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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

#81

Post by hogrammer »

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.

You can't have citizens talking to each other directly! We need to regulate it! Have laws dictating the correct speech to use.

Think of the Children! Think of the Women!

What if someone's talking about an idea you don't like, or a political candidate you don't support!? That would be terrible!

This sort of thing should be licensed and regulated!

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

#82

Post by problems »

mywittyname wrote: post #69
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.

Does it need to? Did YikYak need to? The death of anonymity was pretty much the death of YikYak.

Letting people talk, harassment and all seems to be the way to go. It's an opt in thing, so if you don't like it just uninstall or ignore a few users. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good cesspool sometimes.

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

#83

Post by peterkshultz »

mywittyname wrote: post #69
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.

I have it on good sources that they dropped anonymity not because of harassment, but because of the history of anonymous apps fizzling out. Anonymous apps generally fail to generate sustainable, long-term growth.

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

#85

Post by kuschku »

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?

Actually, you on your campus might want to try out Jodel – it’s basically a German YikYak clone, but it still has all the anonymity in it.

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

#86

Post by Faaak »

Xeoncross wrote: post #84

How do they get wifi or bluetooth to extend to (1k/3,200ft) when standard wifi or bluetooth is less than 400ft? Are they taking control of the wifi chip and making it so the packets are allowed to take much longer to arrive to cover the greater distances?

Simply by using the phone's GPS and sending all messages to a centralized server which then broadcasts it to the "in the area" participants.

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

#87

Post by Faaak »

trolor wrote: post #55
grenoire wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't look like the application shows the distance in the UI. As long as they don't leak it in the packets (hopefully they don't given how they claim anonymity) triangulation would require the target to be sending messages continuously on a consistent interval for you to detect whether or not they are at the 1 kilometre 'border.'

... why not just fake your phone's GPS coordinates and perform a binary search?

Well, they could make it harder by relaying messages to people 1km+rand() around you

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

#88

Post by 7952 »

bradbeattie wrote: post #75
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…

Could this be defeated by a "snap to grid" technique? The installed client takes the actual location of the user and locates the nearest grid point (the resolution of which is up for debate) and reports as at that location?

Or increase the radius randomly after a pair of users have communicated for the first time.

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

#89

Post by jandrese »

SamBam wrote: post #65
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?

I was about to comment that this is just YikYak again, and the primary use of YikYak is for kids to anonymously harass one another.

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

#90

Post by witty_username »

aethertron wrote: post #35
jacquesm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could say the same for a lamppost (that I can attach a photo with a message to) and just about every other means of communication where the sender is not known (regular mail, for instance). Technology can be used for good and for bad, this tech is no different in that respect.

The lamp post is part of a wider local 'ecosystem' that includes ways of dealing with abusive messages attached to publicly-visible objects. Communication apps like this, not so much. This is why service and software makers are considered to have more of a responsibility to be concerned with misuse of their platforms. (ETA:I mean platforms, as in publicly-accessible stuff on the net, that's under their control.)

Maybe block the user or don't use the app if someone's bullying you?
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