Members LiveMusic Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 I think not, haha. Just a stupid headline. Seems to me that Facebook is on the way out. In my neck of the woods, FB popularity went into the stratosphere in late 2009 into 2010. Everybody and his dog got a FB account. And over the course of a year, it seems that 90% of everybody quit posting anything. I don't care for FB myself but have used it to reconnect with friends and promote gigs. I actually detest the place. I am wondering if you think it's still going strong or what because with my friend list, it certainly is WAY WAY down. I figure for the same reasons I detest it, others too feel that way. I know that as recently as about a year ago, I read an article by a seemingly credible source that predicted it would become as ubiquitous as Google. From what I see, it will go the way of Myspace, and fast. Is the stock now public? I would short it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 Facebook has change its method of operation recently. More people may be posting than what you see, but Facebook only shows you posts of REGULAR friends now. (Those that you communicate with the most.) Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 Facebook is killing itself through new restrictive default privacy settings. My wall has always been hopping and still I've not yet 100 friends. A while back after the new year I think I heard people talking that they only see update from the same few people in the news feed. What Dan is referring to is a setting that always you to see all updates from all friends or updates from only those friends you've recently interacted with. Even though people, including me, have tried to get the word out to friends what's been going on, my guess is that that vast majority of FB users have no idea FB changed this. They just think fewer friends are weighing in.... so FB looks dead and people are wondering where everyone went. My theory: a few months ago there was a rumor that FB was going to shut down because they didn't have the resources to manage such a huge network. The rumors where later denied by FB... but perhaps they've found a way to shut down FB without completely shutting it down. IMO they're thinning out the herd. I've got my privacy settings pretty wide open, but I'm sure I'm just a handful (as usual) who really knows what's going on and what to do about it. FB is losing members and IMO things like this they impose on members are the cause. It used to be a party line. That was the draw. You could reconnect with old long lost friends as well as meet new people from all over the world you've never known. Well.... FB is bleeding and the wounds are self-inflicted. It's a real shame, but what can you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 I hardly go to FB, its honestly annoying after awhile. The site is constantly being changed so its hard to keep up and I`m tired of keeping up with the privacy issues. I may be signing off soon if I could get my ego out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ed A. Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 Is the stock now public? I would short it. It will be going public soon, and the chances for an average person getting any shares at the IPO price is pretty much zero. The average investor would have to buy in at a price high above the IPO price, once shares become available. Look at what happened to Linkedin when they went public last month, The IPO was at about $45, then shot up to over $120 and is now down to about $70 and dropping. People wanted to short that POS, but there weren't any shares available to short until a couple weeks ago. Only large institutional investors were able to short this early on. Almost any IPO is manipulated where the small investor always gets burned. I also agree that Facebook is declining in popularity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 I have to keep my oars in a lot of waters, being a web guy, so, just as with Friendster and MySpace before, I joined FB pretty early (after it was opened to non-college students). I was not impressed. I didn't really seek out anyone but, unlike the earlier services, (I only had 3 Friendster friends, ever and those only because one of them beat on me to add him and the other two), my real world friends actually started appearing and friending me, so I ended up with a bunch of my 3DW friends and acquaintances on there. At first, I was pretty turned off. Folks I thought of as intelligent and involved turned out to (apparently) be playing Mafia Wars and Farmville (happy to say I still don't know what those are) and giving each other imaginary bottles of wine (never figured that one out). But that stuff seems to have died off and my wall (I have it open to friends of friends) is a quite lively stream of cultural observations, personal promo (shows, readings, plays, new books, etc), videos of favorite music, and more than a few political rants. For instance, right now, my news stream has a vid from an ultra-cool, ultra-obscure avant-noise band called Monitor from '79 (a New Wave Theatre clip) posted by an old pal whose bands I played along side of on stage more than a couple times, a thumbs up from a very well known game developer (who used to be in another pal band) for the Supreme Court extending video game freedom of speech, a post promoing new additions to a fascinating photo collection called Vintage Los Angeles, a post on 60s artist Eva Hesse, a link to a Politifact article on Michelle Bachmann's battles with objective reality, a post on a show at a small gallery, a post about participating in a women's charity run in London, a post (from me) about a 'bootlegged' video of a Miami police shooting of a motorist that involved dozens of bullets and wounded four bystanders -- with the Miami police smashing the guy's phone-cam, but not until after he'd had a chance to sneak the incriminating video on its memory card into his mouth while he was arrested for filming a police activity, and a post from a pal's cat commenting on someone else's cat photos (he liked them). So, you know, that's quite a ways before you get to the cat photos... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 I don't think Facebook is on the way out. It has its problems, but in general it's everything MySpace wanted to be but wasn't. Most of my friends are still very active on Facebook, and I've used it to keep in touch with lots of people I otherwise wouldn't get to see or hear from that often. I enjoy the hell out of it, though I have to say I do have really interesting friends. If you're not into it, no biggie, but many, many millions of people still are, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 Facebook is bigger than ever. 700 million users, most of them posting regularly. You wouldn't be able to buy it anyway, Dan, not at the IPO price per above. In related news, Fox is finally dumping MySpace, and there's a pretty good chance it's going to go away entirely as early as the end of this month (i.e., in three days). Murdoch paid $580M for it, and they're having trouble getting bids of even $100M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 In related news, Fox is finally dumping MySpace, and there's a pretty good chance it's going to go away entirely as early as the end of this month (i.e., in three days). Murdoch paid $580M for it, and they're having trouble getting bids of even $100M. I'd give 'em 100 bucks for the name. They can keep the crappy programming infrastructure. In fact, it would almost be worth 100 bucks to me to make that My _________ logo go away. It's pretty much been WTF-were-they-thinking for a long time at MySpace but that was just strikingly dumb ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 Hey Ernest, you've mentioned ego and facebook in a couple different posts. I don't get it. Anyway for everyone here's the link with information about the default view in the news feed that many people don't know about. http://www.allfacebook.com/news-feed-option-shows-friends-you-interact-with-most-2011-02 Some people see it as a good feature, especially if your profile is more of a fan-based thing with hundreds or thousands of "Friends." For regular people like me who don't feel the pressure to "Friend collect" the defaults are a bad thing. I heard lots of complaints from people that facebook seemed dead... seamed like it was a ghost town, but then I happened upon the information about controlling the news feed in the status of one of my friends. So I told all of my FB friends. It is fun. I have a blast on and off my wall. That said the speculator in me sees the writing on the wall and FB's best days are in the past. But that's because whoever's running that place won't stop dicking around with it. I wouldn't invest in it. Statistically they're lost a few million members over the last year or so... after they made some changes that seemed to really annoy a lot of people. Annoyed the hell out of me that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bdemon Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 FB as an investment? I'd have to do a lot of due diligence concerning their numbers. Where's the profit...advertising? Social games? The insane amount of data mining? Heck, even if I had those numbers I'm still just a guitar player who wouldn't know what to do with them. But the hype about FB being a long-term powerhouse doesn't really convince me. I like stopping by here and there to see what my friends are up to or perhaps see what old classmates look like today, but it's not like I NEED it. That makes me more skeptical of it as an investment. Then again I thought Starbucks was a dumb investment back in the late 90s. Coffee is everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 27, 2011 Members Share Posted June 27, 2011 This is the thing about a FB investment... at least from my limited perspective... if we`re talking about it being a good investment, chances are, any chance of making lots of $$$ on it is already over. The best investments are made quietly early on in a venture by a few people who reap big time when the idea explodes. FB already exploded so any killer returns are already over. The handful of people who already own will make out really well, no one else. MySpace was doomed from the start because the coding was archaic. In its infancy, the site took off because there was nothing else like it. FB was a better build and everyone jumped over. When you include a ReverbNation page/link on your FB profile, its much cleaner and better than anything MySpace ever offered. ymmv Beck, to answer your question about ego... its complicated. I`m looking at this from a very far off and distant place. Not sure this is the place... At this point, it still has value but its more about a personal experience for the user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LiveMusic Posted June 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 I don't think Facebook is on the way out. It has its problems, but in general it's everything MySpace wanted to be but wasn't. Most of my friends are still very active on Facebook, and I've used it to keep in touch with lots of people I otherwise wouldn't get to see or hear from that often. I enjoy the hell out of it, though I have to say I do have really interesting friends. If you're not into it, no biggie, but many, many millions of people still are, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. All of my friends from small town usa... WASP... conservative... religious... it's constant religious postings about how much they love God and you have to repost this... or pledging allegiance to the flag or something uber patriotic... and constant "I love you's." I want to say, after the tenth time in a month this guy or that gal says how much she loves her spouse. Why don't you just go tell him or her! And constant posting of catchy sayings where the author is never revealed, it's as if the poster wrote the piece. Very few posts over one phrase or short sentence if the poster authors it. It's like a chat session. It's nauseating, and that's being nice. I detest the place due to crap that these people post. This is the heart of the bible belt, and wow, do they prove it. And prayer. My gosh, these are the prayingest people I've ever seen. Every other post, somebody is praying for somebody else. And then it's ten of them. Hallelujah, the power of prayer, we can do it! Everybody post it on your status! Never in a million years did I think I would see Lee Flier saying she love FB! That is VERY surprising! Glad to know it's not as it is around here everywhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 All of my friends from small town usa... WASP... conservative... religious... it's constant religious postings about how much they love God and you have to repost this... or pledging allegiance to the flag or something uber patriotic... and constant "I love you's." I want to say, after the tenth time in a month this guy or that gal says how much she loves her spouse. Why don't you just go tell him or her! And constant posting of catchy sayings where the author is never revealed, it's as if the poster wrote the piece. Very few posts over one phrase or short sentence if the poster authors it. It's like a chat session. It's nauseating, and that's being nice. I detest the place due to crap that these people post. This is the heart of the bible belt, and wow, do they prove it. And prayer. My gosh, these are the prayingest people I've ever seen. Every other post, somebody is praying for somebody else. And then it's ten of them. Hallelujah, the power of prayer, we can do it! Everybody post it on your status! Never in a million years did I think I would see Lee Flier saying she love FB! That is VERY surprising! Glad to know it's not as it is around here everywhere else. Everyones experience on FB is their own. We all have different "friends" so FB reflects back to us in a way, who we are or at least, where we`ve come from. My FB experience has some religious fanatics and political ones, its a montage of where I`ve been, who I`ve known, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 Yeah, Facebook is not responsible for the content people post on it. That would get on my nerves too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The dman Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 I don't know why some people are so down on Facebook I get the feeling with some of them it's the "Oh I'm too cool to be part of something so popular" attitude. Facebook has been really good free promotion for my band and other things I'm involved in and it is kind of cool to be in touch with some old friends that live across the country that I might never even talk to again had I not friended them on Facebook. Yes there are some really dumb chain posts that get passed around but I just ignore them and I don't post excessively or post every time I go to the bathroom so it's not a problem to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 It's not that at all for me. I like (liked) facebook for the potential to accidentally meet people from all over the world, which I have. The problem with facebook is they're effectively shutting down much of what made it successful without coming right out and saying they are. What made facebook was the party-line like atmosphere through friends of friends. It Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 You, uh... you do know that it's all just a data mine, right? That the entire value of Facebook is your information that you willing put there? I mean, that's fine. But that's what it's there for. To collect and sell your data. Nothing else. It does a really nice job of it, which is why the stock value will be high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted June 28, 2011 Members Share Posted June 28, 2011 Of course, but that model only works until the people whose data is being mined get something in return. (and most of us who know this don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LRon Butterfly Posted June 29, 2011 Members Share Posted June 29, 2011 Facebook is likely going to go after Skype. (or that may be buzz to try to get the IPO up) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goobers Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Should I invest in FB? Yes. Facebook is likely going to go after Skype. (or that may be buzz to try to get the IPO up) Facebook will likely announce Skype integration next week. blah blah blah Actually, I {censored}ing love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Whatever the outcome, Google+ just took a huge bite out of Facebook's unique value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Whatever the outcome, Google+ just took a huge bite out of Facebook's unique value.I think we'll have to see. After all, wasn't Google Orkut* going to revolutionize social interaction? And wasn't Google Wave supposed to revolutionize business document collab? Google has many, many ideas. Some of them are actually nurtured and grown into something useful -- but many of them get about 2/3 of the way to vaguely useful and then are abandoned in place... sitting behind a series of more/even more links on successive layers of the Google user interface onion, ready to be toyed with -- and abandoned when one runs into the ubiquitous and seemingly pansystemic dead ends and stubs that mark so many Google efforts and apps. FWIW, though, I was pretty unimpressed by FB when I first got on it some years ago. It seemed like a boring version of MySpace (but thankfully sans Russian hookers and cheezy band pages) but they managed to make it fairly useful in some ways -- but, of course, the real appeal (though a mixed one, for sure) was that many of my real world friends, for whatever reasons, were willing to get involved with it, unlike previous social ventures like Friendster and MySpace. (I was, it must be noted, though I think I did above, that I was initially nonplussed as folks I'd though of as sophisticated and involved seemed to be wasting time with crap like Mafia Wars and Farmville -- but I don't really see mention of that stuff much any more at all.) *And I guess it has -- in Estonia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 I think we'll have to see. Based on nothing other than my intuition, I'll bet you a combination plate of your choice from El Burrito Jr. that by Christmas, G+ will be as much of a "social necessity" as Facebook. I think they've got it this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Based on nothing other than my intuition, I'll bet you a combination plate of your choice from El Burrito Jr. that by Christmas, G+ will be as much of a "social necessity" as Facebook. I think they've got it this time.As a much-frustrated but still hopeful wannabe Google fanboi, I'd like that. (I do love my Android, YouTube, and, of course, I'm counting on Google's search engine to get me through my dotage. However, many of the other Google apps/docs/web services I've tried [or that Google has bought out while I was already using them] have been far from satisfactory or even usable on an ongoing basis. In fact, I was just exploring Google Sites for something and, sure enough, looks pretty cool until you try to use it. Then you start seeing the inflexibility and what certainly seems like lack of foresight on the part of the developers.) I do like the basic idea of 'circles' but I suspect that any organizational overhead is going to be too much for a lot of folks. I mean, look at how many people can't apparently be bothered to figure out the privacy aspects of FB. Also, doesn't FB already have ways of grouping your friends as well as 'non-friend' associates? (I help administer some FB pages -- including memorial pages for two of my dead pals who resisted the online world while they were alive, so this is their survivors' loving little joke on them -- and the FB page options provide more layers of associative organization, as well.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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