Facebook - to join or not to join, that is the queztion

[emjaybee]

The thing to remember is that Facebook is trying to find particular consumer groups, be this products views or now politics.

If you are an oddball sort, and my apologies but I guess that includes most of this boards membership, you do not meet the criteria of a "useful" Facebook member.  That is one they can turn into money.

In fact Facebook's computers reaction to most of us will be "Does not compute".

This is a simplification but frankly unless you are of the Facebook generation or demographic we are of little interest  to them.  Having said this political demographic may change this, however its the young new voters they want to profile.

You can't possibly be that naive. If they're tracking/logging that much info on that many people they're doing it for a reason, and despite all their rhetoric, that much data will always be a tempting target. You may think that you don't fit into any group, but I guarantee that in FB terminology you are already in various 'groups'.

FB is a business, pure and simple, designed to profile people to target them with products. If it was anything else you'd be paying a small membership fee, there'd be no shareholders, and it wouldn't be laced with advertisements.

[Snowwolflair]

The thing to remember is that Facebook is trying to find particular consumer groups, be this products views or now politics.

If you are an oddball sort, and my apologies but I guess that includes most of this boards membership, you do not meet the criteria of a "useful" Facebook member.  That is one they can turn into money.

In fact Facebook's computers reaction to most of us will be "Does not compute".

This is a simplification but frankly unless you are of the Facebook generation or demographic we are of little interest  to them.  Having said this political demographic may change this, however its the young new voters they want to profile.

You can't possibly be that naive. If they're tracking/logging that much info on that many people they're doing it for a reason, and despite all their rhetoric, that much data will always be a tempting target. You may think that you don't fit into any group, but I guarantee that in FB terminology you are already in various 'groups'.

FB is a business, pure and simple, designed to profile people to target them with products. If it was anything else you'd be paying a small membership fee, there'd be no shareholders, and it wouldn't be laced with advertisements.

Its not a question of nativity its a question of knowledge.  From business I know more about their commercial model than most so I have a good understanding of what I am outlining.

[njee20]

I must say I agree that it's naive to assume they write off huge chunks of the population because they don't fit some preconceived ideal. Aside from an a typical hobby the membership base here is as 'mainstream' as any. The intersection on the Venn diagram with (for example) people who watch football, vote labour, and drink alcohol is just as valid. That's the advantage of their multifaceted model, more simple 2 dimensional models would have big gaps, but the richness of Facebook's data means they've got far more to go on. That's the value.

[Snowwolflair]

They don't write off large amount of data, just large amounts of it is of no interest to those paying money for it, so they emphasize gathering/attracting suitable people to join Facebook that will generate valuable data.

For instance if you put a photo up showing you or another person holding a baby you rocket up the value chain, similarly if you post a photo of a car.  Its not just text information they gather information from.

Personally my Facebook is a desert, never comment, never like, never accept, no photos, no friends etc.  but having an account allows me to watch 

[njee20]

Now that depends who pays money for it. I'm well aware of how they gather and utilise data, what if someone who's a member on here posts a photo of them holding a baby? They're still more valuable, I don't get your rationale that people here are somehow not useful because of a niche interest.

Again, the appeal in Facebook's data set is in its richness.

[Snowwolflair]

Now that depends who pays money for it. I'm well aware of how they gather and utilise data, what if someone who's a member on here posts a photo of them holding a baby? They're still more valuable, I don't get your rationale that people here are somehow not useful because of a niche interest.

Again, the appeal in Facebook's data set is in its richness.

A baby Detic, would create interest here but nowhere else I suspect  , and regardless this hosting site is not used for data gathering by the host (I hope), apart from external web spiders harvesting data (old school).

The rule is the more you give of "you" the more likely you will disclose something valuable.  You also have to remember that data is cross referenced across sites,  why Facebook operates multiple products.

the point I made about picture analysis is very important.  I have seen a demonstration of two accounts set up on different services from different IP addresses with false names and data but containing two photos of the same person.  It took 12 days for the researcher to find a result that had matched the two accounts and paired them as a singular user.  What was more interesting it took a further 45 days to tie it back to another account from the CompuServe era, by the person who's photo was used, despite the grey hair and beard sported in the later photos.

[Mito]

Having read all above, I'm very happy to live in "obscurity" and choose to look for things I want, not having ads pushed at me and my profile manipulated and sold to all and sundry.

[njee20]

A baby Detic, would create interest here but nowhere else I suspect  , and regardless this hosting site is not used for data gathering by the host (I hope), apart from external web spiders harvesting data (old school).

Eh? You said Facebook is looking for particular demographics, so folk here aren't of interest. That's nonsense, and photos posted here aren't the point.