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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 06/23/2015 01:27 PM, Steve VanSlyck
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:38832ce6-7d07-4c99-98ee-8b6e7f976a23@email.android.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Wouldn't help me much. I'm not Facebooked, Linked-in, or Twittered.</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
And that's okay ... even *recommended*. (see below) Just that, those
of us who *are* on LI should take advantage of it. (And I suspect,
but cannot prove, that using it will drive reduction of spam in that
space.) But I would keep most conversational interactions here in
this forum. <br>
<br>
About Facebook, LI, Twitter, G+, especially FB: <br>
If you haven't signed up for Facebook, don't! It's a terrible
lock-in. One could fairly describe it as an internet black hole. <br>
<br>
It's not like FB is some inherently evil thing. It's just that once
you get involved it becomes difficult to extract yourself from it.
The culture on FB is broad, which would be a good thing except that
FB does not provide the means for normalizing interaction. Example:
Sally and Sara both know Susan, but haven't been in touch for years.
Susan posts a status, Sara comments, and then in the resulting
thread Sally says "Hi Sara! Where have you been and how are you? I
miss you so much!". <br>
<br>
This doesn't even mention the mis-directed drama. <br>
<br>
Technically, Facebook re-invents common internet services in its own
image. (Presumably so it can reap ad revenue.) Some examples ... <br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>IM: <br>
We had plenty of IM services, and FB could have joined in.
Instead they chose to implement their own "chat" which cannot
(reliably) be accessed outside of their engine. Sure, there's a
Pidgin plug-in. It sucks. <br>
</li>
<li>EMail: <br>
It's the 21st century. One can reasonably send "correspondence"
to/from thousands (millions) of autonomous installations. But
not FB. They chose to implement their own messaging service
which must run in their user experience engine. </li>
<li>Calendar: <br>
It's really handy, especially when you think of *social* media,
to share and organize events. As with email, one could very
reliably send and receive invitations and related notices. But
FB chose to handle "events" internally. </li>
</ul>
<br>
Back to the drama thing, one close relative grew tired of the noise
and emotional roller-coaster. She "unfriended" many and almost
closed her account. But she stopped just short of that. Too many
others are in that space. I'm feeling the same way, would love to
turn down the volume, but it's really really difficult to take the
step of shutting it completely off. <br>
<br>
Don't get FB. <br>
<br>
This probably puts me *out* of the race for a job with Facebook.
Possibly not so great for me at this juncture, but I gotta be
honest. <br>
<br>
Also, FB is doing some *good* things with PHP and related tech. (a
coin always has two sides) <br>
<br>
-- R; <><<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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