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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

#111

Post by water42 »

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…

I was wondering about this. How do you handle people using the platform as a means to purchase drugs or coordinate crime?

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

#113

Post by tokenizerrr »

tghw wrote: post #74
theveloped wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How exactly do you close the API to outside requests? It's not hard to reverse engineer most APIs, either by decompiling the app or just watching the wire.

You don't. That is impossible.

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

#114

Post by red_anorak »

Interesting. I built a website a few years back called LampNote, which was based around the idea of "virtual noticeboards" approx every 100m apart from each other. In an earlier incarnation of that project I had considered solving the same problems using anonymous geo targeted messages, either using an app or email. I quickly discounted that approach, as it seemed like it could become a magnet for all sorts of dodgy characters, and a potential headache legally. The end product I arrived at was something quite different, so I'll be interested to see how you get on with zonemessenger. Good luck!

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

#115

Post by NoGravitas »

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…

Inasmuch as there is actual research, it seems to show that requiring real names or real world identities does not reduce trolling, and can even make it worse[0][1]. My experience as a page admin on Facebook seems to confirm this -- the comment sections there are at least as nasty as anywhere I've been with anonymous comments.

[0]: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160729/23305535110/study... [1]: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

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

#117

Post by daveguy »

I wonder how this compares to an app like YikYak. I checked out YikYak for a few days (really a weird feeling with a bunch of random anonymous people posting messages). This seems similar except maybe only one-to-one rather than message thread based? Also YikYak seems to have about 5 mile radius zones (8km) rather than 1km.

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

#118

Post by [deleted] »

bresc wrote: post #18
theveloped wrote: post #2

Let me know what you guys think. The app was made to get people talking again to the people around them. I threw in automatically generated anonymous nicknames to lower the initial barrier a bit. Any advise on how to market/keep people engaged are most welcome.

I think you are "over quota"

[deleted]

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

#119

Post by loader »

theveloped wrote: post #2

Let me know what you guys think. The app was made to get people talking again to the people around them. I threw in automatically generated anonymous nicknames to lower the initial barrier a bit. Any advise on how to market/keep people engaged are most welcome.

I've had an idea like this in my head for awhile now. One use case, you're at home and something just happened, large car accident, loud noise, etc and you want to be able to chat with the people around you while sitting on your couch.

When stuff happens around me when I'm sitting at home I find twitter to be too slow to update and it has a lack of information anyways.

But then you're just dealing with the same network effects that twitter is having trouble with.

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

#120

Post by methyl »

elaus wrote: post #29

How does this work if a person that is 500m away from me is currently chatting with someone 1.2km away… will it seem to me like that person is talking to himself (because his chat partner is out of my reach)?

It's exactly this way when you use CB Radio in your car. Some of the people seem to be talking to themselves, as the other end is out of your reach.
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