By: Michael Boyink

Michael Boyink — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:30:45 +0000

So frustrating. And moreso are the FB groups that disallow links to outside resources. Can’t win for losing.

By: ckarath

ckarath — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:29:59 +0000

Preservation of anything digital is the real trick though, isnt it?

By: Eli Mellen

Eli Mellen — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 17:53:16 +0000

Liked: baty.blog/2017/facebook-…eli.li/entry.php?id=2…

By: eli

eli — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 17:46:41 +0000

By: Colin Walker

Colin Walker — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 17:17:21 +0000

The topic du jour appears to be Facebook bashing in expletive riddled posts. The social behemoth stands accused of being anti the open web. I’m not one to disagree but the network is not solely at fault. Why do people gravitate to social media? Because it is so simple, you just sign up, log in and post – that’s it. People don’t want to have to install and configure things beyond an app, even updates are installed automatically on our devices. Convenience trumps all. Add in the network effect of so many people having accounts and it seems almost stupid to go anywhere else. Why hunt across the web for people’s sites and manage feeds etc. when it is all (I know, that’s a sore point because of algorithms) right in front of you. The sad thing is that most don’t care about the open web or about content longevity. Ephemera has taken over because most aren’t creating anything that needs to be retained beyond the context of the current conversation. The tools for creating content on the open web are often too hard, too confusing or just not relevant for what most want to do. For casual creators it’s easy to see the appeal of places like Medium, they have everything they need in a simple package – no messing around with themes or plugins. And it’s understandable, as much as some will hate to admit, why people will want to use social properties like Facebook as their ‘blogs’ – it’s where they already spend their time and where their network is. Why go elsewhere. I totally support the open web, and no longer use any of the major social networks, but can’t help feel that cutting them off only serves to further entrench their silo status. And it wont hurt them! I get that people don’t want to link to items that may not be publicly available in the future but that’s unfortunately the nature of the web, even the open web. Sites die, content gets moved or removed, links break, even with the best will in the world. We just have to move on.

        <a href="https://colinwalker.blog/2017/06/02/02062017-1705/">→ June 2nd, 2017</a>

Comments on: Facebook vs the Open Web

By: Michael Boyink

By: ckarath

By: Eli Mellen

By: eli

By: Colin Walker