[foglerek]

The vast majority (outside HN) would still choose the network where their friends are conveniently already located over privacy concerns. Especially when those concerns involve pictures of their cats or other trivial personal information.

And so the network effects remain.

[tajen]

- I have many non-techy friends in their 20ies who don't post pictures or personal stuff to Facebook because "someone told them it's dangerous". They can't articulate the logic around this danger, that is the most surprising.

- None of my sister's wedding pictures are on Facebook because of this reason – It was said loud on the mic during the ceremony.

- My mother is very afraid of having her credit card stolen by a virus in Windows, that's why she always... refuses to install upgrades. It's not so bad: Better an old Windows than clicking on every Update button their find.

- I don't watch people using their phones much, but when I do, I often ask them why they use one workaround instead of going straight to some place. "I was told it's better for privacy" is a frequent answer.

I'm illustrating that non-tech-savvy people aren't ignoring the "privacy" signals. They may be doing the wrong thing in the moment, but they are severely frightened and they do look for ways to protect their privacy.

[smelendez]

I have my Facebook settings configured so I have to approve tags, and honestly I'd prefer people not post photos of me or comments like "had a great time with Steve!" without asking.

Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes the fact that someone's in a certain place with certain people, or not in another place with other people, is a sensitive issue. Sometimes it can even become a sensitive issue later on (imagine being tagged in a wedding reception five years ago, standing next to a then-unknown Martin Shkreli).

[phicoh]

Another way to look at that is that people are sharing pictures of cats on Facebook because that all that it's good for.

Most people have to many 'friends' to share anything more personal.

[frandroid]

> The vast majority (outside HN)

I think one could build a strong userbase in countries where people want privacy from their governments, on top of the "HN crowd".

[shmerl]

Network effects remain, but it's still something that can be used as an advantage over Facebook. A lot of FB refugees choose other networks when they are starting to get fed up with lack of privacy on FB.

[saimiam]

> outside hackernews

Isn't hackers congregating on a new agg site like Hackernews where other hackers are already hanging out the same network effect in action?