Is Facebook deteriorating?

[mesh control]

I think deleting your account from facebook itself, does not delete it at all. That sound confusing. But, I deleted my account several months ago and it was still there if you searched for me.

[gs68]

On Twitter, I have a private list reserved for people I'm good friends with and for accounts whose activity I want to play close attention to.

I should do the same for Facebook, as I have a huge number of friends and some of those friendships, particularly ones from high school (aka at least 5 years ago), have gone down the toilet or never really were friendships in the first place so I only have them on my friends list on the rare occasion that I feel like talking to them.

In fact, I've stopped adding people who preemptively add me just because we went to high school together--specifically those annoying ones who think we're best buds just because we went to HS together and I didn't want to call them out for being so clingy. Friendships based on "oh we took the same class together or went to middle or high school together" tend to die off easily. I prefer to have friends who are also cosplayers, STG players, etc. even if we only see each other every few months.

[maxlords]

I think deleting your account from facebook itself, does not delete it at all. That sound confusing. But, I deleted my account several months ago and it was still there if you searched for me.

That's because it won't actually delete until you remove all your friends from your friends list and all your pseronal information....or so I've been told by people that have tried to do the same. Not sure...have never tried it.

[Koa Zo]

I think facebook has definitaly peaked.

Since the last interface update most people I know have stopped posting to it regularly.
I find it pretty boring anymore.

[gs68]

In general I prefer not to poke into Internet forum threads on social networking sites. Too many faux-nonconformists who think they're part of a superior branch of the human race just because they don't use those kind of sites.

[mesh control]

I think deleting your account from facebook itself, does not delete it at all. That sound confusing. But, I deleted my account several months ago and it was still there if you searched for me.

That's because it won't actually delete until you remove all your friends from your friends list and all your pseronal information....or so I've been told by people that have tried to do the same. Not sure...have never tried it.

Yep, that's exactly what I had to do.
I should have said de-activating your account doesn't actually delete you.

[Domino]

So I decide to delete the FB account. It saids it will go bye bye on the 29th. We'll see.

I'll talk more about it later. I'm going to vent really hard folks.

[Ruldra]

So after a lot of begging from my friends, I finally decided to make a facebook profile. Added some friends, had a good conversation with one friend I didn't see in ages but was a bit worried to know the conversation is open for everyone to see.

The next day, I have tons of other people wanting to add me. Among them, friends of friends I have little contact with, people I have no desire to re-attach to, guys back from school who were complete dicks to me and MY 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER! WTF!?

I'm not gonna share my info, pics and conversations with those people! I already regret joining Facebook Zero privacy!

[Siren2011]

In general I prefer not to poke into Internet forum threads on social networking sites. Too many faux-nonconformists who think they're part of a superior branch of the human race just because they don't use those kind of sites.

Just "poking into" this thread to say I should have noticed the hypocrisy of your post earlier.

[ancestral-knowledge]

I think facebook is a good place where retards and stalker can hang out and share their mental illness with other subhumans and for this purpose only it's excellent. As we all know women are generally dumber than men which explains why there are more females attracted/ addicted to facebook. Checking profiles full of lifes and comparing them to other profiles full of lies is a sport females mastered over thousands of years of evolution to get the best specimen they can fuck in order to reproduce.

And yes there is no privacy there. If you think there is, you are a retard. Generally, if everything is for free and you don't have to care for anything then you are most likely the product. Without a doubt facebook datamines their huge databases and sells every kind of worthy information to other companies. But it's the people who are willing to put up every fucking fart they make on this platform so why blame facebook. And with this new timeline/chrono feature you will in fact be able to upload your whole fucking life into it. If that doesn't sound awesome to you then i can't help you.

Furthermore facebook is not a social platform or network or whatever. This is a lie the industrie has come up with like smoking is good for your baby. I repeat. It is NOT social. It makes you sit behind your fucking computer and send meaningless messages over the internet noone cares about. It is antisocial. And if you think that talking bullshit with fucking retards you hang out with in 4th grade is making you progress in your life then think again. And maybe that's the biggest problem of facebook: it doesn't matter. It could be offline tomorrow and nothing would happen and no information of any value would be lost. Because nothing on this plattform matters. Nothing.

On the other hand facebook is just another "social network". It's not the platforms fault itself that it sucks (well it looks like shit too but that alone isn't enough). Facebook only reflects how boring and full of shit everyone's life there really is. Therefore what makes facebook shit is the people (because they are mental) and not faceook itself. It's like with fast food. Nobody fucking forced you to eat until your weight reached 400kg you fat fuck. Wighting 400kg and saying MacDonalds is the cuplrit because they make unhealthy food is just retarded. Don't fucking eat it... like ... never...

Oh and is facebook deteriorating? - No. It's the same shit as it always was. This reproach is always made in literally every fucking game/platform/genre/musicgenre and whatnot after some time when it gets popular. Some superkewl elite idiots who think it's cool having a 4 digit ICQ number or playing WoW/SC2 from the BETA or having an account frm facebook since day 1 always say that the game/genre/whatever was better in the past and everything has become shit now and there are sooooo much people now who are always rude bla bla bla... everything was just generally better when noone was around except themselves of course because they are so elite and kewl. If you think that playing 8 years WoW is cool or if you think that facebook is deterioting after using it heavily like for 10 years then it's mostly not a problem in the game/plattform. Chances are you wasted a good portion of your life with senseless bullshit and should see a psychatrist.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Meh, Facebook is useful. It's an easy way to keep up with groups of people and is an excellent forum for unleashing my horrible pun-driven sense of humour on people.

Privacy-wise, I'm not sure I've given Facebook any more information (aside from mugshots) than my name and e-mail address. Mainly because I keep that shit under control whenever Facebook arbitarily decides to reset it.

But it is quite annoying how the site randomly changes every so often based on absolutely no feedback from the user community, so it takes a bit of time to work out the latest changes. If it 'ain't broke, don't fix it.

Fuck all social networking sites though. A mate of mine is utterly obsessed with Twitter yet my penchant for video games is apparently sad. That it may be, but at least when I'm down the pub I don't talk about them to people who don't care, unlike Mr. "so and so tweeted this - dude, check it out". I blame smartphones for bringing out the douchebag in people, socially.

[Siren2011]

Jesus Christ, dude. You have some good points, but you forfeit the right to be taken seriously when you have as many spelling and punctuation errors as you do in that single post of yours. "Industrie?" Lowercase "f" in "facebook?" "Psychatrist?" Are you fucking kidding me? Grade school is calling...

I really don't like World of Warcraft, so I don't know where the hell you acquired that notion. And I sure as fuck wasn't there with Facebook from day one. Admittedly, this thread goes to show how dumb I really was to think that there ever was a time when Facebook was a great social outlet. In reality, all we were really doing was posting one sentence statuses about small details of our subhuman lives and commenting on other people's pictures.

OH, BUT WAIT! IT GETS BETTER! THEY'VE INCREASED THE COMPLEXITY WITH THE "LIKE" BUTTON. NOW IT'S MUCH DEEPER. KTHNXBAI.

[ancestral-knowledge]

sry for that ...

i just remembered that i lost 2 friends i used to hang out with to facebook. now all they do is posting around pictures of events like concerts that they never went to... pretty awesome...
and it's late...

[gct]

I still stand by my statement that the quality of your Facebook experience highly depends on the quality of your friends' posts. Obviously everyone here has seen some utterly banal stuff, and the sad truth is that more people can relate to those than they can to some funny witticism that takes more than a passing thought to appreciate.

If you know someone who is really fun IRL who is a crushing bore on Facebook, I don't see what's to stop you from meeting up IRL and/or ignoring the FB stuff.
There is a former coworker I didn't know all that well, who posts frequently on Facebook. Nearly every post is high quality and he must be one of the more genuinely witty guys I met, and I never knew it before FB.
On the other hand I have an aunt who posts nothing but stuff like how she went sailing (again) and isn't her life wonderful, nothing that ever gave me a chuckle, but I have to keep her on my list because she's family.

I think you just have to deal with the fact that people find different relevance to different things. If you don't participate in what does not interest you, your overall participation may be lower, but the little that you do will be more enjoyable. If nobody on your list can make a meaningful comment on that wonderful philosophical essay you wrote, then you are just lacking a certain kind of person on your list, it's your job to go find them

[Davey]

When I saw that this thread was necro'd, I thought it was going to be because of this.

[szycag]

Pac-Man S on Facebook is awesome. Can't wait to see how good it is when it comes out of Beta. Just wish it acted a little better with joy2key, but I play OK with the arrow keys (got like 530k right now which puts me in 260 or so world ranking last time I checked) It's like a hybrid of classic Pac-Man and CE, and it's free, what's not to like? Stuff like that will keep me coming back to FB.

As for all your criticisms, Facebook is for people who want to have a real life and keep track of when friends are throwing house parties and shit like that. It's not for trying to socialize from the safety of your computer because you're nuts and get mad when people don't gush over your poetry.

[xbl0x180]

For something to deteriorate it requires some kind of [high/good] quality. This spacebook thing couldn't deteriorate any less because it's just another "networking" c**ks**tmobile

[Aguraki]

I don't have facebook and my friends say oh you can't know you don't have facebook.
I don't have anymore friends

lol facebook I will kill myself before getting an account there.

[rancor]

lol facebook I will kill myself before getting an account there.

Sounds like a suicide pact to me!

Let's shake on it!

[Drum]

They are getting desperate. My email is getting spammed twice a week or more 'updating' me on the notices I have had in my fb inbox for months. Only used to get spammed every month or so. I expect they're trying to respond to panicking shareholders and the slowing of growth. Imbeciles.
I'd delete my account but I have a lot of friends in other countries that use it a lot and it's nice to be able to check out what they're up to.

[greg]

I chose the last option. Facebook can kiss my grits. Your question should have been, "Is Facebook deteriorating our modern society?" The answer is a wholehearted YES.

[powersoul]

Privacy intrusion at its best: Facebook

[MX7]

Why is everyone so obsessed with privacy? Has everyone here posted all their credit card details on Facebook or something? Do you scream at people who look at you in the street for invading your privacy? I honestly don't understand.

Is this something to do with advertising? Because the concept of selling audiences has existed for many many years. Or is it just because the forum is populated with loveable curmudgeons?

As long as you don't don't post pictures of your cock and/or add your mum you'll be fine.

[gct]

As long as you don't don't post pictures of your cock and/or add your mum you'll be fine.

Hah... well I have added some aunts who may or may not be reporting to my mum. I don't do limited profile, but then again as a personal rule I don't post anything that I wouldn't want my family and current/potential employers/significant others to see. Gotta keep it tastefully humourous without being unprofessional.

[ryu]

Why is everyone so obsessed with privacy?

personally i don't like to think that every fucktard who knows my name can just do a google search and find out about my life history.
shit's really funny with original and unique user names too. you might be able to track shit someone posted on the internet years ago and go ruin somebody's reputation.

[Davey]

Do you scream at people who look at you in the street for invading your privacy?

Somebody looking at you isn't the same as having a permanent record of something you said or did on the internet. Plus, it's easier for people to remember that anything they say or do is inherently public when they're, well, in public (probably some caveats there too, but IANAL).

Of course, you can't assume privacy on the internet either, which is why I find social networking to be of limited use. What good is a communication tool if you have to sanitize everything you say? Technically, Facebook doesn't even let you hide behind the anonymity of a pseudonym. Their TOS requires you to have one account using your real name.

And speaking of their TOS, their privacy policy can (and does) change at any time without your consent. Remember the Beacon fiasco? And I could have sworn that they added a "who's visited your page" feature a looooong time ago, but took it down almost immediately due to all the flak they got for it. I can't find a link, though, so I could be wrong.

Is this something to do with advertising? Because the concept of selling audiences has existed for many many years.

If all they cared about was what kind of ads to show, I wouldn't care that much (grocery store has been doing it for a decade), although I can see how some people might. But when you step back and think about it, Facebook can potentially know a lot about you. Contact info, school and employment history, who you know, what you do, what your plans are, what other sites you visit, political and religious beliefs, etc. Some of that's public info, some of it's kind of creepy.

Take this for example: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 30#p597230
At that time I had never had a Facebook account. How did they know who I know? Did one of her friends use some shady third party Facebook app that collects/shares more data than the user realizes? I have no idea. Even if they're just using this data as part of some convoluted plan figure out what kind of ads they want to show me, the whole operation is kind of shady.

Part of it's generational, too. Old people don't want to share any more than they have to; teenagers grew up without an expectation of privacy and would probably give away their SSN for a few free songs on iTunes. I'm not sure if older generations are being paranoid or if young people are being naive... probably a bit of both. In defense of old people, laws and social norms regarding privacy were established before information was so easily gathered, retrieved, and shared, so they've seen how things have changed first hand.

shit's really funny with original and unique user names too. you might be able to track shit someone posted on the internet years ago and go ruin somebody's reputation.

Hell, I'm embarrassed of some posts I made years ago on this very forum. Maybe I'll look back at this post and cringe a few years from now. Yay infinite loop of shame.

[xbl0x180]

I don't want people to misconstrue what I post over the Internet with "knowing" me. If a person really wants to get to know me, then they'd have to do it in real life, not on some stupid/juvenile "networking" site. I mean, there's some out there who post where they live, who their family is, where they work, who they know, etc. for just about any random person with Internet access to peruse (and I'm including profiles who have the highest "privacy" settings). Also, I think there might've been some people who confused the anonymity of posting on the Internet with being "private" and who underestimated the lasting effect of the stupid s*** posted years ago

[Zerst]

As portrayed in greg's pic, I quit using facebook as a personal thing when I realized it was nothing more than a giant marketing campaign, sneakily using and abusing millions of names and likenesses for profit. On the other side? It's a disgustingly invaluable tool.

[Siren2011]

Facebook: Making it easier for rapists, one site update at a time.

-2011-
Hey, guys. I can see that John Butler likes the link that Ricardo Sanchez posted on Cindy "Cum Dumpster" Morenas' wall.

-2994-
Oh wait, I got a notification on the HUD of my anti-aircraft, fully pictorially accurate GPS-sporting space car telling me that some dude I've never met before in Norway has taken a shit in a wishing well on these precise coordinants...24 years old, and his father served in WWIII. His fav dessert is Beignets, while his son prefers vanilla ice cream. Also, my wife is cheating on me with one of her students at this very- WHAT?!

-3000-
I can see E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.

[BPzeBanshee]

I got an account a while ago. Got sick and tired of people not wanting to get MSN because it apparently has lots of viruses and you have to download it (even though its actually embedded in your Hotmail and Facebook has more viruses anyway, dumbass).

Disabled any and all notifications to my email, put nothing on it that I'd care if people knew of, and its actually become somewhat useful. I find it easier reading a group convo for organising events instead of hearing 20 chicks talk over eachother in real life.

Still, I say "somewhat". I don't know anyone that uses Facebook exclusively for contact but I would not tolerate that kind of shit.

Bottom line, this is one of the few things I actually completely and wholeheartedly agree with Udderdude here:

Duh. Facebook is for people or acquaintances you already know IRL (Or met some way besides Facebook). It's not MySpace, and trust me, that's a good thing :p

If anything is deteriorating Facebook it's the over-emergence of social gaming and their continual mucking up of privacy issues.