Posts tagged rant

I am concerned about Facebook.  Their practices toward their users, developers and the internet in general are anti-web….and yet they are the most popular web site in the world.  Oddly, most people don’t think (or care) how anti-web,-user,-developer,-internet Facebook as (is) been and that has made the matter that much worse.  If anyone is interested, I can list out why I know all of the above is true.

What I don’t understand, however, is why there isn’t a viable Facebook alternative.  In some ways, it should be “easy.”  Here’s what I believe Facebook really is for 95% of its users.  A place to:

• Share postings with personal “friends”
• Share pictures with personal “friends”

That’s it.  Postings and photos.  All other features are used only by 5% of its users in any real way.  And what makes the postings and photos work so well for Facebook?  Its social graph.  That’s the “list” of your friends and the people who are friends with you.  The social graph is really the only thing that Facebook has that no one else has.  Without the social graph, the experience of sharing posts and sharing photos is just not the same anywhere else.

What I would like, is an open alternative where I can keep my social graph (and my friends can keep theirs), so that I can bring it around to whatever service has be best photos, events, classifieds, job postings, etc.  And I want to be able to change services whenever I would like, but have my social graph follow me so I don’t skip a beat.  That way, I can choose services that are beneficial to its users, its developers and the web community at large.

Who has the ability to make this happen? Wouldn’t everyone want to participate in the same graph?  We need choice and Facebook is no longer cutting it.

Get your head out of your ass and let people off an elevator before you try to get on.

This could not be a difficult concept:

• Let people off, you get on.
• Let people off, you get on.

I’m pretty sure a kid in first grade knows this instinctively.

Who’s the worst offender? “Business People.” The more important the job, the worse they can be. I can only imagine that they either think:

1. Their time is more important than other people’s.
2. They are thinking such high and lofty thoughts that they cannot be bothered by basic rules.

And that really offends me, because I am a business person - and I have an important job…..so other people probably think I am an asshole who cannot follow the basic rules either.

Anyway, just a friendly thought for the day..