Facebook Is Down 448
Phil_at_EvilNET writes "Jeff Bertolucci of PC World reports: 'Thousands of Facebook users this afternoon (US Pacific Time) are reporting that the popular social networking site is down. It's unclear when the outage began. PCWorld has not been able to reach Facebook for comment, but Mashable reports the company has confirmed the outage.'"
Facebook Is Down (Score:4, Insightful)
And nothing of value was lost. :-P
Staring at the clock! (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, I'm not quite that bad, but we all know people who are...
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. I genuinely find it a useful tool for keeping up with people and arranging events.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm back in. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because advertisers cannot match up what I write here with who I am.
I see facebook as basically giving all your personal information to advertisers.
Now if I didn't want to be anon, perhaps I would be more interested in Facebook, but I'm not.
real news story: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Agree with you 100%. Good to know I was not and will not affected in any way. Does anything serious get done on Facebook?
Wow, what a phenomenally smug statement. Why does everything have to have a "serious" use? Social tools are useful and valid things, and 500 million users think so. Or are you more enlightened than every one of them?
Grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nothing of value was lost to you maybe. But I've got a news flash, the world doesn't revolve around you.
I've got a friend nearing the end of a difficult pregnancy and who is approaching labor, and Facebook is her husband's primary way of keeping friends and family updated as to her condition. That may not be important to you, but to a bunch of people scattered all across the world - it's important as hell. We care about our friends and family and staying in touch with them, in good times and bad.
You may thing you're k3wl and l33t for going with the Slashdot groupthink as to the value of Facebook, but in reality you're self centered and shallow jackass.
[Sigh, I know this is going to get modded 'flamebait' and 'troll', but it had to be said.]
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, your phone isn't better and you're just trying to act like you're superior for not using Facebook. It has its uses, which are very numerous, and a lot of people don't use it just for Farmville.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Social tools are useful and valid things, and 500 million users think so. Or are you more enlightened than every one of them?
Donno! That's why I asked. And trust me...if there is something useful that cannot be done [better] any other way, I will join. I haven't found anything so far, so enlighten me.
Re:Grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Grow up. (Score:1, Insightful)
Blah blah blah, whatever, if your friend is so important to you have the cell phone ready and call.
Yes, FB has some value, no it's not important.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Grow up. (Score:1, Insightful)
Reading updates is not keeping in touch with someone. If you care about the results of the pregnancy there is nothing stopping you from finding out via phone or email when the family feels it's appropriate. Facebook is not a vital communication tool.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anything serious get done on Facebook?
About as much serious stuff that gets done on Slashdot.
Re:Grow up. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Staring at the clock! (Score:1, Insightful)
Before ./ and before fb there was usenet to loose yourself in. And before the Internet, there were other "activities" you can do instead of your work, so this is nothing new it is just another tool to distract you.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:1, Insightful)
The Onion needs to update this: http://j.mp/aLzoqi [j.mp] with "Internet Nerd Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Use Facebook"
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing of hard value was lost, but my mental state really took a nosedive. Honestly, about 6 times I caught myself thinking of status updates relating to facebook being down, wondering why I hadn't changed it, and then realizing that I'm a moron.
Between that and realizing how pathetically addicted I am to frittering my time away on facebook (as opposed to slashdot) has been so depressing that I think I'm going to go home early and play some videogames. Which won't help, so I'll turn to beer.
Ah beer, you never give me DNS error messages...
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
My phone works better and I don't have to wait for a response most of the time.
A phone is great for calling/texting other people who you are in active contact with.
For finding out what happened to all those kids in your eighth grade class photo? Not so much.
I simply posted a class photo on Facebook. Within a few days, everyone save one person was "tagged" on the photo and accounted for. Whether you personally value that kind of information has no bearing on just how cool that is from a geek perspective. That kind of information would have taken me weeks 10 years ago, and everyone would think that I was crazy.
Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since a few months ago, Facebook has surpassed Google as the website with the most traffic on the web. If #2 Google.com went down, it'd be here as well, so why not #1?
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:2, Insightful)
Right. Because it's so much easier to call everyone you want to invite to a large event and then make a note of everyone who is going to show.
Seriously, your phone isn't better and you're just trying to act like you're superior for not using Facebook. It has its uses, which are very numerous, and a lot of people don't use it just for Farmville.
Um, yes? You just grab a list of people from your cell phone address book and send a mass SMS, your done faster than you could boot your beige boxen. I really fail to see how FB is superior to other social networking sites, and indeed outside of a fairly limited domain social networking sites are of any real utility whatsoever.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
My phone works better and I don't have to wait for a response most of the time.
A phone is great for calling/texting other people who you are in active contact with.
For finding out what happened to all those kids in your eighth grade class photo? Not so much.
I simply posted a class photo on Facebook. Within a few days, everyone save one person was "tagged" on the photo and accounted for. Whether you personally value that kind of information has no bearing on just how cool that is from a geek perspective. That kind of information would have taken me weeks 10 years ago, and everyone would think that I was crazy.
The reason why you like social networking sites is precisely the reason why I dislike them, in that behaviour that was once rightfully considered crazy/creepy is now mainstream.
Re:Closed my Facebook account earlier this week (Score:1, Insightful)
Anyone who claims that all 400 million people on a website are narcissist is no doubt projecting his own guilt about said condition.
Re:Staring at the clock! (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't believe this... Facebook went down so I started working and then I actually finished and now I can't figure out what to do!
Okay, I'm not quite that bad, but we all know people who are...
As if someone's who's happy to dodge work will magically start working again just because a single distraction is removed. Employees who need to be babysat are a burden.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:5, Insightful)
And you're better than them because you do your ego wanking on slashdot, rather than facebook?
Re:Grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think there are some serious definitional problems here, or perhaps a new generation needs new definitions. But the reality is that for tens of thousands of years life has gone on. People have had all sorts of important events that are of great immediate concern to them, but for their family and friends those events are not of immediate concern. Now I know a bunch of people are going to say "who are you to say it's not of immediate concern." And my answer to that is that if you don't have an action to take that makes a difference, it's not of immediate concern, e.g. my sister being in the hospital in another city going through protracted labor doesn't mean that I don't go to work today. So yes, some things are important but not important to the effect that you have to be kept up to date minute by minute.
Perhaps it's just a maturity thing, I don't know, but another example might be something like having a strong emotional reaction to the winner of American Idol or the Super Bowl. Yes they're interesting, but in your life (unless you happen to be the winner of American Idol or the Super Bowl) they are of relative insignificance. Part of growing up, I think, is learning when and why to be emotionally invested.
(As far as facebook specifically, again people have dealt with this for thousands of years without being able to update their facebook status. If you can't tell the people who need to know without using a web browser or an app on your smart phone, then you probably aren't putting enough effort into identifying a solution to the problem.)
Re:Grow up. (Score:5, Insightful)
What, her Twitter stream isn't enough? How about her email list?
Relying on Facebook for everything is just stupid, and this should be a lesson to your pregnant friend.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)
Email does NOT work fine (Score:3, Insightful)
Email is much less reliable than FB messages. You can never be sure your email won't disappear in some spam filter.
That is one of the main reasons I use FB!
Re:Grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)
He does. But email is not even fractionally as easy or convenient, either for him to send out updates or for us to discuss among ourselves.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds like an overly complex solution to a very simple problem, namely providing a street address and requesting an RSVP.
Re:Grow up. (Score:4, Insightful)
Email is a distributed system that isn't controlled by any single company (or any combination of companies for that matter). As a consequence, email does not go down.
In short, the story that you are commenting in is the reason email is superior to facebook. You needn't look farther.
Re: Facebook Is Down (Score:1, Insightful)
Sounds like you don't have much of an argument, but can't let someone else have the last word....