Events are really the only thing I miss from FB. Startup idea for anyone who wants to try to address it: independent Events app that connects with everything under the sun (FB, Google, etc.)
Yet another case of "Do people still watch TV? I haven't own a TV in 15 years".
https://www.recode.net/2018/3/1/17063208/facebook-us-growth-...
Facebook is massive in this country. More than two-thirds of Americans, specifically 68 percent, use the service, according to new research from Pew Research Center.
It is the primary communication tool for everyone I know in the bay area, excluding professionals that I email or teammates at code for SF that I message on slack.
Also, the fact that you put out stand-alone events app as a "startup idea" like it would be something no-one has thought of triggers me. It's probably the most common start-up idea floating around. It's almost a meme. "I have an idea", "oh, another events app to replace Facebook Events?".
Social life has primarily moved to Whatsapp, which everyone I was talking to on FB was already using so no hiccups. I use Discord but it's primarily for gaming. I much, much prefer anonymous or semi-anonymous social media so I'm mainly on reddit for memes and whatever.
In regards to that event idea: I think where FB really stands out for events was that it functions as a calendar as well. Everyone you invite likely checks FB daily so not only are they guaranteed to see the notification for the invite (rather than it going into a spam folder...) but they're also going to see that event on their homepage whenever they log in. And you can see what's coming up easily, see what your friends are going to etc etc. I think it would be really, really hard to get the same level of functionality cross-platform. Maybe an app with SSO, but it kind of relies on having a strong user base to begin with which is tricky: the ticketing/event management market is already quite saturated. And for social events Facebook is the status quo, I can count on one hand the number of people I know who don't have a Facebook account, FB users have no reason to move to another platform. That said if anyone has an actual plan, hmu, I've got spare time to help.
Yes. Most people on HN are on facebook. Most people in america are on facebook.
If you really want to see the dominance of FB within social media.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-net...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/248074/most-popular-us-s...
> my conversations and invites are moving to WhatsApp, Discord (surprisingly awesome), Instagram, Signal, etc.
Hate to be a bearer of bad news but WhatsApp and Instagram are owned by facebook.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram
So you really haven't left facebook. You've moved within facebook.
My advice is to stop believing clickbait nonsense from news media like bloomberg and what you read on small fringe sites like hacker news.
I've gotten a ton of value out of Facebook. I got to know a new friend on Facebook and reconnected with a childhood friend who moved across the country. Local Facebook groups are amazing. Events. Keeping in touch long distance. Messager.
It's where the powers that be decided our local cat shelter's volunteers should share notes, pictures, videos, etc.
And vintage computer collectors largely moved off forums long ago and a lot of the activity is in Facebook groups now.
Imho this is a way underrated aspect of Facebook. I've noticed that a whole lot of small business use Facebook to have a low-barrier, free, and easily updateable internet presence.
In particular, small restaurants, bars, cafes and similar ventures which have daily changing menus. Many of these use pretty much only Facebook to publish this information due to the ease of the process: Snap a picture of the daily menu card/display and post it, done. Literally, your grandma can do it!
When looking for reliable opening times on a place, that doesn't have its own internet presence, Facebook usually has way more up to date/short notices information, compared to opening time information on Google.
It's an interesting aspect about FB that even FB itself seems kind of unaware about.
I'd honestly lose track of them otherwise. Maybe that'd be fine and yes there alternatives, however it would take lots of effort to make the change and it seems to be a case of inertia for me and lots of others.
I was just thinking of shutting it down again then thinking of how I'd stay connected with all the people I already am on FB, seems exhausting. Kinda sad maybe but true in my case.
As an aside, when I hear someone putting down/wondering why about FB and using something like Instagram I find it more than a little funny.
If I could get those few friends to use something else for chat I would just close out my account but until then it offers me more than it bothers me.
I mostly use WhatsApp (also Facebook obviously) with everyone else. It works great with the desktop app (WhatsApp Web) and phone app. I would prefer to use something like Signal or Wire but getting people to change is pretty much impossible without big external pressure (marketing).
I used to vent about politics on there, but I've begun to shy away from that to twitter.
Have you considered not doing that on any social media platform?
I suspect a large percentage of HN readers have tried to some degree to create an events app. It seems like a no brainer, but the reality is that having a critical mass of users matters more than creating an app that works well. You can't monetize convincingly with ads, commission is only going to work if you can genuinely push people who wouldn't have gone anyway to go to the events, and Facebook already has the users.
Not exactly the same, but Meetup has existed for more than ten years and seems to do ok with a model that charges organizers a small amount.
I asked my wife if she uses "Events" since I hear about that so often here at HN and she doesn't - she said she occasionally sees events posted from other users but it's rare. Maybe Facebook Events are for 18-30 year olds and we've aged out?
My husband actually creates private events for things he's going to do because it gives him reminders. He could use Google calendar or something for that, sure, but he already uses events.
I consider it my portal.