Facebook degrading Firefox user experience now?

The Baldness@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 35 points –

Recently, most images on Facebook have stopped loading for me. Sometimes it's just a few images. Other times it's almost all images. The longer I scroll, the worse it gets. Today, I couldn't even see my own pictures. Are any other Firefox users having this problem, or maybe it's a server issue on Facebook's end?

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I wouldn't worry about it too much. The Facebook experience is degrading for all users.

I imagine they'd rather you use their mobile apps than navigate to the website via a browser. They can collect more data on you that way.

Actually I like my facebook experience. I just mostly do not use Facebook anymore. I agree though, when I do go on it is nuts.

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@TheBaldness
When opening the developer tools and going to the Network tab, are there errors? (refresh the page to be sure everything appears in the tab)

Yes, there are errors related to fbcdn.net, which I guess is facebook's content delivery network.

@TheBaldness
What type of error is it? Time-out, blocked, ... ?

Both, plus failed connection something something...

Do you use a VPN? I've noticed a lot of cdn's have become very hostile to VPNs over the last year. Initially I blamed the VPN but I'm pretty convinced it's the cdn's at this point*.

*This is because I started using a private linode server as a tailscale exit node and boy does the internet hate that IP with a passion. Toggling between using that and my home computer as exit nodes is somewhat fascinating. The web is so rude when I browse from my linode box. So... now I use the linode exit node to let the jerks take themselves to the curb. Anyway images not loading randomly is one of the telltale signs of a jerk website. It even happens when using Google One VPN or Cloudflair's WARP+ nowadays. Switch them off and use my residential IP exit node and presto it all works again.

I keep telling everyone that they're ruining the internet by using and supporting chrome instead of Firefox. I keep telling them that Firefox user experience is at par with or better than Chrome's. But then I realize that I don't use FB, Google (besides occasional searches) or any of the similar suspects. Bad experience on Firefox seems to be uniquely tied to these bad actors, perhaps because it isn't as easy to track users on it (with the help of plugins like uBO). People really need to de-addict themselves from these spyware services and software. Or we are all doomed.

@TheBaldness whatever service is degrading for me and have an alternative to is a service that I have an incentive to stop using. Friendica is so much better than Facebook. I never expected I would use it the way I use it today.

I don't use Facebook. Unfortunately, my neighbors use it to communicate. That's the only reason I have it. I've also used the marketplace, but prefer Craigslist.

@TheBaldness I just have it because I've used it for so long and not everyone is on other platforms. Or if they are, they're still Meta owned anyway. But since I've been on the Fediverse, I found myself using it less and less.

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Using Facebook on a mobile browser is horrible: the scrolling snaps all over the place. They're awful, which is why i won't have any Meta software on my phone.