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

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

#171

Post by ineptech »

jacooper wrote: post #167
ineptech wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't be first-tier friends with people you only know from the internet. You'd be first-tier friends with neighbors and cousins and the other parents at your kids' school. Then when I prove (keybase style) that I, HN user ineptech, am also "ineptech" on this social network, you would know that I really am a 48-year-old guy in Portland and not some other person because I have also friended all my irl friends, a…

But why ? Why would you expose your entire real life social circle to the internet?

If you don't want people to know that you're friends with Dave, don't friend Dave, or don't use it at all. This isn't supposed to replace pseudo-anonymous networks like Twitter, this is more like Facebook without all the bullshit. The use case is "I know Dave, and I don't care who knows that I'm friends with Dave, and I'd like to let him know I won't make it to the PTA meeting without involving an enormous advertising corporation".

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

#172

Post by adventured »

> How could we build a communal product for the public? Theoretically, this approach would result in a better product.

Theoretically it'll result in either a far worse product or a product that never ships.

Committees, bureaucracy (which is what an HN communal product would be) is a particularly bad way to do software.

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

#173

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

kxrm wrote: post #79

I've been thinking about this for a while as well and feel that it all depends who is the audience of this service. One idea is to define geographical limits to participate. That aligns with your cap idea. The nice thing about this model is it allows participants easy access to get to know others near them. This has real world benefits for strengthening a local community. A second idea I had, especially relevant to H…

> One idea is to define geographical limits to participate.

Pretty sure you just invented NextDoor.

Also, this would mean you couldn't be friends with people you meet online. You immediately would eliminate gaming communities, even closer-knit ones like in-game guilds.

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

#174

Post by aliqot »

shanebellone wrote: post #138
ineptech wrote: post #129

Fleeting idea that could be combined with that: a web-of-trust social network where you can only "friend" people in real life, by tapping phones. When you do so, the app might say, "The person you just met claims to be Joe Schmoe, do you want to vouch for them?" If you approve them, they can message you and vice versa. A friend of Joe's can see you in his friend list, and try to message you, and you can accept it if…

This is actually really interesting. Marrying digital with physical is an interesting approach. The problem of proximity is a unique point of friction which might also temper digital communication. If the application "lived" on cellphones and communicated with a P2P protocol, users could truly own their data (excluding the data they share with their network).

I dont use telephones. Nice knowing you guys, I guess. We can still think of the good times.

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

#175

Post by uxamanda »

ineptech wrote: post #129

Fleeting idea that could be combined with that: a web-of-trust social network where you can only "friend" people in real life, by tapping phones. When you do so, the app might say, "The person you just met claims to be Joe Schmoe, do you want to vouch for them?" If you approve them, they can message you and vice versa. A friend of Joe's can see you in his friend list, and try to message you, and you can accept it if…

Reminds me a bit of PGP and a key signing party. In that case the goal is to verify government docs to help someone verify they are who they say they are, but you can also give greater trust levels to the people you actually know.

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

#176

Post by matt3D »

> It requires a fundamental change from the reach model towards concentric social circles. The social network would allow users to arrange into small topical groups called social circles. These social circles would have a cap of 10 (arbitrary number) members. Each user could take part in many social circles. This inherently limits reach and therefore reduces the burden of misinformation, abuse, and moderation.

Isn't this just group messaging (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal etc.)? This is pretty much the only 'social networking' I do.

The only way I can rationalise any other sort of social network being successful is that deep down people actually want strangers or loose acquaintances to see their updates. Everything is on a parasocial scale from group messaging with an equal relationship through to Facebook, then Twitter all the way to Youtube where the relationship is completely one sided.

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

#177

Post by pax »

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've been dreaming of a platform where each post is categorized (manually, by choosing a circle/channel, or automatically detected), as I'm not interested in all the content / themes of people I'd follow. Besides G+, I remember Pownce had a similar feature.

It would also be helpful to be able to choose your feed sorting algorithm - chronologically or else.

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

#178

Post by jacooper »

corytheboyd wrote: post #158

A ten person social network is a group chat...? I don't want a whole website with ads to justify its own existence. I just want to send and receive fun moments with a few lads every now and then.

I really like how Signal implemented stories, you can post stories to a group chat.

So you can just share a story with your lads in a group.

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

#179

Post by wylie39 »

ineptech wrote: post #129

Fleeting idea that could be combined with that: a web-of-trust social network where you can only "friend" people in real life, by tapping phones. When you do so, the app might say, "The person you just met claims to be Joe Schmoe, do you want to vouch for them?" If you approve them, they can message you and vice versa. A friend of Joe's can see you in his friend list, and try to message you, and you can accept it if…

scuttlebutt[0] is like this.

0:https://scuttlebutt.nz/about/

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

#180

Post by redler »

jacooper wrote: post #167
ineptech wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't be first-tier friends with people you only know from the internet. You'd be first-tier friends with neighbors and cousins and the other parents at your kids' school. Then when I prove (keybase style) that I, HN user ineptech, am also "ineptech" on this social network, you would know that I really am a 48-year-old guy in Portland and not some other person because I have also friended all my irl friends, a…

But why ? Why would you expose your entire real life social circle to the internet?

The fact of the "vouch" could provide the validation without identifying the people from whose circle overlap it was derived.
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