Happy 20th birthday Facebook!

[rjfp1962]

I think I've had three or four accounts over the years with Facebook, but currently not.... For good or otherwise, it's really been here for two decades...!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68109208

[durbster]

Crikey. I was hesitant to sign up at first, then used it for a while before the Cambridge Analytica stuff put me off and I backed off it.

I've been toying with returning recently because it does have many practical uses but when I logged in a few days ago it was 75% promoted garbage and ads, and very little of my friends so I'm not sure.

Funnily enough, I had a clue of how old Facebook is this morning when my teenage my son said:
"Do I need a Facebook account... but... what even is Facebook?"

[the-norseman]

I remember people telling me I needed to sign up and me saying nah I'm happy with Myspace.

[Randy Winkman]

durbster said:

I've been toying with returning recently because it does have many practical uses but when I logged in a few days ago it was 75% promoted garbage and ads, and very little of my friends so I'm not sure.

I've been on FB for about 15 years and I never see a single advert. I've got my FB page open now and not a single ad. I dont even know what an ad on FB looks like or where they put them. For a few years I ignored the prompts to update my account and wonder if it's because of that? I used to see prompts at the top of my screen in the notifications but not anymore. Can anyone explain or am I totally misunderstanding the issue? I've even searched on line for an answer but Google doesnt seem to understand my question.

[durbster]

Randy Winkman said:

durbster said:

I've been toying with returning recently because it does have many practical uses but when I logged in a few days ago it was 75% promoted garbage and ads, and very little of my friends so I'm not sure.

I've been on FB for about 15 years and I never see a single advert. I've got my FB page open now and not a single ad. I dont even know what an ad on FB looks like or where they put them. For a few years I ignored the prompts to update my account and wonder if it's because of that? I used to see prompts at the top of my screen in the notifications but not anymore. Can anyone explain or am I totally misunderstanding the issue? I've even searched on line for an answer but Google doesnt seem to understand my question.

On the app or the website?

I just logged in and this is my feed:

1. ad for Secretlabs (probably because we got our son a gaming chair for Christmas)
2. promoting their Reels Tiktok rival
3. a promotion to join a gaming community for a game I've barely heard of (I'm not a gamer)
4. my mate replied to something
5. request to follow Urban Cycling Institute. No idea. I don't have a bike.
6. ad for Barclaycard
7. my friend on holiday
8. request to follow Team Batman for Life. fk knows what that is. I have zero interest in Batman.

That's 2 of the first 8 things are actually relevant and the rest is ads and promotions and it goes on like that forever. Maybe I've broken it by not logging on for months but if this is how it is supposed to be now, it's unusable.

This is in the Vivaldi browser, which has pretty good ad-blocking and anti-tracking stuff built in.

[glazbagun]

I have Ghostery, adblocker and FBPurity and my Facebook feed is still totally irrelevant garbage. On desktop they do at least allow you to select a "friends" feed, but facebook isn't a shadow of it's old user experience. It mainly seems to be the groups I follow that populate it now.

That said I managed to miss a uni friend getting married and having a kid years back, so I'm not sure the feed was ever any good.

[CoolHands]

It’s absolute ste but need to be on there for one or two groups which would be impossible to get the same info without.

The worst thing about it in my opinion is the fact it just doesn’t work properly because they try to control everything. So it interferes with your device spelling mechanism and fks it up. Can’t edit posts easily as it tries to control everything. It really is dire.

[devnull]

You know what I hat the most about Facebook? I could echo all the usual stuff about the noise, the hatred it generates, the bottom of the barrel viral content, etc, but what I truly hate the most as an internet veteran is how it destroyed traditional forums (the type that Pistonheads is). It killed them by moving generally google-searchable content behind closed Facebook groups. It killed the anonymity that they carried, and even when you're on them data disappears down a blackhole of nigh on impossible to search archives.

[Randy Winkman]

durbster said:

On the app or the website?

I just logged in and this is my feed:

1. ad for Secretlabs (probably because we got our son a gaming chair for Christmas)
2. promoting their Reels Tiktok rival
3. a promotion to join a gaming community for a game I've barely heard of (I'm not a gamer)
4. my mate replied to something
5. request to follow Urban Cycling Institute. No idea. I don't have a bike.
6. ad for Barclaycard
7. my friend on holiday
8. request to follow Team Batman for Life. fk knows what that is. I have zero interest in Batman.

That's 2 of the first 8 things are actually relevant and the rest is ads and promotions and it goes on like that forever. Maybe I've broken it by not logging on for months but if this is how it is supposed to be now, it's unusable.

This is in the Vivaldi browser, which has pretty good ad-blocking and anti-tracking stuff built in.

Ah! Cheers. On my laptop. The answer might be as simple as that?

[carlo996]

I cannot wish any happiness to Facebook, what an insidious and disgusting institution. Largely responsible for many people's mental health issues and an outlet for some terrible cowards to abuse others. fk you FB, and all of you who work within.

[essayer]

the only redeemable thing is the Dull Men’s Club group which seems to insert itself into my timeline regularly and usually cheers up my day slightly

[Hub]

It isn't so much the ads as the viral content it thinks you are interested in, crap videos and such or random topics that it shows you for a while out of the blue.

I agree with most that it was great in the beginning - it was around 2006-2007 it started to get big on this side of the pond, but now I would say only a handful of friends and family are still using it regularly posting photos and content.

It's still useful for groups but again as above they contributed to the decline of forums and the groups are more frustrating to use because it works best on constant new content rather than searching for, reviving and updating older posts.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

20 years of complete bks.

[vaud]

I use mine for local stuff - couple of very useful local village groups for our area that are generally quite constructive. Activities, road disruptions, easter/xmas events etc.

I rarely post.

[survivalist]

Amazed at the negativity on here. Facebook provides something that was unimaginable 30 year ago.

All the negative stuff is just human nature’. Ignore the negative stuff and it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family .

That said I do see a lot of people using instagram instead.

[M1AGM]

essayer said:

the only redeemable thing is the Dull Men’s Club group which seems to insert itself into my timeline regularly and usually cheers up my day slightly

Lol I get those too. Quite funny. I also get their reels nearly always with videos of very attractive young women in tight clothing doing inane stuff, no complaints from me.

[pork911]

Never heard of it.

[CoolHands]

survivalist said:

Amazed at the negativity on here. Facebook provides something that was unimaginable 30 year ago.

Completely disagree, it offers nothing new. All it’s done is taken interest forums and forced us to join fb for them.

Eg if you’re hobby is parachuting you will find parachutingUKforum has died and you have to join the fb parachuting group to get info from others now. That’s it.

It really is bks.

[Terminator X]

With hindsight the very start of modern "woes". People unable to think for themselves believing everything they read on F/B as true.

TX.

[carlo996]

survivalist said:

Amazed at the negativity on here. Facebook provides something that was unimaginable 30 year ago.

All the negative stuff is just human nature’. Ignore the negative stuff and it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family .

That said I do see a lot of people using instagram instead.

Because actually speaking to people is such an effort? That’s what’s unimaginable, the fact that some think social media is a normal and positive activity. It’s a cesspit.