Answers.com Now Only With Facebook and Own Login 127
CptnHarlock writes "Today the registered users of Answers.com received an email informing them that the site has ended support for Yahoo, Twitter, Google, or LinkedIn as a way to sign into their site. Facebook is the sole external way left to log in. A local login and password were generated and sent by email and the old (non-Facebook) logins deactivated. Score another one for Facebook.com in the login consolidation wars."
Reeeaaal smart (Score:5, Informative)
The only reason I can imagine sites are doing this is very short-term thinking. When you make Facebook your only way to log in, you make yourself dependent on Facebook, which let's not forget, could fall out of favor just as quickly as Myspace, or Geocities before that.
It's a precedent that other sites should be afraid to set at all. They should be avoiding centralized login services like the plague. The current system is the best, where the only point of centralization is an email address, because email is 100% free and open (for now, although port 25 blocking and spam blocklist maintainers are threatening that)
Re:Reeeaaal smart (Score:4, Insightful)
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No, the reason is money. Facebook gives them cash, they do stupid things in exchange. Facebook then hopes to get more information to sell, I mean more users.
Wouldn't be a bad idea of FB put some of that money into improving their crappy interface. I hate using the site. Only post occasionally because my stress level goes up each time I use it.
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Re:Reeeaaal smart (Score:5, Informative)
Except having worked with things like this, i know that facebook does no such thing. Facebook gives you nothing at all in return for using their services. The upside is that your content gets out, and shared on facebook....which drives users to your site. I'm sure facebook mines that data for all kinds of fun things though.
-RV
how to maintain multiple facebook accounts (Score:2)
IS there any way to have hundreds of facebook accounts? I'd be fine with using facebook as a universal ID system if I can also maintain different logins of different sites rather than linking them all to one facebook ID. I don't actually use face book-- indeed I detest it, but that's another story.
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Except having worked with things like this, i know that facebook does no such thing.
"Worked" in what capacity? Do you have an insiders view of the business deals that goes on in Facebook, as in do you actually work for Facebook?
Facebook gives you nothing at all in return for using their services.
Then why would it benefit Answers.com to exclusively rely on Facebook? Such exclusivity is often driven by bribes, err, business relationships.
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The (sizable) company that I work (on the development team) for implements the facebook login & commenting systems. It's a free service facebook offers to anyone who wants to use it. You get $0 from facebook for using it.
The reason THEY want to only use it is the same reason WE only use it. Maintaining 6 points of entry and keeping up with changing apis for multiple networks is a huge pain. Best to pick the one with the widest possible audience and just maintain that one. Facebook's api and customer fac
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No, the reason is money. Facebook gives them cash, they do stupid things in exchange. Facebook then hopes to get more information to sell, I mean more users.
No, it's not. The reason is conversion rate. (Full stop)
The only reason there is for a site owner to implement facebook login is a high conversion rate from guests to logged in users.
The user just does one click and milliseconds later has given up all his personal data to the site he just autoregistered for.
by doing conventional logins small portal admins get around 80% less registrations and the quality of the data they get of the users is much lower.
Facebook login is tailored for identity retrieval which
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The user just does one click and milliseconds later has given up all his personal data to the site he just autoregistered for.
Only the personal data you supplied to FB in the first place. Don't give it to FB, no one else gets it either. And if it's "required", just fudge it. Can't remember if my b-day was a required, but if it was I certainly didn't give them the real one. Same for just about every other shred of info on that site: it's either inconsequential (like a "throwaway" email addy) or falsified. And to any responses that say "it's against their TOS", well then call my honeybadger, cuz I just don't give a sh*t.
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Facebook is far more entrenched in a more diverse population than MySpace or Geocities every were. It will likely be a while before it is replaced - longer than the terms of this contract at least.
Re:Reeeaaal smart (Score:5, Insightful)
That being said, as long as they have their own login too, that's cool....I'd just use that.
But, if I site goes FB logon only, that'll be the end of my use of it. I'd have a hard time thinking any site would limit themselves to only FB members....while FB does indeed have a huge membership, they aren't 100%....and as a business owner, I'd not like to risk losing anyone as a potential customer.
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I do have a FB account, but I do not, and never will, use it as a unified login service. I keep it as disconnected from my activities as possible (blocking FB servers when I don't want to talk with them, etc.) Facebook is not to be trusted.
If a site goes purely to using FB login, that will be the end of my use of the site as well.
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> (blocking FB servers when I don't want to talk with them, etc.)
Speaking of blocking Fecesbook, here are a few entries for your firewall. I ran nslookups on the following...
66.220.144.0/20 fbcdn.net
69.63.176.0/20 facebook.com
69.171.224.0/19 facebook.com
200.58.112.0/20 opengraph.net
213.155.64.0/19 opengraphprotocol.net
Anybody got more ranges? The first 3 entries are on AS 32934. I was going to post more detailed output at the end, but I ran into Slashdot's "lame filter".
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To be fair Geocities was on the same scale as facebook at one point (for people who did use the net not in general society). And they could have stayed around a lot longer but they died due to how they handled their community. if Facebook started charging $ per post and a monthly login fee i'm sure it would die extremely quickly.
yes Geocities did have some ad revenue - but companies where not paying for web marketing at the time and the potential funds to tap into for that was much smaller relative to us
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Geocities maybe had a similar market percentage to Facebook. But it never, never, had anything like the same scale. Facebook has over 750 million registered users. Geocities had a max of maybe 175 million yearly unique visitors.
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market % yes and scale yes..
if you look at the number of users vs the possible pool + the tech available then and now and the size of the companies.. yea they where the same scale then as face book is now..
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Market share, percent of pool, call it what you will - it's a bucket of bollocks.
Revenue largely depends on absolute numbers, and 1% of nearly-everybody-including-corporate-twats-and-grannies is considerably more than 1.5% of academics, dweebs and geeks.
Which is roughly GP's point, I think.
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both can be measured by the number of people who had access to it.
more people have access to the net today than they did 15-20 years ago and there fore facebook has a larger pool of potential users than geocities.
both are on the same scale and can be compared when you think of them as user base as a % of possible user base.
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I assume you mean the other Bugmenot that doesn't respond to takedown requests, because Facebook is blocked from bugmenot.com
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Well there is an other bugmenot...check the smelly vegetable network ;)
Re:Reeeaaal smart (Score:5, Informative)
Answers.com did NOT make Facebook the only way to log in. They are eliminating support for three centralized login services, which should make you happy. They probably kept Facebook because too many people would have complained. However, the only thing you need to maintain an account on Answers.com is an e-mail address, which should also make you happy.
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If they got rid of all their social network logins I would be happy, but the fact that they whittled it down to email and Facebook tells me they see those two as being the most important, as if they're in the same league. Why was Facebook more important than all the others that were ditched?
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Because more people use it, duh. This isn't rocket surgery.
Nor is it brain science.
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Answers.com did NOT make Facebook the only way to log in. They are eliminating support for three centralized login services, which should make you happy. They probably kept Facebook because too many people would have complained. However, the only thing you need to maintain an account on Answers.com is an e-mail address, which should also make you happy.
I can suggest a very simple strategic reason for this change. If you look on their front page, the questions and answers tend not to be businessy. So they don't want your LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google graph. They'd much rather you OAuth-orise them to access your personal social graph instead. This change corrals those users who are willing to use a social network log-in into using their Facebook one.
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OpenID > email. It's 100% free and open too, and it doesn't force you to have a different password for every site - you can even login with a personal certificate on your OpenID provider.
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Not to mention I don't have a Facebook account and don't plan to get one. You've just told me, and probably many others, "Thanks, but no thanks. We don't want your contributions."
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Oh noes! (Score:5, Funny)
A crappy scraper site that republishes Wikipedia's content will no longer allow me to use an account I don't have from a provider I don't use!
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Haha true XD
Someone sent me a survey they were doing as part of a school project recently, on social networks. I couldn't fill it out because I don't use any social networks at all. Basically the minimum level of social network activity that the survey assumed was possible was occasional Facebook use. It gave you the option to say that you didn't use G+, Twitter, etc at all, but it was assumed that you at least occasionally used Facebook.
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Slashdot has enemies, friends, and whatnot, journalling, update notices,etc. To quote John Bender
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About the only thing that you can do as a logged in Slashdot user that you can't as an Anonymous Coward is get automatic notifications of replies to your posts.
Well, and accumulate karma.
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Wikipedia has a problem (Score:2)
republishes Wikipedia's content
Which in a few cases [xkcd.com] can be a good thing.
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Not quite "scraper". Honest Jimbo Wales sells them wikipedia content: i.e. flogs them other people's work for profit. Just one of the many dubious ways Jimbo cashes in on wikipedia.
It's a content farm (Score:5, Insightful)
Answers.com is an ad-heavy content farm. Why would anyone want a login there?
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People play FarmVille, for cricket's sake (Score:2)
Wikipedia is a game (Score:2)
You don't see any difference between games and informational sites?
I'm not the only person who doesn't [wikipedia.org].
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What Ads? (Score:1)
One would have thought that the majority of readers would have long since blocked ads. I block everything, and I do mean everything. Between my hosts file, Firefox add-ons and about:config, I see nothing but a clean Internet. Ads used to be just annoying, but now they track you, especially Flash-based ads. So I just cannot risk it. I already pay to use the Internet. I'm not paying with my privacy.
If you are on Linux you can still use Flash without it tracking you, as nothing escapes the event horizon of /de
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Oh, is it that bad?
What does it take to support Google, Yahoo et al? (Score:2)
Is there a [real dollar] cost? I would like to know.
Pose this question on.... (Score:1)
.... Answer.com ;)
another one on the list (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, so answers.com goes on the list of sites I will continue to not use.
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Pretty much.
I don't see a reason to get into social networking. Taking away some forums because they now require social networking isn't going to change my mind. If anything, it'll help me get over this Internet addiction faster.
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Continue to not use... gosh, you couldn't pull your punches or anything? Talk about kicking somebody when they're down, that's just overboard! They'll be devastated!
This is what passes for +5 insightful these days. Awesome.
Race to the bottom? (Score:2)
Given that most network assets registered under facebook and related domains resolve to 0.0.0.0 on my network, this would seem like a counterproductive strategy.
In other words, making your site dependent on the availability of a function offered by facebook is not a good business strategy - more of a lousy exit strategy. Oh well, answers.com belongs in the bin anyway.
No Love (Score:1)
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Your comments were a bit harsh RE not having friends. Not having a FB account means nothing. Some people don't see or feel the need to have one despite having any number of friends. After all, there is no expectation that one ever have a FB account. It's a choice like eating at one restaurant over another. IMHO, FB is a sheeple farm, plain and simple. I'd much rather hang out with friends over cigars and wine, not virtually. I also rather despise the lack of privacy one has using FB, regardless of settings. Social networking has set the bar for a more transparent society, Not everyone likes this. I rather like my privacy, actually, and if and when I choose to share it should be on my express and sole terms.
Perhaps, but cigars and wine might speak more than no friends.
Look, my point is... the 99% have friends and/or family on
Facebook, it has fully permeated the U.S.
By swearing off Facebook you are saying you have
neither friends nor family on Facebook (at least neither
that you care enough to join for).
I find that hard to believe. See, I'm sticking up for you
there. But if any of your 'real life friends' look down
upon you for being on Facebook... well, that kinda
goes back to my original statement.
Maybe you are s
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I've lived in three different countries and have friends I've lost touch with
in all of them and would welcome word from. Doesn't mean I want to jump
on every social media service.
My distaste about Facebook is not lack of friends, but Facebook ethics,
policy, terms of service or lack there of and the simple fact that I don't
need to be connected 24 / 7 to some site gathering data on me to sell
to a highest bidder. I have several domains, email, blog, web site, cell
phone, land line, hosted server, file server, tw
Facebook the only EXTERNAL method to register (Score:4, Informative)
It may be interesting... (Score:2)
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Is there some reason you don't support OpenID?
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Let's not overhype what's occurring here.
You must be new here.
well, damnit (Score:2)
now i have to use that site with zero logins instead of my usual zero.
$$$$$'s (Score:2)
well one site I will not be going to (Score:2)
Misleading summary (Score:2, Insightful)
The summary states that all non-Facebook logins have been deactivated.
That is not true. One does not need a Facebook account to log into Answers.com.
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Re:Misleading summary (Score:4, Funny)
They read it--they just didn't understand it.
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I'm disappointed that seemingly most Slashdotters couldn't even be bothered to read the article HEADLINE, let alone the summary or, god forbid, the article itself.
The title for the tab I have open for this page is "Answers.com Now Only With Facebook a..."
Maybe they just read that and are making up their own words to finish the title. Although (particuarly in this case) reading half a headline isn't much better than not reading the headline at all...
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Sure it says that if you rip half a sentence out of context.
I really don't see anything misleading in the summary if you actually, uhh, read it.
What fools modded this up?
...I can't see why this is a good move. (Score:2)
generated logins???? (Score:2)
A local login and password were generated and sent by email and the old (non-Facebook) logins deactivated.
So... without asking users they went through the trouble of handing all personal data required to create a Facebook profile and email the new Facebook profile login info to those users? Is this what happened?
Do I have to join Facebook to get an answer to that?
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Never mind i guess they created an Answer.com login.
Therefore no more answers.com for me (Score:2)
This spammy site gets used? (Score:1)
666 (Score:2)
I'm beginning to think Facebook is the mark of the beast.
This really sucks (Score:2)
I have a Facebook account that I *only* use to allow old friends to locate me. I never stay logged in on my account. But, I also like answering programming questions from newbies as a bit of a pay it forward effort. No way will I leave my Facebook account logged in for this crap. I foresee this decision being reversed pretty quickly...unless Facebook dropped some insane amount of cash on them.
Facebook Shmasebook... (Score:2)
I hate this (Score:1)
Nowadays with things like OpenId and Disqus, it's very easy for a site to allow users to customize what provider they go through for a login. Restrictions like this seem just plain silly.
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What about dummy accounts? (Score:2)
This is exactly how monopolies are made... (Score:2)
When I bought my first computer in the summer of 1978, an Apple ][+, I had several other makes to choose from, each running their own OS and offering their own peripheral device cards. When IBM released their "PC" they included a disk operating system (DOS) which was a subset of Unix. There were several versions of DOS but the best one was DRDOS. Eventually, the other computers and operating systems faded away, and only Apples and PCs, and their clones, were left, along with DOS and other operating s
Alternatives to S-ex Change and Stack Overflow (Score:2, Offtopic)
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http://www.reddit.com/r/questions/ [reddit.com]