[conradk]

Yet another centralized initiative?

Every new initiative is good if it brings new ideas.

But sadly, most new social networks we see try to convince people that Facebook is bad (ads, privacy concerns, etc) instead of convincing them that the new thing is good. IMO, this is backwards. I have never heard someone tell me "Facebook should share revenue with us". I mean come on: Facebook hosts servers, creates tons of jobs and they should now start paying users?

[rapidlb]

Sure thing Facebook has nice servers architecture and most brilliant engineers, but does FB creates any content? That's just a website, an empty shell where people upload content. And FB gets 100% of ads revenue, generated by others' content. Look at content creators like The New York Times's website, they get money through ads by attracting people thanks to their article. Plus you give up all of your rights and privacy, in exchange of a free service. I think the idea is not to "start paying users", but creating a fair platform.

[conradk]

That's "just" a website? You are kidding, right?

Facebook is way more than "just" a website: - the only platform that has managed to make people share this much content - a way for businesses to advertise and thus make more money - the maintainer of amazing open source projects such as HHVM or React.JS

I don't think Facebook is perfect. But focusing on the privacy concerns to say Facebook sucks is just wrong. If you're concerned with your privacy, simply don't sign up on Facebook or don't share private content.

According to Wikipedia [1], Facebook makes 7.8$B and has a net profit of 1.5$B. If Facebook gave 90% back to its user base, no way it could survive with the level of quality they provide (accessibility, technical reliabilty, etc).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook