Word has it that face scanning will soon be necessary to do anything at all on FB and IG (including deleting your account) so I'm in the process of taking care of that business now and trying to encourage the few friends I'm still in touch with to do the same.

Unfortunately, without an account you can't access content, and there are still numerous local businesses and organizations posting at FB and IG and I can't really expect that to change anytime soon. But it would definitely help sell the idea of giving them up if I can offer another way of seeing posts on those sites.

With IG, there is https://imginn.com/ which I've been using for a time, it seems to work well enough to show an account's IG posts.

What I really need is something like that for FB. I don't really need to see posts from individual accounts as I don't even think my friends post on FB anymore; I really just want to be able to see "Liked Pages" as those are often regional businesses and communities. Being able to see groups would also be helpful but those often require special permission even when you do have an FB account so I don't expect much there.

Thanx

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[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Real question, can you describe this experience more? How do businesses get locked behind Facebook?

[–] BananaPeal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

It takes money and know-how to create and maintain a real website, but Facebook is free and requires little knowledge of how websites work. Add the fact that many rural folks still don't take the Internet seriously, and you get businesses that don't realize that they're neglecting a useful tool to help them gain and maintain customers.

What I said before was a little exaggerated. An example of the experience: this weekend I was looking to order lunch in an area that I don't frequent. There was a sandwich shop that I had been meaning to try because people rave about it. I tried to call to place an order and the phone just rang. No voicemail, just ringing. I went looking for a website, thinking maybe they're closed on Sundays (I hear the owner is religious) and I find nothing but Facebook. The latest post was from November saying something about the owner having broken his arm, so they'll be closed until further notice. So I guess they're closed?

I move onto another shop who does have a website, but it's bare bones: just the name, address, phone number, and hours that are probably outdated. No menu. Their Facebook wasn't any help. I had to Google to find pictures of the menu. I called them and ordered. If I wasn't willing to take an extra couple of steps, I'd have to resort to Subway for a sandwich... no thanks.

The usual experience is like what happened with the second shop, sometimes with a menu, sometimes it's up to date. No online ordering, no Doordash. Maybe they have a new customer form to fill out to get a call back for a quote, but don't be surprised if they don't call, because they don't check those messages because they don't take the Internet seriously. They're great at their job, but suck at current forms of communication. If you want to support local businesses in a rural area, you call them or just show up. It's like the 2000s out here.

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

you call them or just show up. It’s like the 2000s out here.

TIL: I'm living in the 2000s. 😅

Yeah, this is what I do. Sometimes I show up and the place is closed. I wasted 30 minutes driving there. It's annoying. But, not so annoying that I want to use FB.

I'm older, I guess, this is just what we did when we were growing up.