whatevthrow31

Anything altruistic is going to make them money indirectly through PR. That doesn't mean they shouldn't try to be altruistic.

> Which is not to say it's impossible Facebook could come up with a useful feature that would be helpful to people during a disaster; but "Safety Check" is not that.

The top post on this thread is literally someone saying that this feature is the only reason they have kept their account.

Can it be improved? Absolutely. But to say it's not useful in its current form is absurd.

Is there anything Facebook could do at this point that wouldn't make you think this?

Just because someone's making money off of something doesn't mean it's inherently bad.

Updated my original post to include my former employment.

It's just a habit of mine to make a throwaway for anything potentially controversial. It really wouldn't be too big if a deal if my identity was connected to any of my throwaways. It just makes me feel safer.

I'll be honest and say that I'm a former Facebook employee. Probably should have disclosed that originally, but I think it gives even more credit to my Hanlon's razor statement.

It's just safer/easier to use a throwaway. I have these opinions in real life, but I try not to be too controversial in writing.

I've been at both companies. I highly doubt HN is filled with Google employees bashing Facebook.

Ok, I had to make a throwaway for this because apparently its a heated debate.

Why does everything Facebook do have to be so heavily criticized?

Safety Check is a wonderful feature. If I remember correctly, it started off as an internal hackathon project that got turned into a full feature. They get shit if they turn it on (here), and if they don't turn it on (past tragedies where they failed to turn it on).

Why does everything Facebook do turn into a riot? After years in the industry, 95% of things that are "bad" that come out of big companies end up being well meaning and just look malicious without context. Hanlon's razor is real.

Yeah, Facebook has to fund all this somehow. Yeah, they are going to make their ad space extremely valuable with all the information they have. They don't sell your raw data. They sell access to you like the rest of the industry.

Those creepy ads that you saw based on some conversation you had? Turns out that they're NOT listening to your mic or whatever. It's either confirmation bias or something you're not thinking about.

Those friends that they suggest with a new account? Turns out your friends posted pictures of you on Facebook, and Facebook knows how to do facial recognition.

It feels like everything Facebook is overblown on HN. What am I missing?

Edit: I should have said this originally, but I'm a former Facebook employee, now at another big tech company. I try not to be too controversial in writing, which is why I made a throwaway.