Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#51

Post by scyzoryk_xyz » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:26 PM UTC

shanebellone wrote: post #17

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #14

Personally, I think something like mastodon is better for this purpose. You can post your HN related stuff hashtagged #hackernews and others might follow. That being said - IMHO if you want a social network or community, don’t call it a “communal product”. Products are for making money and whatnot.

Should social media be a profit-driven enterprise as a civilization-scale product?

¯\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

I mean this question is way too big for this sort of thread. I would say that simply calling it a “product” already reveals a certain ideological bias to begin with.

It’s like the difference between a city square and a shopping mall as a place for a society or community.

What is unique about this place is that many people here are more than qualified to build pretty much anything. So, it would be safe to assume that if we wanted something different, we would probably just build it.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#52

Post by n4r9 » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:26 PM UTC

> The social network would allow users to arrange into small topical groups called social circles.

This sounds like Google+ : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B

I loved the idea back then. As other commenters have pointed out, the structure and design of the network is not the biggest factor influencing its success.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#53

Post by yucky » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:27 PM UTC

anon1094 wrote: post #4

shanebellone wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that HN is a collective not a social network.

You're being social right now, on Hacker News.

By that argument, email, text messaging and even phone calls are a part of social media.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#54

Post by shanebellone » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

n4r9 wrote: post #52

> The social network would allow users to arrange into small topical groups called social circles. This sounds like Google+ : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B I loved the idea back then. As other commenters have pointed out, the structure and design of the network is not the biggest factor influencing its success.

I wasn't aware of Google's use of "circles" so thanks for the share!

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#55

Post by squarefoot » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

Google tried this, and failed. Actually they failed from their point of view: Google Plus had some good points over Facebook, but they wanted it to become #1 in no time, which simply couldn't be done because it was already too late. Had they kept the project alive, they could have benefited from the current situation at Twitter.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#56

Post by germinalphrase » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

The only “social media” features I would accept on HN are: (1) reply notification so I can keep a thread going, and (2) increased visibility of comments/posts of selected users through conditional color coding. I don’t want any other notifications, curation, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#57

Post by pak9rabid » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

I've toyed with the idea of having a standardized and decentralized social network that would work much like how SMTP (or XMPP) does today, in that each domain could have it's own set of social media servers, controlled via SRV records, and data is propagated and cached on-demand between domains that socialize with each other. Obviously, great care would need to be taken to ensure the Internet isn't just flooded with a bunch of traffic all the time (see: intelligent caching solutions). This way, no single commercial entity is able to control and manipulate it to their own advantage to the detriment of its users.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#58

Post by fleddr » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #11

If Hacker News tried building a social network, we'd spend the whole time arguing about every single micro-decision and getting nowhere.

Plus, the new site is useless because it doesn't work on SnowLinux Puppy v3.1 with HTML, CSS, JS and electricity disabled. Also don't like the scrollbar.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#59

Post by hardnose » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

Seems like a recipe for elitism. The groups of interesting people would be virtually impossible to get into, and the pleb groups would be boring.

One of the things that worked about internet discussions of the past is that they prioritized quality of ideas, not importance of identity or who you know or any of that. Social media turned that on its head, I think a successful model might involve turning it back. More like UseNet than Facebook.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#60

Post by baxtr » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

bil7 wrote: post #6

I think what would really be great is a social media site that doesn't offer direct image or video hosting. A bit like how reddit used to be. You just have link aggregation, voting, and comments. That's it. Maybe in a nice, clean, minimal UI as well. This would lend itself to tech folk I think. If only it existed.

Great idea. To add: I think the site would also need a rock star moderator who diligently checks every comment and keeps the site clean. Also maybe it would be great to have a voting system where one could downvote as well! But only after a certain number of upvotes I think.