4 ms·

Hipset (YC S12) Shows You The Music Content Facebook's Been Hiding

42 points by schlichtm 14y ago

ig1 14y ago
The article shows a fundamental misunderstanding how Facebook filtering works. If Facebook didn't have any kind of filtering on page updates then they'd flood out friend updates which are much more important. The likelihood that a particular fanpage update will get filtered out for an individual user is dependent on how the user has interacted with the fanpage in the past. If a user frequently clicks through/comments/etc on updates from a fanpage then updates from that fanpage are far less likely to get filtered out. The whole sponsored stories thing was introduced a long time after Facebook had started doing filtering. Saying that the filtering is a conspiracy to help Facebook make money may well be libelous.
mkoijn 14y ago
What's stopping Facebook from adding a filter by "Pages / Music" feature?
tomasien 14y ago
I'm going to repeat what ig1 said but it bears repeating: I'm forced to correct musicians all the time on this: EVERY SINGLE THING is filtered by Facebook based on what they think you want to see. If you're not interacting with a band, they show it less frequently. Same thing with friends, TV shows, everything. This rumor that FB is doing this to charge bands infuriates me on a daily basis. The ability to pay to show to all fans is a great way to tell FB a post is really important. Only money can keep that honest.
- nitrogen 14y ago
  Only money can keep that honest. <cynical>I guess bands with more money can be more honest then.</cynical>
  - freehunter 14y ago
    Being successful in life depends on getting the right things right and at the right time. A band who cannot engage their audience is akin to a magician with no stage presence. There are two paths to Facebook success I see in this thread thus far. Engage your audience so they participate, or pay to make them see you. It's not fair, but things rarely are. Though to be honest, if you have to pay in order for your fans to take notice of you, you're doing something wrong on the engaging fans front (although you must be doing something right on the 'making money' front).
    - tomasien 14y ago
      I agree with you except where you say it's not fair. That's totally fair. Engage or die, or as a last resort, pay. Why not? I LOVE the pay option: it allows me to pay when things are really, really important, and it's usually less than $10. Awesome! Without that, what could I do when I really need everyone to know about a show, giveaway, or video shoot?
  - tomasien 14y ago
    You don't understand what I'm saying: if the process was "click this so all your fans will see it instead of just the ones who tend to care" every band would click it every time. Money is one thing, but if you're a clever band and you engage the people who "like" you, you'll get the same effect for free. Truth is, most people who "like" a band don't really care about the FB posts, they're liking them for other reasons. FB's policy is reasonable and fair.
    - nitrogen 14y ago
      Facebook could approach the problem from a different angle, like making it more obvious to users that they don't see everything in their news feed, and giving average, unskilled users easier ways to control what they see. Instead, they are looking for ways to make money. Even if reaching all your fans with a post instead of the most avid is valuable enough to pay for it, I don't like the direction in which that pushes social expectations of the world.

42 points by schlichtm 14y ago

ig1 14y ago

The article shows a fundamental misunderstanding how Facebook filtering works. If Facebook didn't have any kind of filtering on page updates then they'd flood out friend updates which are much more important. The likelihood that a particular fanpage update will get filtered out for an individual user is dependent on how the user has interacted with the fanpage in the past. If a user frequently clicks through/comments/etc on updates from a fanpage then updates from that fanpage are far less likely to get filtered out. The whole sponsored stories thing was introduced a long time after Facebook had started doing filtering. Saying that the filtering is a conspiracy to help Facebook make money may well be libelous.

mkoijn 14y ago

What's stopping Facebook from adding a filter by "Pages / Music" feature?

tomasien 14y ago

I'm going to repeat what ig1 said but it bears repeating: I'm forced to correct musicians all the time on this: EVERY SINGLE THING is filtered by Facebook based on what they think you want to see. If you're not interacting with a band, they show it less frequently. Same thing with friends, TV shows, everything. This rumor that FB is doing this to charge bands infuriates me on a daily basis. The ability to pay to show to all fans is a great way to tell FB a post is really important. Only money can keep that honest.

nitrogen 14y ago
Only money can keep that honest. <cynical>I guess bands with more money can be more honest then.</cynical>
- freehunter 14y ago
  Being successful in life depends on getting the right things right and at the right time. A band who cannot engage their audience is akin to a magician with no stage presence. There are two paths to Facebook success I see in this thread thus far. Engage your audience so they participate, or pay to make them see you. It's not fair, but things rarely are. Though to be honest, if you have to pay in order for your fans to take notice of you, you're doing something wrong on the engaging fans front (although you must be doing something right on the 'making money' front).
  - tomasien 14y ago
    I agree with you except where you say it's not fair. That's totally fair. Engage or die, or as a last resort, pay. Why not? I LOVE the pay option: it allows me to pay when things are really, really important, and it's usually less than $10. Awesome! Without that, what could I do when I really need everyone to know about a show, giveaway, or video shoot?
- tomasien 14y ago
  You don't understand what I'm saying: if the process was "click this so all your fans will see it instead of just the ones who tend to care" every band would click it every time. Money is one thing, but if you're a clever band and you engage the people who "like" you, you'll get the same effect for free. Truth is, most people who "like" a band don't really care about the FB posts, they're liking them for other reasons. FB's policy is reasonable and fair.
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    Facebook could approach the problem from a different angle, like making it more obvious to users that they don't see everything in their news feed, and giving average, unskilled users easier ways to control what they see. Instead, they are looking for ways to make money. Even if reaching all your fans with a post instead of the most avid is valuable enough to pay for it, I don't like the direction in which that pushes social expectations of the world.