Flüpke

Dear restaurant owners, do not link to Facebook. Otherwise, your customers see:

- Error message: Safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid.
- A big login prompt, that cannot be dismissed.

What your customers don’t see:

- Your menu
- Your location
- Your opening hours

Jun 2, 2025 at 1:47pmWeb
Show threadobelixJun 2, 2025
@fluepke Same goes for public transport like direct airport busses 🙄 To make it even worse, the information on Facebook was outdated.
Show threadschnittchen 🏳️‍🌈​ 🔜 GPN, FSCKJun 2, 2025

@fluepke Also, have a proper page, even if tiny, and register your business with Google

(if not, delivery services do that "for you" and force themselves onto you)

Show threadFlüpkeJun 3, 2025
@schnittchen no need for a dedicated website as long as the entry on Apple / Google Maps is maintained and contains all necessary information
Show threadguentherJun 6, 2025
@fluepke @schnittchen Google maps looks exactly the same as Facebook though. All you get is a big prompt redirect.
Show threadGustavoJun 2, 2025
@fluepke Is so amazing when companies - from small to big ones - assume people are into big-tech like YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. I lost count of how many companies only allow using WhatsApp to contact them, even the small mom-and-pop burger restaurant next door here! 
Show threadKevin Karhan Jun 2, 2025
@qgustavor @fluepke I tend to completely yeet those as a matter of principle, because they'll likely have said #Govware on their systems and thus nonconsensually send my number and call metadata to #NSAbook!
Show threadAlerta! Alerta!Jun 2, 2025

@qgustavor @fluepke especially those....

"But all our customers *have* whatsapp"

Guess why....

Show threadOttoJun 2, 2025

@heiglandreas let me guess, not the USA?

WhatsApp never really took off here. It's mostly an international (not-US) thing.

Show threadFlüpkeJun 3, 2025
@otto42 @heiglandreas Thailand
Show threadOttoJun 4, 2025
@fluepke That indeed is a place, however I was not asking you where you were. I was asking somebody else.
Show threadFlüpkeJun 4, 2025
@otto42 oh, i c m)
Show threadMS nomaJun 9, 2025
@heiglandreas @qgustavor @fluepke ok, I am not their customer. I am not in any of these cloacas.
Show threadCrazy PonyJun 3, 2025

@qgustavor @fluepke @DJGummikuh
I dot go to restaurants, but tried to talk with local shop owners

They say they actually like the filtering happening

- these who use Whatsapp and Facebook are loyal, they "do what told" and dont complain to everything

- these who demand something like e-mail have always extra questions and complain about business practises. The shop prefers to not have them as customers

"Sie sind nicht mein Kunde"

Show threadDJGummikuhJun 3, 2025
@crazy_pony @qgustavor @fluepke well nice, then it's mutual, though I am pretty certain that I will see quite some more of those restaurants go out of business before I starve 🤷
Show threadEndicottRoad59Jun 2, 2025
@fluepke And Facebook booted me off because they thought I was fake. More than 10 years of posts without a problem, then one day they decide to kick me out.
Show threadKevin Karhan Jun 2, 2025

@fluepke +9001%

#NSAbook is worse than #GoogleMaps!

  • Also getting a static website made with these things costs like €500 at most and maybe €10 p.m. for upkeep at grossly inflates rates.

People don't want much so even a WordPress-style CMS is overkill.

  • But even a SquareSpace/Wix/whatever... site is better than #StasiBook!
Show threadBrian DearJun 2, 2025

@fluepke

Also, #Facebook hides your browser tab history so when you land on that awful page, you can’t easily press back button to get back to, say, Google search results. They’re the Hotel California of websites.

It’s one of the most evil, anti-user web #design decisions in years, and heaven help the Facebook product team if I ever run into them in a dark—or even well-lit—alley. 🤬

#enshittification

Show threadW6KMEJun 2, 2025
@fluepke Any business using FB for their web presence is just screaming AMATEUR at the top of their lungs, never mind all the hate groups and nazis on the site that their customers may be exposed to. It's like using AOL for your work email.
Show threadDJGummikuhJun 2, 2025
@fluepke what the restaurant owners don't see: Me 😅
Show threadNetwork == Abstraction LayerJun 2, 2025
@fluepke & a ton of cookies I don't want...
Show threadAlexandre OlivaJun 2, 2025
so many free cookies will make you full and won't leave any room for the food the restaurant wants to sell you 😉

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadCatJun 2, 2025
@fluepke I regret that I have but one little star to smash
Show threadГригорий КлюшниковJun 2, 2025
Is it a common thing? In Russia restaurants would usually have their menu and opening hours in Yandex maps. In other countries Google maps would usually have the same but because Google doesn't do food delivery, the menu, if it's there at all, is in the form of pictures taken by reviewers
Show threadMarkus Udosson BoJun 2, 2025
@fluepke Or in my case, a DNS error due to AdGuard. I just don‘t order from Facebook restaurants
Show threadÁronJun 2, 2025
@fluepke sadly the vast majority of their guests will have the Facebook app (and think it's somehow normal that a lot of local info is only available there)
Show threadHSLJun 2, 2025
@fluepke Or Instagram. I don't have an Instagram account, therefore I can't see any of your images. I will not create an Instagram account just to consume your marketing materials.
Show threadJargogglesJun 2, 2025

@fluepke
It has never been easier to just put your own simple website up on the internet.

Restaurants, in particular, are one of the easiest businesses to set up a website for. Like you said, virtually everyone who goes to a restaurant site is only looking for a few pieces of info.

Show threadDidekJun 2, 2025

@fluepke

Oh but 🌟🌈everyone🌈🌟 has it!

Show threadFlüpkeJun 3, 2025
@didek that’s the issue❗️
Show threadsandywb14Jun 2, 2025
@fluepke ☹️
Show threadJake in the desertJun 2, 2025
@fluepke ugh. It's an EPIDEMIC. Like, every new place that opens is guilty of this. Make a simple, real website, there's just no excuse. Tons of people don't use Facebook, like myself.
Show threadFarticle Accelerator🇨🇦Jun 2, 2025
@jake4480 @fluepke It's ok if they have a Facebook page or Instagram account with which to attempt to reach the people that are in the FB sphere.

Totally not ok, as you said, to link to the FB page from outside for reasons given.

They largely are unaware of the issue though. Sad, because these are local non-chain places without any marketing budget and they're just doing their best with their limited knowledge.
Show threadJake in the desertJun 2, 2025
@scuttlebutt @fluepke rough. Yeah, they can HAVE one, but making it their main/only point of contact is just insanity and assuming so much about people, it's SO easy to make a site now, even Wix, I mean, use Wix. Anything other than Facebook. hahaha
Show threadFarticle Accelerator🇨🇦Jun 2, 2025
@jake4480 @fluepke relevant mltshp.com/p/1R225
Everyone will not just

MLTSHP
Show threadJake in the desertJun 2, 2025
@scuttlebutt @fluepke whoaaa okay this is AMAZING haha - is this some kind of law? It should be. Wow. Thank you for this hahaha
Show threadDianora (Diane Bruce)Jun 2, 2025
@fluepke What your restaurant doesn't see:
- Me shopping there
Show thread0x10f/kalle/qalleJun 2, 2025
@fluepke I checked out the web presence of my three nearest restaurants in Helsinki. They all have a website. Two of them have all the important info but one is missing the menu. Two sites also have nauseating large scrolling images.
Show threadsmikwilyJun 2, 2025

@fluepke I'm consistenly amazed that places that ONLY have Facebook page don't even have those things posted. I have an account, so I'm on the opposite side of this argument, but what is the use?

Check out our neat thing! Good luck figuring out what it is or where to find it!

Show threadRonanJun 2, 2025
@fluepke amazing the number of people who think Facebook is a way to have a free website. It's not your website. It's not free, it costs in all kinds of ways
Show threadChrisJun 3, 2025
@fluepke Almost as bad as having the only "Online Order" function link to WhatsApp..
Show threadMr Intergalactic KeyboardJun 3, 2025
@fluepke I encountered this recently with a restaurant and told them about Shopify and Squarespace. I think that’s the optimal solution for most small biz. Plus, good security options. Most people just don’t know this stuff.
Show threadIvor HewittJun 3, 2025
@fluepke "oh but everyone's got Facebook" 🙄🤦‍♂️
Show threadHSLJun 3, 2025
@fluepke I tried to sign up for a burner Facebook account yesterday, since I don't want to bother signing into my real one. Facebook immediately flagged it for review, then closed it because it didn't meet community guidelines. I really don't need Facebook in my life then.
Show threadCrazy PonyJun 3, 2025

@hsl @fluepke
Not significant different with Discord

I tried to sign up for an account, and right while doing this they stopped me for doing "Suspect Activity on my Account" telling me i have to verify im rea by SMS verificaton

NO!

Show threadHal AetusJun 3, 2025
@fluepke it is sooo annoying when businesses only have a Facebook. I just move on.
Show threadUsagiJun 3, 2025
@fluepke That's an interesting thing.

FB pulled off occupying the space of 'making web pages without having to design and host them' for some time.

Like you create account for your business, post a few pictures that show where you are and how the front door looks like, done. Comes with the bonus of posting about news/events easily as well.

As the FB services deteriorate (less and less accessible without logging in), and the share of users that actually have a FB account decreases this is becoming less and less useful.

And here FB is cutting the branch they are sitting on by making the site less useful to non-users as their user population is decreasing.

BTW FB seems to be still occupying the space of hosting event calendars without hosting and designing a web site, with similar caveats. ​​
Show threadzendao42Jun 6, 2025
@fluepke
Thank you!
They need to make REAL websites & stop being another of Zuckerberg's suckers