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by amelius 2403 days ago
I only use Facebook for events, yet there seems to be no alternative, partly because of the network effect where small and large organizations keep posting their events only to Facebook.

If there was some kind of bot that would automatically crosspost events from Facebook to other social media platforms, then perhaps there would be a chance of winning me over.
2 comments
corobo 2403 days ago
I used to only use Facebook for events, then they dropped support for iCal. I used to use Facebook for birthdays. See also the iCal droppage.

Facebook is useless to me now, this story gave me the final kick to add Facebook to my pi-hole to begin the rehab process.

Rip the bandaid off, let the healing begin. I’ll find some other way for sorting out events.

Also you can’t do that with a bot. At least not legit via API. They blocked access to events after the Cambridge thing

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jakub_g 2403 days ago
On top of that, you have certain niche online communities that seem to only be on FB those days (the days of websites with discussion forums are long gone, sadly).

Also, some of my (smart) friends insist on using FB/Messenger for group messaging. I tried to convert them to Whatsapp a few years ago which IMO is way superior, but they still prefer Messenger (which I won't ever install, so I have to use FB web to keep in touch with them).

Whatsapp is now FB-owned, so lately we wanted to move our workgroup chat to Telegram, but one of coworkers boycotted the idea, because she has already a dozen different apps to keep in touch with her friends all over the world and she refuses to install yet another app.

The network effects and inertia are really hard to overcome.

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iudqnolq 2403 days ago
FYI Telegram uses dubious encryption and lies about their business (for ex calling themselves a nonprofit when they aren't) and is run by a Russian oligarch who started spending on democracy-related causes after a falling out with Putin. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15281788 for example.

WhatsApp's encryption protocol (Axolotl) comes from the open source secure messaging app Signal. If you can't get people to use Signal, WhatsApp is at least much better than Telegram or Facebook messenger.

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