What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/19/what-i-really-think-about-facebook/

by inshane • 14 years ago

48 12 14 years ago

gfodor• 14 years ago

One has to assume Facebook (the company) has thought of these questions, and as usual, decided to see what Facebook (the site) thought about it. While Facebook has a history of trying to force things onto new users, they're also a data-driven company, so if things are not working, they are going to back out. I don't think Facebook risks hurting itself, since it can see itself doing so by measuring the effects of the changes they make. What Facebook risks is someone else replacing them or popular culture moving on to the next thing, which is outside of their control.

jjb123• 14 years ago

>Doesn’t FB realize that is far easier for a user to opt-out of a feed by unliking a brand/person/page that has done a poor job of communication than it is to mess with all the account settings or for them to try to tweak their algorithm all the time to try to guess what people want?

Cuban's doubts of the efficacy of edgerank (or perhaps his doubts stemming from not knowing the purpose of edgerank) comes from him not really knowing facebook from the perspective of a consumer/user and only knowing it primarily as a broadcast tool (I've seen his posts - he's only there to broadcast). But before, I defend edgerank/facebook on this, it should be acknowledged that this guy and many like him (broadcaster for their brands) are the ones that pay the bills - and it will be interesting to see who Facebook begins to cater more to over the next few years... because advertisers' and users' interests, despite what facebook wants us to believe, will likely always be at odds with each other.

cbs• 14 years ago

>him not really knowing facebook from the perspective of a consumer/user and only knowing it primarily as a broadcast tool

That's funny, because as a "regular user" he perfectly voiced my opinion of (what I now know to be called) edgerank. I see and feel the facebook filterbubble quite frequently, its much easier to notice and more annoying than google's. I just don't voice my distaste for it very much because people just write off my opinion as being a "hater".

hayksaakian2• 14 years ago

Facebook is fully entitled to enforce edgerank. People consume content differently on FB than say twitter. Since twitter is more of a firehouse, its OK to simply sort by date since newness has much more value in that ecosystem. This is socially acknowledged given that tweets are firstly public. In contrast Facebook presents itself as a local social network. As such, your relationships on FB carry more weight. Social pressure nudges us to 'friend' mere acquaintances and 'like' things that are mildly amusing. You're expected to acknowledge important news in your social circles. Edgerank reinforces this behavior. If something is deemed 'like'able by your 'friends' you're encouraged to also like it, both by the algorithm and social influences, thus perpetuating the cycle to your own network.

Brands don't fit into this picture. You don't 'like' a picture of coca cola from a crazy party at mcdonalds' house. Your interactions on the comments of posts by a brand are probably one way, and with predominantly strangers. The rest of your personal network is unrelated.

Thus, sponsored posts work against edge rank. There are two big examples of sponsored posts. First is say, promoting a personal story or life event (it's a boy!). Second is corporate to consumer say, Best Buy is having a huge sale on something. In the first case if a story is truly important it would have been picked up by the algorithm and social forces alike. In the second, most people don't believe corporations are people, and their social interactions with them are typically unwelcome to their personal network. There's no social pressure to like a picture of Jones soda's new flavor as opposed to Jenny's new baby.

All in all, I think mark is right for the wrong reasons. FB's business model runs counter to its primary product offering. They're still experimenting and I hope they end up with something that makes sense to a social network.

Swizec• 14 years ago

The situation changes when a lot of your friends are from the startup ecosystem.

Suddenly that new product launch is as important as a new baby. And that new feature is something you're expected to like etc. etc.

How does that fit? They usually still advertise these things through a "corporate" page ...

hayksaakian2• 14 years ago

I'd say at that point you're an outlier. Of the FB population who is really involved in the 'scene'.

guelo• 14 years ago

Its been several years since FB changed the default sort order from 'Recent' to 'Top'. They made the change gently, first letting angry users change the default back to 'Recent'. In typical FB fashion the setting would randomly switch back to 'Top' if you weren't vigilant, and then after a while after angry users got tired of fighting it and others forgot how it used to be they took the setting away.

My point being that this has been in the works for a long time and is part of their long term strategy. They will continue to tweak their algorithm causing the occasional outrage, backing off, then coming back even more forcefully.

Remember, Zuck has stated that his mission is to train people how to share their info publicly. Expect that "training" to continue, including for advertisers.

fnayr• 14 years ago

My FB still lets me change the sort order but randomly changes it back to top.

brudgers• 14 years ago

As does mine. When it changes to "Top" it's glaringly obvious, too.

Perhaps the option persists because I use Facebook in a limited way, always through a dedicated device - primarily, through its own virtual machine, occasionally on an old smartphone with no SIM over WiFi, never via my primary browser or active cellphone.

In my case, Facebook's data mining only sees a reflection of my Facebook related activities. It is tempting to share more, but I have better places to subject people to what's on my mind.

digitalengineer• 14 years ago

Make sure you read comment #3 by former Facebook (now twitter) employee "derrick503" http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/19/what-i-really-think-about...

gfosco• 14 years ago

It's this comment, by Amar Anand, that is from a former Facebook (now twitter) employee. http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/19/what-i-really-think-about...

Seeing all of the word choice and grammar mistakes by derrick503 made me cringe.

joelrunyon• 14 years ago

I don't see why facebook absolutely refuses to make it simple to unfriend or unlike something or something.

Let me rephrase that, I know why they make it difficult (more connection = more data), but it really detracts from the experience. I don't want to spend 3 hours clicking on individuals profiles and clicking 4 different times to do one action (the "friends link", individual profile page, the "unlike" and the confirm button).

I know, speaking for myself, I use facebook drastically different than I did a few years ago, and I would love to clean up some of the friend list I've accumulated over the years.

What Mark Cuban Really Thinks About Facebook

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