Novel idea but won't something like this just end up being manipulated or gamed in one way or another.
Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
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Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#12How do you plan to compete against LinkedIn & monetise?
We believe the platform is attractive to professionals who want an easy, privacy-focused way to promote the services they offer, with the ability to differentiate themselves from people offering the same/similar services.
The platform is zero-cost, ad-free and includes direct messages. I hope the UI is more easy to navigate and understand, compared to LinkedIn.
The TRU Score, while somewhat controversial, is more powerful than a star-rating system. Also, it works works for you as a buyer or seller.
Monetization is planned in a future release and includes [1] selling blocks of time to people who want to consult with you, and [2] promotions, where you [as a seller] pays the buyer for considering your services.
We believe it's a great time to build alternatives to the major networks that exist today. It should be easier for people to promote and sell their services. It should be easier for people to find trustworthy providers. And it should be easier to protect your personal privacy.
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The TRU Score is the primary point of differentiation. The goal is to provide an independent way to measure reputation and trust, that uses community feedback. There are many ways to generate a score for a person. Our method involves the trading of of virtual shares, which are bought/sold just like stocks. Share price changes are reflected in that persons TRU Score. The investments you make in others is reflected in…
I don't think this is how people's relationships work. Putting a number next to someone's name doesn't make this person more or less reliable. The only kind of recommendation that is trustworthy is the one made by someone you know.
I think there is a range to this being true. Take app review score aggregation. Anything 3 stars and up is probably acceptable. You score a 1 star and within reason nobody will use the app. You can say similar things about tv/movie reviews, car safety scores, and I'm sure many other trust metrics.
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#14Turning personal trust in others into what looks like a stock market game strikes me as quite odd. I wouldn't find people trading internet points back and forth to determine my 'value' on a platform as something I would like. I like the trading of points even less considering the target of the website about people representing themselves in the scope of their professions.
Turning personal trust in others into what looks like a stock market game strikes me as quite odd. Because it feels like turning the individual into a commodity?
So what? That's what capitalism does. It cheapens and commodifies everything. Often, that's what you want, but when it comes to personal relationships, or welfare of people and animals, maybe it's not. Both parents working 10 hour days and neglecting their kids and quality time just so they can climb the corporate ladder is a more serious example. The other day I wrote about Facebook doing it to the words "friend" and "like":
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26456328
I remember an acquaintance of mine, Siqi Chen, built Friends for Sale back in the day on Facebook and that was a great launch pad for his career, where he did a lot more interesting stuff later :)
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#15Turning personal trust in others into what looks like a stock market game strikes me as quite odd. I wouldn't find people trading internet points back and forth to determine my 'value' on a platform as something I would like. I like the trading of points even less considering the target of the website about people representing themselves in the scope of their professions.
Valid point. Yet millions of people each day make buying decisions based on a simple 5-star rating. Trading shares is a very pure way to represent market value, whether that is company stock or cryptocurrency. We see an opportunity to apply the concept to a professional digital reputation? Where the TRU Score can be used as a form of currency. Separate from the TRU Score, the platform provides the ability to connect…
They're making purchase decisions on 5-star ratings for eg consumer goods, objects. You're talking about trading people virtually. It's going to be extraordinarily offensive and maybe worse.
Prepare for an incredible wave of never-ending lawsuits from the large number of people who don't like 1) being traded at all or 2) don't like how they're trading / being represented. And the service will lose those lawsuits: it'll be demonstrated to cause reputational harm, and the service dies right there.
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The TRU Score is the primary point of differentiation. The goal is to provide an independent way to measure reputation and trust, that uses community feedback. There are many ways to generate a score for a person. Our method involves the trading of of virtual shares, which are bought/sold just like stocks. Share price changes are reflected in that persons TRU Score. The investments you make in others is reflected in…
I don't think this is how people's relationships work. Putting a number next to someone's name doesn't make this person more or less reliable. The only kind of recommendation that is trustworthy is the one made by someone you know.
To add to your point, different employers value different things in their employees. Some employers want a ton of reliability in their employees, whilst others obviously want a reasonable level of reliability but also employees who are creative and easy to get along with. And there are some where your personality doesn't matter so much as long as you get your work done.
The idea is interesting, and it's good that people experiment with such ideas, but I'm skeptical that this scoring concept isn't going to make people miserable and possibly going to be gamed easily.
A better way to compete with LinkedIn would be to simply get rid of the social media feed. I'd find LinkedIn much more pleasant if it wasn't full of trite platitudes, cringey corporate signaling, political grandstanding, dudebro philosophy around productivity, and so forth.
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#17Let's deconstruct this statement without even reading the page.
"Alternative" -- it is not an alternative to LinkedIn. The major selling point of LinkedIn is ability to connect people and that doesn't work unless you have enough people on your platform. Functionality-wise LinkedIn is extremely simple. Most of the functionality of the platform is cruft.
"Ad-free" -- it just means: I can't monetize it yet. Unfortunately, this will not work with subscription fee as I just can't imagine people would switch from LinkedIn to whatever you are proposing but also asked to pay for it when they don't need to pay for LI.
"Zero-cost" -- obviously, a platform that only makes sense when majority of people you work with also use it, must be zero-cost. It is not a selling point, it is a necessity in today's world where people expect these things to be given out for free (or don't understand what the actual cost is).
"zero-cost" + "ad-free" + "no backing" + "I need lots of users for this to make sense" is a deadly combination. How do you plan to cover running costs?
"I built" -- no, you did not built it yet. Writing code to have a functionality is a trivial exercise for a newbie developer. Getting half of the planet to use it and scale it to meet the challenge is the tricky part.
Don't get discouraged, but also don't be naive and don't treat people as if they are naive.
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Valid point. Yet millions of people each day make buying decisions based on a simple 5-star rating. Trading shares is a very pure way to represent market value, whether that is company stock or cryptocurrency. We see an opportunity to apply the concept to a professional digital reputation? Where the TRU Score can be used as a form of currency. Separate from the TRU Score, the platform provides the ability to connect…
They're making purchase decisions on 5-star ratings for eg consumer goods, objects. You're talking about trading people virtually. It's going to be extraordinarily offensive and maybe worse. Prepare for an incredible wave of never-ending lawsuits from the large number of people who don't like 1) being traded at all or 2) don't like how they're trading / being represented. And the service will lose those lawsuits: it'…
I remember an acquaintance of mine, Siqi Chen, built Friends for Sale back in the day on Facebook and that was a great launch pad for his career, where he did a lot more interesting stuff later :)
Out of all the article about FFS, I don't remember ANYONE mentioning it was offensive back then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_for_Sale
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#19How do you plan to compete against LinkedIn & monetise?
We believe the platform is attractive to professionals who want an easy, privacy-focused way to promote the services they offer, with the ability to differentiate themselves from people offering the same/similar services. The platform is zero-cost, ad-free and includes direct messages. I hope the UI is more easy to navigate and understand, compared to LinkedIn. The TRU Score, while somewhat controversial, is more pow…
> where you [as a seller] pays the buyer for considering your services
Isn't this just ads?
Re: Show HN: I built a zero-cost, ad-free alternative to LinkedIn
#20[deleted]