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Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

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221–230 of 587 posts

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#221

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

keybase?

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#222

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

>Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network.

Didn't WhatsApp used to be $1 a year before Facebook bought them and it was a very successful pricing model?

$1 a year for a website is very feasible for both parties assuming it's some Western society.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#223

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

Anyone remember app.net?

Yeah I feel like it's a very similar idea, however WhatsApp did get it's start for $1 a year after the first year iirc?

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#224

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

I wish there was a text only social network - I think it would reduce the influence of memes. HN is kind of like that, though I guess you really just need a tightly curated community with a good culture that wants to be good (since reddit comments still are pretty low quality in most cases).

Text only twitter would be interesting since you can curate your own slice of the community pretty easily, as a bonus it'd be fast.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#225

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

I wish there was a text only social network - I think it would reduce the influence of memes. HN is kind of like that, though I guess you really just need a tightly curated community with a good culture that wants to be good (since reddit comments still are pretty low quality in most cases). Text only twitter would be interesting since you can curate your own slice of the community pretty easily, as a bonus it'd be f…

Low effort ascii art was a mainstay on digg back in the day, I think moderation is more key.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#226

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

The challenge is getting a critical mass of users to encourage people beyond just early adopters. Perhaps the new service could seed new users' accounts by offering to import their content/contacts/etc from their other social media accounts.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#227

Previously someone mentioned the idea of a $1/mo. social network. I think if someone were to make facebook in it's first ~2 years and keep it very basic it we would be good to go. The only features you need are: a profile picture, a wall, chat, and events. In other words - a photo of yourself, a way of publicly messaging, a way of privately messaging, and a way to coordinate social events. What else do you need for a…

Groups, images / albums, tagging, friends.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is there even a wait list at all? This feels sketchy from first use. And to not be up front about the cost before getting my personal information is, I feel, dishonest. How can he expect to create a platform of honest people if he is dishonest from the point of account creation? This is not the way to do it.

Why on earth does it feel sketchy to you. As far as I can tell this service will be devoid of adverts and tracking, which means that it will be entirely funded by subscribers. You can't really expect him to buy all the servers and bandwidth and provide it all to you for nothing out of his own pocket. That's just stupid. It seems to me the idea is that early access subscribers pay for the initial equipment. They then…

Just say that up front. Before i put in an email address.

Current wait list: 60,000 people (estimated hold time 30 days) but you can jump the queue for $12.99/mo or $100/yr.

Done. Honest. Transparent.

The site's current account flow is infected with dark patterns and turns off those familiar with them, like me.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#229

I love the idea of an alternate social network, and I'm fine with the idea of charging users. But in an era where free alternatives are bountiful (even if most of them are "free as in puppy"), where a full paid blog hosting service like Micro.blog -- which includes a social network timeline built on IndieWeb principles -- is only $5 a month, where "subscription fatigue" is entering the lexicon... this is just a bonke…

I'm not necessarily if translates into online social media, but at least in meatspace there's no shortage of social clubs where the high price tag is a feature not a bug. They're called country clubs.

Absolutely, and it'd be possible to create the social network equivalent of a country club. The questions I'd ask are (a) is that the kind of network that Jimmy Wales wants to create here, and (b) what's the value proposition? Obviously part of the value is saying "I am a member of this exclusive club," but that relies on the exclusive club actually impressing whoever you consider "the right people." :)
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