I'm asking myself that now... Why??? What do I have to say about anything?!
As I was revamping my website (in other words, actually creating one!) I thought I needed content, and this would at least be vaguely dynamic content! But also, Facebook / Twitter really isn't enough, and to be honest I am getting fed up with Facebook.
FED UP WITH FACEBOOK?!?!
Yes, indeed, I do seem to be jumping on the anti-facebook bandwagon! In the products hype lifecycle, I've gone over the peak of inflated expectations, and am swiftly sliding down into the trough of disillusionment! But why now?? I've put up with the infestation of application notifications and change after pointless change to the interface, and the privacy argument seems to have passed me by. Well, I thought it had. The straw that finally broke the camels back is the fact that everything I do - anything I "like" or join, now means opening up my profile to whatever it is I'm joining - opening up my profile, and that of my friends. I've had Emails from what look like facebook friends that turn out to be advertising crap! Effectively, Facebook is a spammers dream! Create a facebook app or group or picture gallery with a catchy or provocative name to lure people into joining, and then have instant access to all the details of both themselves and their friends? Genius! Suddenly Facebook doesn't look so shiny - it looks rather sleazy...
I mean you'd hope that they'd at least vet apps and have some sort of automatic sweep of groups to make sure they are not being used for the sole purpose of gathering user info? Well if that was the case, there would be no such thing as facebook-bourne viruses...
What started off as a fantasticly useable free social network suddenly doesn't seem to fantastic or free.... I guess they've got to make their money somehow, and I don't grudge them that, but surely they have a responsibility to their millions of users to be open and honest about what their aims are? TELL us that you want to monetise the site! Don't just do it on the fly using members personal information that we thought was only being shared with friends! That's deceitful.
The main problem is, Facebook is the ONLY kid on the block. There is NO competition (yet). The media might be hyping up the likes of Diaspora or StatusNet, but they're not the same, and in the case of the Media darling Diaspora, doesn't actually exist!!!!! Its a concept! Twitter has its plus points, but again it isn't the same!
The other problem is that Facebook is actually quite good! Look past its MASSIVE failings, lock your security down, block spurious apps as they keep popping up, and just put up with the crap and pointless system updates, accept it for what it is, and it does its job very well indeed! I don't hate it enough to leave (and there is no competition to migrate to), but I don't like it enough any more to engage with it.
So I'll engage with something in MY control - this blog. This website. It might be simple, it might be pointless, but its mines and I like it!
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