Facebook Sign-In Required To Comment At Nation Newspaper

[maidu]

Up until very recently, it was possible to post comments on the Nation newspaper site without glitches. Now it requires signing in, or signing up with Facebook - otherwise, comment cannot get posted. Just another indication of how the tentacles of Facebook are spreading everywhere on the www, and many sites are acquiescing mindlessly.

Facebook is about to have its bazillion dollar IPO, but what investors fail to notice is: Facebook doesn't bring in much money - compared to its value. But now FB is 'too big to fall,' so when the crapola hits the fan, and people realize Facebook is an overvalued paper tiger, the US federal gov't will shovel billions of dollars in to their laps, like they did with Goldman Sachs, AIS, JP Morgan (which hit the headlines this morning for again losing billions of $$s), and all the rest of the badly managed 'too-big-to-fail' money shuffling corporations.

[bendejo]

This has been going on for a while. FB offers password services to many sites, my guess is that this is attractive as they hand over all the membership registry and login security (a true pain in the arse to maintain) to FB. This is the reason I have a FB account: no data about me, none of this friend etc bs, I have no use for it. Firefox has some things you can add to keep FB from tracking you, though I have no idea how well they work. And I would think FB will work on figuring out how to get past these things.

[Guest]

I have put Facebook authentication to few sites, which resulted more registered users as it did simplify the registration process.

People has already authenticated themselves to the Facebook and therefore there is less spam user accounts to the site.

[wana]

i would never enter a site that demanded facebook verification

even on a motorcycle site i visit, now they try 3 times to get you give up your facebook

on the 3rd refresh you can go in and browse as always ,without logging in

but a fake facebook is a good idea

[maidu]

i would never enter a site that demanded facebook verification

even on a motorcycle site i visit, now they try 3 times to get you give up your facebook

on the 3rd refresh you can go in and browse as always ,without logging in

but a fake facebook is a good idea

to me, it's a royal pain in the ass - to have to get sucked in to Facebook in order to comment on other sites. I like the idea of your 'fake facebook' account, though.

Hotmail and AOL are waaaay overvalued due to their profusion of supposed members. Ted Turner found that out the hard way when he bought AOL, and found out a week later if was worth a small fraction of what he paid, because it had so many fake accounts.

[manarak]

of course fake facebook account.

facebook is dangerous.

I see where facebook is going, they will transform into the worldwide center for certification of internet identites - with a push further, they can add official ID checks and also offer digital signature services.

Everyone misbehaving on the net while using their Facebook login will be identifiable and prosecutable - the dream of all the newborn police states.

Thank Buddha this will not happen as long as hackers can prove Facebook is not secure.

Go Hackers!

[bendejo]

I also used the fake FB account to connect with companies, such as airlines, who may have promotions they only announce on FB. I once got a long-distance air ticket ridiculously cheap because I was on an airline's email list, which made me a believer in this sort of thing, though I've yet to be offered anything useful via FB and twitter. A lot of these places that suggest you visit them on FB in their adverts don't have anything but a page with the name of the company, pretty useless. Don't know if it's true, but I've been told a company needs to pay big bucks to use the FB logo in their ads.

Let's not forget how Murdoch paid a load of money for another wonderful piece of cyberspace, MySpace.

[maidu]

Losefacebook.com - that's what I'd like to see. It could have an IPO at $18 share, with a billion shares issued. Bernie Maddoff could be the VP, and Thaksin could add it to his 'Elite Card' membership percs.

If Ms Yingluck used losefacebook, there'd be whitening cream all over her keyboard.

[w11guy]

They should introduce this for ThaiVisa, as it would help stop the stupid anonymous comments. When people have to use their real names they are more careful and considerate about what they post. But of course, you could set up a fake fb page.

To the OP - the government has no need to bail out companies like fb if they are in trouble. So stop whinging. fb makes good money and it's likely to get much bigger. The money-making has only just started. But I think it's overvalued. But that's for the buyers to decide not you. Just short the shares if you think they are very overvalued and you could make a fortune.

[somchai69]

Does anyone use their real name on the internet??

Very foolish, IMHO

[w11guy]

Does anyone use their real name on the internet??

Very foolish, IMHO

Most people use their real names on facebook, linkedin, etc. The sites wouldn't work very well without them. Nothing foolish about it, as it allows you to find people and allows people to find you. What is foolish about it? Even if you use a false name you are pretty easy to trace via ISP, mac address, etc. thi has been proven many times. Yes, it's possible to hide you identity, but are you doing something so bad that you are frightened of people finding out who you are?

[manarak]

Does anyone use their real name on the internet??

Very foolish, IMHO

Most people use their real names on facebook, linkedin, etc. The sites wouldn't work very well without them. Nothing foolish about it, as it allows you to find people and allows people to find you. What is foolish about it? Even if you use a false name you are pretty easy to trace via ISP, mac address, etc. thi has been proven many times. Yes, it's possible to hide you identity, but are you doing something so bad that you are frightened of people finding out who you are?

Only the ISP can identify their customers using a given IP at a given time.

There are enough ways to hide that IP - tunnelling through other machines, gaining access to other networks, etc.

MAC addresses are exclusively available on the LAN - they aren't transmitted outside LANs.

Forcing everyone to use his real identity on internet would be a major hindrance to freedom of speech.

The tyranny of mainstream over shunned or taboo special interests.

Medical_advice.com:

Mr. Example Forexample, 41, from Exampletown writes:

"

Dear Doc, some red points have appeared on my glans - I had unprotected sex with a hooker 3 days ago, can this be an STD? what should I do?

"

Today, anonymity on the internet provides a medium where useful information can be found - if the internet gets un-anonymized, it will be as interesting and as useful as your average TV set.

[bendejo]

Does anyone use their real name on the internet??

Very foolish, IMHO

No shortage of fools out there, in case you haven't noticed.

[w11guy]

Does anyone use their real name on the internet??

Very foolish, IMHO

Most people use their real names on facebook, linkedin, etc. The sites wouldn't work very well without them. Nothing foolish about it, as it allows you to find people and allows people to find you. What is foolish about it? Even if you use a false name you are pretty easy to trace via ISP, mac address, etc. thi has been proven many times. Yes, it's possible to hide you identity, but are you doing something so bad that you are frightened of people finding out who you are?

Only the ISP can identify their customers using a given IP at a given time.

There are enough ways to hide that IP - tunnelling through other machines, gaining access to other networks, etc.

MAC addresses are exclusively available on the LAN - they aren't transmitted outside LANs.

Forcing everyone to use his real identity on internet would be a major hindrance to freedom of speech.

The tyranny of mainstream over shunned or taboo special interests.

Medical_advice.com:

Mr. Example Forexample, 41, from Exampletown writes:

"

Dear Doc, some red points have appeared on my glans - I had unprotected sex with a hooker 3 days ago, can this be an STD? what should I do?

"

Today, anonymity on the internet provides a medium where useful information can be found - if the internet gets un-anonymized, it will be as interesting and as useful as your average TV set.

Nothing wrong with being anonymous for situations like the ones you mentioned. But for things like facebook it's pretty essential if you want to connect with people you know. And for websites that want to cut down on nonsense comments and spam it's also useful. It doesn't affect freedom of speech because you're free to set up your own website if you like. But it's up to the owner of the website what he wants to allow. Why should they put in extra work just because trolls want to spoil everything. trolls don't deserve freedom of speech.

[manarak]

Nothing wrong with being anonymous for situations like the ones you mentioned. But for things like facebook it's pretty essential if you want to connect with people you know. And for websites that want to cut down on nonsense comments and spam it's also useful. It doesn't affect freedom of speech because you're free to set up your own website if you like. But it's up to the owner of the website what he wants to allow. Why should they put in extra work just because trolls want to spoil everything. trolls don't deserve freedom of speech.

Facebook was built for trolls and idiots!

I can "connect with" anyone I know very easily through email and phone.

Facebook is only for showing off and collecting "likes".

[Gary A]

Have you ever tried to delete your account from any of those social networking sites? Email and phone calls suit me just fine. I don't use any of those sites but I still get spam from them.

[maidu]

I just created a fake FB account. The main reason; I like to comment in Nation newspaper (on their articles, editorials, letters, etc), but I don't like it being a requirement that every comment get shuttled to Facebook. If enough people get fake accounts with FB, the mega-site will decline in value (intrinsic, and otherwise), as has happened with Yahoo, Hotmail, MySpace, AOL, and other mega sites which are over-amped.

btw, FB makes 12% of its revenue with some add-on called Zinga, whose feature is Farmville (which I'm not acquainted with, but have heard it's popular in China). Zinga appears to be independent, and if it got bought (by Apple or Google, for example), FB's revenue would conceivably tank by that amount - at least until FB finds another contrived reality game to fill the void. Most of the rest of FB's revenue (roughly a tenth of its valuation), is from selling ads. Let me ask: who even looks at the ads on FB - let alone makes a purchase related to them? Personally, before I read that, I didn't even notice FB had ads, and I doubt I'm alone in automatically blocking them out of view.

P.s. I just logged in to my FB account, and didn't see any ads at all! Maybe it's because I have some sort of 'ad blocker' but it still surprises me. After all, if FB claims bazillion dollars a year from ad revenues, where are the ads which corporations are paying millions for? And if a non-techie like me has ad-blockers, than I presume many FB folks (most of whom are more tech savvy than me) have ad-blockers as a matter of course. So they too, would not see ads, which corporations are paying through the nose to get seen.

It's like 'The Emperor's New Clothes' story. Facebook claims mega-billions in ad revenues, yet most FB users aren't seeing ads on the site, either because the users are blocking them mentally (like all people block the sight of their own nose), or because they're blocking them with software. What's missing from this picture? The Facebook emperor has no clothes, yet Wall Street investors are shouting loudly "King Facebook, what gorgeous clothes you have!!!"

[manarak]

P.s. I just logged in to my FB account, and didn't see any ads at all!

You must be using the world's first computer monitor in Braille.

[maidu]

P.s. I just logged in to my FB account, and didn't see any ads at all!

You must be using the world's first computer monitor in Braille.

witty manarak, but what I assert is true.

[maidu]

General Motors just pulled out of advertising on FB.

[manarak]

P.s. I just logged in to my FB account, and didn't see any ads at all!

You must be using the world's first computer monitor in Braille.

witty manarak, but what I assert is true.

7 ads on my facebook page - right column, "sponsored"

Sometimes I get stuff like "friend X likes Absolut Vodka Thailand" in my feed.

[maidu]

P.s. I just logged in to my FB account, and didn't see any ads at all!

You must be using the world's first computer monitor in Braille.

witty manarak, but what I assert is true.

7 ads on my facebook page - right column, "sponsored"

Sometimes I get stuff like "friend X likes Absolut Vodka Thailand" in my feed.

you got ads, I don't.

[weary]

Neither do I. But what do I know, I am just another one of the trolls and idiots who only use Facebook for showing off and collecting likes.