Hotel Facebook
You can check out anytime you like, but your personal details can never leave....
Facebook's popularity is slumping in the UK as users become fed up with being bombarded with advertising, a YouGov survey has revealed. In a report examining social media use among web-savvy Brits, the market research firm found a 9 per cent drop in Facebook usage since April 2012. Among the people who had quit Facebook, 23 …
Thats why yopu should NEVER submit wholly genuine details. Enough to get your account, yes, enough for them to launch ad after ad at you with no means of stopping them?. No.
Every advert i get on FB (and i have the most minimal account to keep in touch with the rest of my sheeple mates) gets reported as being sexually explicit. Just to fuck up their figures..
Try it, its quite satisfying. Also, living in Tongo means i have very few targeted ads as its the least populated place i could find to say i came from!!!!
Fuck you.......Bitch...
"Every advert I get on FB...gets reported as being sexually explicit."
That'll just get your feedback logged as malicious and ignored. I would say it's better to honestly select "Just not interested" in all the ads for cars, stock trading etc. If everyone did that FB would be put in an awkward position when they try to drum up ad sales for the new Lexus or whatever and the advertiser wants to see data on the level of interest /engagement with ads.
"Or use an ad blocking add on to your web browser."
Just what I was thinking! I use AB+ on my browser and I use FB for keeping touch with the rellies and I don't see a single ad in any page. Loads of crap JPGs from people with more time than sense but you know, take the rough with the smooth!
Or use an ad blocking add on to your web browser.
Even the best ad blockers can be a bit patchy at filtering out FB ads and I've yet to find one that even remotely works on the fb mobile site on Android.
FBPurity OTOH is pretty useful. As well as killing ads you can filter out all the uninteresting attention-seeking pish like app posts and other people's likes etc., ending up with a news feed that's simply full of the things your friends have - imagine this - actually typed and posted all by themselves.
All mention of it on facebook itself is verboten and seems to get you marked as "a spammer" if you link to it, especially on public pages/posts.
That just leaves the mobile site. Anyone got any tips on how to kill ads on that?
@Auburnman I've never had an advert about stock trading or cars on Facebook. I filled in my interests with things I genuinely like, and lo and behold I have adverts relevant to me which sometimes tell me about things I was unaware of. If everyone stopped trying to be clever and fighting the system they may find they actually don't mind advertising since it would be relevant to them. If you don't have sufficient hobbies and interests to generate relevant adverts then you won't be happy regardless what Facebook does.
The marketeers have overestimated the depth of the sheeple effect gold mine. By far.
If we step back a little and give it a thought - just how many times am I going to be interested in something just because all of my mates are interested in it.
Under "natural disease propagation" conditions - probably a lot. However, that is not necessarily valid under forced propagation conditions when the social graph is being abused to feed crap I do not want down my throat. Same as in real life - we "filter out" particular people's "recommendations" if they constantly recommend us crap.
The correct model for the value of Social is the infectious disease model. In that case, it is likely to follow an "infection curve" where it grows exponential initially leveling and then _DROPPING_ off because the pool of "susceptible" targets has dried out. We are definitely past the exponential curve now so it is only a matter of time until we get into the "drop of the cliff" zone. Pass the popcorn please, it will be lovely to watch.
I dunno, how many times are you interested in the article in The Reg on social media?
Whatever that number is, the number of times you'd "be interested in something because other people are interested in it" is more than that.
I dumped Facebook after they started keeping all messages server-side near-permanently.
For those who want to dump it: Search 'How do I close my account?' (sans-quotes) on Facebook help.
Takes 2 weeks and they claim all data is gone, I've still yet to file a DPA request but when I have spare cash I will to make sure everything is permanently gone. Been a while, more than a year (I think) and perv-power lost its charm on me so haven't even glanced at it since.
I seem to remember reading something about FB operating in Europe (They wouldn't make much money selling targeted ad-space in Europe if they couldn't sell in Europe!)
Last time I heard, everything was routed through Ireland, so that's the place to look when you do your "DPA". Remember that the "DPA" comes from a European initiative, and while it might not be called "DPA" where they register their company, the rules will be very similar.
While I agree, that anything you do online has a risk of getting owned, there are some actions that involve a higher risk than others. Following links to unknown websites is one of them.
It would not be the first time that ads are used for slinging malware.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/15/opera_blackhole/ -
"Malvertising" incidents are far from rare. Previous victims have included Spotify, the London Stock Exchange, The Pirate Bay, ITV.com and Major League Baseball, among many others
It has been written by El Reg, so it must be the truth. Right?
"Facebook is about to disappear"
No, it has merely (finally) reached the peak of stupidly fast growth and now has to take a reality check. Until something comes along to usurp it, FB will remain a big player.
Also remember this is specific to the UK, who are probably like 3% of FaceBook's user-base.
FB is no longer the cool new thing but it is still the dominant player... look how many decades MS has stayed top and how slowly their position is eroded even with Vista and W8.
The difference being that most social media businesses rely far more heavily on a 'critical mass' of users and an expectation that numbers will increase than most other businesses do. Numbers everything, as MySpace, Bebo etc found to their cost; if half your friends leave facebook, I'd say there was a far higher chance the other half will follow than with a search engine or online retailer. At the very least your own usage will decrease greatly, as you still need to communicate with the non facebook friends by whichever means they now use - email, twitter, whatever. Less eyeballs on ads, brand messages etc, which tends to attract negative press and fuel a general perception of decline.
It may not disappear, but a bit of the shine wearing off and a relatively modest decline in numbers has far more potential to become a complete rout than would apply to similar declines affecting say, Amazon, or given the relative longevity of the individual product, Microsoft. Facebook's continuing dominance is more ephemeral than the current numbers make it look.
People saying 'Facebook' will be around for a long time are being a bit naive, completely different model and market to a company like MS. Microsoft controlled the world of OSes because there weren't many genuine contenders around that could shove their marketing in your face like MS could. Facebook are a completely different paradigm, they got big by word of mouth, not spending hundreds of millions on advertising.
Like it or not, it's a different world now to when MS came up, businesses rise and fall a lot faster in the internet age. Anyone remember how big Myspace was? And where are they now?
Facebook usage is dropping, their IPO bombed, their phone bombed, they are getting crucified over taxes and privacy issues, they definitely seem to be on the downward path, rather than the opposite.
Facebook are in a similar position to Microsoft in that they have the users and data already. I dont think there will be the mass exodus people are predicting when the next social networking fad comes along as peaople will be reluctant to move their data to it and rebuild connections. Also why would you when everyones already on facebook?
Sounds very similar to MS lock in on software and data formats that has massively helped it keep its dominant position.
You can edit comments now. Have been able to for maybe a year.
Mouse over to the upper right of your comment and a pull down icon will appear.
Also the privacy options have become a lot better, much more facile and easier to use.
You can block work stuff from family, family stuff from work, school stuff from parents, whatever.
Of course nothing on the web is 100% secure, but that is a property of the web and of computers, not unique to FB.
but if you reply to a parent comment and press enter todo a line break, you will just post your comment, you cant fake a line break with \r\n at the end of a line
this post will just be all on a single line, and you can just end up with with a paragraph of something most people wont read
people will just stick to trolling on forums and embeding soundcloud player in posts, and maybe just keeping a facebook page to have a unified login unless something comes along
google + sucks
https://new.myspace.com/ has made the mistake of some full screen mundane corporate rubbish instead of being able to browse for some tunes
facebook will still zuck in 10 years
Promise not to put popup crap, expanding/contracting DIVs and autoplaying videos anywhere and I might think about it.
Actually come to think about it, I've been running without ABP for a little while now and haven't had any rudeness shoved in my face yet. Maybe the Reg has improved a bit there, though it was the Reg and the aforementioned spammy shite that persuaded me to install ABP in the first place.
"Promise not to put popup crap, expanding/contracting DIVs and autoplaying videos anywhere and I might think about it."
That's exactly the problem, I don't use ABP to block ads, I use it to block twitchyblinky popup crap that gets in the way of reading the real info on a site. For as long as sites put animated ads up, I'll keep using ABP, even on El Reg. A plain small image to one side is fine, and I might even read it.
As for "we'll go bust, starve to death and get eaten by Reg the Vulture" that's a very valid point, but should be an incentive to choose ads that don't trigger an ABP knee-jerk reaction. The sad fact is that if you do go bust there'll be another web site popping up to replace you before you can say "Paris Hilton", and no doubt Reg the Vulture will still eat well over there.
I don't use Adblock when browsing the Reg, but I do use NotScripts (ie NoScript for Chrome).
This ensures that the only ads I ever see are the plain HTML ones, which work without Javascript or Flash.
Conveniently, these ads are unobtrusive and I don't mind seeing them or even clicking on them once in a while.
However, as soon as I add doubleclick.net to my temporary whitelist whilst browsing the Reg, I am bombarded with flash ads, background-filling ads, foreground-interupting ads, ads with fscking sound, which insult my eyes and ears and I immediately revoke my temporary whitelist.
I use either a browser with noscript or netsurf to read most of the web, I totally agree that html adverts are fine. What happens (on the reg) when I view on a browser with scripts enabled normally prompts me to install noscript or similar immediately.
(I find that viewtube solves the similar problem on youtube.)
"<obligatory "please don't use adblock plus when browsing El Reg or we'll go bust, starve to death and get eaten by Reg the Vulture" post>"
Apart from the obvious freetards, I think most people don't mind advertising as long as it doesn't detract from the whole experience.
I personally allow all ads from the Reg, apart from "Flash" ads - but even if I didn't, I'll probably be removing flash soon anyway, so the point is moot.
So assuming that I read roughly 90% of the articles on El Reg per month, how much money do you make from just showing me adverts but without me clicking on any of them?
How can I donate that amount per month to El Reg so that I can carry on using ABP here while still supporting the site? I would be happy to do that.
Mrs JimmyPage and I aren't "on facebook" (or son is ... although he says it's "boring" nowadays). I didn't see the point in it, and have *needed* to use it for anything. I/we haven't ruled it out, but we've both said the only way we'd sign up is if there was something in it for us. So that would be some kind of special offer that you couldn't get any other way. Materially. So maybe a 10% discount on £1,000 purchase. That kind of thing.
If facebook is to continue, I suggest they try and leverage the businesses who have invested in it so far to open their wallets and start to make it pay to be a facebooker.
As I said our son, and his teenage mates are all "on facebook". They are also permanently skint.
All this doom saying about FB, and how popular Twitter and so on are, then you read down the typical article and it turns out that 90% of people under age 18 use FB and have signed on that week, 20% use Twitter and half have not signed on that month, and the other stuff follows even further behind.
FB is not eternal, nothing is. But FB's demise will not occur in 2013 or 2014.
1 in 20 people clicked on an ad, which is 5%.
Isn't that higher than industry average CTRs?
Also London, like most of Europe and the US has plenty of new fresh alternatives to FB with their own slant so they are perhaps at a different stage in their FB usage. Where i live in Asia, Facebook usage is growing with the increase in smart phones and still being a long way from saturating the "computer at home" market.
Also Yahoo are huge here with most people having a ymail.com address and using yahoo messenger for IM.
I read El Reg and often think its a bit out of touch with Asia and only thinks of it as Samsung HQ and Foxconn suicides.
If London disappeared from the internet, it would likely have very little impact on the IT industry, except reduce the number of fluffy design houses where people dont brush their hair in the morning.
"1 in 20 people clicked on an ad, which is 5%.
Isn't that higher than industry average CTRs?"
One in 20 people clickedan ad sometime. As a ratio of the number of adverts shown, that's a tiny, tiny, tiny click-through rate. Just think about how many adverts had been "delivered" to those 20 people.
As opposed to random banner ads on any other webpage?
Clickthrough is piss poor on any web-based campaign. You aim for Big Numbers, unless you're very careful with your placement. Which Facebook is not for, as advertising there is simply a spam-stream on a sidebar.
Which the average hardened internet consumer simply ignores anyway.
Worst thing to do IMHO.
Being on FB means people feel the need to feed it. In doing so, they become complete needy show off idiots. I have ditched what were decent friends because their comments on FB show them up to be @rseh0les. Seems that people suppress them selves fact to face, but the good old internet seems to encourage them to open up. I think its a strange subset of the perception of anonymity.
I enjoyed the facebook when it was a university student site for meeting up / organising student activities / keeping in touch after graduation.
When it opened up to the public, it then went downhill, as ex-MySpace/Beboers started to bombard it with inane comments, pictures, groups and the likes.
It is now saturated with chavvy nonsense, it has some unsavoury groups and has been used in the past to organise riots.
For me, nothing was wrong with FB as a site, especially with ad block running, and BS details entered on sign up.
I quit because I came to the conclusion that it encouraged my "friends" to come across as needy, show off, prats, who were essentially competing to prove how exciting their lives are. "Oh look at me and my great life". Yeah, most of it posting on a web site.
"Hur, hur, hur, everything I post is from the same IP address, registered with my ISP (and probably my country's Security Forces too) but sometime I tell them live on a different continent. Hur, hur, I'm so clever. They'll never catch me. Hang on, someone's knocking at the door."
Wouldn't let me create an account with a throw away email address so that is as far as I got.
I don't want to be tracked on the internet. I don't want all the information I put on the internet to be aggregated and analysed. For that reason I avoid providing keys such as a Facebook ID which make gathering that information easier.
The idea of providing Facebook with any valid information about me (especially just to have a look and see what the fuss was about) was more than I could stomach. The idea that if I had a Facebook ID I would use it to sign into other services on the internet is completely ridiculous.
There is only one forum on the internet where I use my real name. A software support forum where the company (in Facebook wannabe style) decided access and ID on the forum is tied to licensing of the software - at least it is still currently a closed forum, but, I fsking hate it.
So you want stuff for free and don't like it when you don't get it?
The only reason I have an FB page is a slight nod in the direction of forestalling identity theft. It contains a minimum of accurate information and nothing else, not even a picture. My picture is on my Linkedin page (to frighten children). I get the impression that Linkedin is the successor to the original Facebook - a place where you go to keep in touch with people who might have a valuable place in your working life - and if you are in sales or recruitment, you pay.
It does seem to be run by people with a slightly greater grasp on the difference between ethics and Essex (I think of Facebook as what would happen if stereotypical Essex people ran the world).
All the crap just goes away. I never see it. I get to content that's relevant and isn't spammy. I get to companies' websites when I want something they have.
I did used to do things like mark Homeopathy clinics that claim they can cure cancer as lies (or whatever the button is).
I also installed http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/, which has cured a lot of this anyway.
It's not the ads that's the problem, it's facebook.
I can ignore ads, and I use Adblock (as all intelligent people do).
But they allow 'members' to spam you via more gullible friends, they reset privacy settings to 'default' (ie not private at all) every time they 'improve' privacy, and worst of all, you can't use most of the third party gizmos, because to do so requires you to allow them access to ALL your contacts etc., etc.
Facebook is nasty. I use it, because that's the only place that many of contacts will use - but as soon as there's a viable rival, we'll all be off. Until then, I'll use it less and less.
Weirdly, the thing that really annoys me is that when I used to use FB to post on discussions outside FB, they always included my age -and there was never a way to stop them.