malloreon (u/malloreon)

malloreon commented on Facebook Unceremoniously Kills Off 'Oculus' Brand techcrunch.com/2021/10/28... · Posted by u/Factorium

UnpossibleJim · 4 years ago

Not every person is smart in every way. Some people are very good at reading technology, some are very good at reading the motivation of other people. It could be that Carmack mistook Zuckerberg's intentions with Oculous and believed him on the handshake promise (I'm giving a lot of grace to Carmack... it's hard to see people you respected fall by the wayside).

malloreon · 4 years ago

Unless Carmack doesn’t have the ability to quit, he’s choosing to continue working for Zuck every day.

As is every other fb employee.

malloreon commented on Meta: A Social Technology Company about.fb.com/news/2021/10... · Posted by u/sturza

dont__panic · 4 years ago

Meta (previously Facebook) is the ultimate social manipulator.

Your site is losing popularity to a new social media app for phones? Buy that app. Make it basically the same as your version of social media.

Your previously purchased app is losing popularity to an app devoted to ephemeral videos and pictures? Shamelessly copy that app's functionality in every app you own, and even make an exact duplicate app to commodify that feature. Run the competitor into the ground when they refuse to sell to you.

Your collection of almost-the-same-social-media-sites is threatened by a foreign competitor? Lobby for that foreign competitor to be banned from one of the largest single-country markets in the world. That doesn't work? Spread FUD about the foreign competitor's evil. That's doesn't work? Lobby for intense regulation in the social media space to prevent any competitor from ever showing up again.

A series of scandals, leaks, and general scummy profit-seeking behaviour sullies your name even among tech illiterate folks? Change your name so those people can't keep track of what's going on and launder your reputation.

I can't stand Meta. I think Zuckerburg might just be the antichrist (mostly kidding on this one). But I have to hand it to him: he is very savvy at this whole business thing.

malloreon · 4 years ago

Spare some disdain for the people who choose to work for him.

They deserve it: they commit the evil for far smaller a payoff.

malloreon commented on Facebook Renames to Meta about.facebook.com/meta/... · Posted by u/TiredOfLife

malloreon · 4 years ago

I wonder if facebook employees really think they paper over the harm they do each day by renaming their company.

if you call it something else does it still hurt people?

malloreon commented on Employees pleaded with Facebook to stop letting politicians bend rules ft.com/content/67ad6eda-e... · Posted by u/belter

malloreon · 4 years ago

Can’t read the article, but did they quit the company when their pleas didn’t work?

If not, they changed their opinion and now support/accept their employer’s decision or decided the issue wasn’t that important.

malloreon commented on Facebook chooses profits over people peoplesworld.org/article/... · Posted by u/xojoc

ACS_Solver · 4 years ago

I would even say it's simpler, and the problem is Mark Zuckerberg specifically. He's deeply immoral, and continues to do what Facebook does for power and money. I understand, on some level, the excitement - he's a computer nerd who came to control an organization that is more powerful than the majority of the world's countries. Zuckerberg controls the platform that is the primary means of communication for hundreds of millions of people, and in terms of power he's almost on the level of G7 leaders, just not accountable to anyone.

Ethically, however, Zuckerberg seems to be on the level of murderous dictators, or human traffickers, or others that are among the very worst. I think he's willingly inflicted huge damage on modern Western society, and has certainly been the most harmful user of Internet technology.

Facebook as a whole is just a reflection of Zuckerberg's values and policies, which is not surprising for a company that's ruled by one person (as in CEO and sole majority voter). It's also not surprising that a company does unethical stuff to increase profits (and we have enough examples from Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Google, just about anyone), but I've firmly come to believe that Facebook is in a category of its own.

malloreon · 4 years ago

45,000 fb employees choose every day to work for him. The responsibility for what fb is is just as much theirs.

If they didn’t agree with fb’s actions they’d leave.

malloreon commented on Netflix's new player breaks the ability to modify the seeking of a playing video plopdown.video/blog/netfl... · Posted by u/spaceribs

wpietri · 4 years ago

This points at a huge problem in software culture. A lot of us don't see ourselves as professionals, with our own ethical standards and responsibilities. We just do whatever a boss orders us to do, like minions or mercenaries.

It's also an organizational problem, though. If you're, say, a doctor or an actual engineer, there are professional organizations that stand up for the professional standards and that can have your back if you're being asked to violate them.

This is especially disappointing to me given the demand for software developers. It's much easier for us to find news jobs than most people, so the risk of taking an ethical stand is much lower for us than most people. And we also have a lot to gain! So many places are poorly run that businesses and developers would all gain if we used our power to fix process and organizational issues.

I've certainly done my best to use that power well. But I would love to see cultural and organizational changes so that more of us do that.

malloreon · 4 years ago

100% true.

If a software engineer writes software that hurts people, they believe in hurting people and believe people should be hurt.

If they didn’t, they wouldn’t write software that hurts people.

The impressive amount of freedom tech workers have to choose what they work on means the ethical and moral issues with their production should fall on each person’s shoulders, but it doesn’t.

malloreon commented on Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it wsj.com/articles/facebook... · Posted by u/mudil

malloreon · 4 years ago

FB is what it is because 45,000 employees work hard daily to make it that way.

if they weren't satisfied with how it works or what it does, they'd fix it or they'd leave. every day they continue to work there without changing direction, they vote with their time that FB is doing what it ought to be doing.

all of the responsibility for FB's effects on the world belongs to them.

malloreon commented on What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week blog.immersed.team/workin... · Posted by u/eflowers

malloreon · 4 years ago

I'd like to try this if there was an option to do so without giving Facebook money.