Liberty.me and Facebook

Science & Technology: Internet

Winter Trabex May 17, 2014 at 8:10 am

So I’ve been around Liberty.me for about a day now. The difference here from facebook is staggering. Really just amazingly different.

Facebook always has negative posts, with only a few exceptions. I have to dig through my news feed (which I always need to manually reset to “newest stories”) in order to find something uplifting. Usually, it’s RT bitching about something in America or Occupy Canada bitching about Stephen Harper or one of my friends bitching about what’s happening in their lives. There’s really just a lot of bitching on facebook.

Not so on Liberty.me. Unlike facebook, I don’t have to be friends with someone to read what they have to say. This is not a consumer culture here where I am constantly bombarded by advertising I don’t care about. That’s why I’m willing to dig out 14 dollars a month- I would much rather pay up front for a site than let the advertisers threaten to take away revenue if they don’t like what’s going on.

Did I mention the big chat rooms? You can chat with anybody at any time. Not so with facebook, where you have to go out of your way to join a group in order to chat with everyone at once. Even then, the members of the group might not be online all at once. With liberty.me, you can talk to anyone on the site at any time. It really is quite brilliant.

Also, the best part: everyone is so nice here. I have yet to meet a person who automatically disagrees with something I said just because I posted it in a public forum. That seems to be the way of it on facebook. As soon as I post a contrary opinion, people come out of the woodwork to smash it all down. I sometimes wonder whether there aren’t government agents trolling about facebook looking to derail conversations from going a certain way. I’ve heard about such things happening on open forums.

So I guess, if I had to summarize, I’m really happy this place is here. The only reason I still have my facebook account is to keep in touch with my friends in different areas of the world. If they all came here, I would just close it and leave the NSA data mining behind.

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Matthew Murray May 17, 2014 at 11:05 am

It took me a few days to warm up to Liberty.me, but now I’m liking it more and more, for all the reasons you said. The “pay wall” means that you get more serious people, which I like it. Unfortunately, at least right now, it also means you get fewer people, and I think Liberty.me will be even better as more people (including a handful of my liberty-loving friends) join and contribute. But, yeah, Facebook has been a trial for quite a while now–but, unfortunately, one I kind of have to endure because of (a) my work and (b) how many people I know there.

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Propertea May 17, 2014 at 11:14 am

The quality I enjoy most about Liberty.me is the fact that I am treated like a customer. Facebook’s income comes from advertisement clicks so they fine tune the service to be good at advertising. The social features are just there to get people involved enough that facebook has enough of a userbase and enough information to effectively sell advertising. In contrast, here I am a customer. The whole Liberty.me team has worked hard to provide: attractive blogging service, classes, guides, chat, and a network of libertarians to talk with. I used to get really annoyed whenever I heard the term “social network” because I knew it would be a service with a social network shell, but advertising core.

Not that I am against advertising, but I receive so much advertising now that I take active measures to block it. If someone offers a decent alternative to an advertising services, then I take it.

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Jeffrey Tucker May 17, 2014 at 12:49 pm

Yippee! Love this thread. Happy happy to read this. This was the whole point! We are getting there thanks to you. And membership has grown fast even without big marketing efforts.

I tell you, this whole platform came along just in time for all of us, and I’m including myself here. The task before us is too great to waste time wrangling and factionalizing.

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  Winter Trabex May 17, 2014 at 1:20 pm
  
  Maybe you see something I don’t? I’ve never really felt a part of one faction or another. I just want to give people hugs. 🙂
  
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  Andrew Walker May 17, 2014 at 3:04 pm
  
  So true on the factionalizing — I haven’t been involved in the movement that much over the last couple of years because at times it’s seemed like that’s all we’re doing. Facebook has been pretty bad in that regard — sometimes it feels like I’m just watching the People’s Front of Judea scream at the Judean People’s Front in real time. Pretty sad, because we are a large and growing movement now, not a squabbling bunch of little Trotskyist grouplets. I haven’t noticed any of this sectarianism on liberty.me yet (of course, I’ve only been here for 24 hours so maybe I just haven’t found the circular firing squad yet!) — so refreshing so far!
  
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Dave Burns May 18, 2014 at 2:25 am

I hope the L.me team is up to the challenge of keeping the culture as creative and positive as it has been so far. (I am including us subscribers when I say “team.”) Many other Internet phenomena were spectacular during beta, but then grew too fast and the culture became more hostile, more like a bunch of strangers. The Well is the classic example. Here’s hoping the paywall keeps out the trolls.
Maybe I am being too negative, but I don’t want people to take things for granted.

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  Rick Rule May 18, 2014 at 3:15 am
  
  Great thread. Remember, we are the customers, we own this place in a very fundamental way. Let the management know what you like and dislike to be sure, but this is our community, and we have a role in making it better.
  
  It would appear we all like it civil, so lets stay civil, and gently try to keep others civil. If there is a discussion missing, start it up!
  
  AS to this dispute about thick or thin libertarians, I got on the scale yesterday, 4K overweight, so I guess that makes me a thick libertarian, right? But I’m here at a ” fat farm” striving to be a thin libertarian. I hope both sides allow me to visit, irrespective of the outcome.
  
  Cheers, Rick
  
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  Tiffany Madison May 19, 2014 at 1:44 pm
  
  We definitely are up to the challenge! Keep the feedback coming. 🙂
  
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David Montgomery May 19, 2014 at 2:59 am

Ha! Very punny!

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