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Comment by michaelochurch | Hacker News Reader

Facebook jumped the shark when all those horrible, ugly apps started polluting the thing with idiocy. The editorial incompetence and general awfulness of the ecosystem was astonishing. Farmville was the end of the beginning of the end.

In 2004, Facebook wasn't garbage. It was simple, it served a purpose very well. It changed the social experience of being in college, a sharp contrast against "social" today which is largely irrelevant to having real social experiences. Facebook is what it is today because of the momentum it established while a social networking site for colleges, in a time when it actually served its purpose very well.

At any rate, I agree that "social" is a very boring space right now. I find most of it anti-social. It's an excuse for not being social: if you put everyone you meet in your Facebook "friends" list, you have an excuse for not keeping in touch with people.

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I think Facebook has mostly corrected the app garbage problem. I'm no longer bombarded with invitations to Ninjas vs. Pirates and my news feed is very rarely invaded by Farmville.

I lost most of my interest (although I still use it daily) when they added the news feed. It took away the importance of profiles and took away the fun of "stalking". It used to be a regular problem that people would spend too much time poring over profiles. Now I hardly ever get past the first 20 posts on my news feed. Maybe I just grew up. Of course the news feed is what turned Facebook into what it is today.

It's definitely an age thing. I've been through both your and the GP's situations since I've graduated university and thought that Facebook jumped the shark... Until I talked to both of my younger brothers that still use facebook the same way I did when I was in university.

So facebook definitely has a narrow age range appeal but it hasn't gotten better or worse.. It's just that people outgrow it while others grow into it.

My experience is so very different. I'm 31 years old and my life is managed by Facebook. When my someone in my social circle wants to host an event? Facebook. When someone needs help with something? Facebook. When someone wants to show me something? Facebook. When my sister wants to brag about my nephew? Facebook.

It's the most important tool in my digital life and it's not even close (sorry gmail:>).

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm simply raising a counterpoint.

> Facebook jumped the shark when all those horrible, ugly apps started polluting the thing with idiocy.

Flickr and MySpace come to mind, too.

Generally, don't let a user pollute other users' posts/streams/walls with ugly invitations, apps, or animated glitter.

Many people have no taste or lack the ability to judiciously use such features. If you let them, your site will quickly become garbage.

I've fixed this long ago. Block all crap from Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc and goodbye spam.

Most people don't change default settings. Therefore most people have a pretty crappy experience with all the gunk on facebook. Therefore people will get bored with it and you will have less reason to go yourself.

The app phenomenon on Facebook is all the more puzzling since it adds so little financially. This is something Gree and Mobage did quite well, eventually overshadowing Mixi because of all the revenue from in-house games, virtual goods and a cut of all platform revenue.

Direcly? Maybe. But indirectly people don't go to Farmville's site to play it, they do it in Facebook. So they kept all the people that knew Facebook was the place for cute (or not so cute) family pictures and offered them casual and social games.

Google is the internet but Facebook is what you do on the internet.

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