Month: June 2009

Everyday I log in to Facebook to see what my friends are up to.  It’s a great way to keep up with my old friends who are now 300 miles away.  Even with all of it’s current popularity, I feel like it will fade away in time.  Here are my reasons.

The Platform Was A Mistake

Thanks to the Facebook Platform, there’s always a new silly quiz to take or some other application wanting my attention.  I mostly ignore those things, but sometimes I give in.

This is where the problems start.  It’s not enough to just take the quiz, the quiz also wants you to invite all of your friends to take it, too.  Also, by taking the quiz, you have to agree to give the program access to all of your information on Facebook.

This has always struck me as a little odd.  I usually spend as much brainpower trying to make sure that this program doesn’t e-mail everyone on my friends list as I do actually taking the quiz.

I believe a social network should be centered on the people involved.  They’re the reason the site exists.  The applications are just a distraction to get people to spend more time looking at the ads.

It’s a Walled Garden

Facebook released their API partly in response to my second criticism.  It’s closed.  There’s no way to share things on Facebook with other people, unless they’re also members.

What if I want to share my pictures and status updates with everyone?  This isn’t possible with Facebook, yet sites like Flickr and Twitter make it easy.  Also, what if I want to export my data from Facebook?

The Platform could easily be used to create applications to make sharing easier, but it’s against the terms of service.  Facebook recently shut down an application that made your data available as an RSS feed citing privacy concerns.

This is kind of a double-edged sword.  I think one of the initial reasons for Facebooks rise to popularity was the fact that it was initially only available to college students.  It was like a private club.  Obviously, that made outsiders want in even more.

Now that the site is available to all, there should be a way to make the data more readily available.

It’s Nothing New

Like I mentioned earlier, there are many other ways to share your information online.  Facebook is nice if you didn’t already have a blog or some other means of sharing your thoughts and pictures online.

Facebook does make it easier to keep up with friends, but it’s not rocket science.  A group of tech-savvy friends could just as easily set up a blog for each person, then subsribe to all of their RSS feeds.

For me, it seems like just another inbox sometimes.  Why should someone send me a message through Facebook, when they could just e-mail me?

I’ve also starting using the Twitter application so that my Twitter updates also update my status on Facebook.  If there was an application to make my friends status show up as a feed, I would probably never visit Facebook.

Thanks to the fact that the site is fueled by advertising, that’s never going to happen.

I read quite a few different blogs.  I feel like I should since I sometimes write one.  I read mostly about programming and other technical things.  I probably spend 10-15 minutes per day skimming the headlines in Google Reader, looking for interesting articles.

It’s nice to have a few things to read while I’m waiting for a script to run or eating lunch.  Unfortunately, there are certain types of posts that seem to reappear regularly.  These are a few of the posts that I’m tired of reading:

How To Make Money Blogging

I know that some people make their living as a blogger, and I think that’s great, but I’m tired of reading about it.  What I really can’t stand are people who make money by writing a blog about how to make money blogging.

I’ve fallen into this trap myself in the past.  I created a few different blogs with Google and Amazon ads.  I even made a little money doing this, but it’s not something I can maintain for any length of time.

Blogs with lots of ads (especially ads that pop up on words inside the posts) make me a little uncomfortable.  Like I said, I still have a few blogs with ads on them, but I don’t really feel good about it.

If I never see another post about link baiting, SEO, or how to get on the front page of Digg again, it’ll be too soon.

Arguments About Nothing

For some people, everything is a religion.  There is no gray area, everything is black and white.  You’re either with us or you’re against us.  Windows vs. Mac, Emacs vs. Vi, Windows vs. Linux, Ruby vs. Python, the list goes on forever.

Use the right tool for the job and get on with your life.  Just because I use a Mac at home doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.  I use a Windows PC at work, and that doesn’t mean I don’t like Macs.

The worst are posts written by people who don’t really even know what they’re talking about.  For example:

“You should use a Mac since Windows computers always get viruses.”  I’ve never had a virus on any of the Windows PCs I’ve used.  Am I just lucky?

“Macs are overpriced, you can get a PC with the same hardware for a lot less.”  I look at a lot more than hardware specs when I buy a computer.  What about the operating system, the applications, the community, the build quality, the design?

I will never understand why some people spend every day of their life trying to convince other anonymous internet users that their way is the only way.  What a waste of time and effort.

Personal Attacks

To me, this is about the lowest thing you could possibly write about online.  Yet I still see these kinds of posts on blogs.

I can’t even imagine a situation that would cause me to try to belittle someone else online.  What can a post like this possibly accomplish? If you don’t agree with someone, why not just ignore them?

Maybe it has something to do with television.  Some people aren’t happy unless there’s drama in their life.  I guess it’s nice when people comment on the post and agree with your assessment of the other person.

Just like the endless debates I mentioned earlier, I’ve never seen anything positive come from a personal attack of someone online.  I don’t ever remember a time when a victim of one of these posts said “You know what, you’re right.  I’ll change my ways.”

That’s Enough For Now

I think I’ll stop here.  I’m not really sure what the point of this post was.  I don’t imagine it will change what other people write about, but it can’t hurt to try.

Maybe later I’ll talk about the kinds of posts that I enjoy reading.  In the mean time, what are some posts that you’re tired of reading?