Facebook tests paid post promotion Facebook has been spotted trialling a service that allows users to pay a small fee, said to be US$2 dollars, to highlight posts to “Make sure friends see this.” New Zealand website Stuff.co.nz learned of the feature, pictured below, and extracted a confirmation from a Facebook spokesfriend to the effect that the feature is …
It's easy to see why nerds don't like FaceBook... being slightly on the autistic spectrum they tend not to care about or understand other people very well. FB is for regular people who are interested in the minutiae of their friends lives.
The best thing an IT person can do to improve their job skills is to come out of their own arse and realise the rest of the world are not IT people.
Actually I am so interested in my friends lives that I keep in regular touch with them by face to face meeting or talking on the phone, that way I can address the individual interests of each one rather than employ the scattergun and tell everyone everything and letting them pick through the pile to find the bits that interest each individual.
Facebook is actually destroying the art of friendship by dumbing it down to the point of posting on a web site... looks like an ideal candidate for ITV to buy... its likely to fit with the Jeremy Kyle viewerbase really well, in fact ITV could trawl the site to find candidates for future shows!
There is more to friendship than posting to facebook.
What dross. FB is an additional dimensional to having a friendship. If you go on a trip somewhere I can see the daft photos immediately, not wade through your photo album 2 months later.
If you get fired you can tell all your friends at once rather than have to spend hours phoning them all in turn to have the same conversation.
Not to mention you can't see people IRL when they move away.
when pages/people I've liked start spamming me with these "important posts" I shall start voting with the unlike button... or the defriend button... or report them for spamming my feed... it's already bad enough with the spammy so-and-so likes a post postings which when you try to block them you find you cannot stop seeing these likes without blocking ordinary posts from so-and-so...
I don't want to actually close my account, but they're giving me more and more reasons to do so...
PHASE 1: Hip young thing.
Characterised by: It's where the cool kids are.
PHASE 2: Exponential growth AKA Middle aged spread.
Characterised by: Everyone and their mother joins.
PHASE 3: Increasingly desperate attempts to monetize the user base.
Characterised by: Unlikely sounding business plans mocked by the media.
PHASE 4: Vicious cycle of lame AKA The users are revolting
Characterised by: Attempts to generate any sort of profit are vigorously rejected by user base.
PHASE 5: Undead Army
Characterised by: Mass abandonment of accounts, site fills up with advertising as no one is complaining about it any more.
PHASE 6: Caveat Emptor
Characterised by: Sold for obscene quantity of cash to people that should know better.
> Sold for obscene quantity of cash to people that should know better.
The problem is that some bank will have underwritten the IPO and that bank "is too big to fail" which means that you and I will be taxed to pay for it.
Worse, the ring-fenced bad debt will be bought, or, the bank will be bought by the government and then resold quickly for a song without the debt.
So we the taxpayers don't even get a decent asset for the money we paid.
I could quite easily live without most of the drivel (and often commercial drivel at that) which appears on fb.
At least now I can legitimately say "i wouldn't read that if you paid me (or paid facebook)".
The valuation of facebook is just another dot com bubble since I expect a lot of the people putting this value on it don't get that people are not captive, they are there for their own benefit and until there is cash demonstrably coming from having such a large userbase it's only 'potentially' worth so much. Can anyone remember myspace? bibo etc
It's a tool, like any other.
I use it for sharing photos of the kids with various computer illiterates.
If you have no use for it, don't use. If you can't use it, don't use it. But please don't say, "It's crap" or "boast" that you don't have an account. It makes you sound like a twat.
People are already annoyed that Facebook seems insistant on showing 'top stories' over the most recent posts. If they're saying you should pay for the guarantee that a post is actually seen then what you have is a messaging sight where your message might just disappear if you don't fork out, at which point it becomes essentially useless.
Well done, Zuck. You finally gave the last few people who don't care about privacy issues a reason to leave.
In a perfect world, everybody embraces this, and starts paying to have their posts shown on top - meaning nobody can be shown on top, meaning facebook would be making money for nothing. (and consequently get sued, because paying to have your post on top, doesn't actually put it on top - but that wouldn't happen in a perfect world)
In the real world, companies might use this to some extent. Everyone who liked "The Avengers" might get an update in 2-3 years time when "The Avengers 2" comes out, that is paid for to ensure people see it - making it essentially advertisements, disguised as posts (which I'm guessing would be deemed illegal, at least some placed in Europe - or perhaps just generally by the EU).
Also in the real world - anything suggesting real users should do this, would prompt people to quickly find an alternative. If that alternative be google+ - then well done Zuck, you've managed to do what Google couldn't. But hopefully it wont be Google, as that would just be horrible. Making it way way way too easy for Google to learn all the things, they've spent years developing methods of learning. Think of all that work, nullified :o
If some sad sack feels the need to get their post stuck everywhere to the point where they are willing to pay money for it, why can't I charge them for the privilege of allowing them onto my news feed ? Send me $2 a week and I promise to read everything you post (honest).......
Just for fun ... a few anagrams of 'Facebook Friend" - adding a bit of levity to the subject.
Forced Info Bake
Refaced Fib Nook
Farce Book Fiend
Feared Knob Foci
Dank Office Bore
Crooned Fake Fib
A Bricked One Off
A Bicker Fond Foe
A Bone Dick Offer
Nicked Off A Bore
"Beckon Aid" Offer
Broken Off A Dice
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