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Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

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Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#111

Post by tootie »

nebqr wrote: post #97

I think that the (dead, gay) Something Awful forums model is a decent solution to content moderation and monetization. An account is 10 dollars (lifetime). If you get banned, you have to pay 10 dollars again. Permabanned = can't come back. Premium? (dms, search, custom avatar) 10 dollars. Change your avatar? 5 dollars. Change someone else's avatar? 10 dollars. Ad free? 10 dollars. Access to archives (posts over a cer…

One-time fees are not very sustainable. Unless the model included essentially building an endowment the first ten years and then funding the business off of interest.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#112

Post by ceejayoz »

nickdothutton wrote: post #73

I can’t help but think part of the answer is to offer users more powerful filtering, so that they may exercise their own free will over what they see and hear. Sure some would choose an extremely narrow subsection of society to hear from, but others would cast their net wider. One might even choose to monetise “smart filters” that took the legwork out of building and maintaining such filters. The “smartness” need not…

You say "powerful", I hear "complicated".

If you're on Twitter and you get targeted by, say, Ben Shapiro, the horde that comes at you isn't trivially filterable/blockable. There'll be thousands of them, and they're creative; just like spammers/phishers, they make a game out of evading mitigation measures.

At volume, this is a very tough problem to solve.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#114

Post by marcusverus »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #82
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #24

I think you're jumping into the technical bits right away without thinking through requirements/features. Maybe we (the royal 'we' as in all of humanity) shouldn't have a public town square? When you build something to have marginalized voices be heard you are also including all marginalized voices. The MarginalizedVoice super object has EqualRightsForSquirrels as well as HatefulRacistUncle child objects. There are v…

But we already have a "public town square": it's called DNS, Domain Name System, and it's great. With about $20/year you get "verified" and everyone knows you own "foo.com", or .whatever [1]. It's just that we, as in we the users, failed this great "public town square" because as soon as we get in the public we get scared and need to belong to a tribe: the Twitter tribe, the TikTok tribe, the Instagram tribe, and so…

> But we already have a "public town square": it's called DNS, Domain Name System, and it's great. With about $20/year you get "verified" and everyone knows you own "foo.com", or .whatever [1].

A public square is "an open public area in a city or town where people gather". DNS is far too abstract to even remotely resemble a public square--just like "capitalism" or "zoning laws" are too abstract to resemble a public square.

Nor is foo.com a digital public square (just like your house isn't a physical public square). Public squares (digital and physical) are places where people already gather.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#115

Post by Gordonjcp »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #79
jefftk wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't build something with public town squares. That's only a feature platform builders want in order to sell advertisement Why would advertisers prefer public town squares? They just want people to see their ads. (I also like "public town square" places, as a user)

A "public town square" that allows anyone to post and comment is going to be paid by page views. The way to get more page views is to have controversial or viral content because it will bring the comments and page views. That will get the most advertisers. A closed/private group platform isn't going to get as many advertisers.

STOP! DON'T CLICK SUBMIT! DID YOU INSTALL GRAMMARNAZI?!!?

No, the adverts are going to go in your private posts and messages, so you have to see the advert before you get the message.

Like this one.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#116

Post by sirsinsalot »

I think the issue is when everyone has a platform, not everyone is heard. Loud, controversial minorities win over other content. The critical thinking level of the global population, on average is terrifyingly low. We forget this in engineering circles.

There's also the issue of accepting that what we find distasteful, offensive or horrific is a cultural artifact of the time we live. Generally accepted common sense today would've had you at the gallows not that long ago.

I think the only way forward is with compassion. Compassion for people who hate, who are racist, who think the world is flat, who have views that we can't stand. These people are maginalised BY us. Their opinions do not reflect cultural norms, and our varied norms fail to co-exist on a global level.

Compassion. Tolerance and kind acceptance of those we dislike. We don't have to agree, and we should certainly control those that do physical harm to others.

The rest is compassion and education as the river of culture winds around.

If we can't build that into a system, the system will just be either a repeat of Twitter or echo chambers of toxic agreeability.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#118

Post by wufufufu »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #24

I think you're jumping into the technical bits right away without thinking through requirements/features. Maybe we (the royal 'we' as in all of humanity) shouldn't have a public town square? When you build something to have marginalized voices be heard you are also including all marginalized voices. The MarginalizedVoice super object has EqualRightsForSquirrels as well as HatefulRacistUncle child objects. There are v…

What if we let people design their own content filters? That way the platform itself doesn't have to. You can easily select popular filters from a marketplace and the number one option will probably be "hide hate speech" or "hide all politics".

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#119

Post by nebqr »

tootie wrote: post #111
nebqr wrote: post #97

I think that the (dead, gay) Something Awful forums model is a decent solution to content moderation and monetization. An account is 10 dollars (lifetime). If you get banned, you have to pay 10 dollars again. Permabanned = can't come back. Premium? (dms, search, custom avatar) 10 dollars. Change your avatar? 5 dollars. Change someone else's avatar? 10 dollars. Ad free? 10 dollars. Access to archives (posts over a cer…

One-time fees are not very sustainable. Unless the model included essentially building an endowment the first ten years and then funding the business off of interest.

The SA forums have been going since 1999.

Re: Ask HN: How would you design an alternative Twitter

#120

Post by jabagonuts »

1. Start with a simple tech stack you’re already familiar with though this will likely change over time 2. Build a few of your favorite features, either because you want to use them yourself or because you like building that kind of feature 3. Get your friends and family to use it with you 4. Listen to their feedback, or ignore it, and build the next few interesting features 5. Get your friends’ friends and family to try it out and give you feedback 6. Keep going as long as you enjoy the process

You may not end up where you set out to go, but at least you enjoyed the ride and learned something new!

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