One hick's opinion...

[B_Hickboy]

I am just one bucolic oaf, and my rants should be taken with a grain of salt...

I have arrived at the opinion that Facebook sucks. I have disabled my account there, and have doubts that I will ever go back. I'm so miffed at them right now that I'm even having thoughts about establishing a site to compete with them.

My main beef with FB is that it takes liberties with the private information stored in people's accounts. The last time I visited there, I felt like I was in Minority Report; that the site was trying to sell me stuff. I don't know whether I was more offended by the ads pushing stuff aimed directly at me (flyfishing and musical instrument sites, mostly), or the adverts which targeted toward what some stupid software assumed was my demographic. I don't need Viagra or dates with women half my age, and I sure as fuck don't want to be a fan of Sarah Palin.

I have had enough of Facebook. If you are a friend of mine there but not here, please befriend me here so we can keep in touch.

I have been checking out join diaspora - blog. Even though Diaspora hasn't opened yet, and won't for another six weeks, it looks VERY interesting to me.

Even LPSG, with all its problems, is a better site for me. I can visit here without fear of having the site try to shove Sean Hannity up my ass.

 

[HiddenLacey]

Actually I agree with you about facebook. I use a fake DOB and a fake place of birth on that site. Anyone who knows me IRL knows the real information. I took down all of my interests along time ago. I'm not interested in having my private information passed on to other companies or people who could use that information against me. I had not heard of the new site, but I will check it out! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Northland]

I am just one bucolic oaf, and my rants should be taken with a grain of salt...

I have arrived at the opinion that Facebook sucks. I have disabled my account there, and have doubts that I will ever go back. I'm so miffed at them right now that I'm even having thoughts about establishing a site to compete with them.

My main beef with FB is that it takes liberties with the private information stored in people's accounts. The last time I visited there, I felt like I was in Minority Report; that the site was trying to sell me stuff. I don't know whether I was more offended by the ads pushing stuff aimed directly at me (flyfishing and musical instrument sites, mostly), or the adverts which targeted toward what some stupid software assumed was my demographic. I don't need Viagra or dates with women half my age, and I sure as fuck don't want to be a fan of Sarah Palin.

I have had enough of Facebook. If you are a friend of mine there but not here, please befriend me here so we can keep in touch.

I have been checking out join diaspora - blog. Even though Diaspora hasn't opened yet, and won't for another six weeks, it looks VERY interesting to me.

Even LPSG, with all its problems, is a better site for me. I can visit here without fear of having the site try to shove Sean Hannity up my ass.

Never have bothered much with Facebook. I signed up and all that, never spent more than a few hours there since. Actually, I haven't been there in at least a year, not since the Felsen Experiment.

I give to you this present, knowing your deep admiration of Sean.A Treat For HickBoy:biggrin1:

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

I don't give a shit about FB marketing to me, or passing on information I put on the interwebz for all the world to see in the first place to companies who want to sell me shit. After all I am a consumer and I do like to buy things. I can't understand people's paranoia about FB or their sense that their information should be oh so private, if you don't want the world knowing your business don't publish it on a website with hundreds of millions of users.

What pisses me off about FB is that it just doesn't fucking work properly half the time! OMG I have lost count of the constant glitches and stalls it goes through, they contantly introduce new features which only make things more complicated and which seem to break not only themselves but other features too! Someone needs to prune the shit out of FB and make the basic features of the site work properly again and consistently. Oh and stop trying to rip-off Twitter. Twitter is OK, but FB is much more interesting (or was) so why try to copy something inferior? It doesn't make much sense.

 

[nudeyorker]

I can't get the image out of my head of shoving Sean Hannity up your ass.

 

[B_Hickboy]

I can't get the image out of my head of shoving Sean Hannity up your ass.

You are a Gentleman and a True Romantic.

 

[helgaleena]

Facebook and Myspace both have their faults. And they both run ads from 3rd parties to make their money. I only use them for work, muwahaha.

 

[chicagosam]

I can visit here without fear of having the site try to shove Sean Hannity up my ass.

Do you have room for Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly?

 

[B_Hickboy]

Do you have room for Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly?

Yeah. There's room for 'em in front of that ditch right there while I'm going to get my shotgun.

 

[witch]

on FB I can do without the constant invites to be my friend from people I have “never” heard of … and all those lame games

 

[HazelGod]

Yeah. There's room for 'em in front of that ditch right there while I'm going to get my shotgun.

Need to borrow some shells?

 

[dannyrankin]

Couldn't be fucked.

 

[concupisys]

facebook is exactly what it is: a website.... it has features and functions, is used to communicate and broadcast media, and contains ads.... it's no different than any other website except for the fact that so many people use it.... FB is a great way for me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world.... i'm pretty much desensitized to the advertising, and am savvy enough to know when i've been spammed.... i don't play all that farmville and mafia wars crap; i just read the news feed, comment on things, and post funny links when i find them.... it's really not meant to be taken much more seriously than that....

 

[chicagosam]

Yeah. There's room for 'em in front of that ditch right there while I'm going to get my shotgun.

I have a few more for you when you return. I'll go get the supplies for the bonfire. Anyone up for s'mores?

If Facebook is shoving Sean Hannity up your ass, who are they shoving up his?

 

[Lex]

facebook is exactly what it is: a website.... it has features and functions, is used to communicate and broadcast media, and contains ads.... it's no different than any other website except for the fact that so many people use it.... FB is a great way for me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world.... i'm pretty much desensitized to the advertising, and am savvy enough to know when i've been spammed.... i don't play all that farmville and mafia wars crap; i just read the news feed, comment on things, and post funny links when i find them.... it's really not meant to be taken much more seriously than that....

If you believe this, then you really have no understanding of what FB really is or why it is so valuable (as an corporate entity).

FB is not a website. It is a data warehouse and aggregator. YOUR personal data, btw, which, if you have been paying attention, FB has been slowly and quickly making much more public and readily available (to both 3rd party entities, search engines, and the general public).

 

[Bbucko]

I use FB to renew and maintain contact with people I knew (and their now-grown kids) in France.

I was introduced to it in 08, when a Fuckbud-relationship-in-decline urged me to sign up in what was a bid to keep an eye on/stalk me. Figuring this out very quickly, I've never posted anything on there publicly that I wouldn't mind seeing printed on the front page of the NYT above the fold

But I gotta say: in some ways they have me pinned to the cunt-hairs (especially with "friend" "suggestions") and as far as they are concerned, the 40% or so of straight folk on my list do not mitigate the 60% of gays, so they know I'm a big ole 'mo. On the other hand, the ever-revolving politically-centered "like/dislike" feature on the right hand side gets me all wrong; in this regard, I'm hardly alone. It's almost (note: almost) funny to see Sarah Palin rear her head on a die-hard lefty's page (as nearly all my friends are on the left side of the political spectrum), along with Scott Brown and other icons of current conservative American politics. What the fux up with that?

Anyone who claims to be unaware of (or unconcerned by) the marketing of one's personal details by FB is either dim, disingenuous or on staff :wink:

 

[Lex]

The more diverse the people with whom they can connect you, the more powerful is their ability to sell your information to people who want to target you for advertising. And the Like/Dislike feature is just a way for FB to be able to track your internet browsing habits.

 

[HazelGod]

On the other hand, the ever-revolving politically-centered "like/dislike" feature on the right hand side gets me all wrong; in this regard, I'm hardly alone. It's almost (note: almost) funny to see Sarah Palin rear her head on a die-hard lefty's page (as nearly all my friends are on the left side of the political spectrum), along with Scott Brown and other icons of current conservative American politics. What the fux up with that?

Perhaps it's a right-wing conspiracy by which the shadow puppeteers pulling the Facebook strings seek to tempt intelligent, free-thinking folks over to the dark side. :wink:

Anyone who claims to be unaware of (or unconcerned by) the marketing of one's personal details by FB is either dim, disingenuous or on staff :wink:

:lmao:
True dat...but you repeat yourself, sir.

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

Anyone who claims to be unaware of (or unconcerned by) the marketing of one's personal details by FB is either dim, disingenuous or on staff :wink:

Genuinely doesn't bother me, because I'm the one who feeds the information to FB, if I didn't give them my information they couldn't market it. Genuinely I am the one who consents to the uses of this information, no one forces me to have a profile.

And like I said, I don't really care that companies buy this information in order to market their products to me, I am a consumer and I like to buy things.

 

[Bbucko]

The more diverse the people with whom they can connect you, the more powerful is their ability to sell your information to people who want to target you for advertising. And the Like/Dislike feature is just a way for FB to be able to track your internet browsing habits.

That explains some of those odd "friendship" requests I get from insanely sexy muscular Europeans from Greece and Italy. When I ask how they found me and why they'd want to get to know me, there's never anything but a vague response about a "search" and how he found me "handsome", like some 26-32 year old muscleboi from across the ocean has nothing better to do than troll for middle-aged Americans

I'll delete them from my list this afternoon. For all I know, they could be another, odder breed of stalker. When a certain controversial and now-banned "smoking lady" found my FB profile and attempted contact (along with at least one of her troll playmates), I was horrified: how the fuck did she get my name?

I eventually traced it back to Jason_Els. His page is still up, BTW, and I got a singularly creepy suggestion to "renew contact" and write something on his wall