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Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

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Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#271

"Since all content on the platform can be edited or deleted by other users, he believes there's a good incentive for good behavior by users." There is zero chance this policy survives having a million+ users intact.

Yes, as the wiki model is in despair.

Social network posts aren't a collection of verifiable facts. The idea of someone being able to edit my post about my family vacation strikes me as more than a little bizarre.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$20/month?!? Forever?!?

To charity. That's $240 to charity a year. Is that so much to sacrifice?

Depending on where you find the data, a lot of Americans live paycheck to paycheck [1]. An extra $240 a year will certainly help a lot of people out there, not just in America. That's why free services like Google and Facebook continue to win out. I really like what some companies in the gaming sector have achieved where the richer subsidize the poorer via buying hats and other cosmetics to keep the game free or lower priced.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/most-americans-live-paycheck...

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What else do you need for a 'social network?' Mass adoption. The user base is the valuable aspect, everything else can be easily recreated.

Besides the advantage of an already established network - what are facebooks other advantages? I suppose money is the biggest. are there others?

>Besides the advantage of an already established network - what are facebooks other advantages?

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#274

"Since all content on the platform can be edited or deleted by other users, he believes there's a good incentive for good behavior by users." There is zero chance this policy survives having a million+ users intact.

"Good behavior" is double speak for "following the groupthink". Just look at wikipedia for an example of how bad this can become, where 1/3 of all content is edited and moderated by one dude with all his biases.

This wiki model is not the solution.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#276

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…

someone is attempting to build a curated internet for each other, check this out:

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/get-kelvin

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#277

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…

> free as in puppy Which one is actually free? You're paying by sharing your life with them to sell for other purposes. Your purchases, search history, private conversations, even bedroom talk are all ongoing amortized payments for that puppy.

That's what "free as in puppy" stems from: the puppy is technically free, but there are a lot of other costs involved. It was originally coined, AFAIK, to suggest than even "free as in speech" free software can have a lot of other costs associated with it, but I think it applies to free services that get their revenue by showing you ads, aggregating and monetizing your data, or both.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk didn't found Tesla and is (somewhat inappropriately) labeled as a cofounder, but joined in Series A as an investor. But he very much did build SpaceX from nothing (well, his Paypal money), and his unconventional approach is responsible for their success.

It's also questionable whether Tesla Motors would have had the same impact (or even survived) without Musk's efforts and leadership. They were making a very niche sports car at the time that was basically hand built. Musk is the one that got them to a mainstream commercial product.

There's almost 100% chance it would have failed, I doubt they could have found a more dedicated and driven person to take it through its darker times.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#279

Just signed up. I could search for topics but not join as it says I'm number 60K+ in the waiting list and need to pay. First impression it looks like Reddit. I'm very skeptical people will pay $100/year for this. Reporting the number of members is pretty useless since I'm pretty sure they are not talking about paying ones.

What are the payment options? Bitcoin maybe?

Looks like Credit card and PayPal only.

Definitely not Bitcoin. I've given Bitcoin to Wikipedia in the past (using the same email address). When I try to pay for a WT Social subscription with a credit card, I get a bit scary error message:

Card Input Error(s):

You cannot combine currencies on a single customer. This customer has had a subscription, coupon, or invoice item with a different currency.

Re: Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival

#280

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…

Events are the thing that keep me and my peers using it.
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