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Who's Behind The False Rumors That Facebook Might Start Charging?
from the you-gotta-wonder dept
Way back when Friendster was the super hot social networking startup with an unworkable business model, there was suddenly a rush of rumors that the company was going to start charging for use. Even though the company never suggested plans to charge, there was an outcry among users -- and I remember getting messages from people threatening to boycott Friendster if it ever did charge. In fact, many people started suggesting alternatives... with MySpace being a key one. It wasn't long after this episode that many people really did start migrating over to MySpace. Later on there were reports that the "rumors" about Friendster charging were actually started (and then spread) by MySpace employees. And it worked.
It looks like someone may be trying to pull the same trick with Facebook. Apparently a bunch of rumors have been spreading about Facebook planning to charge, resulting in huge protest groups in Facebook, and the company needing to make a public denial of any plans to charge. In Facebook's case, this is even more believable because the company claims that it's already profitable from existing ad sales. And, knowing how Facebook operates, I can't see anyone there seriously considering charging for use. They know the idea is preposterous and would destroy the site.
So the only thing I'm wondering is who kicked off these rumors? Is it another social network? Is it MySpace again trying to regain relevance? Or was it really just another malware scam to get people to click on unsafe links, that then resulted in a misguided panic?
It looks like someone may be trying to pull the same trick with Facebook. Apparently a bunch of rumors have been spreading about Facebook planning to charge, resulting in huge protest groups in Facebook, and the company needing to make a public denial of any plans to charge. In Facebook's case, this is even more believable because the company claims that it's already profitable from existing ad sales. And, knowing how Facebook operates, I can't see anyone there seriously considering charging for use. They know the idea is preposterous and would destroy the site.
So the only thing I'm wondering is who kicked off these rumors? Is it another social network? Is it MySpace again trying to regain relevance? Or was it really just another malware scam to get people to click on unsafe links, that then resulted in a misguided panic?
I have an idea...
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hmmm
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Not necessarilly malicious
Or: a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
Not very hard for a rumor to propagate like wildfire even in the absence of a targeted effort to spread it.
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Re: Not necessarilly malicious
Add to it the influx of users that are 35+ yrs old and you have a huge user base that isn't as internet savvy as the kids that were the initial users of facebook. I see my friends falling for the scam apps all the time, and have seen many of them joining the protest groups. The most common protest group I see is that fb will start charging $5 a month but saw one claiming fb will charge ₤14.99 a month.
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I have intelligent friends and I still see stuff about "Google is going to make all your personal FB info available if you don't change this little setting they didn't tell you about!!!" It's completely misunderstood, and doesn't make sense, but people buy into it.
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That is an old hat in all social networks.
Is like urban legends.
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Shakira???
Sometimes, it's just someone trying to see how far a rumor will go before it's quashed.
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Re:
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Re: charging for access to articles
Complete stupidity will require a major credit card and a loan guarantor.
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It started by PayPal
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Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious
Hey, old people: "Get on my lawn!"
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This is nothing new
It's the same type of idiots behind this stuff now.... mostly malware spammers and the mentally disturbed who get a slight ego boost by telling their friends something they didn't know albeit if it's not even true.
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Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious
Protest groups? You have no idea of what protesting is until you stand across from a bunch of National Guard weekend worriers with fixed bayonets while you are protesting the war and the draft.
Don't make broad statements kid...
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Re: Re: charging for access to articles
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Re: Not necessarilly malicious
That adage does not apply when significantly large amounts of money are on the line. Trust in that.
You don't accidentally take millions of dollars from your competitors.
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I think marketers
"Stop The Use Of Live Dogs As Shark Bait!",
"Find Out Who Downloaded Your Profile Pics By Right Clicking" "Get Your Name In The Guinness Book Of World Records!".
So IMO smart marketers started these rumours and these protest groups.
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Re: Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious
Sure it's a general statement, but there's truth to it. Just because people my age (41) have been using the internet since it's early days doesn't mean the majority of them have. These are the same people that would forward you 10 emails a day cause they were funny or warned of some imminent danger or the ones that couldn't understand why their computers don't work well after downloading free smileys.
Don't take general statements personally kid.
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Entitlement Mentality Reigns
Maybe Facebook should charge for forming protest groups. That's creating a reason to pay.
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Re: Entitlement Mentality Reigns
It would be a huge leap to suggest it's entitlement mentality behind this.
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Facebook should charge.
http://gawker.com/5428155/the-facebook-privacy-settings-youve-lost-forever . They won't have to concern themselves with trying to please advertisers.
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Re: Re: Re: charging for access to articles
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Bored people start rumors!
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Re: Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious
You'll be 35 someday and then we can call you old...and then you'll have to change your name to Bob.
PS. I could use some young kid like you to cut my lawn.
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Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious
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Actually...
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Re: Not necessarily malicious
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old hag
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Pay for Facebook
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Facebook Rumor
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Naive?
Just about everything that is free on the internet has one end goal - to make money. There is no fantastic modern brotherhood of sharing, I am astounded at how many people buy into that.
Some smaller guys and individuals will be able to act with some notion of values and ethics, corporations are simply incapable of doing anything other than exploiting the masses for their own profits, that is their requisite goal and their legal status demands that they do so.
Google is exactly the same, it makes untold fortunes through advertising and selling personal data. It has broken laws in countless countries and got away with it. It is a law unto itself and if one day it decides to start charging for any of its services there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it other than make it uneconomical for them to do so. The direction things are taking mean that the majority will end up in a position where they will pay rather than go through the inconvenience of removing and swapping all their apps etc. that is if we still have any choice of alternatives in ten or twenty years.
The people who head politics and corporate business are always the most two faced double crossing liars to claw, fight and trick their way to the top.
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