My Facebook rant
My Facebook rant; The worlds biggest yet worlds worst social networking site
Facebook is the worlds largest social networking website with over 1 billion active users and can be found all over the web with it’s like box and social integration and probably knows as much about me as Google even though I am scrubbing my data from the big blue. It’s full of bugs and glitches ugly and annoying here’s my rant and the only real alternative in this blog post
Advertising
Image Credit Sega corporation and Thomas HawkFacebook makes money from adverts and “sponsored stories” although it’s not their entire revenue source but the majority of it, They have so much information about me yet all their adverts are irrelevant to me, for example their mobile averts that come into the top of the stream are adverts and links to install apps from Google Play and the advert they show me is to pretend to be a football manager. I have never liked or shown any interest into football on facebook or visited any football based websites yet they show me an advert for a football based simulation game why? I wouldn’t mind so much if they were relevant. The thing is Facebook knows what I “like” and I hate football so why show me an adverts for football? Enough about mobile how about desktop adverts?
They’re just as bad ! Not to mention everywhere and overwhelming my “friend” posted the other day on Facebook “What’s with facebooks adverts it’s like I have a virus” Ford also said Facebook adverts do not work, and I agree if an advert is not relevant to me I’m not going to click it.
As Facebook struggles to to make money they’re coming up with more inventive ways to make money such as paying $100 to send Mark Zuckerberg a message it’s ridiculous! With rumours flying about with auto playing video adverts with sound in the stream Facebook looks like it could get worse. Even though this is a rumour it’s entirely believable.
Not so social social network
How many people do you think sees your Status? Facebook keeps mum on this but it’s about 12% but this was before the possibility to pay for your “friends” to see your status this could be less now. Why? Facebook uses an algorithm to rank posts by importance on Facebook and I must say it does not work my stream is full of crap from “friends” I have created a list for my photographer friends so I can see their posts without the other crap getting in between.
Not only can you pay to have your friends see your latest posts you can pay to send people a message who are outside your network for a cool $100 USD (about £62) it’s not just to send Mark Zuckerberg a message so I’ve heard not only that they by default replace your email address on your about section of your profile/timeline whatever it is today with your facebook email and any emails from outside facebook by default go to the “other” section of your inbox
Facebook seems to show me posts from people who I don’t really care about seeing when I occasionally go down my stream and half of it are from people who I don’t interact with on Facebook. They see who I interact with via Facebook messages and what content I “like” yet somehow they show me all the wrong things it doesn’t feel like a place for “friends” at all ! It just feels like they’re trying to sell me things all the time.
Mobile
Despite many changes to the mobile app (on android at least) it’s still dire. Just less dire than it was. It’s slow clunky and ugly. I come across problems all the time when on mobile, even when connected to the internet both on mobile network (I’m on Three UK and I have a full signal almost everywhere, unlimited data and it’s fast) and WiFi Facebook often tells me I have no internet connection and refuses to load the stream.
Mobile notifications still aren’t great they’re boring simple and don’t take advantage of androids rich notifications such as being able to expand a message you’ve been sent or reply without opening the app. It’s just terrible.
Copyright woes
If you’re a photographer or an artist when you upload an image to Facebook they are licensed to use your work on their website. It makes sense as you want to display it on there why else would you upload it? That’s not the issue. The issue is they have a licence to that work unless everybody deletes it. They’re also allowed to sub licence your work to other people. So if you delete your Facebook remember some of the things you’ve uploaded Facebook may still be licensed to use some of your work
What their TOS you never read mean
Very broad copyright license on your content
The copyright licence that you grant to Facebook goes beyond the requirements for operating the service. For instance, it includes the right for Facebook to transfer the license or to license it others on their terms (“sublicense”). Also, the copyright license does not end when you stop using the service unless your content has been deleted by everyone else.
→ No promise to inform about government requests Discussion
The service has made no statement nor promised users to tell them about data sought by governments, thus not giving you a chance to defend yourself against government requests.
- Facebook automatically shares your data with many other services
Facebook automatically shares your information with Bing, Pandora, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Clicker, Scribd, and Docs, unless you manually opt-out.
+ Transparency on law enforcement requests
The service is making clear to their users what standards and rules law enforcement must follow when they seek access to sensitive user data.
+ You can give your feedback before changes
Facebook will solicit your feedback during the 3 or 7 days minimum preceding changes to their terms. However, the results are not binding unless 30% of the active users voted.
- No pseudonym allowed
You must use your legal name publicly on the service. Using a pseudonym or a pen name is not allowed. This can have negative consequences on the freedom of expression, especially for people who exercise certain professions, or who live in certain countries.
Information credit tos-dr.info
The alternatives?
Well there’s not really many some would argue twitter but I disagree that’s not what I’d see as a social network even direct messages are limited. So what else? Well Google+
Google+ has it’s downfalls yes, such as no way to send people a message and them all being in one place without having to leave Google+ for Gmail but unlike Facebook it actually works! It’s also beautiful, as Guy Kawasaki once said “Google+ is the Mac of social networks” Furthermore you control your stream with sliders with what you see and better management of people using circles. Facebook did introduce lists but at the time I wasn’t going to organise 500 people into lists too late Facebook. I do use lists however.
Another thing about Google+ no adverts – ever, Mr Google+ himself Vic Gundotra assures me there will be no adverts. Another thing about Google+ is hangouts 9 person video conference for free with a 20 hour limit who would have thought it, yes facebook has skype integration but not good enough I say.
Done is better than perfect is Facebooks unofficial motto I disagree nothing is perfect lets be honest Google+ notifications aren’t perfect the community feature notifications are still impossible to change at the time of writing this but I imagine that will change. One of the great things about Google+ is muting. You can mute a user or a post therefore will you will not be notified about this post or from this person is one major advantage when it comes to Google+
Yes I do have facebook and you can subscribe to me but I cannot delete facebook as in some cases it’s the only way I can get in touch with some people. There’s no escaping facebook it follows you around the web as does Google+ the +1 button is also everywhere and Google+ is growing hugely I hope one day facebook is a bad memory but in the meantime many are forced to use it as they have almost a monopoly on some social connections but I hope not for long!
Even its shareholders are loosing faith in the company some people believe that facebook wont go away but look at MySpace (I’m on there too) it was once the biggest social network on the web now look at it, and it’s founder Tom Anderson is also on Google+ (I love his photography) chances are if you’re reading this, unless it went viral (which I doubt nobody listens to me anyway) you’re on and using Google+ if not make the switch it’s beautiful on desktop and mobile.
