Fakebook is going down the tubes...boo hoo hoo

[BigmanPigman]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/30/facebook-scrambles-to-escape-death-spiral-as-users-flee-sales-drop.html

Facebook scrambles to escape stock's death spiral as users flee, sales drop, Meta is trading at its lowest since early 2019, and the stock is one of the worst performers this year in the S&P 500.

The company's problems are mounting, whether it's the ad hit from Apple's iOS changes or the growing threat posed by TikTok. "I'm not sure there's a core business that works anymore at Facebook," said Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham.

A year ago, before Facebook had turned Meta, the social media company was sporting a market cap of $1 trillion, putting it in rarefied territory with a handful of U.S. technology giants.

Today the view looks much different. Meta has lost about two-thirds of its value since peaking in September 2021. The stock is trading at its lowest since January 2019 and is about to close out its third straight quarter of double-digit percentage losses. Only four stocks in the S&P 500 are having a worse year.

[NewHendoLib]

1. FB is (and should be) toast

[Blue Owl]

2. Fuck 'em

Sure it's an easy and convenient way to communicate -- at the expense of your own data, privacy, and psychology being used for nefarious purposes...

[Skittles]

15. thank you

people don't seem to care what FB does as long as it means they can put less effort into "keeping up with friends and family"

[reACTIONary]

24. Why should I care? Keeping up with friends and family ...

... is important and Facebook making it easy is a useful service. Every service comes at a cost, and the cost of Facebook is quite reasonable.

[dai13sy]

46. Friends and Family

Me and my Family and Friends use Facebook for what it was designed for - communicating with each other, planning weddings, gatherings, class reunions, holidays. You never post super-intimate stuff or detailed schedules for anything on your Facebook page or anywhere on the internet.

[brush]

54. Come on. Zuckerberg/Facebook is a repub, right wing organization...

that helped trump get elected. Here's hoping it goes the way of MySpace.

[reACTIONary]

65. No more so than Home Depot...

... its a business, not a PAC.

Be sure to visit DU on FB... Give 'em a like... See you there!

https://www.facebook.com/democraticunderground

[Hermit-The-Prog]

56. How much will it cost to fix Traitortrump's shit? How much for the next one?

Leaked: Cambridge Analytica's blueprint for Trump victory

Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

Harvesting data is the core of Facebook's business model. Permitting micro-targeted messaging from those who harvest and analyze that data is how it monetizes that data. Carefully crafted, triggering, subversive messaging does not bother Facebook; it increases profits.

[PortTack]

58. ☝️☝️☝️☝️

[BComplex]

76. THIS +1,000,000 recs!

Facebook is the digital version of fux nooze and other propaganda sites, as well.

[ZonkerHarris]

73. The Cost? hahahaha a user that spends 30 minutes a day on Facebook is worth $50,000 a year in

profits to Facebook from advertising etc.
You are the product there.

[LudwigPastorius]

28. Yeah, it's like the concept of CCing an email to friends and family never occurred to them.

...or, you know, a phone call.

[Skittles]

39. my relatives are in different states and continents

never had a problem

[Kev80]

44. Pick up a phone

[Orrex]

63. Sure, or send a carrier pigeon.

[yankee87]

3. Technology changes

Facebook replaced MySpace. Now it’s getting it’s shorts eaten by hipper sites. Facebook is for Boomers and old people.

[BigmanPigman]

5. That may be why they are buying up key TV time

on MSNBC and CNN. I hardly watch CNN now that it is Fux light, I only watch for real news like hurricanes. But, I must say that I see tons of ads from Meta whining about protecting US tech industries from going overseas in many ads. I hate that greedy POS Fuckerberg. He helped create and keep the tRump disaster afloat by giving him a platform along with Twitter. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Also, another fuck you to greedy, amoral "little miss lean in" Sandberg.

[Skittles]

16. not this Boomer

I'd never join that POS site

[marybourg]

20. Not for this old person.

[reACTIONary]

22. Yep. This Boomer is a Facebook user, and...

Last edited Sat Oct 1, 2022, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

... and so are a decent number of my "friends", especially those who actually are friends.

[Tree Lady]

25. I just keep hoping something better

Comes along so my family and friends switch over. I heard though FB watches that and offers millions to any platform that would be good enough to take over and young programmers jump at it.

I would be willing to pay like $10 a month not to have ads like I pay extra on my streaming sites.

So what we need is a good young website with maybe kids of rich parents that don't need the money.

[reACTIONary]

38. There are plenty of kids (and oldsters) who...

... create LOTS of great software with no expectation of being paid for it. It's called free and open source software.

An example is Wikipedia, which is built on on MediaWiki, a custom-made, free and open source wiki software platform. Anyone who wants to start a Wikipedia type service can just copy the software and get started. Wikipedia is also one of the most successful and visited sites on the internet.

Several open source social networking platforms exist. For instance, TFG's Truthy (anti)Social is built on Mastodon. So software development is NOT a barrier to entry.

But even Google could not compete with Facebook and their Google+ social media service was shut down.

So why aren't there any serious large scale competitors of Facebook? My guess is because of an economic phenomenon called "network externalities". This is in effect when the value of a product or service is proportional to the number of people using it. Once a certain level of usage is obtained, the cost of entry for a competitor is insanely high... the have to start out from the git-go with a substantial, comparable number of users. It can't be done.

This is also why trust busting Facebook doesn't make any sense. If you bust it up, you destroy its value.

This does not mean that all competition is impossible, however. After all DU is a successful social networking service. It means that competition is restricted to niche markets, such as DU serves.

So I don't think Facebook is engaging in any nefarious anticompetitive strategies. Simply because they don't have to.

[Murphyb849]

35. Me too.

[brush]

55. Why help facebook, the platform that helped trrump get elected?

[reACTIONary]

69. And yet, even with the demonic power of FB on his side...

... TFG lost the popular vote. Twice. It wasn't FB that allowed TFG to win, it was the electoral college.

So instead of ranting about FB, let's reform the electoral college. Sure, that would be a difficult and long term goal. And it wouldn't be very emotionally satisfying. But it would actually do some good.

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies, "this is where the light is".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect

[brush]

75. No facebook for me. Zuckerberg and that platform helped give rise to trump...

trumpism and Cambridge Analytica (which mined personal data of millions of facebook users and helped bombard them with disinformation about Dems and Hillary, but I'm sure they've stopped :sarcasm which still affects the nation. But ignore all that and go on about the EC, a completely different issue that we can't do much about in the short term, while we can certainly do something about facebook by not using and supporting it.

[reACTIONary]

78. No FB for u is ok by me...

... But ranting about FB, shamming those who use it, and even quitting it will do nothing short term or long term to get Democrats elected. Nothing.

You might as well turn around three times and throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder. That would be just as effective.

[brush]

79. More Zuckerberg fanboy stuff. Zuck is a winger repub but you do you.

Last edited Mon Oct 3, 2022, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

[rubbersole]

31. Boomers are old people.

[KentuckyWoman]

50. Old is relative.

We have several 100+ where I live who are more active than many 60 somethings.

[Butterflylady]

4. One word - Good.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I wouldn't put too much faith in the ability of TikTok to grab subscribers

More and more creators are experiencing problems with the platform and are moving to Instagram and YouTube.

Almost every single TikTok creator I follow has an Instgram account that mirrors their TikTok content.

[Joinfortmill]

7. I use FB with an alias, mostly for information like medical info or vacation destinations, etc

I'm sure they can gather some accurate data about me, but I don't make it easy for them. I don't use it for posting photos of my family, etc. I contact my friends/family directly thru my phone or video conferencing.

[GenThePerservering]

8. Meta owns Insta

but of the two I'd rather use Insta, anyway. I dumped FB not long ago, and had been on it since back in the Myspace days. I had a store there as well a selling in groups.

Zuck is getting so desperate he's contemplating letting Trump back on - at least the last I read.

[BigmanPigman]

10. Now that news would not surprise me a bit.

A match made in hell. Greedy, hypocritical basturds.

[dchill]

9. Seinfeld says...

... that's a shame.

[Midnight Writer]

11. The nature of progress. Tech ages poorly. Newer and shinier are always in the wings.

[PortTack]

57. Nailed it...can't think of a company more than FB or meta or whatever they call themselves go down

Happy dance 💃

[KPN]

12. Yay! That's all.

[Skittles]

13. it disgusts me how many people have been sucked into the FB Borg

[Aristus]

14. I've been getting a tsunami of ads on my page.

I hide all of them, but I can sense Zuck’s desperation to wring every penny out of someone else’s creation.

[milestogo]

17. Good.

I am sick of organizations insisting that the only way they communicate is via Facebook.

[Rhiannon12866]

21. Same here! After all that's been exposed regarding Cambridge Analytica and by the recent whistleblower

I'm shocked to see links still posted by reputable organizations to this disgraced site.

[Cozmo]

18. I can't believe anyone still uses FB. It' just a scam!

[housecat]

19. Never been there, not even curious

[localroger]

23. I think Zuck saw this coming some time ago

Thus the transition to "Meta" and the idea of turning Facebook into a real-life version of Snow Crash. Which was never going to work in real life, because VR is just too awkward and the need for escapism is not as urgent as it is in the dystopia of that novel. But powerful forces have been closing in for several years on their existing business model, which is ruthlessly exploitative of its users and damaging to the social fabric. It was inevitable that governments were going to start showing an interest in their practices, and now that they have others are seeing the danger. As has happened before, their fall could be amazingly swift.

[ThoughtCriminal]

26. One thing that is seldom mentioned - they have scammy ads

When I loon at the comments for ads, I often see almost nothing but complaints about not receiving shipments, getting something very different and cheap from what was ordered, shoddy quality.

I would never order anything through a FB ad.

[LudwigPastorius]

27. But...but...how will I see Aunt Marge's grand baby pictures!!?

/s

[Rebl2]

30. I signed up for

facebook for about a couple of days so I could look at the Facebook page of a animal shelter. Once I adopted a kitten from there, I got rid of Facebook. I do have Instagram, but I feel like I have more control over that.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

32. I tried deleting app. still get messages..can't get rid of it--it's like gum on shoe!

...just want it gone !

Anyway..I don't respond to messages, and just delete as they pop up...still just want it to go away..I suppose it'll go with me to grave. that's is, whenever that happens.

[electric_blue68]

33. Until my F2F Family & F2F Friends, some interesting FB only newer acquaintances change over,

and very enjoyable, knowledgeable, along with some how-to's Art, serious Crafting Groups to something else I'm not leaving.

[ismnotwasm]

34. Facebook lost the kids

They do Instagram and TikTok.

[former9thward]

48. Facebook owns Instagram.

[ismnotwasm]

77. I know this.

I was going to make a further point, but. Nah.

[2naSalit]

36. It needs to b...

Smashed to smithereens.

[Orrex]

37. Yeah, FB has really dropped off, now with only 2.934 billion users (as of July)

I've been hearing that "Facebook is circling the drain" or "kids don't use Facebook" since before I first signed on.

Every user in the USA could abandon FB, and it would be little more than an anomalous blip in the monthly user totals.

[Sugarcoated]

53. Ikr?

Facebook-fitzmas, lol

[madamesilverspurs]

40. FB does have its problems.

Started going there when I was asked to be FB admin for our local Dems. That position rotated to someone else, but I'd gotten used to checking in with certain friends. And the FB marketplace has been a treasure trove, got a banjo and an organ, both from locals.

I'm well aware of the problems, and I'm smart enough not to click on anything I don't recognize. For the record, I am a "boomer" and an "old person", neither of which has ever been used as pejorative in my FB experience -- unlike DU, sadly.


.

[moonshinegnomie]

41. FB's problem is mark zuckerberg

he does things how he wants to and doesnt care what other think. fro example FB's algorithm for deciding whats "acceptable" is horrible. everyone knows it. and yet onlu zuck gets to decide whats "acceptable". becasue of how the company is organized he has pretty much 100% control no matter what the board of directors might think.

he owns a special class of stock that has 10 votes per share. so eve if a majority of shafeholders were to vote him out it wouldnt matter he outvotes them all

[Celerity]

42. Fuck Facebook and fuck Zuck.

[Heather MC]

45. I've been watching the Facebook stock since 2020

At the time I 1st started looking at was at Is $222 You're in the pandemic it climbed up to almost $400 didn't quite get there. I just looked and now it's down to 135, and I've been touching it every week and every time I look back it's dropped about 10 or $15.

This stock is falling because their censorship is insane you can hardly talk on Facebook anymore.
I am 600 friends, maybe 20 of them look at pictures of things that I post. And because I made a lot of political posts I guess Facebook has decided to just watch me as if I'm some sort of danger to society.
How dangerous can I be if since 2009 to 2022 only about 20 people out of my 600 friends pay attention anything I say on Facebook🤷🏾‍♀️

The only reason I haven't blown Facebook out of the water yet is because I'm there for the people not mark fuckaburg.

Maybe mark f***** bark shouldn't have been so lazy, and just allowed algorithms to run his entire program.

[Meadowoak]

47. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[summer_in_TX]

49. I'd leave Facebook, but it's too damn useful for nonprofit (and other) marketing.

Post something, have others like , comment, and share, and pretty soon it's been seen by several hundred people. I birthed a nonprofit community radio station starting with Facebook. It's been operating for seven years, and has begun to thrive. It's received an award for service to the community during the deep freeze in Texas.

The LWV of my county uses it to get out info about voter registration opportunities and all things related to elections.

The monthly music coffeehouse I help with finds it very helpful for PR too.

None of those pages would work without a personal account.

But I really despise what FB has done and continues to do to our society. It's a bad corporation run by people who have no commitment to the health and well-being of our country and our planet.

I feel stuck between what's best for those organizations and this Meta.

[former9thward]

51. FB is not gone and is not going to be gone.

It has more users than all of its competitors combined. Yes, FB's stock is down but so are almost all stocks. This has been a terrible year for stocks -- especially tech stocks. Who isn't down? That is not a measurement of whether FB is surviving unless you think every company in the stock market is going to collapse.

[orleans]

59. i like keeping in touch with friends via fb

i post a lot of stupid stuff, write mini essays about life, i'm a writer & a songwriter (among other things) -- i've posted at least 100 music videos of my songs on fb. i message friends now and then, see what's going on with them. i can do it late at night when most are asleep but i'm up. i can check in or check on a couple of them to make sure they're okay. a friend started a little political group so i post a lot of links there so other friends of mine don't have to see all my political venting on their newsfeeds.

why not call them? i don't want to--don't want to get into conversations, time consuming and inconvenient for me. email? no thanks--it's mostly for business crap.

i don't go to or post on fb groups (except my friend's private little political one), the public can't see my posts, i've got less than three dozen fb friends & some are dead & some can't see my posts because we're not really "friends." there are less than 20 people i'm in contact with thru fb.


fb turned out to be a good fit for me (surprisingly).

[Karma13612]

60. Facebook is extremely

Useful.

And there is nothing that replaces it right now.

I belong to Facebook groups for:
-Photography
-Fountain pens
-Cooking
-Crafts-art
-Community Groups for places we frequently visit.
-Formula 1 racing

Facebook Pages for:
-Various News Sources- often times, the only way to comment and discuss articles is thru FB because their website has turned off comments.
-Local restaurants for their daily menu specials
-Political Organizations
-Specific Elected Officials (shout out to President Biden and Senator Warren and nominee for US Rep Castelli.)

I have MAYBE at most 8-10 family and friend contacts. I rarely connect with them. But without FB it would be never. Hubby and I are loners.

Mark Z has a phenomenal product/service but abysmal ethics. If FB were to fold, it would limit my ability to get crucial information.

[Orrex]

62. I agree with you, and I've made similar statements here in the past

The people so eager to scolded me literally suggested that I use email, group-texts, faxes(!), and listserv as a viable alternative to Facebook. And this was within the past three years!

Facebook does some things very badly, but it does other things better than any other option out there, and that's just reality.


Now I'll sit back and wait to be chastised by someone with their feet up on their IKEA coffee table, beautifully made from timber illegally harvested in Vietnam.

[obamanut2012]

64. Yup, everything you said

[Sympthsical]

70. Who are all these people constantly checking e-mail?!

I have an exclusive e-mail for work and a school address I glance at once a week, but my personal e-mail? I only check that thing in ten second increments because I'm managing a password reset somewhere. I don't think I've written a personal e-mail about anything since AOL was a thing.

Group texts are for co-workers, lab partners, and friends who want to discuss which restaurant they were at last night. ("No, seriously you guys, the meal tells a story." ) My story is I just had peanut butter on toast, but you don't see me texting about it.

A lot of my online daily social interaction has shifted to Discord in recent years. Gaming, classes, etc. Someone at work wanted a Discord for our department, but oh hell no. That is asking for drama. Newp newp. People say things in Discord. No way. But I cannot even fathom trying to explain to my tech impaired family members how all that works. It took me a decade to get my mom comfortable with FB on her phone. I am not starting that process over again.

Yesterday I had to mail a letter. In person. In the mail. I've lived here three years, and I had to figure out 1) Where a mailbox even was and 2) Me: "Do we have stamps?" Partner: "Why would we have stamps?" Me: "Well, what about envelopes?" Partner: ". . ."

It was a whole thing.

FB is fine. Not everyone's using it for politics. I don't even see politics on the thing. People are always describing all this political stuff on it, and I'm baffled. Unless you're actively participating in that sort of thing, you'd really never see it. The algorithm doesn't target people out of a clear blue sky. I just did a real quick scroll down my FB page and it's movie stuff, recipes, and car rental/buying (I've been car shopping lately, and I guess it's picked up on that).

A lot of algorithms are garbage in, garbage out. Similar with YouTube. My recommends are a lot of astronomy, ASMR, video games, work out routines, and cooking shows. If you're getting "Christmas at home with Marjorie Taylor Greene" TF you been watching on there?!

[LeftInTX]

74. I favor chain emails myself!

[Ilsa]

67. I think this is how Fb will survive: like a marketplace for

information, updates, etc while their websites are more static. Sure, there will be plenty of personal accounts, but I don't keep up with my loved ones this way.

[Habitation]

61. They REFUSE to takedown scammers

They don't care at all scammers that are victimizing older people I have eight takedown requests just in the last 2 weeks for older retired folks that I know that have fake profiles spamming all of their friends list for FedEx scams and Facebook refuses to touch them.

[SYFROYH]

66. Sounds like a good time to buy Meta stock.

[GusBob]

68. Dear Facebook Haters: top this

During Hurricane Ian, and after

The hometown Facebook pages that I follow { East coast of Florida, catastrophic flooding}

The members got together and were posting who needed help and who could help whom, asking for help and offering help

Everything from fixing generators, sharing gas , locating missing folks etc

But most of all, rescuing folks by boat as EMS folks were overwhelmed. One guy with an airboat was a stud. Someone posted: can you check on my grandparents at xyz? He replied: I already dropped them off at the shelter, they are ok

It was amazing. Sure the power was out and cell internet were spotty, but that’s the point. Those that were online in certain neighborhoods could check on those without service


Our business there was damaged and surrounded by flooding no access. We had no idea what was happening and feared the worst. Even my best friend a local cop was saying expect the worst, we can’t get there

Some random person who lived nearby tracked us down thru FB and sent pictures and videos thru Facebook messenger. We sent them to our landlord pronto and she was able to take some action.

Facebook haters, lol

[Orrex]

72. Obviously those people should have sent emails and set up phone-trees

Maybe they could have rigged up something with a series of signal fires, and are they too good for semaphore?

[Hotler]

71. LinkedIn next. ... nt

[nolabear]

80. Yes, it's problematic. But I use it to get all kinds of info.

I do have friends I connect with, but I also use it for referrals and info about services, medical groups (not scammy stuff; support and advice in dealing with some issues), Buy Nothing groups, music and film info, all my writer friends’ teaching and publication info, and as with Ian, to keep up with people in the midst of potential tragedies.

It’s a pain these days—the advertising is insane and the algorithms have to be adjusted a lot or I lose important people. But I haven’t found anything better.