Facebook, Google, et al

[ousdahl]

holy balls, Facebook!

so my TU chapter is running an online auction in lieu of our summer banquet, which was obviously cancelled. The chapter asked me to do a promoted post on Facebook and Instagram to spread the word.

the gram was fairly straightforward. Ad is pending approval.

I create the same ad on Facebook, click publish, and get an error message that I need to go to some other FB admin page to certify I won't use ads for discrimination. They don't provide a link though, so I have to google the link and login on the web page instead of the app.

Then I try again. Instagram was a simple "budget $10 a day for 10 days." I thought I had the same thing on FB, but it turns out it was $10 total over 10 days. I click "change budget" but the link doesn't work. I start the whole ad over.

I then get through it all again, get to the publish page, and this time it shows me which payment is on file. I realize the card on file is expired, but no link to go change it. I figure maybe I can worry about that later, that's their problem, if they want a valid card they can ask. So I just click publish again, and get another error message that "you cannot create a post at this time."

I go to the help center, but it's just a bunch of links to general issues that doesn't help, and no feature to just contact Facebook and ask for assistance.

Jesus Christ Mark Zuckerberg, considering how much of a shameless greedy asshole you are, you sure do make it hard for me to give you money.

[Deleted User 289]

Zuck Fuckerberg. I guess he has enough money he doesn't need your $10.

[ousdahl]

yeah.

I just got another error message that my Facebook page had never actually been published yet, and had this button to publish it. I click it.

I go through the process again, still can't update my payment info, but finally get through far enough to click "create ad." I get a screen that finally says, "under review."

I go to the post that's supposed to be the ad. A post has a "boost post" button on it until you boost it. On the gram once the post is boosted, the boost post button then says, "under review." The same button on Facebook once I tried to boost it now says, "boost unavailable."

but at least I got to some page that finally said, "pending approval." I'm gonna leave it for now, go fishing, and check it again later.

[ousdahl]

It's another reminder why I hardly get on Facebook any more.

I advertised on it for a living like 7 years ago, when facebook advertising first became a thing. I remember thinking it was so clunky then, but figured maybe 7 years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, they might have ironed out some wrinkles. Nope.

but at least Zuck's got some ridiculous Hawaiian estate now!

[pdub]

I work from time to time in FB.
It is a advertising/media/developer nightmare.

[Mjl]

UX in general is broke. Not just facebook, but the entire industry, culture, and best practices of user experience.

[ousdahl]

that’s cuz - which poster said this a whole back? - “you are no longer the user, you are the product.”

[twocoach]

that’s cuz - which poster said this a whole back? - “you are no longer the user, you are the product.”

Yep.

Facebook has become the platform for suburbanites to compete in a digital persona creation competition. It's fucking gross.

[Mjl]

that’s cuz - which poster said this a whole back? - “you are no longer the user, you are the product.”

But with bad UX you will have less users, and then less data to sell. It's not nefarious, it's just a broken field. I say that as I'm sitting in a UX meeting, and seeing just how broken this is, and they justified what they're currently proposing in part by saying Facebook does it.

Smh.

[pdub]

I've had clients/managers who want to skip UX entirely or are so confused by it - "wait, why does it look like this, our site/app isn't gonna look like this" even after I explain this isn't how it's going to look in the end product.

"Just design it".

I'm kinda trying.

[Mjl]

I've had clients/managers who want to skip UX entirely or are so confused by it - "wait, why does it look like this, our site/app isn't gonna look like this" even after I explain this isn't how it's going to look in the end product.

"Just design it".

I'm kinda trying.

Sounds like you do that mostly on your own?

I think that's better if that's the case. I think the problems happen when you have a whole team of non-dev UX working on an application.

[pdub]

Yea, I build ( and push ) UX ( in XD ) on my own where I work.
It isn't valued and because of that, it can be frustrating.
People's SOLE OCCUPATION is to focus on this, we should be spending time in this stage, please.

[Deleted User 89]

buh bye, facebook

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/tech/fac ... index.html

(not that it would really change much, if it indeed happens)

[jhawks99]

Works for me.
Busting up Ma Bell was one of the great boons to our economy.

[ousdahl]

"It is better to buy than compete"

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/11/94523449 ... t-facebook

[Deleted User 89]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... ne/617384/

[pdub]

"People tend to complain about Facebook as if something recently curdled. There’s a notion that the social web was once useful, or at least that it could have been good, if only we had pulled a few levers: some moderation and fact-checking here, a bit of regulation there, perhaps a federal antitrust lawsuit. But that’s far too sunny and shortsighted a view."

Left over 8 years ago, having worked within the platform and realizing how much data they collect.
Tear it down.

[ousdahl]

Put it this way: If you owned a store and someone walked in and started shouting Nazi propaganda or recruiting terrorists near the cash register, would you, as the shop owner, tell all of the other customers you couldn’t possibly intervene?

[pdub]

That's different than my problems with facebook.
I believe that social media at a large level needs to be agnostic when it comes to free speech but to allow the users to control whether or not they can see that content.
My problem is the ownership of your data and what they can do with it - and the great power they have to squash their competition ( hence the legal trouble ).

[Deleted User 89]

both are big problems, and not wholly unrelated

the tolerance and magnification of hate speech and misinformation is always problematic

the data could just as easily be used for good as it can for bad