Facebook

[Tamara]

In fairness to Rich, he's not at all opposed to paying for a service -- he's one of a handful of people that pay an annual Site Supporter fee to PF more than once per year. He could stop paying and his SS membership wouldn't expire for several years.

I was being excessively snarky, and I apologize. I'm sorry for being shitty, Rich.


Personally, though, I've made my peace with the idea that the beast is going to use whatever data I feed it. The only upside of that is at least I'm more often targeted with stuff I actually want to buy. I never would have discovered PeakDesign camera gear without targeted FB ads, or it would have taken me much longer to stumble across it. As far as I can tell, all their advertising is word-of-mouth and social media.

[Totem Polar]

I love targeted ads, because I have actively waged a disinformation campaign against the machine, and everytime Amaz0n or Faceb0ok sends me push marketing for something absolutely ludicrous that I would never buy—even after a phineas gage-like personality change, it reminds me that I am winning so far.

[RJ]

I was being excessively snarky, and I apologize. I'm sorry for being shitty, Rich.


Personally, though, I've made my peace with the idea that the beast is going to use whatever data I feed it. The only upside of that is at least I'm more often targeted with stuff I actually want to buy. I never would have discovered PeakDesign camera gear without targeted FB ads, or it would have taken me much longer to stumble across it. As far as I can tell, all their advertising is word-of-mouth and social media.

If you give me some photography tips at Tac Con next year, I’ll call it square. Deal? [emoji4]

So far to be honest I’m liking it. I’ve ‘followed’ most of the Gunternet trainers I used to. Zuck still gets eyeball clicks since Lando sees targeted ads.

Meanwhile I get to see posts from Greg Ellifritz, Paul Sharp, Active Self Protection, Ms. Tam, Tom Givens, Claude Werner etc...

Seems like a fair trade to me.

And besides why does Zuck need my birthday? Political preference? Shoe size? Not sure personally why he needs my name, either. The Ad revenue is the same, whatever string is loaded into their database, is kinda how I look at it. Ymmv of course.

[Tamara]

If you give me some photography tips at Tac Con next year, I’ll call it square. Deal? [emoji4]

I'm not qualified to teach nobody nothin'.

And besides why does Zuck need my birthday? Political preference? Shoe size? Not sure personally why he needs my name, either. The Ad revenue is the same, whatever string is loaded into their database, is kinda how I look at it.

Facebook charges what they charge for advertising based on two things: The size of the potential audience, and the accuracy and granularity with which they can target based on user data.

For someone like me, who only has a handful of close friends nearby, and then another double handful scattered across a couple continents who I only physically hang out with for a couple weeks out of the year, Facebook is a godsend. If I gotta tell an ad agency my birthday and that I like photography and computer gaming in order to get that service for free, I'm fine with that. I dig that not everyone feels the same way.

[RJ]

I love targeted ads, because I have actively waged a disinformation campaign against the machine, and everytime Amaz0n or Faceb0ok sends me push marketing for something absolutely ludicrous that I would never buy—even after a phineas gage-like personality change, it reminds me that I am winning so far.

Wait, back up the train?

How did you do that? ‘Like’ Greenpeace? Friend Albert Bustamante?

[RJ]

Not sure personally why he needs my name, either.

Whelp I am such a dad gone Boy Scout sometimes. I reread the terms of use, and technically it seems ‘false names aren’t allowed. So I changed my user name back. Sigh.

Well at least I still don’t have any personal data on there, and it will be easier when I comment in gun-related threads, who the heck I am, to the very few folks who I’ve actually met in real life in training or at the range.