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Billboards Are Like Facebook

41 points| 10char | 13 years ago |clayallsopp.com | reply

28 comments

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[+] paulgb|13 years ago|reply
The worst part is that the person pictured next to the Revolights ad almost certainly does not know that they're being used next to the ad.

Here's an experiment guaranteed to make the front page of HN if you can write it up well: take screenshots of all the newsfeed ads you see and send them to the person pictured asking them if they were aware their image was being used that way.

[+] thejosh|13 years ago|reply
This really sucks for people who like hundreds of random things. It use to be that people would like EVERYTHING... now that's coming back to bite everyone in the ass.
[+] hcarvalhoalves|13 years ago|reply
> Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

If this is their mission statement they are failing miserably.

They would be succeeding if their mission stated "keeping in touch with friends" or "share cool stuff with friends", which for me is already great.

Of course, when you have a mission statement made by a board, you end with lots of grandiose BS and buzzwords like "open" and "connected".

[+] natrius|13 years ago|reply
"Open" in the social sense means that people know about the lives of others. Claiming that Facebook hasn't made the world more open seems odd to me.

"Connected" is even more straightforward. Facebook dramatically strengthens weak social ties. I interact with people I never would have kept up with if Facebook didn't exits.

There are plenty of rational criticisms of Facebook, but this isn't one of them.

[+] spectrum|13 years ago|reply
Trying to make the world more open but keeping all the information in a walled garden.
[+] hapkins|13 years ago|reply
Please learn to distinguish between metaphors and similies.

"* are like Facebook" is clearly a similie.

[+] wmougayar|13 years ago|reply
Let's hope that Facebook is experimenting with this, such that the end-result is not 80% ads. Facebook pages are starting to get noisy. I'm trying http://www.pinvolve.co/ and it removes all ads from your FB pages.
[+] namank|13 years ago|reply
It's word of mouth morphed into shove down your throat.

But I actually find it very helpful. Now anytime my friends likes a page, the pages most recent post (or something) gets displayed in my newsfeed.

I've used this to my own benefit multiple times.

[+] robotico|13 years ago|reply
That's a big reason that I don't use it anymore! That and the interface changing constantly and security issues!

Admittedly, I do have a fake account for my website that's updated automatically if anyone actually cares.

[+] kaiyi|13 years ago|reply
You can always install AdBlock, which blocks all ads.
[+] hxc|13 years ago|reply
I love AdBlock.
[+] lucian303|13 years ago|reply
Yes! It's amazing to me that ads still generate any revenue this day and age (last decade or so) AdBlock or not.
[+] lucian303|13 years ago|reply
I never stayed up all night chatting to a chair and sending it links. I'll give it a shot tonight. Also, when you make a chair bigger, it usually becomes a couch or a love-seat in the same way that when you make thefacebook.com bigger, it becomes a disgusting mess of ads and garbage applications all designed to get more data about you in the hope they can sell you something.

Seriously, the only people FB is fooling are the fools who use it. While those people exist (and they always have throughout history), FB or some sort of FB (social network) will exist. The problem is, like the author, people know that they don't want to be part of FB and yet they still are. Yes, it's an addiction, but it's an addiction that can be defeated. And you don't even have to do 12 steps. It's just one step and two weeks of waiting to delete your account.

The excuses form people who claim to hate FB but still use it are getting quite old by now. If you really want to make a point, cancel your FB account and then write this. It'll resonate a lot more.

[+] abduhl|13 years ago|reply
This vitriolic hate for facebook from certain parts of the tech crowd has always confused me. Where does this come from and, further, why is it extended to users? Why must facebook users be considered "fools"?