Facebook wtf



  • From Facebook: some interesting networks to join there,,,



  • I agree with the title.  Facebook used to be great.  Addictive, even.  Now it's a huge conglomeration of third party crap.  Not to mention, I don't know that many people in college anymore.

     



  • You don't seem to know what Facebook has become. It's no longer limited to college friends, it's for everybody, and half the world seems to be on it. It's can be an incredible time waster, but it doesn't have to be - just ignore all those quizzes, vampire bites, or whatever. If you take those out of the equation, you're left with a pretty decent online contact list that doesn't disappear when your phone gets stolen.



  • @ahnfelt said:

    It's no longer limited to college friends, it's for everybody, and half the world seems to be on it.

    Another reason I dislike it now.  Not that I'm closing my account or anything, it was just nicer when it was only for college kids. When someone sent you a request, you had a reasonable expectation that it was actually from that person because they had to use their college email to sign up for the account. As soon as they opened it up to the world, I was getting random friend requests from people in Arizona who I had never met (probably bots).

    Still, no matter what, it's better than Myspace.  What a WTF!   



  • May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?



  • @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?
    The dithering is pretty ghetto too.  I mean, what is this, 1996?

     


  • Considered Harmful

    @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?

    It's good to know they're monitoring your fraudulent activities.



  • @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?

    Maybe he REALLY likes to print stuff.   I've always been a big fan of crazy taskbar icons and update notifiers.  Quicktime hijacking my file extensions is one thing (especially when it's stealing *.mp3 associations from iTunes...), but nothing beats the "a new version of Java is available" notification that I get from every different instance of the JVM that I have installed.  I mean, it's not like I'd ever want to test something on an older JVM.  I should just have 6 instances of the latest one.



  • @merreborn said:

    @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?
    The dithering is pretty ghetto too.  I mean, what is this, 1996?

    Classic MS Paint. Hasn't been updated since 1996 it would seem.

    Facebook is what you make of it. Personally, I don't add any applications with celebrities, vampires, brand names, MySpace top friends, or anything like that. I don't put people on my friends that I don't care to hear about. I use it to keep up with friends and family, share photos, and keep in touch. It's a very effective tool for doing those things. Set your feed to block any applications you don't care about. The entire site is highly customizable.

    Oh, and also play scrabble... But YMMV.
     



  • @vt_mruhlin said:

    @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?

    Maybe he REALLY likes to print stuff.   I've always been a big fan of crazy taskbar icons and update notifiers.  Quicktime hijacking my file extensions is one thing (especially when it's stealing *.mp3 associations from iTunes...), but nothing beats the "a new version of Java is available" notification that I get from every different instance of the JVM that I have installed.  I mean, it's not like I'd ever want to test something on an older JVM.  I should just have 6 instances of the latest one.

    Oh, and I can get Open Office for free. Funny thing is the only reason I have Java runtime is because I'm using Open Office. Hmm. Also "windows has decided to move your desktop icons around, no we're not telling you were we put them". "Windows has 2 days left for activation." "Your network is now connected." "Windows didn't get all the updates the last thirty times, please download and reboot them again." "Windows cannot use a reasonable resolution and bit depth, in fact if you haven't noticed it yet something is wrong with you."


  • @joe.edwards@imaginuity.com said:

    @mallard said:

    May I suggest that the real WTFs in theat screencapture are Norton whatever-they're-calling-NAV-these-days and self-important printer drivers that install useless toolbars in IE?

    It's good to know they're monitoring your fraudulent activities.

    I was, honestly, half expecting to see the watchful eyes of Big Brother somewhere in that toolbar when I scrolled to see the whole image.

    I am so disappointed now.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    When someone sent you a request, you had a reasonable expectation that it was actually from that person because they had to use their college email to sign up for the account.

    You still do, if you want to join a college network. What you want is still there, plus you can keep in touch with those friends who are too old to still have an email account at their old university.

    Not saying FB is great and perfect, but it's a whole lot more useful when you have more people who have joined.

    Plus, you get to run SQL queries on your "friend graph". How cool is that? (Seriously; I don't know.)



  • @magetoo said:

    Plus, you get to run SQL queries on your "friend graph". How cool is that?

    Presented for geekiest comment of the day.



  • Thanks! Coming from this site it means a lot to me.

    Wait... it was a compliment, right?



  • @vt_mruhlin said:

    Quicktime hijacking my file extensions is one thing (especially when it's stealing *.mp3 associations from iTunes...), but nothing beats the "a new version of Java is available" notification that I get from every different instance of the JVM that I have installed.  I mean, it's not like I'd ever want to test something on an older JVM.  I should just have 6 instances of the latest one.

    That's irritating as hell, isn't it? You can disable it in the Java control panel, which you can bring up from the system tray icon. I'm pretty sure you'll have to disable it for each installed version.



  • @VGR said:

    @vt_mruhlin said:

    Quicktime hijacking my file extensions is one thing (especially when it's stealing *.mp3 associations from iTunes...), but nothing beats the "a new version of Java is available" notification that I get from every different instance of the JVM that I have installed.  I mean, it's not like I'd ever want to test something on an older JVM.  I should just have 6 instances of the latest one.

    That's irritating as hell, isn't it? You can disable it in the Java control panel, which you can bring up from the system tray icon. I'm pretty sure you'll have to disable it for each installed version.

    Not to mention that upgrading is rarely necessary to upgrade immediately when they release, as someone has to DEVELOP something for the new version before you're required to have it.  AFAIK, the new JDKs are distributed at the same time as the thing in the bottom corner.  It would be nice if you didn't have to upgrade until you needed it.  OTOH, it's nice to have it advance for when you do need it ie I don't want to wait 1/2 hour to download and install the new Java when I want to play strip poker run Azureus for the first time.

    EDIT:  I'll admit it.  This post nominated for lamest post of the week.  take that spectateswamp 



  • I've seen lots of stuff like that happen on Facebook.  I often end up seeing PHP code in my status when I update it, for example.



  • Maybe I'm too old for Facebook, or too impatient.

    I made friends with some people while on holiday in September. Afterwards, I wanted to send them some photos (I'm quite good at portraits of people). Only contact info I had was the name of this guy, and that I'd seen him working on his Facebook page (in a beach bar, natch).

    So I signed up, FB forced me to choose a network (choices were London, The Rest - now that's a WTF), tried to find him - hopeless. Crap search facility - it flunked every keyword I tried (country, employer, sport, etc). A search on his name gave pages of tiny unreadably small photos with no attached keyword clues. Could click on each possible photo, then go away and make coffee while waiting for the profile to open.

    Life is too short to waste on this sort of barbarity. I gave up and haven't been back.

    And don't get me started on LinkedIn - another pointless clunker, equally non-intuitive.



  • @GreyWolf said:

    Maybe I'm too old for Facebook, or too impatient.


    I gave up on facebook after it quite forcibly asked my for the password to my gmail account several times and required me to register to be able to even see our class' facebook page. I'm 21 for reference.



  • @Lingerance said:

    @GreyWolf said:

    Maybe I'm too old for Facebook, or too impatient.


    I gave up on facebook after it quite forcibly asked my for the password to my gmail account several times and required me to register to be able to even see our class' facebook page. I'm 21 for reference.

    Why did it ask you for that? I've never experienced Facebook asking me for any passwords other than my Facebook one for logging in. 

    Personally I think hiding people's information from all bar their friends by default is one of the best things about facebook, though it would be nice if you could see a larger photo of a person so you can tell whether it's the person you are looking for or not.
     



  • @Lingerance said:

    I gave up on facebook after it quite forcibly asked my for the password to my gmail account several times and required me to register to be able to even see our class' facebook page. I'm 21 for reference.

    The only time Facebook asks you for a non-FB password is if you ask it to search for friends from your address book/buddy list/etc. 



  • @Nozz said:

    @Lingerance said:
    @GreyWolf said:
    Maybe I'm too old for Facebook, or too impatient.

    I gave up on facebook after it quite forcibly asked my for the password to my gmail account several times and required me to register to be able to even see our class' facebook page. I'm 21 for reference.
    Why did it ask you for that? I've never experienced Facebook asking me for any passwords other than my Facebook one for logging in
    Immediately after signup.
    @Nozz said:
    Personally I think hiding people's information from all bar their friends by default is one of the best things about facebook.

    I could see the benefit of that, however it is annoying that I have to sign in to view a group, when I might want to see what the group is like before I go ahead and waste an hour signing up (including setting up a thunderbird filter for the emails and other things). I might also come back later (years) and actually join instead of lurking and suddenly my user id and email are not allowed because someone else is using them, at which point I've long since forgotten my password.



  • I'll admit, I've never visited the site. I've seen people addicted to it like it's crack, though. Can someone explain the appeal? What do you actually do there?



  • @R.Flowers said:

    I'll admit, I've never visited the site. I've seen people addicted to it like it's crack, though. Can someone explain the appeal? What do you actually do there?

     Crack... DUH.



  • @Lingerance said:

    Immediately after signup.

    Ahh, that's the friend finder thingy.  It's an optional step, you can just skip it.  It's just meant to make finding friends easier.  I agree though that it's a little in your face, and not particularly clear what it wants it for, at least it wasn't when I signed up ages ago.




  • @Nozz said:

    @Lingerance said:

    Immediately after signup.

    Ahh, that's the friend finder thingy.  It's an optional step, you can just skip it.  It's just meant to make finding friends easier.  I agree though that it's a little in your face, and not particularly clear what it wants it for, at least it wasn't when I signed up ages ago.


    Maybe it had some of asuffield's check boxes?  No wonder Lingerance couldn't figure it out!



  • @niteice said:

    The only time Facebook asks you for a non-FB password is if you ask it to search for friends from your address book/buddy list/etc.

    Which it will helpfully suggest that you let it do, at every opportunity. I don't even use gmail/hotmail/yahoo, so it gets annoying...

    I agree completely with GW that the search utterly sucks. It is so bad that it pretty much must be a conscious decision that you should find people some other way. (Usually as friends-of-friends, but also ... by forking over your email password.)


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @magetoo said:

    I agree completely with GW that the search utterly sucks.
    I know just the piece of software which can help you here....



  • @R.Flowers said:

    I'll admit, I've never visited the site. I've seen people addicted to it like it's crack, though. Can someone explain the appeal? What do you actually do there?

    Mostly look around to see if anyone else has done anything interesting.

    Um. It's a great timewaster in the first few weeks, when you're actively hunting for friends ("OMG, that's Robert from fifth grade! What's he doing now?"), but after a while it's mostly for when people post pictures and such.



  • @PJH said:

    I know just the piece of software which can help you here....

    I can't wait to add it to my profile!


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @magetoo said:

    @PJH said:
    I know just the piece of software which can help you here....

    I can't wait to add it to my profile!
    It may, however, be a while before a facebook implementation is available...



  • @magetoo said:

    I agree completely with GW that the search utterly sucks.

    I actually quite like the search, it's clever enough to realise that names like Bob are the same name as Robert, and other such equivilents.

    The place where it falls down is that you are looking for your friend John Smith John Doe and they have not made public any specific information about them. It doesn't attempt to see if you might know them the via shortest number of hops, or lives in a vague area, it will just give you a random list which you will have to wade through.

    </rant>



  • @yet another Matt said:

    I actually quite like the search, it's clever enough to realise that names like Bob are the same name as Robert, and other such equivilents.

    For non-English speaking countries they aren't the same, and it's just annoying. But I can see why it exists, I just want to be able to force an exact match when I need it.

    The place where it falls down is that you are looking for your friend John Smith John Doe and they have not made public any specific information about them. It doesn't attempt to see if you might know them the via shortest number of hops, or lives in a vague area, it will just give you a random list which you will have to wade through.

    </rant>

    Ranking search results by "shortest number of hops" would be nice. But the killer is that the "advanced search" doesn't work globally, only within friend lists and joined networks. Kind of works, as long as everyone is connected and has joined FB, but try finding your old German roommate David whom you worked with at SomeCorp five years ago. All you have to work with is the name.



  • @magetoo said:

    Kind of works, as long as everyone is connected and has joined FB, but try finding your old German roommate David whom you worked with at SomeCorp five years ago. All you have to work with is the name.

    I argue that if you wanted to get ahold of him that badly, you would have gotten his phone number before you ceased working together.  Also, you're assuming he's still alive and contact-able. 

    I would tend to argue that the limited search is a good thing because it reduces the friend requests I get from porn bots.   



  • @belgariontheking said:

    @magetoo said:

    Kind of works, as long as everyone is connected and has joined FB, but try finding your old German roommate David whom you worked with at SomeCorp five years ago. All you have to work with is the name.

    I argue that if you wanted to get ahold of him that badly, you would have gotten his phone number before you ceased working together.  Also, you're assuming he's still alive and contact-able. 

    I would tend to argue that the limited search is a good thing because it reduces the friend requests I get from porn bots.   

    Porn bots? Maybe it is time I gave this Facebook thing a try!



  • @magetoo said:

    You still do, if you want to join a college network. What you want is still there, plus you can keep in touch with those friends who are too old to still have an email account at their old university.

    What I don't get about Facebook is that you have to have a valid University email address to join the alumni network for that university.

    This means that I can't join my old uni's alumni network, because I no longer have a valid email for the uni (I graduated in 2004). Which seems a little stupid to me.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    I agree with the title.  Facebook used to be great.  Addictive, even.  Now it's a huge conglomeration of third party crap.  Not to mention, I don't know that many people in college anymore.

     

    I never used facebook... what is it good for? I guess I got spoiled in college with my talking to people and parties and the such (sigh remember the good ol' days of 2005?) But no fear, I can join the null community!
     



  • @Nozz said:

    I've seen lots of stuff like that happen on Facebook.  I often end up seeing PHP code in my status when I update it, for example.
    Interesting. I never do. I know they use different subdomains for the different networks. It's a bit unlikely that EVERY network uses its own server, but possible that networks are on specific servers (or server clusters), and some are more reliable than others.

    Alternatively, have you added any apps that may update your status? If so, my guess is THEY are spitting out php code, not facebook itself.


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