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Comment by brlewis | Hacker News Reader

> Have you ever thought that the reason Facebook is successful is because people choose to use it?

Yes, I have thought that, before I knew any better. Now I know that Facebook became successful by making people think that other people wanted them to use Facebook.

E.g. http://www.krist0ph3r.com/2009/06/reminder-kristopher-invite...

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Yup.. It's how trust is built, familiarizing you with a person or a thing - like a brand - by seeing or hearing about it enough times, automatically builds trust with it - digital advertising which organizations have taken advantage of this mechanism to shallowly in a very shallow, cheap way, manipulate people - tied into network effects that the internet as a platform allows to be scaled.

The article you linked to reminds me that Mark Zuckerberg's moral compass consists of:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuck: Just ask Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks

It's particularly odd to me that he's quoted 'trust me' as if the concept of trust is foreign, non-existent,

And that’s basically advertising 101. I remember being taught that in a marketing class in graduate school back in 2001.

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-bandwagon-advertisi...

No, advertising 101 is vague lies like "America's favorite mascara". The more specific lie that "Kristopher invited you to use Facebook" takes it to a new level.

So let’s go with Mary Kay and Tupperware....

The equivalent is if a Tupperware salesperson tried to sell you tupperware by showing you a _doctored_ image of your friend buying tuperware while literally holding a sign saying "Hey [Your Name], buy this too!".

AFAIK invitations to Mary Kay and Tupperware parties are not lies. Your friend actually does want you to go.

I remember way back in the day my parents were invited to a “dinner party”. It wasn’t until they got their that they found out that it was a pitch to some MLM scheme like Mary Kay.

If your parents got to the "dinner party" and found that their friends hadn't actually invited them, but that the invitation was sent by the Mary Kay company without your parents' friends' knowledge, then I retract my claim. But I suspect it was your parents' friends being misleading on a small scale rather than a company lying on a large scale.

The entire idea behind MLzm schemes is to con your “friends” to get them to sell your goods.

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