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Comment by CameronNemo | Hacker News Reader

My RA at uni used Facebook to coordinate floor wide games and events. Several on campus organizations exclusively used Facebook to inform people of events.

FB was not a requirement for attending uni, but it was a requirement for being fully involved on my campus.

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I don't really agree with rantwasp and in his/hers answer to you I don't understand what he is talking about lawsuits.

In my university (in Europe) not only several student organizations used exclusiveley Facebook, but professors (well students really) as well.

For example, we would be teams of maybe ~10 -20 people at a given hospital department and because situations were fluid and changes constant we needed to coordinate. Times of impromtu lectures obviously weren't set, patients that may be of interest for all to see & know the case etc were always changing. The doctors would inform one student and then depend on the students informing each other for all these things and guess what they used. Facebook & messenger.

In this situation the only out was depending on a person who had a fb account to inform me which did add extra difficulties. That is what I did mostly but it wasn't easy.

That sounds horrible. Universities — especially public ones — should relay communications through either open standards (email) or through a university maintained website.

My university in Canada did well in this respect. I would have thought that European universities would be “enlightened” to the fact that using a private company to relay university communications is a mistake.

I'm at a public University in Europe and can say that we do occasionally rely on third parties, but only such third parties with which we have an appropriate contract.

We also have self-hosted equivalent for almost everything and a quick email to the data protection officer will get problems rectified swiftly.

Most student organizations are also very mindful about not using third party services for their events. However, we often get the feedback that many students would rather we just use Discord rather than Mattermost/Jitsu/...

sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen if you ask me. How is uni tied to a crappy corporation?

i’m gonna bet you real money that 1) either they had multiple channels (ie you didn’t really need FB) or 2) they will pay legal fees through their noses once the shit hits the proverbial fan.

> games and events

Not tied to uni but virtually mandatory to participate in social events. Sure you can just say to simply opt out but then it might be more difficult to socialize.

There's no basis for such a lawsuit. You might not like it but they're not breaking the law.

hmm. i’m not sure that’s true. a university has more things to consider than just “can we use this app?”

Consider attending law school so you can learn the law instead of just guessing what it might be.

i considered it, but they want me to signup on FB, so no thanks /s

That would depend on where the parent is from. In Germany you would absolutely have a case if your public University tried to make you use Facebook. In fact, you could probably skip the lawsuit and just report it to the appropriate authority.

I don't think any public university is making someone use Facebook. The issue is that every single event is posted on Facebook so your options are either 1. create a Facebook so you can find out, 2. don't participate, or 3. inconvenience your friends by asking them to tell you about all the events.

There are cases where there might be a basis for a lawsuit (some professor at a public university hiding in Facebook)

But for the way the student leaning group organizes or the restaurant down the road takes reservation or what medium is used by the parents of my child's school class to discuss things is not a legal concern.

> i’m gonna bet you real money that 1) either they had multiple channels (ie you didn’t really need FB) or 2) they will pay legal fees through their noses once the shit hits the proverbial fan.

I'm interested in this bet. How much and what are the terms?

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