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by a13n 2513 days ago
Yep. I'm pretty curious where the overwhelmingly negative FB sentiment on HN comes from. I've never seen so many people pride themselves in never having used / deleting Facebook.
6 comments

Facebook has had a number of major ethical failures over the years, which have been well covered here and HN readers are more likely to fully appreciate the significance of their privacy invasion (a recurring theme with Google’s lost prestige, too) and undermining important efforts (e.g. abusing MFA phone numbers after saying they wouldn’t, hurting a substantial security improvement).
If you understand facebook's business, you wont view it positively.
I would assume HN users have some idea of facebooks business..

that's beside the point. Facebook and its products are growing regardless if you like them/know about their business (as if its some sort of esoteric practice...?), to state otherwise isnt worth discussing much less posting about on here

The question was "where [does] the overwhelmingly negative FB sentiment on HN come from?"

What does success have to do with popular opinion or morality? Has anyone here said facebook isn't successful?

Exactly, Casinos are successful in a business sense as well.

These companies get most of their profit from addicting people and keeping them addicted.

They have the same moral standing as a drug dealer.

Microsoft was also hated for their business practices. I find what a company does to be a perfectly good reason to like or hate them, not that my opinion matters. But if you have enough people feeling a certain way it changes things.

For what it’s worth I don’t like FB because of Zuck and his FU attitude towards his user’s privacy (he was quoted early on calling his users “dumb fucks” if I’m remembering correctly).

I think he understands its business, having worked there. :)
For me it's personal. Facebook's newsfeed stole a lot of my time through it's psychological tricks and I can't help but dislike it for that.
You’re blaming Facebook for your lack of self discipline and control?
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

How would you suggest this post be strongly interpreted? Any interpretation I can come up with conflates their own self discipline with Facebooks doing.
I suppose one might be that whatever tricks they're talking about are exploits that have more to do with hard-wiring in humans than self-discipline.

Either way, though, please don't post personal attacks. If you don't think it violates that guideline, it certainly violates "Be kind." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It’s like the old adage about television:

“How do you know someone doesn’t own a television?”

“They tell you.”

Yes, back in the days when not owning a television was ahead of the curve. But would you like to buy stock in a TV manufacturer today?
Given that pretty much every large manufacturer makes things beyond televisions, and displays aren’t going out of fashion...
Depends how you define a television. Furthermore, whether Facebook’s engagement metrics depend on how you define engagement.
Like pilots and vegans
And people who do cross-fit.
> I'm pretty curious where the overwhelmingly negative FB sentiment on HN comes from

I imagine because Facebook is considered an unethical company.

Stalking horses for a TSLA-like fall to accumulate.