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What are people using Facebook for these days? I share images with Dropbox and use WhatsApp to talk with people. I haven't seriously used Facebook in years and

What are people using Facebook for these days? I share images with Dropbox and use WhatsApp to talk with people. I haven't seriously used Facebook in years and when I do log in it's just a bunch of spam. I just don't see myself ever needing to use something like Facebook again. I think maybe there was a time when creating profiles was a thing, but is it still a thing? I don't want to share pictures with a million people anymore, just my family and really close friends.

bane 13y ago
> I don't want to share pictures with a million people anymore, just my family and really close friends. You've just described the typical use-case for what most people use FB for. I don't think FB was ever about sharing with a million people, just whoever you friended.
- rdl 13y ago
  It really depends on whether you have an "open" friending policy or not, and if you have family/work friends/etc. who deter real sharing. And then whether you share to public, friends of friends, friends, or subgroups. Doing all this per-post is probably more work than I'd be willing to deal with, so I just set it as "friends", and add people who are interesting on my friends own posts to my fl. LiveJournal (RIP) is what trained me in all this behavior.
rdl 13y ago
I have 767 friends, mainly from the "hacker scene", YC and startups, Iraq/Afghanistan, diving, shooting sports, and cypherpunks. I have my FB set to "friends only", so I can make posts which can't be linked from Google results or elsewhere. Generally, anything which is either less-general-interest or more-sensitive than twitter, but which I want to post in general, vs. to a specific crowd. (Even more public/reputational than twitter would be HN submissions; HN comments generally are on-topic, and more on par with Twitter for sensitivity, although down in a conversation not as generally relevant.) I also have a few "secret fb groups" where we discuss various things. None of this really requires extreme privacy; it's just "please don't quote this in public yet" or "this might be too boring for the public." Since I've curated my friends well, I tend to see pretty interesting debates about: 1) guns (which is fun because especially the UK friends are anti-guns, and others are in the industry, and it remains civil) 2) crypto, security, and hardware stuff (including my own startup) 3) political issues (generally "good governance" which tends toward non-partisan, but also generally libertarian stuff) 4) major world events (e.g. I have friends from Ukraine, and when Afghanistan stories come up, I have friends I worked with in Afghanistan, and some who are in Afghanistan now) FB Messenger isn't secure/is archived by FB for unknown future use, but is remarkably convenient. If nothing else, it is better for "presence" than any of the encrypted chat stuff I use for content, so either non-sensitive discussions there, or "can we talk on OTR/irc/etc.?" It's also still my favorite photo sharing site for photos restricted to friends. My workflow involves Lightroom and then publishing to Flickr (public), FB (friends), 500px (pro). (although my real workflow is "archive to a drive and sit on them until I have time to edit...I have about a year backlog right now). I don't use Dropbox or WhatsApp.
newaccountfool 13y ago
Your having to use two apps there, Facebook has it all in one. Your probably seeing spam because you've like some ridiculous Facebook Page or app that posts garbage. Just add the people you actually talk to on Facebook. Your friends and family, guys from your gym. Create a group with your Chess Club in it so you can discuss chess openings. I don't think any one apart from my friends can see what I post on Facebook, not sure you can even share your page with millions of people unless millions of people follow you.
superuser2 13y ago
Chat. Non-pseudonymous and therefore discoverable, universally available chat with read receipts and delivery confirmation always available. Both synchronous and async conversations are first-class citizens and you can seamlessly transition between smartphone and real keyboard for more involved conversations. WhatsApp has no penetration in any social group I've ever been part of. I'll be disappointed if it does displace Facebook, because I so much prefer being able to transition a conversation to my laptop.
grrowl 13y ago
Mainly chat, increasingly in groups; WhatsApp is good but it's not ubiquitous enough. Otherwise photos and events, but even those are slowly moving into being shared within chat groups. The "scrolling news feed" days are coming to a close, and selective communications and sharing is becoming the norm, because with a decent amount of friends not everyone needs to know about everything (as a point of relevance, less than privacy)

bane 13y ago

> I don't want to share pictures with a million people anymore, just my family and really close friends. You've just described the typical use-case for what most people use FB for. I don't think FB was ever about sharing with a million people, just whoever you friended.

rdl 13y ago
It really depends on whether you have an "open" friending policy or not, and if you have family/work friends/etc. who deter real sharing. And then whether you share to public, friends of friends, friends, or subgroups. Doing all this per-post is probably more work than I'd be willing to deal with, so I just set it as "friends", and add people who are interesting on my friends own posts to my fl. LiveJournal (RIP) is what trained me in all this behavior.

rdl 13y ago

I have 767 friends, mainly from the "hacker scene", YC and startups, Iraq/Afghanistan, diving, shooting sports, and cypherpunks. I have my FB set to "friends only", so I can make posts which can't be linked from Google results or elsewhere. Generally, anything which is either less-general-interest or more-sensitive than twitter, but which I want to post in general, vs. to a specific crowd. (Even more public/reputational than twitter would be HN submissions; HN comments generally are on-topic, and more on par with Twitter for sensitivity, although down in a conversation not as generally relevant.) I also have a few "secret fb groups" where we discuss various things. None of this really requires extreme privacy; it's just "please don't quote this in public yet" or "this might be too boring for the public." Since I've curated my friends well, I tend to see pretty interesting debates about: 1) guns (which is fun because especially the UK friends are anti-guns, and others are in the industry, and it remains civil) 2) crypto, security, and hardware stuff (including my own startup) 3) political issues (generally "good governance" which tends toward non-partisan, but also generally libertarian stuff) 4) major world events (e.g. I have friends from Ukraine, and when Afghanistan stories come up, I have friends I worked with in Afghanistan, and some who are in Afghanistan now) FB Messenger isn't secure/is archived by FB for unknown future use, but is remarkably convenient. If nothing else, it is better for "presence" than any of the encrypted chat stuff I use for content, so either non-sensitive discussions there, or "can we talk on OTR/irc/etc.?" It's also still my favorite photo sharing site for photos restricted to friends. My workflow involves Lightroom and then publishing to Flickr (public), FB (friends), 500px (pro). (although my real workflow is "archive to a drive and sit on them until I have time to edit...I have about a year backlog right now). I don't use Dropbox or WhatsApp.

newaccountfool 13y ago

Your having to use two apps there, Facebook has it all in one. Your probably seeing spam because you've like some ridiculous Facebook Page or app that posts garbage. Just add the people you actually talk to on Facebook. Your friends and family, guys from your gym. Create a group with your Chess Club in it so you can discuss chess openings. I don't think any one apart from my friends can see what I post on Facebook, not sure you can even share your page with millions of people unless millions of people follow you.

superuser2 13y ago

Chat. Non-pseudonymous and therefore discoverable, universally available chat with read receipts and delivery confirmation always available. Both synchronous and async conversations are first-class citizens and you can seamlessly transition between smartphone and real keyboard for more involved conversations. WhatsApp has no penetration in any social group I've ever been part of. I'll be disappointed if it does displace Facebook, because I so much prefer being able to transition a conversation to my laptop.

grrowl 13y ago

Mainly chat, increasingly in groups; WhatsApp is good but it's not ubiquitous enough. Otherwise photos and events, but even those are slowly moving into being shared within chat groups. The "scrolling news feed" days are coming to a close, and selective communications and sharing is becoming the norm, because with a decent amount of friends not everyone needs to know about everything (as a point of relevance, less than privacy)