Are you on Facebook?

[hellymedic]

Whereas a friend is complaining 'FB's gone all political' and I'm inclined to point out that some are political because they CARE about what's happening.

I'm not that interested in politics but I fear for the future under our current Führership.

[Mr Larrington]

...wishing FB had a 'don't look at POBI' option, at least for the next 50 days.

Not long after signing up I expressed a wish for a rounders filter, which drew a certain amount of flak and/or bewilderment from "World" Series-obsessed USAnians.

[SteveC]

You could  use the ' Dont  look at FB' option.  Works for me.   

Trouble is too much of the rest of my life seems to be organised through FB.

Whereas a friend is complaining 'FB's gone all political' and I'm inclined to point out that some are political because they CARE about what's happening.

Don't disagree about the caring. It's just that there's a lot of heat and very little light in most cases.
Better stop now or this will be banished to POBI as well.

[mattc]

Whereas a friend is complaining 'FB's gone all political' and I'm inclined to point out that some are political because they CARE about what's happening.

Don't disagree about the caring. It's just that there's a lot of heat and very little light in most cases.
Better stop now or this will be banished to POBI as well.

I'd agree with both of you.

One actual positive feature of FB is the Hide Post option (I think it's called!). You often don't need to see a single Reply to realise there will be too high a heat:light ratio!

[mattc]

Meanwhile:

I can't figure out if this is a satirical/humourous site: https://www.facebook.com/uktactical/

[Ian H]

Looks serious enough.

https://www.uktactical.com/t-about.aspx

[asterix]

We need to nationalise Google, Facebook and Amazon. Here’s why

[T42]

The supposition being that the Federal Govt. - they being American - would be a more trustworthy custodian of everyone's personal data, pictures, vapourings.  Yeah, sure.

[asterix]

Agree, we are too far down the road now.  Especially as AI is so close to governing our collective decision making. 

 

Data is quickly becoming the 21st-century version of oil – a resource essential to the entire global economy, and the focus of intense struggle to control it. Platforms, as spaces in which two or more groups interact, provide what is in effect an oil rig for data. Every interaction on a platform becomes another data point that can be captured and fed into an algorithm. In this sense, platforms are the only business model built for a data-centric economy.

More and more companies are coming to realise this. We often think of platforms as a tech-sector phenomenon, but the truth is that they are becoming ubiquitous across the economy.

Shopping ain't never gonna be like this again..



And politics? Post Brexit and Trump, anything could happen.  It's most interesting.

[rogerzilla]

Does anyone use Faecebook on a real computer these days?  MY EYES!  It's tolerable on a phone except for the vacuous "Roger, Rain is forecast for tomorrow, Stay dry" sort of crap that appears in your feed.  However, on a laptop or PC, there is an absolute tidal wave of spam, rubbish and pointless lists overwhelming the screen and even the adblocker chokes on it.

It's worse than a local newspaper site - these work quite well if you have an adblocker that suppresses the "turn off your adblocker" banners 

[Andrij]

I, on the other hand, really dislike accessing Bookface on mobile devices and much prefer using a proper computer.  I run adblock, etc.

[hellymedic]

I ONLY see Facebook on my laptop cos I don't have a smartphone.

[drossall]

When I bother with Facebook, I tend to use a desktop.

[asterix]

Facebook can't hide behind algorithms

First, the company admitted a “fail” when its advertising algorithm allowed for the targeting of anti-Semitic users.
Then on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg said he was handing over details of more than 3,000 advertisements bought by groups with links to the Kremlin, a move made possible by the advertising algorithms that have made Mr Zuckerberg a multi-billionaire...

..Facebook’s wild profits - $3.9bn (£2.9bn) between April and June this year - are due to that automated process. It finds out what users like, it finds advertisers that want to hit those interests, and it marries the two and takes the money. No humans necessary.
But unfortunately, that lack of oversight has left the company open to the kinds of abuse laid bare in ProPublica’s investigation into anti-Semitic targeting...

....His [Zuckerberg's] naivety about the power of his own company sparked an immense backlash - internally as well as externally - and an investigation into the impact of fake news and other abuses was launched.
On Thursday, the 33-year-old found himself conceding that not only was abuse affecting elections, but that he had done little to stop it happening.
"I wish I could tell you we're going to be able to stop all interference,” he said.
"But that wouldn't be realistic. There will always be bad people in the world, and we can't prevent all governments from all interference.”
A huge turnaround on his position just 10 months ago...

.. the political mood in the US taken a sharp turn: Big Tech’s algorithms are out of control.

..“All of these problems are the result of the fact Zuckerberg has created and profited from a system that has grown to encompass the world… and harvest information from more than two billion people."

Oops!

[Mr Larrington]

Does anyone use Faecebook on a real computer these days?  MY EYES!  It's tolerable on a phone except for the vacuous "Roger, Rain is forecast for tomorrow, Stay dry" sort of crap that appears in your feed.  However, on a laptop or PC, there is an absolute tidal wave of spam, rubbish and pointless lists overwhelming the screen and even the adblocker chokes on it.

It's worse than a local newspaper site - these work quite well if you have an adblocker that suppresses the "turn off your adblocker" banners 

Judicious use of Facebook Purity can get rid of most of the crap Mr Zuckerberg and his gribleys try to throw at you.  I've been using it on a Windows laptop for most of the past month and it's mostly an improvement over the shitty iOS app which devours memory like a hungry tiger and crashes for no readily apparent reason about once every fifteen minutes.

[ElyDave]

I haven't been on bookface since about February, can't say I've missed it.

[T42]

Modo on Sugarloaf

Ferry interestink...

[Mr Larrington]

Looks like someone or something on Farcebok can't tell the difference between racist hate speech and a quote from a song lyric by notable Nazi sympathiser Tom Robinson, as they've removed a comment I made referencing "Power In The Darkness"

[T42]

Context doesn't matter any more, it's the BAD WORDS that count. C.f. To Kill a Mockingbird, Biloxi, etc.

[Mr Larrington]

That was my suspicion.  They presumably objected to the n-word and possibly the shortened form of "Pakistani" as well.  Idiots.

[spesh]

Much of F$B Book and Tw@tter is run on algorithms. Which is why the news feed sucks, because F$B Book's programming douche bros think they know best about what I want to see in the news feed.

These days, I really can't be arsed to log in any more.

[mattc]

... notable Nazi sympathiser Tom Robinson...

Really?? I've always liked the guy

That's another 6Music programme I'll have to boycott ...

[Kim]

Much of F$B Book and Tw@tter is run on algorithms. Which is why the news feed sucks, because F$B Book's programming douche bros think they know best about what I want they want you to see in the news feed.

FTFY

Twitter's nowhere near as bad, because you don't have to use their user interface.  With a third-party client you can avoid all the algorithmic order and promoted tweet rubbish, as well as most of the UI terribleness.

Unfortunately it's still full of Brexit and Trump.

[Ham]

... notable Nazi sympathiser Tom Robinson...

Really?? I've always liked the guy

That's another 6Music programme I'll have to boycott ...

That's MrL expounding Fake News, on the strength of the lyrics of the song

What we want is
Freedom from the reds and the blacks and the criminals
Prostitutes, pansies and punks
Football hooligans, juvenile delinquents
Lesbians and left wing scum
Freedom from the niggers and the Pakis and the unions
Freedom from the Gipsies and the Jews
Freedom from leftwing layabouts and liberals
Freedom from the likes of you

taken out of context, you could be forgiven for thinking that nice Mr R was a bit odd. Carry on though and you get

Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights

[mattc]

Thanks Ham. Probably a worthwhile post, even though my post wasn't sincere!

(For Avoidance of Doubt: Tom Robinson seems a fine fellow to me, he's entertained me for years, on-and-off ... )