Comments on: Democracy Theatre on Facebook http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/03/29/commentary-on-facebooks-terms-of-service/ Security Research, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:31:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joseph Bonneau http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/03/29/commentary-on-facebooks-terms-of-service/comment-page-1/#comment-30941 Joseph Bonneau Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:23:55 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/?p=758#comment-30941 Marvin, I agree with your comments in that Facebook is a private company and can, and possibly are better off, running as a dictatorship. I have no problem with that. Our main point though is that they are falsely using democratic pretenses to cover this up. That's the part we are objecting too strongly. Marvin,

I agree with your comments in that Facebook is a private company and can, and possibly are better off, running as a dictatorship. I have no problem with that.

Our main point though is that they are falsely using democratic pretenses to cover this up. That’s the part we are objecting too strongly.

]]> By: marvin http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/03/29/commentary-on-facebooks-terms-of-service/comment-page-1/#comment-30940 marvin Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:14:21 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/?p=758#comment-30940 This is not really surprising, as Facebook's CEO has been quoted saying that "the most disruptive companies don't listen to their customers", and even implying that companies who do are stupid. http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2009/03/21/FacebookStreamRedesignDisruptiveCompaniesDontListenToTheirCustomersMarkZuckerburg.aspx And mostly I agree with him. People are extremely resistant to change, and software designed by committee or voting will end up including all possible features and will not take any radical steps to improve it's mental model or user interface. At the very least, there need to be designers and business analysts filtering and unifying the proposals. Furthermore, Facebook is not a democratic country, it's a for-profit business project of one company. Users are unlikely to vote for changes that can turn make it more profitable but change the way FB works, even if the change is not too disruptive after all. http://scobleizer.com/2009/03/21/why-facebook-has-never-listened-and-why-it-definitely-wont-start-now/ This is not really surprising, as Facebook’s CEO has been quoted saying that “the most disruptive companies don’t listen to their customers”, and even implying that companies who do are stupid.

http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2009/03/21/FacebookStreamRedesignDisruptiveCompaniesDontListenToTheirCustomersMarkZuckerburg.aspx

And mostly I agree with him. People are extremely resistant to change, and software designed by committee or voting will end up including all possible features and will not take any radical steps to improve it’s mental model or user interface. At the very least, there need to be designers and business analysts filtering and unifying the proposals.

Furthermore, Facebook is not a democratic country, it’s a for-profit business project of one company. Users are unlikely to vote for changes that can turn make it more profitable but change the way FB works, even if the change is not too disruptive after all.

http://scobleizer.com/2009/03/21/why-facebook-has-never-listened-and-why-it-definitely-wont-start-now/

]]>