[DerpyBaby123]

Let me summarize through quotes:

>This is not an update, but a new messaging system from which you can’t switch back.

> These are simply features presented to artificially devalue one of the systems, distract from the real changes, and manipulate users into changing to a different system.

> this change will eventually link to your real name.

[tqi]

Hm well the first two aren't really costs, are they?

The third is a conjecture, and as I understand it this is only being offered to people who already have linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts?

[DerpyBaby123]

Yes, the first is a literal cost, you lose something you used to be able to use.

The second is the cost of a degraded system of instagram messaging

[tqi]

So the sticking point on the first point is that it is a one-way decision? By that framing, every product update is a cost. Upgrading from iOS 13 to iOS 14 was a cost. For the second point, then every time a company decides not to build a new feature that is also a cost? I guess I could buy that, but it feels pretty weak.

[nine_k]

When you use a free but not open product, you are not the customer. This is an old and tired idea, but also true.

If you want features not disappearing or changing when you don't want them to, you need to be in control. I know only two ways to be in control: you either pay (and the agreement contains a provision about the product properties you care about), or manage it yourself.

Using a free-as-in-beer service always puts someone else in control, not you. Bear it in mind every time you register with such a service, and shape your expectations.

[cartoonworld]

Yes, proprietary software is negative in the freedom dimension.

You have to realize that what your saying here is a category error: The libre alternatives don't have billions of dollars of marketing, engineering, market cap and users.

EFF here is trying to point out exactly what you are espousing. These kind of dark patterns are used at all levels to drive engagement, including sign up and retention. ("But ... How will I be able to talk to my friends if I delete Facebook??")

I can't recommend a solution, but "Well, its free, what do you expect?" is even worse.

[nine_k]

Would you prefer to hold private parties somehow liable to follow your convenience or best interest, and not their best interest? Anyone who would suggest that should prepare for this approach to be applied to themselves — that is, being coerced to do what some other people want. Whatever it is, it's not freedom.

(Yes, indeed, the law works by coercion in the common interests. But I don't see any law having been broken here.)

So yes, it's free to play — what did you expect? Too much? Memorize this, and remember next time. Tell your friends and relatives what to not expect. Name and shame the entities which did something unsavory: this helps make users less gullible, and through that, nudges companies to be more careful.

Consider avoiding the use of stuff you don't control for important things. Be conscious when consuming free candy from a for-profit entity, even if you think your interests are currently aligned. But don't force anybody's hand.

[cartoonworld]

>Consider avoiding the use of stuff you don't control for important things. Be conscious when consuming free candy from a for-profit entity, even if you think your interests are currently aligned. But don't force anybody's hand.

This is excellent advice, but it doesn't help all the people who are not even in the same league as this idea, who are just making their way through the landscape using whatever they come across to not get herded further into the vortex of asshole walled gardens.

The value proposition of this to mom or some kid is gonna sound like: "What?"

[croes]

It costs you your choice.

[reaperducer]

I'm not sure the third part is conjecture. The EFF has an entire article about it: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/changes-facebooks-real...

[tqi]

Ah sorry, I was being unclear.

Facebook definitely has a "real name" policy, but it isn't clear to me why a unified messaging experience means that your real name will now be shown to other users. That seems like a product decision, rather than an inevitability.

As an aside, I don't like this feature and have not opted into it because I actually dislike interoperability. If there was a hypothetical way to get Twitter DM / IG Direct / Messenger / iMessages all in one unified inbox, I would never use it because I actually prefer to keep things in context. My persona and networks on the various platforms are different on purpose, and I like to keep it that way.

[cartoonworld]

>it isn't clear to me why a unified messaging experience means that your real name will now be shown to other users. That seems like a product decision, rather than an inevitability.

They've probably noticed that Instagram has more marketshare with younger audiences and better engagement, where Facebook is full of your grandma and "old people".

If they can slowly boil the frog and make them the same, they have a much stronger grip. Its better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

[spicybright]

Ditto with this. If my reddit account and SMS messages every intermixed, I would be a very very unhappy camper lol