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Comment by xbmcuser | Hacker News Reader

The more sad part is people posting links from outside Facebook less. I have always been against Facebook for the simple reason that it is a way to coral the Web. And it is slowly but surely happening. Yes some people will hold out for privacy or other reasons but I fear soon most will soon will move inside Facebook and no longer be accessible outside it.

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I am against facebook because I don't think we should entrust a company that earns money by knowing everything about it's users with a substantial share of human to human communications.

I think you have to be a special kind of crazy not to consider that a problem.

"I am against facebook because I don't think we should entrust a company that earns money by knowing everything about it's users"

I would argue that Facebook has less personal data than Google. Facebook has the data you might want public...Google has your worst secrets.

I feel like there's no way they aren't working together and sharing that information. I view mattresses on Amazon, and Facebook shows me mattress ads a few minutes later. I post a link on Facebook, and everywhere I go, I see ads related to that link.

Probably re-targeting pixels

What I said of course also applies to google. I don't use google either (or at least, I go out of my way not to), and I try to minimize my use of any service where I'm the product.

Yes, but, it's ultimately a free tool to keep in touch with acquaintances at the very least. One that is opted-into..

Cost of Admission > Fax Era (less connected)

I wouldn't say it's free. It is just less obvious what you pay.

Yes, and people are notoriously bad at grasping hidden costs of a good or service.

More of a normal kind of crazy. Aunt peggy kind of crazy.

News and other content will always exist beyond Facebook.

The sad part is watching adtech kill more businesses as it devours its own tail.

What happens is that content follows the money. If we do not want content to be a puppet to advertisement, it is on us to create a different revenue stream.

Advertisement is an ok answer to the financial support problem of content. However, it has a serious flaw: It caters to masses rather well, and to niches very poorly. I like to think that a direct revenue flow (from readers to writers) would create strong incentives for more niche content. Investigative journalism, independent tech reviews; stuff that is desperately needed but not consumed by the masses.

Is is on us, techies. We can go down the ad-blocking arms race or we can go down the new business models race. One is destructive, the other is constructive.

Sorry but how is sharing a link to my followers on Twitter, or my close friends on Facebook different from sharing a link on Hacker News?

Original content will always want to be free to make as much money as it can. NYTimes for example will publish a URL for sharing, but also have an Apple News exclusive URI that forces you in that app sandbox.

One thing I love about Facebook sharing is the commentary and comments below the content.

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