'Long-time Slashdot reader Lauren Weinstein argues that fixing Facebook may be impossible because "Facebook's entire ecosystem is predicated on encouraging the manipulation of its users by third parties who posses the skills and financial resources to leverage Facebook's model. These are not aberrations at Facebook -- they are exactly how Facebook was designed to operate."'
Precisely the point. Everybody has heard the saying “if you’re not the customer, then you’re the product”, probably to the point where they’re sick of it. Now they are discovering, with a shock, exactly how true that is.
The only way to avoid becoming a product to be bought and sold is to become a customer. That means paying for the service in some way.
And it also means, don’t expect a simple plug-in replacement for Facebook that you can switch to with just a click or two. Expect to have to put some work into it.
Shall we take a look at some self-hosted alternatives to facebook (eg diaspora, gnu social) at the next meeting? https://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/