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Harshing on Palmer might feel like the right thing for folks, but they should be harshing on Facebook right now. Palmer has little to no agency and by focusing on the scapegoat, we ignore the avenues for change that are available right now.

Ultimately, energy spent on Palmer distracts from getting Facebook to modify its behavior.




I agree. Ultimately it was Facebooks decision to enact this policy. Why do people gravitate towards blaming him ? Is it just because they feel he’s lied to them and should be held accountable even though he may have only been naive ?

Its funny how in situations like this one, where one person facilitates another’s wrongdoing, they (Palmer) are put under the spotlight more so than the bad actor (Facebook)


They got him to admit he was wrong. That's more satisfaction than they'll get from Facebook.


Well, to a cynical person facebook is a user privacy wood chipper.

You don't throw something into a wood chipper then get mad at the wood chipper for chopping it up - that's just what it does.

(Of course it's easy for me to say, I haven't spent $$$ on Oculus products)


>> Why do people gravitate towards blaming him ?

It is entirely possible that some consumers, if not some developers / investors / etc, made choices and decisions based on those unequivocal claims.


> Ultimately, energy spent on Palmer distracts from getting Facebook to modify its behavior.

This a thousand times. I wonder however what people like me can do from the outside, save for keep refusing to open a Facebook account.


> they should be harshing on Facebook right now.

“Do not anthropomorphize the lawnmower”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc#t=38m34s


That's to a certain degree fair; to a certain degree missing the point:

1. It's NOT binary; I generally try not to partake of "You're either with us or against us". We can hold multiple parties accountable, we can be objective about facts, and we can learn multiple lessons.

2. I'm not actually certain there's behaviour for Facebook to modify. They're a corporation with a wildly successful massive SSO program. They've acquired another smaller corporation. Integrating into the mothership SSO feels the right sensible choice from many perspectives. As an annoying privacy conscious geek, sure, I don't love Facebook integration. But this is a reasonable perspective from point of the corporation.

3. Which brings me back to - I still think the truest lesson learned is for all of us naive enough that for whatever unicorn reason, this wouldn't happen. At that includes shareholders, consumers, and the wild-eyed founders making promises :)

As I said, I don't know him, don't intend to bug him, doesn't bother me much, don't intend to "Harsh" on him. But he did have agency, and he did make some claims, and we should all learn some lessons on how to exercise agency and how to make/believe promises.




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