BS: The death of Facebook

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 04:38 PM

Much appreciated Bobad !

I use Firefox as my browser and was unaware of these tools ... I just installed them.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: bobad
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 03:58 PM

biLL, I use Firefox as my browser with add-ons Adblock Plus and Track Me Not. I have not seen an ad in years.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 03:43 PM

OK Bobad ... today I get post (and not a little ad at the side of the page) on my FB from Kentucky Fried Chicken .... like or unlike .... now, how in the hell and why would they target me ... never even looked at their website ... never even eat their crap ... and how would you prevent them them from invading my FB site ... now that I know they exist I can block them, what tools do you use do you use to prevent others ... waiting the next great thing to pop up on my FB site. No wonder I'm starting to avoid FB.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: bobad
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 03:14 PM

Those who rant about having to suffer unwanted ads and/or posts about things or from people they don't particularly want to see should know that there are tools available to omit these annoyances unless, of course, what they really want to do is bitch and moan about them.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 02:30 PM

Facebook is great because it means you can keep up the trivia exchange so that when you do meet someone you haven't seen for years you can revert to talking about the meaningful things (football / TV / music) without having to catchup on the tedious stuff (death / disease / personal fortune). It's great when the opening gambit in a conversation with a dear old friend you haven't seen in decades is 'Loved that rant you did on Facebook the other week. Fancy a pint?'

This is what computers were invented for surely? So we could take the boredom out of social intercourse.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 11:58 PM

Joe F: I have enjoyed FB for a while, but I have just quit reading & posting to it, because it has become increasingly tedious to page thru it extract actual information about my friends from all the cute animals & political propaganda, and because, as regards the latter, I am a dissenter from the religion in which blaming the victim is taboo, and I find recent postings infested with that sort of stuff, which I have not the energy or the courage to protest.

Again, I don't really u8nderstand this. I have one friend who constantly uploads photos of animals, but I've just blocked seeing her updates. I can still invite her to events, or be invited by her, exchange messages etc, I just no longer see the endless stream of cute kitty pics she posts. Simples. Same with one or two friends who constantly rant.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 11:21 PM

Nigel,

I say Obama was born on the moon and you pick nits about the Alaska thing?

Good one! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 09:11 PM

I have enjoyed FB for a while, but I have just quit reading & posting to it, because it has become increasingly tedious to page thru it extract actual information about my friends from all the cute animals & political propaganda, and because, as regards the latter, I am a dissenter from the religion in which blaming the victim is taboo, and I find recent postings infested with that sort of stuff, which I have not the energy or the courage to protest.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 06:44 PM

I never got into Facebook.

A friend tried to get my wife into it, and she messed with it for a few days, then came to the conclusion that it was yet another way to waste time on the computer and dropped it. Following her lead, I just never got involved.

Now, more and more, I hear that it's studded with mines, and that sharks and barracuda cruise back and forth just below the surface.

We may not qualify as full-fledged computer geeks, but we keep in touch with our friends by telephone, e-mail, snail mail, or if all else fails, we visit in person.

Glad we stayed out of it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 05:49 PM

without irritating ads as I've blocked them
Typical freeloader

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 05:07 PM

"I'll bet you can't name a country north of the USA that has three a's in the name. Like this and share it for good luck if you think Obama was born on the moon."

Okay, I give up.
I would say Canada, but most of that is South of a large part of the USA

After all, Alaska is the largest state of the union, also the most northerly, the most westerly, and (confusing though it may seem) the most easterly!

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Greg F.
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 08:16 AM

"We used to be called "citizens of the internet." Now we're all mostly just "victims."

Actually, we've always been the victims, lots just didn't realize it. And the techno-addicted with their CrackBerries & etc. still don't realize it.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 05:47 AM

Being an antisocial sorta guy I don't join social media. I don't know about FB declining, I find increasingly that musicans use FB and close their websites so trying to get information on them without joining FB is becoming more difficult.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 05:26 PM

A targeted marketing misfire is also quite common with products you might use.

A scanner that I bought less than a year ago came with "bundled" OCR and PDF converter. I did probably make a mistake when I purchased an upgrade for the PDF maker, and as a result I get a flood of ads from this company, offering me all kinds of "other marvelous things" for which I have no need and no interest in having.

I nearly always get TWO IDENTICAL EMAILS the same day, about 4 to 5 times per week.

The "disturbing" aspect of this is that every ad offers at least a 20% discount, sometimes a little more, if I "order NOW" and in less than a year my "update to the latest" is FOUR VERSIONS BEHIND THEIR CURRENT ONE.

Conclusions:

Anything that's always on sale obviously isn't worth the price they thought they could sell it for. If it's not worth what they thought it was when the printed the package, I'm unlikely to believe their lies about how great it is now.

Anything that has to be updated that often might possibly NOT be something I really want to be using. Obviously I should at least wait until they get it partly right.

John

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 04:23 PM

I was making a joke.

I'm sorry that "Obama was born on the moon." wasn't a broad enough hint.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 04:16 PM

I don't understand the problem. Just block them. And don't click on stupid "invites" from friends.

I guess I must have an unusually discriminating bunch of FB friends as it's at least 5 months since I've seen anything intrusive due to a friend clicking on it.

And FB, like anything else, is a TOOL. If it's used right, it's a boon. As I've said here before, my real-life social life has improved immensely, and my circle of real-life friends grown much wider, thanks to FB and before that to various other Forums, including this.

I can imagine seveal generations ago people like Greg F huffing and puffing about this "horrible new telephone thing" that will be the "death of afternoon social visits".

Just arranged via FB to go to a music session in UK in early May, from here in Sakhalin (Russian Fare East) at no phone or postage cost. Also just arranged a climbing meet in Devon, UK, in early June. real life interactions made simply, quickly and cheaply by use of social media (without irritating ads as I've blocked them).

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 02:27 PM

Number 6, of course you don't. However if you've been searching for camera gear it's more likely that you'll be interested in seeing ads for camera equipment than for, say, golf clubs. Despite that, targeted advertising just seems to annoy the recipients. It's a good idea on paper which doesn't seem to work too well in practice.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 02:15 PM

" I know finds it creepy when they start receiving adverts based on their recent searches."

People would not find it creepy if they did not "trust" Google with their private correspondence. Think about it. How creepy is that?

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 01:38 PM

Howard Jones ... just because I look up a certain camera lens or whatever on the WWW does not mean I want emails, and posts arriving on my Facebook site from every Tom, Dick and Harry from around the world who has camera equipment or whatever to sell ... if they could get my phone number they'd all be phoning me.

Remember that saying ... "don't call me, I'll call you"

It reminds me of sitting at a sidewalk cafe on Rossio Square in Lisbon and my wife asks one of those street vendors (selling trinkets) passing by if she could see what he has ... next thing you are swarmed by vendors they are coming at you from all over.

JohninKansas summed it all up with his statement .. "We used to be called "citizens of the internet." Now we're all mostly just "victims." (Or that other term - "warm meat.")"

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 01:17 PM

Target marketing is a strange phenomenon. From an advertiser's point of view, it is wonderful - they don't want to advertise to people who aren't interested. And from the consumer's point of view, it should also be wonderful - who wants to get advertising about something they've no interest in? Far better for it to be relevant to them.

And yet, almost everyone I know finds it creepy when they start receiving adverts based on their recent searches. So what should be a win-win for advertisers and consumers ends up being a turn-off.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 08:46 AM

The most insidious trend I've noted recently is that formerly reputable news sites have been frequently sending me, via their links to sources, to sites where the page will not load unless you override your popup blocker and "allow popups."

An isolated link recently took me to a site that insisted "this site includes features you will not be able to enjoy unless you install the latest version of one of these browsers." IE, that I normally use was listed, but I already use the latest version available for anything but Win8 (unless you want a "beta version" that Microsoft will let you have for Win7 and that's not been favorably reviewed by anyone when used other than in Win8).

Since the site was at Google, and Microsoft and Google have been nominally "at war" with each other for some time now, I'd understand if IE had been omitted from the list to convince people that they must use something "not Microsoft." The only alternate explanation I can think of is that Google thinks if they can convince people that they MUST USE WIN8 they'll find it so bad that they'll all switch to whatever that Google thing is that they've been advertising - or maybe just to a complete OS from "anybody but Microsoft."

We used to be called "citizens of the internet." Now we're all mostly just "victims." (Or that other term - "warm meat.")

John

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 12:29 AM

Well, let's say Facebook died. I probably wouldn't even notice for a month or two. Kind of like if football (the American game, I mean) died. Or if Cosmopolitan was terminated. Or if they stopped making poutine. Or if Pink retired from the music business.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Greg F.
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 09:49 AM

With any real browser, one can BLOCK cookies, ya know.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Greg F.
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 09:47 AM

Death of FarceBook? And not a minute too soon. If only it were true.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 09:00 AM

It's more than just what google.

The hot, gotta have software for corporations, political parties, governments are deep mining tools, they are like super googles that continually spin away scraping the WWW for keywords and extract and then save this data. So if you are here on the Madcat, or on some other blog or FB, twitter or whatever , if you type Coca Cola is shit, or it's my fav soft drink then this info along with your cookie is hyper targeted and saved for further analysis. The same goes for if you type Obama is an asshole, or wow he's the greatest the data is grabbed.

Another software that I'd be concerned is cloud technology ... not only are you giving some company you data from you computer, but who says that data can't be hacked on whatever, wherever the server it resides on.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 08:08 AM

You go on Google looking for cars, someone shows you an ad for a car. No one is making you buy the car. The fact that the information can be used that way is allowed in the terms of use for Google and Facebook. You are using their stuff for free, what do you expect?

Just be aware that clicking "like" on some of these memes will get you on a list.

I read an article a couple of years ago that the Nigerian scams are as crazy and implausible to weed out the prospects with better critical thinking skills. They end up only communicating with people dumb enough to fall for a scam.

If you like in The United States of America and they say "I bet you can't name a country without and "L" in the the name It is harder than you think." and you are flattered and think "It's not hard for a 'smart' person like me." and you type in "Cambodia" proudly, as if you had won something you are pre-selecting yourself for manipulation.   If you type in Belize, congratulate yourself on own an atlas but put all of your assets under someone else's power of attorney.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 07:56 AM

Even sheep can use what wits they have to take a measure of control in their lives.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: gnu
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 07:05 AM

Sounds baa-aa-ad, Charmion.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 06:43 AM

It's called "hyper-targeting", and it's what cookies are for.

Every move you make on the Web is scrutinized by trend-analysis software designed to place advertising in front if you at every possible moment.

When you start to get the feeling that you're a poor, dumb beast to be shorn and milked at will by dozens if not hundreds of commercial entities whose identities are a complete mystery to you, the actual state or affairs will be clear to you.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 11:03 PM

You don't have to 'like' any facebook site to be "mined"

I'm checking out hotels in Dusseldorf Germany on the web .. the next thing I see are these ads appearing on the facebook site for "hotels in Dusseldorf and Cologne ... I check out Tangine recipes on the web, and these stooopid ads for tangine merchants appear on my facebook.

I check out train schedules from Dusseldorf to Berlin and I start getting emails for train rates from various travel agencies ... probably scraped my email addy from facebook.

There's corporate to be found on the WWW kids.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: number 6
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 10:48 PM

Facebook and the whole social media has become rather annoying and somewhat boring .... it's blown it's wad. Much like mainstream T.V. ... over saturated with politikal, and social rhetoric, mindless blah, blah,blah of all angles. bombarded with commercialism    ... eventually like T.V. you just turn it off, never to be turned on again.

It's not just Facebook that is being farmed and data mined ... the whole WWW (and yes that means our old dear antiquated Madcat) is now the wheat field for corporate harvesting without you being aware of it.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 10:09 PM

You mean you are not going to "like" when it means "Obama was born on the moon?"

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: gnu
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 09:11 PM

I have taken note and will not respond to any such posts in future. Thanks, JtS.

Subject: RE: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 05:36 PM

Rather reminds me of copycat threads that every now and again appear on Mudcat. I don't always accomplish it but t is possible to ignore them.

Subject: BS: The death of Facebook
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 05:33 PM

THIS WILL BE THE DEATH OF FACEBOOK.

Memes like

"I'll bet you can't name a country north of the USA that has three a's in the name. Like this and share it for good luck if you think Obama was born on the moon."

Actually it not the memes that will kill Facebook. It is what happens to your friendships when you realize that the reason you see them is that your friends have clicked "like".