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I'm not a hater of anything, but I generally dislike online services, be it FB or anything else, because:
a) They appear and disappear at random. You never know when something you like is suddenly gone.
b) When they disappear, you typically get a very short window to grab your data, if you want it and it's your only copy.
c) Privacy policies change at will.
d) UIs change at will.
It is easy to say that if you're not paying, then you're not the target, just the product. But this implies that if you were paying, then your voice should be important.
That leads to two questions:
1) Are paid services really any better, or do they just do the same stuff anyway?
2) If there is no option to pay, then how do you get a service that is what you want, where you are the target and not the product?
I don't want to be a product, I want a service that is useful to me. I don't find it useful to me for random changes in UI or anything else. I don't need and don't want services I can't rely on. As a result, I use very few online services. Most of the stuff that crops up, I just don't care, any more than I care about the lastest javascript framework of the hour.
For some services, like email, I want services that are like a wrench - it was a 15mm silver wrench 5 years ago, and it's a 15mm silver wrench today. Same colour, sits in the same box, does the same thing. Why on earth do I need new shiny features in my email? It's such a basic thing, it should rarely change.
Sometimes things are done just right. A great example of doing it right is online banking. You pay for your online banking thru fees, you are the target, your feedback actually goes into the next version. They do a big change maybe once every 3-5 years, and otherwise stay the same, it's more like a desktop boxed product. And that upgrade is actually better by any reasonable definition, not just shiny and cool and glittery. This is exactly what I want - I'm just paying bills and tracking my expenses, the same stuff I was doing 5 years go with online banking. And I don't get damned ads pestering me every frigging visit.
For free services, I like CP for the same reasons. I just use it to follow articles on the news section about quasi-programming related stuff. Works pretty much the same as it did when I started, get a list of articles, pick a few, read them.
Why is it so hard to find more services like this? Why do they all have to obsess over glittery coolness and one-upping each other like schoolyard children? I don't give a s**t about the latest animation techniques when using a service. I want substance over form any day.
Is it just me, or do others here feel the same way?
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bantling: i just want to applaud your insightful and well organized thoughts about the economic tradeoffs between free and paid services.
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What is wrong with that? It is evolution...
Why did Google search change,
Why did CodeProject change,
Why did Jaffa cakes cakes change....it wasn't for the better as I preferred them when they were slightly firmer. 
Without change there isn't the chance that you might find something better. Anyway, you can never please everyone, someone will always hate it, even if it is to try and sound cool or to troll.
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DaveAuld wrote: Why did Jaffa cakes cakes change....it wasn't for the better as I preferred them when they were slightly firmer.
Try these ones.[^]
They are firmer than the original McVities ones, with better chocolate and a much more orangey "orangey bit".
I've stopped buying McVities biscuits - I think the accountants have taken over as they all seem to have lost flavour and quality (some of them barely class as biscuits any more, they are more sprayed together lumps of dry crud)
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Things never improve or grow without change.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Things never improve
Exactly my point. 
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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0. It's fake relationships.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Again, your fault. You need to learn difference between internet and real World.
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d@nish wrote: You need to learn difference between internet and real World.
Which is precisely why I don't like it. You're making my point for me.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Huh? You are getting me wrong. If you cannot understand bloody difference, you sort of ask for , ummm, heart break?
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d@nish wrote: If you cannot understand bloody difference
Who do you think does not understand the difference between internet and real world?
And if that is not what you are saying, what are you saying?
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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People who get hooked to one fake profile. Isn't that what leads to fake relationships?
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I think we're talking about 2 different things.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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You meant to say 10 different things? 
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There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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And none of that is FB's fault. It is content and users.
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You sure are defending FaceBook as if you have a lot of stock in it. Just saying. 
I don't use it at all so therefore I cannot hate it. However, from what I have heard people hate it because it is fake. Fake meaning people have 2000+ "friends." They aren't friends.
And people post boring updates. Like twitter, "I'm eating toast." Etc, etc. That's why people hate it. Simple.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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That is my whole point. What, in everything you mentioned, says FB is bad? It is your choice of making FB friends which bad. You chose the content you see. If you choose crap, you get crap. What is wrong with container holding crap?
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d@nish wrote: What is wrong with container holding crap?
I think you answered your own question.
Perhaps you are trying to defend it from a programming point of view? All I know is the few times I have gone to a FB page I can't tell what in the world I am looking it. The UI I do hate. It sucks.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: Perhaps you are trying to defend it from a programming point of view?
Finally.
RyanDev wrote: All I know is the few times I have gone to a FB page I can't tell what in the world I am looking it.
Content. Team FB has nothing to do with it.
RyanDev wrote: The UI I do hate. It sucks.
Agreed. I dislike certain bits. But they are doing amazing job considering majority users use internet for them and pr0n.
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d@nish wrote: Finally
Then why didn't you say that originally? 
d@nish wrote: But they are doing amazing job considering
No. The UI sucks.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I thought it was understood.
RyanDev wrote: No. The UI sucks.
Very demanding user you are.
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d@nish wrote: I thought it was understood.
Not at all. And I would also suspect that most people who say they hate facebook are not referring to the coding at all.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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