
Instagram founders left because of changes imposed from above - throwawaybbqed
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/opinion/facebook-instagram-systrom.html
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yakshaving_jgt
I don't believe this will make much difference. I think the platform had
already been in decline for at least the past year, because IG seems to be
moving away from what made it compelling in the first place.

I don't know what algorithmic changes they've made, but my experience is far
less "organic" content from real people, and far more exposure given to the
local IG celebrities, low-quality meme stuff optimised for engagement, and
impersonal marketing stuff.

It used to be about people. I don't think it is anymore.

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jakobegger
I think it's the same with every social network. People start using it,
they're excited, put their stuff out there, it's fun to use. Then, after a few
years the marketers realise that is a thing, and all of a sudden all the
content from your friends sits next to all this professional content. People
don't feel like their stuff is good enough, and they stop posting, preferring
to browse all the awesome stuff from other people. And at the end, everyone
stops checking in as frequently, because they realise that none of the fun,
exciting stuff is left, it's only marketing for crappy products with a thin
veneer of thoughtfulness sprinkled on top.

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danpalmer
> “Social media is in a pre-Newtonian moment, where we all understand that it
> works, but not how it works,” Mr. Systrom told me, comparing this moment in
> the tech world to the time before man could explain gravity. “There are
> certain rules that govern it and we have to make it our priority to
> understand the rules, or we cannot control it.”

This is the person I want running a social media today.

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sxp62000
Lately, Instagram has become very pushy. If you go to your profile page in the
app, it shows notification badges at the top right corner for stuff that might
have happened in the Facebook app. It's so unnecessary! I'm sure FB wants to
push more changes like that. All good things must come to an end ... sigh.

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makecheck
Man I hate notification dots that won’t go away. Like in PayPal, there’s a
“notification” that I have a “to-do” for setting up a new profile! That is
something I will never do, it’s not something I can mark as “read”, it’s just
a damned red dot in the corner forever now.

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ismail
Facebook is going to get worse and so is Zuckerberg. I would short FB if I had
a position.

The reasoning is, once you see a CEO installing loyal lieutenants. Who does
not value conflicting, and opposing views. You know the company will loose the
plot soon. With out any moderation from others I believe that FB will
accelerate their disregard for their users while publicly communicating
something else.

Fundamentally the Instagram founders and WhatsApp founders leaving is due to a
values conflict with Zuckerberg and the culture at FB. My theory is there are
the values they talk about and communicate externally, which is not congruent
with what is practiced.

There was conflict due to these unspoken values and Zuckerberg took the easy
way out. Install people loyal to him. This is a sign of weak leadership.

Edit:

It also seems like ego is getting the better of Z

“Severe cutbacks ordered by Mr. Zuckerberg in how much Instagram was promoted
on the main Facebook platform”

Either that or instagram ads are not as profitable as FB?

Edit2: “That’s a shame, since that’s exactly what Facebook needs. Which is to
say, people willing to challenge the groupthink that for too long included a
stubborn resistance to admitting and addressing the company’s flaws.”

This is the biggest danger

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flyinglizard
The problem with shorting is that everything they’re doing is driving towards
higher revenue. Any negative effects of their actions could be measured in
years, not months or quarters.

The other issue is that more than anyone, Facebook very shrewdly mitigated
their competition by M&A; where would users go?

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yhoneycomb
Exactly.

Shorting leaves you vulnerable to an infinite amount of debt. It's not as easy
as it sounds.

~~~
mmt
Outright short-selling has unbounded losses, but there are other ways of
"being short" (i.e. betting on a price drop) where the loss is limited, such
as buying put options, though these tend to be time-limited as well, to a
couple years.

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macawfish
I can tell they left. Right after they left, the number of ads nearly doubled
and I was prompted to upload my phone's contacts.

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hd4
>I was prompted to upload my phone's contacts

Maybe I was naive and willing to give the benefit of the doubt to tech
corporations, but I always hoped this was requested for benign purposes (not
that I ever allowed it except maybe once in my life because there was an
incentive bonus). I'm glad you've cleared up my misconception on this.

~~~
buro9
I thought the same, but my reaction now is to have deleted my account.

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TekMol
I wonder what drives people at this stage of success.

The article talks about a fight regarding weather or not to implement a TV
like service into Instagram.

When you have built something like Instagram, is that really the next step you
deeply care about? Implementing the next feature?

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noobermin
I guess it's hard, sort of like staying for the kids. The thing is they built
ig, and now they are literally letting it go in fb's hands just to get away
from Zuckerberg. Either "six years was enough" is at least 30% or some small
fraction to make the difference or they must have faced some serious strife
and conflict to prompt them to leave under these circumstances.

~~~
wmeredith
I'm not a fan of Zuck or FB, but they did sell it (for more money than most
users on this board will see in their lifetime). It's not like it was stolen
and they have to walk away.

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ummonk
So that is why longer Instagram videos aren’t a thing yet? Zuck not wanting to
risk competition with videos on FB? How stubbornly short sighted.

