Facebook Comments Epitomizes Everything I Hate About Facebook
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
The third and fourth comment are directed at the second comment, but are displayed in reply to the first comment since there's only one level of replies. Confusing.
Also, instead of linking to the comment to show this, I had to take a screenshot.
What do you think would be a good way to add that functionality, given that the comment plugin is running in an iframe on a different domain (so e.g. putting a hash in the top url won't be readable by the iframe)?
A significant amount of modern software has gone the opposite way seeking to remove options to simplify products for users.
Facebook grew up competing against MySpace, a site which gave it's users more options and configurability than anyone could want. Facebook realized that users don't want to be able to tweak everything, they want things to be standardized and just work.
It's philosophically the Facebook way.
Facebook comments are easy, but they are not customizable. I haven't tried Disqus, but if I were them I'd focus on ease of use and control (not by the end user, but by the site).
To only sort by "relevance" as determined by friend-of-friend connections is needless complexity.
I miss Disqus at TC. I think they were working on a solution for problems with commenting. I don't get that sense from Facebook comments.
There's nothing cool or innovative or interesting or high quality. But dammit, they're everywhere, can do a lot of things good enough to satisfy Joe Consumer, and have just kind of slowly sunk quietly into the background of their culture. They're ubiquitous, and that ubiquity allows them to cut corners and keep "costs" low because they operate at a scale no one else can really touch.
Facebook is the Internet's Wal-Mart.
In terms of dealing with trolls, active moderation is the most reliable method I've seen used in practice. I know it doesn't scale well, which is why people turn to voting schemes instead.
Except that it isn't the "very best product ... FB was able to build." It is just something useful that a team at FB built -- something that provides some value for websites and users, and that will continue to be evolved and improved in the future.
FB Comments may or may not be an amazing product, but obviously it is good enough for TC, so that says something.
On the one hand, I wish all companies let their employees be human and respond as such. On the other hand, it feels like if you're going to engage, you should ignore the insults and address any valid points. Here it just looks like two parties trading jabs while dancing around any real issues.
If that is what you mean, how do you think it could be less scary? The idea is to strike a balance between security and usability, and if we'd love to do a better job of that where possible! (I work on security at facebook, though not the HTTPS implementation directly.)
Now, the last time I tested this was when Facebook comments came out on a test account I have, if it no longer disables SSL using Facebook comments that would certainly be a step up.
Even then I don't want everything tied to my Facebook account, and it is not exactly easy to switch which Facebook account is used on which website.
As far as not wanting to comment with your FB account, you can sign in with Yahoo...?
I think a reasonable budget/timeframe would be $350,000 over 18 months.
I look forward to hearing from you.
This will stop trolls for a few minutes, you can buy a Facebook account with 100 friends for a buck or two if you really want to troll. On the long term this is likely to succeed to the same degree that Kuro5hin charging $5 for an account had.
I'd prefer to use something attached to the back end and possibly use Facebook connect for the real name aspect, or even include the indication back into the feed on Facebook, although not everyone wants that.
In short, a Twitter conversation can be replayed, or stitched together after the fact. From what I'm seeing with this thread, it doesn't appear that is possible with the Facebook comments (though I know that they DO have the '@' reference, sort of.)
So I doubt they need money to convince them to use Facebook over Disqus.
This Techcrunch article is the first one in a week or more that I have read the comments. And I've pretty much tuned out of Techcrunch now, and moved over exclusively to HN. I used to have Techcrunch open all day, every day. Now it's gone.
So, one switch from Disqus to Facebook comments lost me - a long time reader of TC, and an active participant at TechCrunch 40 and TechCrunch 50. And they probably don't even know it.
I wasn't in love with the Disqus system, but there was one feature that was right for me, that FB comments don't have: separation from Facebook.
The majority of the comments on techcrunch are now the most bland, content-free statements you could imagine ("this is good!"), and the spammers are still around, only now they get to post links to their site from an account that links back to their facebook page. victory?
I posted a comment on the blackberry playbook review and someone that worked for RIM replied with a load of marketing spin I wasn't bothered to reply too. You also get notifications which makes me reply more often also that needs a lot of tweaking.
Maybe thats a good thing....
Yep.