[frebord]

I mean Facebook for example, at its core for an end user it really just mirrors what the Internet was built to do. I can easily host my own profile and allow people to log in to it and talk to me. How did it become so dangerously centralized?

[mjevans]

The average user is lazy, cheep, and unaware of how valuable their freedom is.

[willemmali]

Did you mean "sheep" or "cheap"?

[tombrossman]

I think we've just witnessed the birth of a new technology portmanteau on HN- "Cheep: (noun) Member of one or more online herds of users who are exploited for personal data". I like it.

(sadly, cheep.com is already taken or I'd be on that like white on rice...)

[criddell]

> How did it become so dangerously centralized?

Network effects and there's nothing out there better than Facebook.

[dredmorbius]

Facebook owns the directory, and the notifications channel.

Freestanding sites lack this, and it turns out that behavioural costs matter.