Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²
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I generally like the EU sticking it to tech companies privacy wise, but I don't always like tech companies sticking it to the user in response. Granted I'm a special kind of user because I don't normally use a phone and I get irritated about things requiring one. But what kind of stupidity requires me to get my hands on a mobile device that I might not have or use, download an app that I haven't used and will never again, to perform an action just to enable me to continue using the web app and desktop app of the same service?
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@marczellm This is the universe telling you to kill your facebook account with a right to be forgotten request.
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As part of changing laws in your region, you need to make a choice.
Lying fuckers. They could just comply by default instead of whatever the fuck they’re doing, which I ass-u-me without checking is asking you for confirmation not to comply.
That they’re pulling the Diablo do you guys not have phones meme is just icing on the cake.
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@marczellm When Faceberk first wanted to start charging for their shit, the choice screen didn't even work for me. I thought, ha, it's just the "I'll take ads (which I'll block)" option that doesn't work and those "clever" fucks want me to pay up, but that didn't work either. Tried several browsers and relaxing cookie settings, but it would always throw me back to the choice screen.
Then I realized I don't need any of that shit, not that accessing the deletion option was easy, given the situation.Nah, this is another example of malicious compliance. Faceberk has been pushing the äpp well before EU asked anything. They tried removing messaging entirely from the desktop version before (you guys don't have phones?). Then they put it back, but the mobile version would still try to launch the äpp and actively resist your attempts to use the desktop mode, where it wouldn't work with the touch keyboard (like missing spaces - how the fuck do you fuck up that, if not intentionally?).
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@Applied-Mediocrity I never knew anything about any of that. I just see "Facebook" and go "Nope, do not want" even before reading the rest of the sentence.
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@dkf I used the Marketplace a couple times to easily sell off stuff I didn't need
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@Applied-Mediocrity eBay classifieds.
(In Germany it’s called Kleinanzeigen. For whatever reason, it’s always been separate from standard eBay, and I think they now even sold it off so it’s independent. Haven’t used normal eBay in over a decade, just like PayPal. On that note, fuck
too.)
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@topspin said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
eBay classifieds.
Which part of the first world do you think I was from again?
Nobody uses it here. Not that dealing with eBay is anything a sane person would recommend to another. Jeez, that's the most ill-digested jumble of all the worst UX ideas from the dawn of internets till today. I physically feel @Zenith's pain whenever I go to look for some obscure crap item and then think better of it.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
Not that dealing with eBay is anything a sane person would recommend to another.
True, that’s why I didn’t.
(Maybe the distinction with standard eBay doesn’t exist outside of Germany. I thought it does but I cannot check.)
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@topspin Anyway, the point is that Faceberk's Marketplace was actually useful. Sorting by item's location would actually work (
), and searching by title would not, but not because they would push sponsored and random shit on you that is almost entirely, but not quite, irrelevant to what you were searching for (I'm looking at you, Etsytards), but because people could write whatever the fuck in the title. And then there were Buy/Sell/Exchange groups which would allow cross-posting to Marketplace. And for all that they'd just steal all your PII instead of taking a cut - what's not to Like? 
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@marczellm said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
But what kind of stupidity
The kind where they realise the majority of their users use the mobile app for Messenger so they build the happy path there in React Native and then force everyone else to use that because that's less effort than doing it properly. Bonus points for any malicious compliance inflicted along the way.
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@Arantor I occasionally put the app on my phone, like when I'm travelling and think I'll need it. Most of the time I don't use it. I've used the web page on mobile in the past and it is a major shitshow.
It works just fine in the webpage on desktop. In fact, it's kind of crippled to look like it would be about the right dimensions for mobile
, so not having a good option on mobile is definitely intentionally malicious.
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@boomzilla browsers make it easier to block ads than phone apps. And without ads there’s nothing left on Facebook.
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@boomzilla said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
it is a major shitshow.
Yes, it's Facebook.
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@topspin said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
@boomzilla browsers make it easier to block ads than phone apps. And without ads there’s nothing left on Facebook.
When traveling, I sometimes click those repackaged reddit things. 90% of the scrolling is ads (including video ads - they can just fuck right off). And they'll suck the battery dry.
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@Arantor said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
so they build the happy path there in React Native
The desktop app is also React Native.
Other WTF is that I can happily use the very same web interface as messenger.com, if I go to facebook.com/messages. The annoying popup doesn't popup. (Because the change they have to make is give users the option to use separate accounts for "Facebook" and "Messenger" apps, so as long as you are not using an app called Messenger, it's fine.)
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@marczellm yes but it’s not mobile therefore it’s “different”. It’s all malicious compliance all the way down.
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@topspin said in Facebook Messenger × EU = Stupidity²:
They could just comply by default instead of whatever the fuck they’re doing, which I ass-u-me without checking is asking you for confirmation not to comply.
Okay, I checked it out and I guess they do need you to make a choice. Exactly what happens when you make ass-umptions, Pikachu could not be reached for comment.
But of course the general sentiment is well deserved anyway. And there’s no excuse for forcing you to use the app instead of the web version.
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If I use Firefox's developer mode to change the useragent to Kindle Fire, I can still use messenger.com.
