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Comment by cconcepts | Hacker News Reader

It annoys me how much I want to leave Facebook (if only to stop them gathering MORE data on me - I can't erase what they have) but don't because of the convenience of getting in touch with or finding out more about whoever I meet in meatspace.

The fact that they try to force me to install their messenger app by making messaging through a mobile browser difficult is particularly infuriating and reveals how much they have their intentions at centre and not the benefit of their users/products/suckers (whatever you want to call us) now that they have the critical mass that people like me don't leave because everyone else is on it.

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> The fact that they try to force me to install their messenger app

Treat it as asynchronous communication, using a client like Swipe for Facebook (for Android, don't know about iOS alternatives) to look at messages when you feel like doing it.

Use another app for synchronous purposes. Facebook's own WhatsApp is a lot more secure, for starters.

If you have the option, hosting your own bitlbee instance with bitlbee-facebook plugin [1] could be even better, since you can access it with any irc client you like. The additional benefit of always being logged in (and messages being marked read as soon as the come) is that facebook has no way to monitor your passive usage of their chat service.

[1] https://github.com/bitlbee/bitlbee-facebook

I did it two years ago. Never been a problem. Sms and calling still exist. People started to write me nice emails. The feeling you are missing something is gone arter two weeks.

Actually only thing that is somehow annoying are events. Its facebook secret sauce. They limit the api (you cant add events through api > no automatic repost) so every event around me ends up only on fb. I am talking about public events, concerts, lectures etc. Venues are using fb as calendar so much that many of them dont even put it on their own site anymore.

Yeah, the way they prevent you from reading public posts, sometimes cutting them off half way through to demand you make an account really pisses me off.

Same for Yelp who makes you install the app if you want to view more than 10 photos.

On Android there is the app Metal, which is basically a browser that shows the facebook page. It has a few tweaks to improve the user experience and because its a browser facebook cannot access contacts, gps etc. Messaging works. It's great.

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