login pages). I had to reinstall Facebook to get it working. So, either: 1. Facebook developers are so shit at their job that they can't build and test a simple login page that works. or 2. Facebook uses dark UI patterns to keep people using its products even when they explicitly don't want to. Obviously it's 2. But what a dystopian nightmare. Facebook devs, how do you sleep at night?
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  I've never had the Facebook app installed on my phone (Android). Messenger Lite worked great, until recently. Now that they've shut that down, I'm using regular Messenger, which sucks, but I finally got it working by forcing a stop and clearing the cache. You really shouldn't need the Facebook app on your phone to use Messenger in my experience, but who knows what kind of shenanigans they're pulling. I seriously wonder what the Messenger app is doing. It's far larger than Messenger Lite was (way more than double), yet it's essentially the same thing: a chat app with video and voice chat. The full-blown app also adds Dark Mode (the only improvement I've found), and some silly sticker crap. So WTF else is going on in that app to need all that storage space?

mandmandam 3y ago

> I think they just got where they are because they filled a void Don't forget the brazen theft (remember Stories and 'Suggested for You', aka Snapchat and TikTok). Or the cozy relationship with power, or all the ad money from scammers that would be easily blocked (were there any intention to do so). I guess all that could be called 'taking advantage of network effects', in the same way you can call torture 'enhanced interrogation' or a coup 'regime change'. My point may be murky - I'm saying, they're not just dumb; they're immoral bullies too... I don't expect high morality from giant corporations, but I wouldn't Occam's handwave all this away as incompetence either.

entuno 3y ago

Have they shot themselves in the foot though? As long as the money they save from not employing people to manually review cases is less than the profit they're losing by OP (and others in this situation) not advertising on their platform then a few false positives is fine for them. Sure, they might also get the odd bit of bad publicity somewhere like HN, but I imagine that most people here already have plenty of reasons to dislike them.

shiroiuma 3y ago
>Have they shot themselves in the foot though? As long as the money they save ... then a few false positives is fine for them. Yeah, I've made this point before, just today in fact about a Netflix discussion (and I like to bring it up with Microsoft too when people complain about Windows...), and agree: it seems like these companies can get away with some horrifically stupid and customer-hostile behavior while remaining very profitable and dominant. Of course, unlike Netflix, Facebook isn't primarily funded by its users, but rather by advertisers (who are other businesses, not consumers), so I'm not sure if that's better or worse here; it might be worse for Meta. I guess time will tell: bad publicity like this isn't going to help them. >but I imagine that most people here already have plenty of reasons to dislike them. True, but again, most people here aren't customers of Facebook, they're just users.
- b112 3y ago
  True, but again, most people here aren't customers of Facebook, they're just users. No, instead, they're the product.
rightbyte 3y ago
> Have they shot themselves in the foot though? Shooting them self in the foot implies instant effect. A better idiom would probably be something like "they are cutting the branch they are sitting on".

marcus_holmes 3y ago

I uninstalled the Facebook app, because it literally makes me depressed. Messenger stopped working. I wasn't able to log in on Messenger (it just kept cycling around the same 3 login pages). I had to reinstall Facebook to get it working. So, either: 1. Facebook developers are so shit at their job that they can't build and test a simple login page that works. or 2. Facebook uses dark UI patterns to keep people using its products even when they explicitly don't want to. Obviously it's 2. But what a dystopian nightmare. Facebook devs, how do you sleep at night?

shiroiuma 3y ago
I've never had the Facebook app installed on my phone (Android). Messenger Lite worked great, until recently. Now that they've shut that down, I'm using regular Messenger, which sucks, but I finally got it working by forcing a stop and clearing the cache. You really shouldn't need the Facebook app on your phone to use Messenger in my experience, but who knows what kind of shenanigans they're pulling. I seriously wonder what the Messenger app is doing. It's far larger than Messenger Lite was (way more than double), yet it's essentially the same thing: a chat app with video and voice chat. The full-blown app also adds Dark Mode (the only improvement I've found), and some silly sticker crap. So WTF else is going on in that app to need all that storage space?