UT-Dallas Professor Adds 'Enemies' Feature To Facebook 112
An anonymous reader writes "Many people have called for a 'dislike' button on Facebook, but the service has not allowed it. A professor's app lets users add 'enemies,' in what he says is critique of the service's advertiser-friendly niceness. Will Zuckerberg let the app stand or ban it?"
BAN! (Score:5, Insightful)
Amything that circumvents FB choices will be banned. Or integrated.
So, in the end, that app will die for sure.
Re:Social choices (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess I just don't understand how people can let their lives be manipulated by people or things that they dislike. Or by people that they like for that matter.
I select what products I want based primarily on my own judgment. If I know someone and respect their opinion, I may give some weight to it in my choices. But that respect doesn't always correspond one to one with friendship. Some of my friends are lacking in their knowledge in certain areas. Likewise, some people I don't like do display some common sense.
The whole 'freinds have got to stick together and stand up against common enemies' is exploited far too much politically as well as in marketing.
Re:A clear violation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Was just thinking that. Disliking something doesn't fit into the doubleplusgood world where everyone is liked and everyone's a winner. See, mom, everyone likes what I do, I got $somerandomnumber people liking what I do!
Being able to dislike something would actually make people see just how many people really not only don't care about them but care enough about them to wish they would just die and leave a very shallow grave.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Dislike (Score:4, Insightful)
At least here on /., you actually can. Well, at least occasionally, when you got modpoints. You're not forced to mod every crap up or, if you think it's prime grade bullcrap, can only leave it be. You can actually go and mod it down.
The net effect is that if I talk out of my ass constantly on FB, I will still think people agree with me and like me. Because from time to time, everyone, even the dimmest idiot in the world, is prone to saying something witty, useful or at least funny. Even if 99.9% of the time, whatever he rambles about would instantly be dismissed as idiot drivel.
What does that mean on FB? That you get the occasional "please die, dumbass" comment while, if just looking at your "likes", you'll see how there are still people who actually agree with you, giving you the general feel that what you say is valuable input. On here, if you're a complete idiot 99% of the time, you will be shown in no uncertain terms that you are.
That's basically why FB will never endorse such a dislike feature. Because they don't give half a shit about just how much of a dork you are as long as you're there, use it and hand them information. And, well, people don't tend to stay where they're constantly told that they're idiots.
Re:Who cares? Most social media accounts are fake. (Score:4, Insightful)
Facebook is not only an enabler, it's also become the instigator in many cases. If it were to disappear tomorrow, long-term, society would be better off.
If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, then something just like it would show up the next day. All social media (since newsgroups, at least) has been vocally dominated by people desperately seeking attention, and using it as a crutch for their own psychological problems. This pre-exists the internet, go to a typical trendy college bar. Go hang out with your obscenely outgoing co-worker... Go to your local shopping mall and listen to the screaming teenagers (which was the social media of my generation, ignoring IRC and BBSs for us nerds).
People said the same stuff your saying about AOL > Geocities/Angelfire > Livejournal > Myspace, and now Twitter. Yes, there are problems with them, but if mature people use them maturely, then these problems are mostly mitigated. The same can be said of things like alcohol, idiots will use them and degrade themselves, but some of us can enjoy a tasty glass of scotch after dinner and be fine. Do the idiots degrade the responsible ones? Only if the responsible ones can't ignore the idiots.