i hope they update their API so external applications can post status updates
Mike Veytsel
· 2 years ago
Hey Robert,
It would be interesting to see what Facebook does about setting up a tiered access system for friends that would differentiate levels of profile privacy between classes of friends: regular friends, coworkers, family, acquaintances, etc.
I talked to Mark Zuckerberg about this at the NYC developers meetup last month and he speculated that friendships could have weighting system, so perhaps it's something they're working on.
I think this would be overtly useful for someone like you with thousands of friends, but also for those of us with smaller amounts.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
I asked about how friends would change and they weren't ready to announce anything there. Clearly they are thinking about it, though.
Brian Sullivan
· 2 years ago
Did you ask about the pending legal action against them (and their founder/CEO)?
There are some pretty serious allegations (ethical if not legal) it seems.
SoWhatChuSayin
· 2 years ago
Anybody else worried about rubbish information overload on Facebook? I dont want my wall filled with spam from applications.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Brian: I didn't bother asking a question like that. It never would be answered and if it were it'd be by a lawyer, not by anyone involved in the company.
SoWhatChuSayin: Facebook is VERY concerned about Spam. That's why they don't have an open API to get into the contacts.
How would such spam get onto my wall? Think about it. Unless you're a friend you don't have access (and anyone who spammed me would get removed instantly).
Mike Veytsel
· 2 years ago
Brian,
I didn't, but it wasn't something I was aware of at the time. For what's it's worth, Mark left me with a really positive impression. He was very open about sharing and discussing ideas and talking about the governing philosophy of Facebook.
I don't have the facts on what transpired, but I do think that the basic idea of Facebook (yet-another-social-network) is very generic, and it's not worth much on its own.
What they've built suggests a broad and long term vision, a core understanding of information architecture and social systems, and the ability to execute around those concepts. I don't think any of those things can be stolen.
Mark Forman
· 2 years ago
Sounds good Robert. Look forward to more info from this growing and dynamic venture.
francine hardaway
· 2 years ago
The Fun Wall app already allows video and music, so does that mean the Fun Wall app will be the norm?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
The fun wall app isn't part of the core set of Facebook functionality where the regular wall (the one I use) is.
SoWhatChuSayin
· 2 years ago
My point Robert is that I am already inundated with requests to add their applications. I must ignore about 10-15 a day in my notifications area. Very annoying.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
SoWhatChuSayin: I just ignore them and let them all pile up. No harm in that. Then pick off the ones you want to install and delete the rest.
That "app spam" doesn't get on your profile page, though. Only you see that stuff. And that's not spam generated by a computer. That's spam generated by your friends. Maybe you need better friends!
By the way, I have almost 4,000 friends and I'm only getting two to five a day right now. You must have friends who are more into the stupid apps than I am.
Victor Agreda jr
· 2 years ago
They need to jump on the "users aren't just in college any more" lickety-split. It took me MONTHS to figure out how to join my alma mater (my graduating class of several thousand is poorly represented), and since the film school I attended doesn't do alum email I'll never be able to join that network. To me, that is their core functionality and they've borked it. Granted, it's a catch-22 because you also don't want just anyone to join these things. Like on Myspace, where you can pretend to be 16 when you're 45.
I'm starting to hate Facebook less and less every day. That's saying something for this stubborn old mule.
SoWhatChuSayin
· 2 years ago
Well you probably have 4,000 geeks on your friends list who know better than to forward so many invites to applications.
I have a couple hundred non geeky friends who this stuff is aimed at - and they take the bait.
wreck
· 2 years ago
Robert,
I think it's safe to say that you have drank the Facebook Kool-aid in large quantities (overdosed?)
While I appreciate your zeal for the net, the entire Facebook thing is really going too far. There are tons of interesting things out there besides Facebook, Google, the iPhone, and social networks.
Why not cover a broad spectrum of things on your blog and expand your readership.
Security, Linux, what geeks do off duty (besides computers). The list could go on and on. Bring up TV shows and movies without mentioning Tivo, Slingbox, etc.
Just some suggestions. I've been a reader here since the early days and I like what you have to say, but, seriously, lately, all you've harped on is Facebook.
Some of the news you've mentioned in the past is coming back. I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but there was a great article on Jim Grey yesterday on Wired. There are so many things out there bigger than Facebook.
Robert -- What strikes me is how young these guys are. The dude who leads the video team is 21? It is one of the most elegant and simple to use video apps you will find. It's almost as if this group of young people represents a first wave of technoligical intuitiveness that will keep washing over us as more teenage developers bring their skills to the web space.
I am curious - did you talk about RSS and how they view it? Why is RSS non-existent, except in the applications?
Ross
· 2 years ago
Robert,
They'll take the request from you more seriously than they would from me - please ask them to increase the customization for Facebook groups. It would be excellent to be able to add widgets/modules/apps whatever they're called today, to groups, not just individual profiles.
Cheers.
Nicole Simon
· 2 years ago
When I look at my Xing account - still of course my main network application for various reasons, I do have over 400 contacts in there. A bigger part of my linkedin / facebook contacts are not in this. I recently did a go through of all my contacts and I see that at least 75 if not more of my contacts are "real" contacts I have made over the years.
I could contact them not as a dear friend at night, but i am able to contact them. There are still a lot of people missing I have not hooked up with yet or who are not online in this sense.
It may be that this is not how everybody handles their contact life, but in my case I do say honestly: This is not a collection, but this is true network.
[It helps to not only have one country as home base at hand of course ...]
I can see myself having 1K connections in my database and still have over 3/4 of them 'real' contacts, but even the other ones are at least good aquaintances.
Do I expect everyone to work the same way? Au contrair. I find it great if somebody only adds real dear near friends and I am not disappointed when they do not connect with me due to that. I would be disappointed though if somebody like you would not connect with me. ;)))
Fabio Bracht
· 2 years ago
Maybe, Robert, just maybe, you could start a new blog. A Facebook-exclusive one. And keep blogging about the usual stuff here. After all, I can see this "Facebook fad" going months strong, if not years.
But, on the contrary, I just hate these "let me teach you how to do your blogging" comments, so please feel free to disconsider this one as well. You wouldn't be so successful if you didn't know how to do this.
Fabio Bracht
· 2 years ago
Also, as first time commenter, I'd like to have a little curiosity adressed: why do your blog support this bizarre Times New Roman thing? Is it on purpose? It's so ten years ago! I'm not saying your should change it, but I did get a little surprised when I first checket it out, since I was expecting something more "modern". "Web 2.0", maybe.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Fabio: I use your browser's default font. I don't set ANY font. YOU are in control of what font gets used here. Don't like Times Roman? Change your browser's default font to display whatever font you like.
I do that for a few reasons:
1. It leaves your browser in control. 2. It loads faster. 3. I like the "ugly look." 4. On some browsers it is easier to read. 5. It matches Dave Winer's blog.
Fabio Bracht
· 2 years ago
So much I got to learn... :)
JoeDuck
· 2 years ago
Robert what's the appropriate way to define "friend". I have been confused about adding people to facebook thinking Facebook seems to want me to really "know them" to add them though I already have some folks on there I have not met. I'd say the more the merrier, but that will get out of hand quickly.
What is your rule for adding friends?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Joe: in social networks a "friend" is someone you want in your network. No more, no less.
If you try to limit it to "real friends" you'll be missing a lot of the power of these things.
I wish they'd stop calling these things "friends," by the way. Twitter has done just that. People in Twitter are "followers" for people who watch you and "following" for people you are watching. Much better name for these things.
SoWhatChuSayin
· 2 years ago
"If you try to limit it to “real friends” you’ll be missing a lot of the power of these things."
Hmm, conversley, you miss a lot of the power of these things when you base your friends list solely on real life, close friends. Facebook becomes a phenomenal tool, but just for a different purpose to what your usage is.
rumford
· 2 years ago
Robert, Sounds like you had a nice visit at facebook. Let's connect again soon.
JoeDuck
· 2 years ago
Robert that's an *excellent* answer and I'm taking it to heart. I also prefer Twitter's "social nomenclature" because it seems to match the way most of us are behaving in the social network space.
Matt
· 2 years ago
followers and the following..
subscribers and the subscribing
We can all be media!
Marc Meyer
· 2 years ago
"Jing Jing which Dave Weiner made famous for spicy noodles"????
Aw c'mon. This is such a narrow definition of famous. I can remember having Dan Dan noodles or whatever they were called at the time when Jing Jing was on University Ave in its original location. I recall eating them there with Peter Deutsch, Adele Goldberg, Larry Tessler and the rest of the PARC Smalltalk crew in '80-'82. Does prehistory not count as fame?
Or perhaps my memory is false, and it was the late 80's Vivek, Dale, Jomei and the Tibco crew, or the early 90's with Susan Angebrandt, Chris Kent and the DEC WRL folks or the Interval folks.
But c'mon, history doesn't start in the year 2000. Fogeyly, Marc
Jay (living in First Life)
· 2 years ago
Yawn. More of the typical shilling from you Scoble. This kind of coverage is worse than Mashable's lack of interesting news. There is a world out there outside of Palo Alto and Cupertino. Perhaps you should go discover it and enlighten yourself.
leanne
· 2 years ago
are there any websites out there that have stuff you can copy n paste e.g videos, pics, comments and put on to the fun walls and etc?
All Comments
I reckon that makes me a minnow! ;)
It would be interesting to see what Facebook does about setting up a tiered access system for friends that would differentiate levels of profile privacy between classes of friends: regular friends, coworkers, family, acquaintances, etc.
I talked to Mark Zuckerberg about this at the NYC developers meetup last month and he speculated that friendships could have weighting system, so perhaps it's something they're working on.
I think this would be overtly useful for someone like you with thousands of friends, but also for those of us with smaller amounts.
There are some pretty serious allegations (ethical if not legal) it seems.
SoWhatChuSayin: Facebook is VERY concerned about Spam. That's why they don't have an open API to get into the contacts.
How would such spam get onto my wall? Think about it. Unless you're a friend you don't have access (and anyone who spammed me would get removed instantly).
I didn't, but it wasn't something I was aware of at the time. For what's it's worth, Mark left me with a really positive impression. He was very open about sharing and discussing ideas and talking about the governing philosophy of Facebook.
I don't have the facts on what transpired, but I do think that the basic idea of Facebook (yet-another-social-network) is very generic, and it's not worth much on its own.
What they've built suggests a broad and long term vision, a core understanding of information architecture and social systems, and the ability to execute around those concepts. I don't think any of those things can be stolen.
That "app spam" doesn't get on your profile page, though. Only you see that stuff. And that's not spam generated by a computer. That's spam generated by your friends. Maybe you need better friends!
By the way, I have almost 4,000 friends and I'm only getting two to five a day right now. You must have friends who are more into the stupid apps than I am.
I'm starting to hate Facebook less and less every day. That's saying something for this stubborn old mule.
I have a couple hundred non geeky friends who this stuff is aimed at - and they take the bait.
I think it's safe to say that you have drank the Facebook Kool-aid in large quantities (overdosed?)
While I appreciate your zeal for the net, the entire Facebook thing is really going too far. There are tons of interesting things out there besides Facebook, Google, the iPhone, and social networks.
Why not cover a broad spectrum of things on your blog and expand your readership.
Security, Linux, what geeks do off duty (besides computers). The list could go on and on. Bring up TV shows and movies without mentioning Tivo, Slingbox, etc.
Just some suggestions. I've been a reader here since the early days and I like what you have to say, but, seriously, lately, all you've harped on is Facebook.
Some of the news you've mentioned in the past is coming back. I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but there was a great article on Jim Grey yesterday on Wired. There are so many things out there bigger than Facebook.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15...
I am curious - did you talk about RSS and how they view it? Why is RSS non-existent, except in the applications?
They'll take the request from you more seriously than they would from me - please ask them to increase the customization for Facebook groups. It would be excellent to be able to add widgets/modules/apps whatever they're called today, to groups, not just individual profiles.
Cheers.
I could contact them not as a dear friend at night, but i am able to contact them. There are still a lot of people missing I have not hooked up with yet or who are not online in this sense.
It may be that this is not how everybody handles their contact life, but in my case I do say honestly: This is not a collection, but this is true network.
[It helps to not only have one country as home base at hand of course ...]
I can see myself having 1K connections in my database and still have over 3/4 of them 'real' contacts, but even the other ones are at least good aquaintances.
Do I expect everyone to work the same way? Au contrair. I find it great if somebody only adds real dear near friends and I am not disappointed when they do not connect with me due to that. I would be disappointed though if somebody like you would not connect with me. ;)))
But, on the contrary, I just hate these "let me teach you how to do your blogging" comments, so please feel free to disconsider this one as well. You wouldn't be so successful if you didn't know how to do this.
I do that for a few reasons:
1. It leaves your browser in control.
2. It loads faster.
3. I like the "ugly look."
4. On some browsers it is easier to read.
5. It matches Dave Winer's blog.
What is your rule for adding friends?
If you try to limit it to "real friends" you'll be missing a lot of the power of these things.
I wish they'd stop calling these things "friends," by the way. Twitter has done just that. People in Twitter are "followers" for people who watch you and "following" for people you are watching. Much better name for these things.
Hmm, conversley, you miss a lot of the power of these things when you base your friends list solely on real life, close friends. Facebook becomes a phenomenal tool, but just for a different purpose to what your usage is.
Sounds like you had a nice visit at facebook. Let's connect again soon.
subscribers and the subscribing
We can all be media!
Aw c'mon. This is such a narrow definition of famous. I can remember having Dan Dan noodles or whatever they were called at the time when Jing Jing was on University Ave in its original location. I recall eating them there with Peter Deutsch, Adele Goldberg, Larry Tessler and the rest of the PARC Smalltalk crew in '80-'82. Does prehistory not count as fame?
Or perhaps my memory is false, and it was the late 80's Vivek, Dale, Jomei and the Tibco crew, or the early 90's with Susan Angebrandt, Chris Kent and the DEC WRL folks or the Interval folks.
But c'mon, history doesn't start in the year 2000.
Fogeyly,
Marc