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Whenever I see a button that says "sign in with Facebook," I just close the tab immediately. Am I the only one who does this? What's wrong with just having me f

Whenever I see a button that says "sign in with Facebook," I just close the tab immediately. Am I the only one who does this? What's wrong with just having me fill out a survey of my interests if that's what you want? Facebook is the only account that I keep to myself and people who know me. My Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Github and all the other stuff I can't remember, all exist to connect me to people I've never met. I'd way rather use one of those than Facebook.

sophacles 13y ago
I do that too. I find it absurd, because no matter how cool the founders claim to be, or how much they promise not to spam my friends or write all over my fb page, they will, and they will do so without the slightest understanding of why I might not want it. So yeah, I get you. To the "lets be amigos" people: stop it please. I might think you had a good idea, had you not followed a path so closely associated with the scum of the internet.
- subpixel 13y ago
  I also stopped dead in my tracks when I saw FB signup. But I'd appreciate the choice of using FB or filling out a quick survey. I'm also willing to bet money that, faced with actually filling out a survey, many people otherwise reluctant to sign in with FB will just do it.
  - njoglekar 13y ago
    I like your thinking the problem is that we really need both: 1. identity + likes / interests 2. filling out activities as a backup in case they don't have interests on FB
    - paglia_s 13y ago
      My likes on facebook doesn't reflect my interests, I don't care much to them and I think it's the same for many other people.
  - sirclueless 13y ago
    Indeed, the internal monologue will almost certainly change from "Facebook? Are they planning to spam me/my friends?" to "Hmm, enumerating all my interests. Is it worth retyping all that to avoid facebook spam?" The latter is a real question with upsides and downsides. The former is all downsides.
    - gfodor 13y ago
      Please explain how this app's use of Facebook Connect will make it possible for them to spam you and your friends in a manner different than they would if they just asked for an e-mail signup.
      - mayank 13y ago
        He's referring to the fact that they can't spam your friends with just an email address, but can request additional permissions (which are often clicked through) to do that on facebook.
        gfodor 13y ago
        Yes, but this app does not ask for those permissions.
        mayank 13y ago
        As I indicated in my response. Your original question asked what one can do with Facebook login that one cannot with just an email address. Your friendlist is always communicated with Facebook login.
- gfodor 13y ago
  This app literally cannot spam your friends or write all over your fb page, because this app does not ask for that permission. You are living in 2008 or something, whenever it was that Facebook didn't have fine-grained permissions.
t0 13y ago
I only have facebook for this reason. There are no interests to be pulled. A survey should definitely be available.
- hablahaha 13y ago
  You speak kind of to the upside to having FB auth. It makes it easy to try services like this without committing to a password. If I'm on my phone or playing around with Show HN apps like this I'm probably not going to bother giving an app a unique and new password and I certainly don't want to give it my go-to lazy password. Because of that I feel like things go a bit smoother if they have FB auth. The benefits became clear to me when LivingSocial got hacked - I didn't have to worry since I use FB auth on LivingSocial and they never had my password in the first place.
vijayr 13y ago
I do the same, and I know a few others who do the same. It is really annoying to see FB buttons (somehow, twitter and google buttons don't annoy as much - not sure why)
mikegioia 13y ago
I close it immediately when there's no other option to sign up via email. I don't understand the FB lock in. Anyone who wants to sign up via email alternatively, would probably be fine filling out a list of interests. TBH, I'd rather fill out the interests myself instead of having this app pull god knows how many I have saved in FB now.
- phusion 13y ago
  I don't "understand" it either, but I'd imagine their line of thinking is that you've been using facebook for years, liking things you like, going to movies/shows you like etc that won't end up on a form you fill out. People want to be done with the form filling portion very quickly and won't put in very much detail. When scraping your facebook data, they get a very large amount of personal data and they figure they have a better chance of linking people together who actually do have several common interests, instead of: "I like music, and movies and the outdoors"
njoglekar 13y ago
Hey guys, we actually have a survey after the fb login for that reason (I have few interests on my FB profile). And we WONT write on your wall under any circumstances. Lastly, for now wanted to dodge anonymous signups. Won't be much fun to set you up with people that are not real. Hope you give it a shot.
- nairteashop 13y ago
  To echo @adambard, I would've given this a shot as well if you hadn't requested my FB login. I'm very protective of using my FB credentials on a site I don't know much about (probably an irrational fear, but I know I'm not alone.) You will get more signups if you offer alternatives, vs. trying to convince people you won't abuse the FB privileges. Just something to consider.
- johnrob 13y ago
  Only a small percentage of facebook users are actually real... Seriously though I think you might be over concerned about spam in the short term. If the site gets popular then it certainly could be an issue, but that's always a big if.
- DougWebb 13y ago
  I think most people who are concerned about "people that are not real" on a site like this are concerned about the site owners creating fake user accounts and fake activity to (a) make the site seem more active than it is, and (b) drive users to a subscription plan in order to see "who's trying to contact me".
  - njoglekar 13y ago
    Well, it would be hard to fake activity on a site like this since the activity is something that happens in real life.
    - DougWebb 13y ago
      I don't know how your site works, since I haven't gone past the home page. My comment was based on a typical "dating" site's behavior: You can sign up for free. Almost immediately, you start to get emails, instant messages, flirts, matches, etc. You can see some info from the profiles of the people supposedly trying to make contact with you, but you can't see what they're saying or provide any kind of response unless you subscribe. If you do subscribe, more often than not you'll discover that all of that contact activity was from fake accounts that never respond to anything you send them. By that point the site already has your payment, so it's too late to do anything but cancel before the next automated payment occurs. I'm not saying your site works like this; I hope it doesn't. I'm just saying that this kind of thing is why users of a site like yours would be concerned about fake accounts on the site.
zenlikethat 13y ago
I agree with this sentiment so much. I know it's a trendy HN thing to hate Facebook, but I seriously feel like the company lacks maturity and moral integrity and that's why I don't have one. It's too bad since I was at first really excited about the idea of Let's Be Amigos, as it purports to solve a problem I've been having lately, but immediately my attitude did a 180. Facebook is not going to be a good resource to mine interests for people that don't have one.
- njoglekar 13y ago
  Glad you like the idea! We are adding more login options soon and a larger response below
B-Con 13y ago
I have never once (IIRC) used "sign in with Facebook" on any site that wasn't Facebook.
onemorepassword 13y ago
I did exactly this, almost instantly, and the next first thing I saw because of that was this comment... I don't understand how people even get it into their heads to immediately ask potential users for direct access to my private information? Seriously, would anyone approach potential clients with that kind of attitude in real life? "Hand over your wallet with your ID and the pictures of your kids and loved ones, your diary and your address book, or else you can't shop here." Please, f* off.
- toki5 13y ago
  >I don't understand how people even get it into their heads to immediately ask potential users for direct access to my private information? Either it's private to you, in which case this service is very likely not going to provide you a great deal of value, which puts you outside their market, or it isn't private, in which case you're in their market. >Seriously, would anyone approach potential clients with that kind of attitude in real life? This is real life. I don't like the implication that "it's an internet service" means "it isn't real life." This is a service that's trying to land you with real people, doing real things, in a personal way. The attitude here is "you're looking to be social, so sign up with your social network." If you don't like that, then I'd warrant that you aren't the type of person this is aimed at. It'd be nice to have alternatives -- others here have suggested a survey, for example -- but let's be honest: Facebook collates a lot of really useful information that is directly helpful to a service such as this. It's a no-brainer from their point of view.
  - freyr 13y ago
    > it's private to you, in which case this service is very likely not going to provide you a great deal of value Why does this service's value depend on Facebook? I use Facebook to communicate with a few friends and family. I don't list my interests on Facebook. > which puts you outside their market Then they're unnecessarily making their market smaller. Unless they don't have the time or skill to implement an interest questionnaire, this doesn't seem like a good decision.
    - 13y ago
doktrin 13y ago
I agree. I honestly would want to try this app out, but a FB-only login is a deal breaker. The founder did mention they were adding alternative login options, which is reassuring.
ank286 13y ago
Yes! I hate it when startups think they are so cool by using Facebook/Social logins. Sane users have one good email account for work/important stuff and one useless email account for experimental services such as this. Why would anyone want to give out all their Fb info to random companies.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
mey 13y ago
Interested but also stopped dead in my tracks w/ Facebook login.
dusklight 13y ago
Nope I do this too.
EGreg 13y ago
That's so interesting. This thread totally validates what I have been saying all along for the past several years - that mobile phones are a better platform for building social apps than facebook. That's why my last two years have been spent building this: http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platform/ http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platfor...
- flexxaeon 13y ago
  Not that I'm against the concept, but I'd much rather give up my Facebook info than my mobile phone info. I even avoid(ed) giving Facebook my phone number.
khet 13y ago
I think this is unique to programmers because they are in the unique position where they completely understand the ramifications of giving a 3rd party access to their Facebook account. Outside of our world, signup with Facebook would probably convert a lot more and even improve engagement. It's a worthy tradeoff IMO. Atleast to a business owner.
- untog 13y ago
  I'm amazed that no-one else has said this. What you- as a tech-savvy developer- want is quite different from the average user. Most are more than happy to use FB Connect, in fact, many like it.
samspot 13y ago
I almost never use my facebook account, so I'm interested to see what the site thinks my "interests" are. Probably toilet paper and towels since my wife uses my account for couponing.
- njoglekar 13y ago
  Towels could be interesting
coherentpony 13y ago
I did exactly the same thing. It's a shame, really, because I recently moved to a different country and this is the kind of thing I'd be interested in.
- precisioncoder 13y ago
  Same with me, I internally cheered when I saw the post, then internally booed when it asked for facebook. My facebook hovers at around 50 people who are all close friends or family.
Ecio78 13y ago
You're in good company.
antimatter 13y ago
You're not alone. I did the same thing. Don't have a facebook account but was interested in a service like this.
pnathan 13y ago
Agreed. I do not use Facebook. I won't sign into a service with Facebook. For professional work, I'd far rather use Github as my auth provider. :-)
ronaldx 13y ago
If I was personally interested, and thinking about the purpose of the app, it's easy to understand that a connection with Facebook may be genuinely beneficial in this instance. That Facebook is "for people who know you" means it's exactly where Let's Be Amigos can find other local, friendly second degree links. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, with generally global and/or impersonal links, aren't as good source material for the stated goal.
RexRollman 13y ago
I don't care for it either but I've been assuming that a lot of the time, people do this so as not to having to develop their own login system.
gridmaths 13y ago
Exactly.. and agree with the Please f'off sentiment. Especially when I can just type in a few tags which signal my interests really well and enable sifting for like-minded people. eg. "Frisbee bike Newark hacking" or "maker bots liberal coffee valley" or "photography walking s&m boston" :]
rhlhkr 13y ago
Fuck Facebook and all of the apologists saying it's now the "de facto standard." No. Provide options.

sophacles 13y ago

I do that too. I find it absurd, because no matter how cool the founders claim to be, or how much they promise not to spam my friends or write all over my fb page, they will, and they will do so without the slightest understanding of why I might not want it. So yeah, I get you. To the "lets be amigos" people: stop it please. I might think you had a good idea, had you not followed a path so closely associated with the scum of the internet.

subpixel 13y ago
I also stopped dead in my tracks when I saw FB signup. But I'd appreciate the choice of using FB or filling out a quick survey. I'm also willing to bet money that, faced with actually filling out a survey, many people otherwise reluctant to sign in with FB will just do it.
- njoglekar 13y ago
  I like your thinking the problem is that we really need both: 1. identity + likes / interests 2. filling out activities as a backup in case they don't have interests on FB
  - paglia_s 13y ago
    My likes on facebook doesn't reflect my interests, I don't care much to them and I think it's the same for many other people.
- sirclueless 13y ago
  Indeed, the internal monologue will almost certainly change from "Facebook? Are they planning to spam me/my friends?" to "Hmm, enumerating all my interests. Is it worth retyping all that to avoid facebook spam?" The latter is a real question with upsides and downsides. The former is all downsides.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    Please explain how this app's use of Facebook Connect will make it possible for them to spam you and your friends in a manner different than they would if they just asked for an e-mail signup.
    - mayank 13y ago
      He's referring to the fact that they can't spam your friends with just an email address, but can request additional permissions (which are often clicked through) to do that on facebook.
      - gfodor 13y ago
        Yes, but this app does not ask for those permissions.
        mayank 13y ago
        As I indicated in my response. Your original question asked what one can do with Facebook login that one cannot with just an email address. Your friendlist is always communicated with Facebook login.
gfodor 13y ago
This app literally cannot spam your friends or write all over your fb page, because this app does not ask for that permission. You are living in 2008 or something, whenever it was that Facebook didn't have fine-grained permissions.

t0 13y ago

I only have facebook for this reason. There are no interests to be pulled. A survey should definitely be available.

hablahaha 13y ago
You speak kind of to the upside to having FB auth. It makes it easy to try services like this without committing to a password. If I'm on my phone or playing around with Show HN apps like this I'm probably not going to bother giving an app a unique and new password and I certainly don't want to give it my go-to lazy password. Because of that I feel like things go a bit smoother if they have FB auth. The benefits became clear to me when LivingSocial got hacked - I didn't have to worry since I use FB auth on LivingSocial and they never had my password in the first place.

vijayr 13y ago

I do the same, and I know a few others who do the same. It is really annoying to see FB buttons (somehow, twitter and google buttons don't annoy as much - not sure why)

mikegioia 13y ago

I close it immediately when there's no other option to sign up via email. I don't understand the FB lock in. Anyone who wants to sign up via email alternatively, would probably be fine filling out a list of interests. TBH, I'd rather fill out the interests myself instead of having this app pull god knows how many I have saved in FB now.

phusion 13y ago
I don't "understand" it either, but I'd imagine their line of thinking is that you've been using facebook for years, liking things you like, going to movies/shows you like etc that won't end up on a form you fill out. People want to be done with the form filling portion very quickly and won't put in very much detail. When scraping your facebook data, they get a very large amount of personal data and they figure they have a better chance of linking people together who actually do have several common interests, instead of: "I like music, and movies and the outdoors"

njoglekar 13y ago

Hey guys, we actually have a survey after the fb login for that reason (I have few interests on my FB profile). And we WONT write on your wall under any circumstances. Lastly, for now wanted to dodge anonymous signups. Won't be much fun to set you up with people that are not real. Hope you give it a shot.

nairteashop 13y ago
To echo @adambard, I would've given this a shot as well if you hadn't requested my FB login. I'm very protective of using my FB credentials on a site I don't know much about (probably an irrational fear, but I know I'm not alone.) You will get more signups if you offer alternatives, vs. trying to convince people you won't abuse the FB privileges. Just something to consider.
johnrob 13y ago
Only a small percentage of facebook users are actually real... Seriously though I think you might be over concerned about spam in the short term. If the site gets popular then it certainly could be an issue, but that's always a big if.
DougWebb 13y ago
I think most people who are concerned about "people that are not real" on a site like this are concerned about the site owners creating fake user accounts and fake activity to (a) make the site seem more active than it is, and (b) drive users to a subscription plan in order to see "who's trying to contact me".
- njoglekar 13y ago
  Well, it would be hard to fake activity on a site like this since the activity is something that happens in real life.
  - DougWebb 13y ago
    I don't know how your site works, since I haven't gone past the home page. My comment was based on a typical "dating" site's behavior: You can sign up for free. Almost immediately, you start to get emails, instant messages, flirts, matches, etc. You can see some info from the profiles of the people supposedly trying to make contact with you, but you can't see what they're saying or provide any kind of response unless you subscribe. If you do subscribe, more often than not you'll discover that all of that contact activity was from fake accounts that never respond to anything you send them. By that point the site already has your payment, so it's too late to do anything but cancel before the next automated payment occurs. I'm not saying your site works like this; I hope it doesn't. I'm just saying that this kind of thing is why users of a site like yours would be concerned about fake accounts on the site.

zenlikethat 13y ago

I agree with this sentiment so much. I know it's a trendy HN thing to hate Facebook, but I seriously feel like the company lacks maturity and moral integrity and that's why I don't have one. It's too bad since I was at first really excited about the idea of Let's Be Amigos, as it purports to solve a problem I've been having lately, but immediately my attitude did a 180. Facebook is not going to be a good resource to mine interests for people that don't have one.

njoglekar 13y ago
Glad you like the idea! We are adding more login options soon and a larger response below

B-Con 13y ago

I have never once (IIRC) used "sign in with Facebook" on any site that wasn't Facebook.

onemorepassword 13y ago

I did exactly this, almost instantly, and the next first thing I saw because of that was this comment... I don't understand how people even get it into their heads to immediately ask potential users for direct access to my private information? Seriously, would anyone approach potential clients with that kind of attitude in real life? "Hand over your wallet with your ID and the pictures of your kids and loved ones, your diary and your address book, or else you can't shop here." Please, f* off.

toki5 13y ago
>I don't understand how people even get it into their heads to immediately ask potential users for direct access to my private information? Either it's private to you, in which case this service is very likely not going to provide you a great deal of value, which puts you outside their market, or it isn't private, in which case you're in their market. >Seriously, would anyone approach potential clients with that kind of attitude in real life? This is real life. I don't like the implication that "it's an internet service" means "it isn't real life." This is a service that's trying to land you with real people, doing real things, in a personal way. The attitude here is "you're looking to be social, so sign up with your social network." If you don't like that, then I'd warrant that you aren't the type of person this is aimed at. It'd be nice to have alternatives -- others here have suggested a survey, for example -- but let's be honest: Facebook collates a lot of really useful information that is directly helpful to a service such as this. It's a no-brainer from their point of view.
- freyr 13y ago
  > it's private to you, in which case this service is very likely not going to provide you a great deal of value Why does this service's value depend on Facebook? I use Facebook to communicate with a few friends and family. I don't list my interests on Facebook. > which puts you outside their market Then they're unnecessarily making their market smaller. Unless they don't have the time or skill to implement an interest questionnaire, this doesn't seem like a good decision.
  - 13y ago

doktrin 13y ago

I agree. I honestly would want to try this app out, but a FB-only login is a deal breaker. The founder did mention they were adding alternative login options, which is reassuring.

ank286 13y ago

Yes! I hate it when startups think they are so cool by using Facebook/Social logins. Sane users have one good email account for work/important stuff and one useless email account for experimental services such as this. Why would anyone want to give out all their Fb info to random companies.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

mey 13y ago

Interested but also stopped dead in my tracks w/ Facebook login.

dusklight 13y ago

Nope I do this too.

EGreg 13y ago

That's so interesting. This thread totally validates what I have been saying all along for the past several years - that mobile phones are a better platform for building social apps than facebook. That's why my last two years have been spent building this: http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platform/ http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platfor...

flexxaeon 13y ago
Not that I'm against the concept, but I'd much rather give up my Facebook info than my mobile phone info. I even avoid(ed) giving Facebook my phone number.

khet 13y ago

I think this is unique to programmers because they are in the unique position where they completely understand the ramifications of giving a 3rd party access to their Facebook account. Outside of our world, signup with Facebook would probably convert a lot more and even improve engagement. It's a worthy tradeoff IMO. Atleast to a business owner.

untog 13y ago
I'm amazed that no-one else has said this. What you- as a tech-savvy developer- want is quite different from the average user. Most are more than happy to use FB Connect, in fact, many like it.

samspot 13y ago

I almost never use my facebook account, so I'm interested to see what the site thinks my "interests" are. Probably toilet paper and towels since my wife uses my account for couponing.

njoglekar 13y ago
Towels could be interesting

coherentpony 13y ago

I did exactly the same thing. It's a shame, really, because I recently moved to a different country and this is the kind of thing I'd be interested in.

precisioncoder 13y ago
Same with me, I internally cheered when I saw the post, then internally booed when it asked for facebook. My facebook hovers at around 50 people who are all close friends or family.

Ecio78 13y ago

You're in good company.

antimatter 13y ago

You're not alone. I did the same thing. Don't have a facebook account but was interested in a service like this.

pnathan 13y ago

Agreed. I do not use Facebook. I won't sign into a service with Facebook. For professional work, I'd far rather use Github as my auth provider. :-)

ronaldx 13y ago

If I was personally interested, and thinking about the purpose of the app, it's easy to understand that a connection with Facebook may be genuinely beneficial in this instance. That Facebook is "for people who know you" means it's exactly where Let's Be Amigos can find other local, friendly second degree links. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, with generally global and/or impersonal links, aren't as good source material for the stated goal.

RexRollman 13y ago

I don't care for it either but I've been assuming that a lot of the time, people do this so as not to having to develop their own login system.

gridmaths 13y ago

Exactly.. and agree with the Please f'off sentiment. Especially when I can just type in a few tags which signal my interests really well and enable sifting for like-minded people. eg. "Frisbee bike Newark hacking" or "maker bots liberal coffee valley" or "photography walking s&m boston" :]

rhlhkr 13y ago

Fuck Facebook and all of the apologists saying it's now the "de facto standard." No. Provide options.