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Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

zonemessenger.com

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Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#61

Post by mgallowa »

I founded an anonymous social media platform in the past. It can be a real pain because once identity/accountability is removed, people tend to act very poorly. On paper, I like your idea of helping people to form risk-free connections, but it is very possible for your platform to spin out of your control. The small radius location nature of your app will likely mean a lot of negative press and/or police inquiries about stalking, harassment, threats, bulling, maybe even rape or murder in the extreme.

Not trying to be negative; I know your intentions are good, but be please be prepared. When the police call you in the middle of the night, and they will, make sure you can provide whatever information you can to identify the users. I am actually surprised you would be able to get into the Apple store without being able to do so.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#62

Post by taneq »

netsharc wrote: post #49
JulianMorrison wrote: post #39

Anonymous messaging has proven in practise to be full of cruel gossip, hate speech, and bullying. I can't see a positive use for it, really.

From the screenshot: "I'm at X, who wants to get coffee?" Are people this social, and this lonely? "Let me spend this 30 minutes of free time to talk to some random potential weirdo!"

Lonely? Or adventurous?

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#64

Post by badwolf »

jamesfisher wrote: post #37
A1kmm wrote: post #34

If it is exactly 1 km you could triangulate to find someone's location. A program to do that would do a bisection search along a line (faking coordinates for the location of the device) to find the point on the line where you transition to seeing the person's messages. Then, repeat along other two lines in different directions. Each transition point gives a circle of 1 km radius on which the person is present, and th…

Tinder once had this exact problem. You could find users' exact locations via triangulation, since the API reported an exact distance from your location: http://blog.includesecurity.com/2014/02/how-i-was-able-to-tr...

Grindr as well, which due to the nature of that app could have had bad effects should someone with ill-intent take advantage. There were even a few apps in the Google Play store that would pinpoint other grindr users.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#65

Post by SamBam »

mgallowa wrote: post #61

I founded an anonymous social media platform in the past. It can be a real pain because once identity/accountability is removed, people tend to act very poorly. On paper, I like your idea of helping people to form risk-free connections, but it is very possible for your platform to spin out of your control. The small radius location nature of your app will likely mean a lot of negative press and/or police inquiries ab…

Indeed. Yik Yak is a huge platform for bullies: https://www.google.com/search?q=yik+yak+bullying

Basically, if you use this near a school, then the school will be the main topic of conversation. And in that case (assuming students using this), half the conversations may be "So-and-so is a ____"

Is there any thought of community moderation?

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#66

Post by peterkshultz »

That the app is both geofenced and anonymous reminds me of Yik Yak, which was a huge success on my college campus before the company decided to move away from anonymity.

Did you develop this as a side project, or is this something you want to turn into a business?

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#67

Post by stefs »

netsharc wrote: post #49
JulianMorrison wrote: post #39

Anonymous messaging has proven in practise to be full of cruel gossip, hate speech, and bullying. I can't see a positive use for it, really.

From the screenshot: "I'm at X, who wants to get coffee?" Are people this social, and this lonely? "Let me spend this 30 minutes of free time to talk to some random potential weirdo!"

people aren't weirdos by default - most are nice, well adjusted people. if they actually are, you're the weirdo, not them.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#68

Post by pavel_lishin »

theveloped wrote: post #58
A1kmm wrote: post #34

If it is exactly 1 km you could triangulate to find someone's location. A program to do that would do a bisection search along a line (faking coordinates for the location of the device) to find the point on the line where you transition to seeing the person's messages. Then, repeat along other two lines in different directions. Each transition point gives a circle of 1 km radius on which the person is present, and th…

Due to the fact that distance matching is done server side the application doesn't have any knowledge with regard to distance. The only knowledge one has is whether or not one receives messages from an other user. Using triangulation to pinpoint an other users location would therefore require to move in and out of range (while the targeted user is continuously sending messages). Thus significantly more difficult than…

> Using triangulation to pinpoint an other users location would therefore require to move in and out of range (while the targeted user is continuously sending messages).

Or spoofing their actual location.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#69

Post by mywittyname »

peterkshultz wrote: post #66

That the app is both geofenced and anonymous reminds me of Yik Yak, which was a huge success on my college campus before the company decided to move away from anonymity. Did you develop this as a side project, or is this something you want to turn into a business?

Yik Yak dropped anonymity because they had a problem with harassment on the platform. I'm not sure how Zone is going to be any different.
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