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Facebook Education Social Networks

Facebook Returns To Its Roots With Campus, a College Student-only Social Network (techcrunch.com) 29

Facebook is getting back to its roots as a college-focused social network. The company announced today the launch of a new social networking platform, Facebook Campus, which offers college students a private place to connect with classmates, join groups, discover upcoming campus events, get updates from their school's administration and chat with other students from their dorm, clubs or any other campus group. From a report: The new platform requires a school email address (@.edu) to join and will live within a dedicated section of the Facebook app. It will be accessible from a tab at the bottom of the screen or from the "More" menu alongside sections like Watch, Dating, Gaming, News, Marketplace and others. "We wanted to create a product where it was easy for classmates to meet each other, foster new relationships and also easily start conversations," explains Facebook Campus Product Manager Charmaine Hung. "And we really think that Campus is more relevant than ever right now. With COVID-19, we see that many students aren't returning to campus in the fall. Now, classes are being held online and students are trying to react to this new normal of what it's like to connect to clubs and organizations that you care about, when you're not together," she added.
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Facebook Returns To Its Roots With Campus, a College Student-only Social Network

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  • ... even normal FB is getting to be a desert.
  • Private? Muuuhhahahaahahhahaahhahaaahaha
  • ...and they won't come back.

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Thursday September 10, 2020 @10:13AM (#60492128)

    I'm guessing that this is one of Facebook's strategies to tackle the fake account problem, i.e. an email address connected to an educational institution that's more likely to be an actual human user rather than a bot/fake account created with a random Gmail or other free anonymous web mail account.

    Facebook want to show their clients that there may still be some actual humans that aren't working for marketing agencies & criminal gangs, & college & university student emails are one way of doing this. I expect they may do something similar (if they haven't already) with company/corporate emails, although that'll be more difficult to verify en masse. It'd show Facebook's clients that there are some people on their platform for whom PR, marketing, advertising, & political manipulation campaigns might actually work.

    This is what Facebook's all about, right?

    • I'm guessing that this is one of Facebook's strategies to tackle the fake account problem, i.e. an email address connected to an educational institution that's more likely to be an actual human user rather than a bot/fake account created with a random Gmail or other free anonymous web mail account.

      Surely there is real people behind the eatmyshorts@simpsons.com and bitemyshinymetalass@futurama.com email adresses?

    • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      I'm guessing that this is one of Facebook's strategies to tackle the fake account problem, i.e. an email address connected to an educational institution that's more likely to be an actual human user rather than a bot/fake account created with a random Gmail or other free anonymous web mail account.

      If so, it's doomed to fail. In 1–4 years, they'll lose their .edu addresses, and then they'll have to switch to the real Facebook, and most of them won't bother, because they'll think it's all bots. Also,

      • Doesn't matter. Once the account is established as likely to be human with the .edu email, they can change their email address after a year or more. It's just a way of reassuring shareholders & clients that there are some humans left.
    • Facebook is irredeemable. Just another attempt to spin its worthless existence as somehow not worthless.

  • Is restricting it to .edu not rather stupid?

  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday September 10, 2020 @10:27AM (#60492174)

    The problem is these sites have too many people who are not your friends join your group.

    Your feed is filled from Mom and Dad posting fake news from idiot sources explaining how such and such political party is both completely incompetent to do the simplest thing, yet have the power and ability to micromanage everything they deemed wrong with the world.

    You feed is filled from acquaintances from high school who you just friended to see what they are doing with their life to get filled with their latest drugged filled night. Baby Pictures of kids you will never meet nor do you care about.. Pictures from their Vacation, their new car... Whatever

    More political rants most not very informative from both sides, including the side that I like.

    I basically stay off the platform myself. But if it was designed like it suppose to be where only my real close friends had access and not feed from a friend of a friend and family polluting the feed has just made it fustrating.

    • by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

      You feed is filled from acquaintances from high school who you just friended to see what they are doing with their life to get filled with their latest drugged filled night. Baby Pictures of kids you will never meet nor do you care about.. Pictures from their Vacation, their new car... Whatever

      So your major complaint here is that when you friend people to see what they are doing with their lives, you have to.... see what they're doing with their lives?

    • by kyjo ( 1947414 )
      Spot on. This could still be doable with current FB if there was someone competent in the development team who'd implement a proper mechanism for managing friend lists and privacy settings. They made a tiny improvement in this regard when Google came with their Google+ network which had "circles" as one of the main selling points. It was super easy to manage privacy there and FB quickly came with "friend lists" to compete but the UI was very clunky and has been only worse and worse ever since. (For a while
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10, 2020 @10:34AM (#60492188)

    i mean if they really want to go back all the way, to Facemash, wouldn't it be Mark Zuckerberg assigning numerical scores to people's attractiveness?

    ' The homepage proclaimed: “Were we let in for our looks? No. Will we be judged on them? Yes.” '

    https://www.metro.us/everythin... [metro.us]

  • Either that or once again Zuckmeister is showing off how he can fool most everyone most all of the time.

    I graduated in 1977. I still have a MYNAME@MYCOLLEGE.edu email address. I suspect lots of colleges never set up a name@alumni.college.edu system and that plenty of folks have an 'edu' account right now.

    Then again, imagine the improved targeted ads FB can throw at us once we admit to having attended a college.

  • if I've said it once, I've said it tree times..... the only way a tree can return to its roots is by cutting it down
  • Winklevoss Twins already did it.

  • "We wanted to create a product where it was easy for classmates to GIVE US THEIR INFORMATION"

    FTFY

  • Do you want twice as much spying? Because that's how you get twice as much spying.

  • by t4eXanadu ( 143668 ) on Thursday September 10, 2020 @06:41PM (#60494118)

    It's roots was as a site to judge the hotness of girls on campus. Something tells me they don't mean those roots, though. They probably like to pretend that didn't happen.

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money? -- Ayn Rand

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