

Facebook Messages: The Worst Thing That Ever Happened - bensummers
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210758/facebook_messages_the_worst_thing_that_ever_happened.html

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junkbit
Facebook also censors your private messages if you link to a torrent, even a
linux iso.

[http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/facebook-link-
blockin...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/facebook-link-blocking/)

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scrrr
Amazing that they get away with this...

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brown9-2
What do you mean? Who is to stop Facebook from deciding what messages you can
and can't send on their system?

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gojomo
The sentiment is that users shouldn't stand for it.

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zaphar
I realized not long ago that the reactions to the facebook announcement that I
am reading are so appealing to me because the world that Mr Zuckerberg and
company want to build is a world I don't want to live in. And yet, it is the
world that the next generation of kids seems to want to live in. I can't
decide whether I should be horrified or just recognize their right to build
that world.

~~~
beaumartinez
I don't think the _next generation of kids_ is aware of the implications, and
issues, of Zuckerberg's plan. To them (or might I even say _us_ ), Facebook is
a _communications platform._ It helps us talk to our friends, share
interesting content, and enrich our lives. However, most importantly: the
issues of no privacy haven't yet manifested themselves. When our job
applications get turned down after they look at how outrageous our _publicly
viewable_ photos are on our profiles, then we'll start to understand.

~~~
marknutter
Don't want pictures of yourself doing crazy shit? Don't do crazy shit. Want to
live a life not worried about what some idiot employer is going to think about
your lifestyle? Then do just that. Stop blaming Facebook for your lifestyle
choices and your inability to live with them.

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LiveTheDream
There's a world of difference between some friends seeing a kegstand picture,
or your boss seeing it. In real life, segmenting your groups of connections is
a natural and fairly easy thing to do. When your college buddies and your
coworkers are both "facebook friends" the line is blurred in a way that does
not represent real life. It's not obvious to everyone how much information
they expose via their Facebook account.

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marknutter
As much as I'm afraid of Facebook turning the internet into a walled garden,
this post is pure FUD.

The OP complains that "You Can't Delete Messages." Hm, that sounds a lot like
email. Everyone knows when you hit "send" on your email client you better mean
what you wrote.

They then complain about how "Non-Facebook Friends Can E-mail You" and their
main point seems to be that it's being used as a way to "bully more people
into joining." That's an emotionally charged interpretation of a company
trying to increase conversion rates. I have a feeling if Facebook were a YC
startup they wouldn't be referred to as "bullies" for requiring user accounts.

In the "There Are No Subject Lines" section, the OP's main complaint seems to
be that without subject lines, email search will become unusable. I don't
understand why this would make much of a difference, but I don't think
Facebook ever intended to compete with Gmail or Yahoo head on as a robust,
productive email client. It's aimed at high school kids who couldn't be
bothered with all the bells and whistles of Gmail and are used to viewing
their lives in one constant stream, whether it be Facebook's news stream,
Twitter, or text messaging. Another lame complaint.

The last section is about automatic friendships, which I have misgivings about
myself, but I'm one of the rare individuals who thinks Facebook needs to be
_more_ open in the way that Twitter is, not more private and restrictive.

As a web developer and startup guy, I am just as worried about Facebook taking
over the internet and ushering in a new age of walled-gardenism. On the same
HN front page I saw this article on, there was another sensationalist
headline, "Berners-Lee: Facebook 'threatens' web future", and both that and
the headline of this article immediately appeal to my developers instincts.

However, I know FUD when I see it, and I'd rather admit and accept Facebook's
continued dominance than delude myself by buying into poorly written articles
that pander to us geeks.

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swombat
Agreed. This article is trash. Move on, nothing to see here.

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frisco
I'm pretty sure that Hitler and the Black Plague are higher on the lists of
"terrible events" than anything Facebook has ever done or has interest in
doing.

I mean, really? There are people dying all over the world from civil war and
hunger as we speak, and yet the fact that you can't take back Facebook
messages pains everyone greatly that nothing can top it? We live in a giant
echo chamber. Some perspective, please.

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simonjoe
Every time I read a facebook story here or elsewhere, I get the overwhelming
desire to delete my account. The only problem is that there may be people I
want to interact with that I don't have other contact information for. The sad
thing is that I don't remember.

I might just do it anyway…they can't be that important, right?

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thestoicattack
That was exactly my thought process when I ended up deleting my account. There
were people who I wouldn't be able to contact, but then again, I never talked
to them anyway even when Facebook made it convenient.

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parfe
The article does a piss-poor job of separating paraphrases and editorial
content.

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thasmin
I would have thought the worst thing that ever happened would have involved
death in some way.

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chanux
'if Facebook ever wants someone's e-mail address (under the pretense of
"sharing photos" or "sending a message"), it's so the site can bully more
people into joining. Don't fall for it.'

I am not on facebook now but I was registered there with my email. Sometime
back I got a facebook invitation from a new friend and the invitation mail had
links to facebook profiles of three others friends. The only way to trace
these relationships was my email. I wondered how did they do that. Checking my
email against contact lists of all the facebook users?

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tlack
Those friends of yours imported their email address books into Facebook. Your
email was in there, but you were not a user, and your friends did not invite
you, until that last one did. When he decided to invite you, it was able to
tell you about your three other friends.

