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Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

slowsocial.us

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Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#31

Post by CitrusFruits »

mind-blight wrote: post #22
CitrusFruits wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, OP here. I, like many others tend to waffle between loving and hating social media, so this is my take on what I think a better solution looks like. This is something I've been working on for the past couple of months and a concept that I think will be though provoking, if nothing else, to the HN community. If you want to read more on my thoughts and the story behind this, you can check out my blog post…

I'm really curious what your business model is and how you make money. I looked under those sections on the about page, but they don't actually answer the question.

The app is just launching, and it's a side hustle. Everything right now can run on a free tier, and I'm fairly certain I can support a _very_ sizeable amount of users for But, if I get there, the plan would be to explore charging something reasonable for a plus tier which would offer more formatting options, more pictures per post, and a couple other things, for something nominal like $3 of a month. That could help cover the overhead, and maybe would result in some cash on the side.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#32

Post by CitrusFruits »

riffic wrote: post #20
slater wrote: post #2

Not sure if it's your site, but the sign-up and magic link went straight to my GMail's spam folder, with the link removed.

curious who they're using for transactional email. there are unfortunately a few hoops to jump through to ensure deliverability.

Supabase does the auth emails. If you make a post and have the service email it for you, it uses Sendgrid which seems to make it past the spam folder most of the time.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#33

Post by nsomaru »

kqr wrote: post #13

> The goal of the company is to equally value the customer, environment, and profits. In other words, the model isn't to maximize profit like an investor backed startup, but rather to create a lean, useful piece of software that grows with its users and can sustain itself from every angle from day one. If the owners are separate from the users, it's not set up for sustainability. If someone other than the users bear…

I’m not sure how this works in the US but I would be worried about attracting liability for what happens on the platform.

How does that work?

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#34

Post by riffic »

CitrusFruits wrote: post #32
riffic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

curious who they're using for transactional email. there are unfortunately a few hoops to jump through to ensure deliverability.

Supabase does the auth emails. If you make a post and have the service email it for you, it uses Sendgrid which seems to make it past the spam folder most of the time.

make sure you got the right dns records in place as well. I haven't looked at your mail headers yet[0] but you probably want to send from a separate subdomain than the one you use for everyday use (like for team@slowsocial.us).

[0] This may be seen as a back-handed way of saying I have no intention of signing up, but I didn't intend for it to be.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#35

Post by Barrin92 »

civilized wrote: post #6

Respect the effort, but I think it's not going in quite the right direction. I don't think people need paternalistic restrictions on post frequency. People need to be liberated from engagement-optimizing algorithms and allowed to choose which activity is presented to them and in what order.

I think 'the algorithm' truly is the bogeyman of our time. Have you considered that it is precisely people themselves who crave engagement and that it is the often reviled paternalism which liberates people from following their worst instincts?

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#36

Post by dansiemens »

civilized wrote: post #6

Respect the effort, but I think it's not going in quite the right direction. I don't think people need paternalistic restrictions on post frequency. People need to be liberated from engagement-optimizing algorithms and allowed to choose which activity is presented to them and in what order.

I agree to some extent. The “medium is the message”; let the outcomes of post frequency be determined by the structure of the platform. Whether that structure should be more prescriptive than descriptive though is certainly up for debate.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#37

Post by charcircuit »

One big issue with this model is that you can't build an audience. You can't make friends. What's the point of using the site when all of your posts go to the void. Even if you add a friend all of those posts you worked hard on are gone.

If it takes a long time before there is new content to see, why would people visit the site instead of forgetting about it? How are you going to make it a rabbit for people to go there?

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#38

Post by lvl102 »

CitrusFruits wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, OP here. I, like many others tend to waffle between loving and hating social media, so this is my take on what I think a better solution looks like. This is something I've been working on for the past couple of months and a concept that I think will be though provoking, if nothing else, to the HN community. If you want to read more on my thoughts and the story behind this, you can check out my blog post…

Looks great and love the concept. What’s the tech stack behind it?

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#39

Post by CitrusFruits »

riffic wrote: post #25

really dig the "slow" idea. Will you federate? There's a good argument for this here (you would have a built-in audience of at least 5m accounts): https://www.michellelim.org/writing/into-the-fediverse/ Federation could be your "moat" to avoid joining the Club of Abandoned Social Apps (it's a harsh ecosystem, ask Clubhouse or App.Net).

Probably won't federate. TBH, federation doesn't appeal to me that much. I recognize it has benefits, but it also introduces significant complexity.

Plus, Slow Social is already designed to work with the most widely adopted federated platform: email. Posts can be sent as emails, and there is no comment system other than opening up an email and starting a conversation with them that way.

Re: Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers

#40

Post by skippyboxedhero »

civilized wrote: post #6

Respect the effort, but I think it's not going in quite the right direction. I don't think people need paternalistic restrictions on post frequency. People need to be liberated from engagement-optimizing algorithms and allowed to choose which activity is presented to them and in what order.

One way to look at it is a restriction on post frequency, but the reason why modern social is so harmful is because unlimited post frequency means unlimited read frequency.

It isn't restricted post frequency, it is restricted read frequency.

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