Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Welcome to the new web.

lists.whatwg.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 114 posts

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#61

Post by donw »

101001010111 wrote: post #52
dissident wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an administrator of an online message board, I concur. Web content is being so efficiently aggregated that some forums turn into the awkward conversation between two redditors: "Check this out!" "Heh, yeah. I saw that." Communities before were usually separated by platforms , because the platforms were not yet sophisticated enough to support vast communities of varying opinions. Now we have a few big players that…

In my opinion, such a platform, or several, using an entirely different paradigm, already exist. To overtake Facebook, it is simply a matter of making it as easy to use as Facebook, and Facebook annoyances having reached a breaking point. Whether there is yet sufficient impetus to do the UI work and whether Facebook users are ready to move on to the next thing is another question.

I'm going put put my two cents in, and say that a platform capable of replacing Facebook for discussion and community on the web has already been created.

It's called Reddit.

Bear with me here, I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion.

On Reddit, all content is open -- I don't think I've ever seen a 'closed' sub-reddit available only to members. I'm not sure it's even possible.

Yet, in spite of all communities being effectively open, most sub-reddits have a strong sense of community, and are very active. Personally, I really enjoy proggit and r/math for this reason -- active discussion, community moderation, and a strong sense of community.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#62

Post by rimantas »

ColdAsIce wrote: post #34
bad_user wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because of a lack of education, because we, the technically inclined people, have failed to serve the normal people, preferring instead to: 1) reinvent the wheel over and over, each time with a new interface, shinier and more limited than the one before it 2) cater more to our hypothetical grandmas instead of our children ... which ironically are able to write HTML in Notepad just fine, if taught how to do tha…

"People all over Europe have learned to drive cars with manual transmissions - because after the initial pain, the vegetative nervous system kicks in and the wheel, the pedals, the gear switch, all of them become a natural extension, of which you don't think about anymore, just like breathing. And if automatic transmissions are great too, that's because they stay out of your way." This is how it is, every time a user…

The UI "we already know" is there because designers did not listen to your advice, and I thank them for that. I am also glad, that I don't have to do everything via CLI (which I do like. For some tasks). I am also glad, that I don't have to scroll the content in the window by hunting some scrollbar with my mouse pointer. Hey, I also do like that I don't see scrollbars anymore on my OS.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#63

Post by gbog »

bad_user wrote: post #43
gbog wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google+ is not that small, and with their hooks in search, maps, mails, videos, etc, they can grab a significant portion of the social blob. They have some leverage. Someone reasoning like you do some 7 years ago would have said Hotmail was too big, but then they came with Gmail and it was a real break in. Imagine in a few months, G+ user can opt-in to see their friends' +1 on Youtube's videos in their stream, and fo…

So you're basically saying that Facebook will open-up because Google may force them by using their quasi-monopoly, pulling an IExplorer versus Netscape on them. However, I have my doubts that this will work, quite the contrary - Google may have GMail and Youtube, but while Google was experimenting with shoving Buzz down on Gmail users' throats, Facebook was busy becoming a platform. Which is the reason why Facebook i…

Ahem, you may be too pessimistic. I actually like the fact that Google is challenged on social content. When you have so many great people and you are challenged on an issue, it can give interesting results.

For instance, I am no fan of most of the changes in search (eg. Instant, Snippets) but I think that adjusting search result rankings to the "+1" of my circles is a big deal in long term. It makes "+1" an actually useful button. I now start using it as "intelligent bookmarking". Except if you believe in near future people will search Internet through Facebook or will not search at all, which I don't, then this little "+1" feature is a big leverage against Facebook.

Google are also challenged by Amazon with their platform, and I would be surprised if they did not prepare some thing on this side. It is just that, with Buzz and Wave, they learnt that one big company like them is not a start-up and therefore can't "release early, fail quickly, iterate" (as so often advocated here on HN). So we, observers, would better be patient.

Don't forget Chrome. It seems to me that this is an incredibly fast entrance in browser market, and really did shake things up, for the better. If Google, through its browser and mobile OS, find a way to make life much easier for open social network users, Facebook may have to comply. It would not be stupid for Facebook to be open, they would still have the biggest number of users, and their revenue should not drop just because they allow other social content provider to access their data openly (as long as they continue offering a good user experience).

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#64

Post by user24 »

donw wrote: post #61
101001010111 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, such a platform, or several, using an entirely different paradigm, already exist. To overtake Facebook, it is simply a matter of making it as easy to use as Facebook, and Facebook annoyances having reached a breaking point. Whether there is yet sufficient impetus to do the UI work and whether Facebook users are ready to move on to the next thing is another question.

I'm going put put my two cents in, and say that a platform capable of replacing Facebook for discussion and community on the web has already been created. It's called Reddit. Bear with me here, I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion. On Reddit, all content is open -- I don't think I've ever seen a 'closed' sub-reddit available only to members. I'm not sure it's even possible. Yet, in spite of all communities…

but you still have to register for reddit... reddit's owned by conde nast, it's not an open platform. Conde nast could at a moment's notice shut the entire thing down, or put it behind a paywall, or sell your 'likes' to an advertiser. This is a problem common to all centralised solutions.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#66

Post by user24 »

evertonfuller wrote: post #59

Someone call the UX police. Cannot read that. Looks like it got lost from 1995.

> Cannot read that

it's called 'text'. You've heard of 'words', yeah? Well text is just a collection of words - think of it like a photo album or playlist, but for words. We call them paragraphs.

The great thing about paragraphs is that you can group a whole bunch of words together to form more powerful concepts than the individual words themselves.

Paragraphs have a very simple UI - in fact you're using one right now!

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#67

Post by Raphael »

donw wrote: post #61
101001010111 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, such a platform, or several, using an entirely different paradigm, already exist. To overtake Facebook, it is simply a matter of making it as easy to use as Facebook, and Facebook annoyances having reached a breaking point. Whether there is yet sufficient impetus to do the UI work and whether Facebook users are ready to move on to the next thing is another question.

I'm going put put my two cents in, and say that a platform capable of replacing Facebook for discussion and community on the web has already been created. It's called Reddit. Bear with me here, I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion. On Reddit, all content is open -- I don't think I've ever seen a 'closed' sub-reddit available only to members. I'm not sure it's even possible. Yet, in spite of all communities…

There are private subreddits, such as Gryffindor.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#68

Post by 101001010111 »

user24 wrote: post #64
donw wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going put put my two cents in, and say that a platform capable of replacing Facebook for discussion and community on the web has already been created. It's called Reddit. Bear with me here, I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion. On Reddit, all content is open -- I don't think I've ever seen a 'closed' sub-reddit available only to members. I'm not sure it's even possible. Yet, in spite of all communities…

but you still have to register for reddit... reddit's owned by conde nast, it's not an open platform. Conde nast could at a moment's notice shut the entire thing down, or put it behind a paywall, or sell your 'likes' to an advertiser. This is a problem common to all centralised solutions.

This is the type of thinking that will hasten Facebook's demise. And it's a perfectly reasonable line of thought.

The next time you hear the phrase "It doesn't scale" in reference to something, ask yourself why it needs to. In some cases it might not.

Centralised approaches (e.g. websites on the open internet) obviously need to scale. Facebook is a public website. And it's on the open internet, for anyone with an account to see and ready to be hacked by those with skill who do not need accounts.

I always come back to this: How many people do you really need to be reading your profile? Friends, coworkers, family, ... potentially anyone, anywhere in the world with a computer and an internet connection? It just does not make sense.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#69

Post by mooki »

perfunctory wrote: post #38
ColdAsIce wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People all over Europe have learned to drive cars with manual transmissions - because after the initial pain, the vegetative nervous system kicks in and the wheel, the pedals, the gear switch, all of them become a natural extension, of which you don't think about anymore, just like breathing. And if automatic transmissions are great too, that's because they stay out of your way." This is how it is, every time a user…

> Stop designing ...thats a checkbox. Darn it. Exactly!

Yep! What I like about html is how predictable its limitations make it. I can visit a decade old website created by a 14-year old and have the smoothest user experience imaginable. Everything behaves the way you'd expect it.

Javascript is more powerful, but that also means more power to screw up. Sometimes the results are amazing (like Gmail) - but more often than not it just ends up confusing and frustrating, with vital parts of the UI hidden behind a clusterfuck of menus and widgets.

Post reply on HN