Jason Calacanis - I’m deleting my Facebook page
Reposted from Jason’s E-Mail Newsletter:
1 year agoDate: May 19th 2010
JasonNation Members: 23,286 emails strong
Location: Mahalo HQ, Santa Monica
Republishing: Republish anywhere (with header/footer)
Subscribe/Unsub: www.jasonnation.com
Some exciting news: http://tcrn.ch/bR35Xu============================
JNation,
I’ve decided that this Friday at 1 pm Pacific, I will broadcast the deletion of my Facebook page live on the Internet. (Watch it here: http://bit.ly/bATQjU)
Simply put, I no longer trust Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg with my information.
Additionally, Facebook has become a waste of time for me. Every minute I put into Facebook is a minute I will never get back. It’s time I could have spent writing one of these emails to you guys, finding new startups to invest in, working on Mahalo.com (almost profitable!) or spending time with my family.
Facebook is a Ponzi scheme run by a very bad actor. The best way to express our discontent with Mark Zuckerberg is to simply walk away.
We trusted Zuckerberg with our personal information and he has abused that trust over and over again. He won’t even come forward and discuss the issue with anyone in the industry—including his own users! c Question: What kind of CEO gets slammed like Zuckerberg has in the last week and doesn’t make themselves available to discuss the issue with the press or users?
Answer: A guilty one.
You call this a gift?
================
In a final insult, Facebook lackey Tim Sparapani said this week: “The flip side of this privacy story… is that we have customized and individualized every single website out there for people, if they choose to have it. That’s an extraordinary gift to the public.”
Really?
Did I sign up for Facebook and give you my personal information so you could give it to third parties WITHOUT my permission? Uhhh…. no.
We signed up with Facebook to share photos and updates with our friends and families. You duped and double-crossed us by giving your partners our private information so you could begin your world domination plans one Javascript include at a time.
Essentially, Facebook is reselling our data in order to get websites to add the “Like” button. It may not be a cash transaction yet, but it is clearly quid pro quo. If you want to give the world a gift, how about letting us export our own data?
Question: If you don’t allow users to export their own data, but you do allow your partners to suck it down instantly—and for all time—what does that say about your intent?
Answer: It says your intent is bad.
NOTE: Hey Sparapani, the super savvy Danny Sullivan F.C.Y.A. (look it up!): Facebook did not create the personalized web (http://bit.ly/9hZQop).
Facebook alternatives
====================
If you’re tired of Facebook’s games, I suggest that you use the following services: Twitter.com for Updates, Flickr.com for Photo Sharing and Geni.com for your family tree. Those three services are much better for their individual functions (updates, photos and family connections) than Facebook!
That leaves casual games, the only piece for which I don’t have a really good recommendation (besides getting a sick iPad and playing WeRule!)
Zynga, makers of Mafia Wars and Farmville, knows they can’t trust Zuckerberg and they going to have all their games off-site this year. Sure they signed a five-year pack with Facebook this week, but that must have been driven by Facebook desperate not to lose them. My guess is Pincus got them to take only 10% of the virtual currency avalanche, in exchange for their blessing on Facebook’s standard 30% rake.
Zynga will also start a social gaming network, basically Facebook without the photo sharing, later this year I’m sure. Pincus is way to smart to get Zuckerpunched.
If only Evan Williams would step up and have the Twitter team build (private) groups, photo hosting, video hosting and support for Zynga’s games, we would actually have a place to move to.
Twitter needs to create a viable alternative to Facebook this year. Twitter has a leader you can trust; Facebook does not. You can do it Twitter…. Step up!
Three ways to “leave” Facebook
====================
If you’re going to join me (and folks like Leo Laporte and Peter Rojas) in leaving Facebook, please consider recording yourself doing so. Post that video to YouTube saying “I deleted/deactivated my Facebook page!”
As we’ve discussed, there are better services for you to use from companies you can trust.
I suggest doing one of three things below with your Facebook account after you back it up.
[ Note: Before taking these steps, I suggest downloading your photos manually and/or trying Backupify’s beta Facebook backup service—which is free. www.backupify.com. I’m an angel investor in this amazing company.]
- Just stop using Facebook: Don’t log in, don’t republish your tweets to Facebook and don’t update your status. Turn off all your photos. This is a basic step that will also get you a lot time back for the rest of your life. Try NOT logging into Facebook for three days and see how much better your life is—I’m sure it will be! Take your “Facebook time” and use it to actually ask a friend or family member how they are doing. Take the dog or your kids (or yourself!) for a walk.
The fact is, Facebook sends only a dozen folks to a link when I post it. Compare that to hundreds to thousands of people clicking through on Twitter (on a CTR basis Twitter is 10-20x Facebook!). Also, the content on Twitter it typically valuable to me. The content on Facebook tends to be “I’m playing this game” or someone “liking” something inane. Get off Facebook and do something more productive. Nothing important happens on Facebook—nothing.
Deactivate your account: This renders your account dormant, but you can still log in at any time and “wake it up” again. Bear in mind, your information is still stored on Facebook. They still have your data. Having said that, there is no harm in trying this either… Deactivate for the rest of the month and see what June 1st feels like after you wean yourself off the Facebook crack. Just two or three clicks and you can do it: http://www.facebook.com/deactivate.php
Delete your account: This deletes everything from Facebook—though I’m not sure it removes your data from their partners sites and I’m not sure how long they keep your data on backup drives. I’m hearing conflicting reports, so if you know (or work inside Facebook and have 411), please ship it in confidence to me! If you’re done with Facebook, don’t delay. Just do it! Those friends from high school will Google you and find your Twitter account if it’s at all important. :-) http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
Conclusion
===========
I don’t think Facebook is going away, but if they see 100 people turn their accounts off every day, then 1,000, then some day 10,000, they are going to start taking the issue more seriously. Good people of the Internet should stand up for what is right and send a clear message to Facebook: we don’t trust you, so we can’t participate in your service.
Questions: 1. Does Facebook provide any value to you? 2. Can Twitter or Zynga become viable alternatives to Facebook? 3. Are you considering leaving Facebook? 4. Rank, in order, the most loathsome companies and why: Goldman Sachs, Facebook, BP Oil. 5. I will be in New York City next week for TechCrunch Disrupt. See you there!
Best regards,
Jason
Some housekeeping:
Mahalo is looking for developers! We use cutting-edge technologies like Cassandra and Django, but you don’t have to have worked with those before to join our team. Nope, we hire people based on how we think they will “fit our culture.” Our culture is one of hard work, dedication, resourcefulness, resiliency and is filled with positive and quixotic individuals. You will not survive in a company like this unless you are absurdly hard working, but if you are you will immediately be given a ton of responsibility. You’ll also get to work in a pure meritocracy, where people rise and fall with their contribution—not their age or ability to suck up to the boss. We love hiring folks outside of Los Angeles and bringing them to live in Santa Monica. So, if you want to work for the next three or four years at Mahalo and crush it send me your resume and cover letter. If you would like to take it easy, phone it in and not get taken out of your comfort zone send me your resume and I will forward it to a BDC (big dumb company). :-)
The Open Angel Forum is booming! We’re coming to Boston in June, and London and Seattle shortly after that. If you know of any angel investors in these cities send them to krute@openangelforum.com. Details at www.openangelforum.com.
TechCrunch50 is, sadly, not happening this year. However, as the creator of TechCrunch50 I will be marching on and launching 50 companies over two days in early 2011. Please bookmark www.thelaunchconference.com for more details.
We just had the CEO of Groupon, Andrew Mason, on This Week in Startups. He was great! http://thisweekin.com/announcements/twist-52-with-andrew-mason/
I will be at the Wall Street Journal’s amazing D Conference for the fifth year in a row—and three years after launching Mahalo! Looking forward to seeing everyone there and sharing some big news. :-)
Having done eight angel investments this year I’m only going to do two more I think. Those startups will, most-likely, come in through the Open Angel Forum. The best way to pitch me on an idea is to submit your company to OAF or send me a link to your product. I don’t invest in products that are not built already (why would you when you can invest in products that have been built is my thinking).
I’m working on the book proposal after getting a bunch of interesting offers. What would you want to hear about if I did a book?
If you are interested in pitching a show for ThisWeekIn.com please send it to TWI’s creative director Lon Harris at lon@mahalo.com. I don’t have any day-to-day involvement in the company. Feel free to cc me of course.
Jason McCabe Calacanis 902 Colorado Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401 jason@calacanis.com www.twitter.com/jason www.blippy.com/jason
jasons-list mailing list jasons-list@jasonnation.com http://jasonnation.com/mailman/listinfo/jasons-list
