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Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

slowsocial.us

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Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#131

Post by CitrusFruits »

bfrog wrote: post #108

I kind of love it, but it sort of feels like the burn of social networks at this point is less about the bite sized crap stream and more that some entity now has my social network and interests saved for the purpose of targeting ads. Ads are the evil that drives the crap to keep us doom scrolling. Has this somehow found another revenue stream? Ads as a revenue stream is the issue, not the size or rate of posting.

Low overhead costs and charging users something like $3/mo would be the target for sustainability if the network ever starts to have significant operating expenses. Until then, it's really cheap to keep running.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#132

Post by CitrusFruits »

ghiculescu wrote: post #111

Great to see more ideas in this space! A few years back my wife and I tried something kinda similar, Sundayy. We even launched on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25848793 Some people still use Sundayy but it didn’t really take off. I am really glad we did it, but I’ll admit it got less exciting to work on when most users would fizzle out after a few weeks. My gut feel on why is that we didn’t do enough to c…

This is really cool! And those are some great insights. I just might send you an email.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#133

Post by and0 »

CitrusFruits wrote: post #31
mind-blight wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really curious what your business model is and how you make money. I looked under those sections on the about page, but they don't actually answer the question.

The app is just launching, and it's a side hustle. Everything right now can run on a free tier, and I'm fairly certain I can support a _very_ sizeable amount of users for But, if I get there, the plan would be to explore charging something reasonable for a plus tier which would offer more formatting options, more pictures per post, and a couple other things, for something nominal like $3 of a month. That could help c…

I think there's a lot of honesty and practicality in your response but not the transparency or clarity needed for this to scale. These networks require buy-in / critical mass to function as intended, and not knowing if I (or my friends) will agree to the pricing terms after I get my network on board is a hard stop for me.

I do like the idea. Well designed limitations can add a lot of appeal, and in social spaces especially they can be fun to play within.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#134

Post by Jugurtha »

stefanv wrote: post #126

My first thought after reading the frontpage: this is my “liberation” from Facebook and all the things that FB is doing wrong. I click on “join today” and I see “continue with Facebook”. Why?

You can also sign up with GitHub, Google, and email.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#135

Post by mabbo »

CitrusFruits wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, OP here. I, like many others tend to waffle between loving and hating social media, so this is my take on what I think a better solution looks like. This is something I've been working on for the past couple of months and a concept that I think will be though provoking, if nothing else, to the HN community. If you want to read more on my thoughts and the story behind this, you can check out my blog post…

FYI: when I gave my email address to sign up, the very bare email that hit my gmail inbox went straight to spam.

You're going to need to do more to keep it on the 'not spam' list, I think.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#136

Post by ccorcos »

CitrusFruits wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, OP here. I, like many others tend to waffle between loving and hating social media, so this is my take on what I think a better solution looks like. This is something I've been working on for the past couple of months and a concept that I think will be though provoking, if nothing else, to the HN community. If you want to read more on my thoughts and the story behind this, you can check out my blog post…

Have you talked to Joe Edelman? He would have all kinds of good ideas for you.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#137

Post by hypertele-Xii »

"Frequently asked questions

What's your business model?

The goal of the company is to equally value the customer, environment, and profits. In other words, [...]

How do you make money?

The goal of the company is to equally value the customer, environment, and profits. In other words, [...]"

What?

https://slowsocial.us/about#business-model

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#138

Post by alar44 »

darawk wrote: post #43

As other people have mentioned but I think not quite nailed perfectly, restrictions on behavior aren't quite the right solution to the problems that plague social media. Some people think that the right move is to eliminate engagement optimization algorithms, and I think that's not quite exactly right either. IMO the right solution is personal executive autonomy over content presentation and algorithmic optimization.…

Neat idea but literally no one wants that. You think the average Joe wants to explicitly configure his social media algorithms?

Get real.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#139

Post by CitrusFruits »

Method-X wrote: post #129
stefanv wrote: post #126

My first thought after reading the frontpage: this is my “liberation” from Facebook and all the things that FB is doing wrong. I click on “join today” and I see “continue with Facebook”. Why?

To minimize the friction of switching over for most regular folks. It doesn’t force you to use Facebook. You can use your email, Google and GitHub too.

Yup, this is exactly right. Facebook was the last OAuth provider I added because I don't love being tied to them, but at the end of the day some people just want the easiest way to authenticate possible, and Facebook is one of the largest authentication providers available in the world.

And to put it into perspective, yes Facebook is able to collect information about you when you use them as an authentication provider (like when you log in, how often, how long your sessions are), but beyond that it's a pretty narrow interaction.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#140

Post by CitrusFruits »

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #137

"Frequently asked questions What's your business model? The goal of the company is to equally value the customer, environment, and profits. In other words, [...] How do you make money? The goal of the company is to equally value the customer, environment, and profits. In other words, [...]" What? https://slowsocial.us/about#business-model

Yeah, there's a bad copypasta there. I'll see if I can update that real quick.

EDIT: The FAQ has been updated.

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