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Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#11

Post by tony-allan »

appleaday1 wrote: post #5
tony-allan wrote: post #4

The first thing is to check if a social network already exists that meets your needs such as a closed group using Telegram. I picked the first search result... https://www.jploft.com/blog/best-social-media-apps

I dont like Telegram, so far I have been testing Lemmy and we have like an instance or something working here: https://canzuck.zone/ to experiment with. Telegram kind of scares me I dont like what it has become. I use Discord nowadays, and if Discord made their chats or some of their communities visible online on Google, they would give other social networks a run for their money imho. For instance the 3d printing co…

I'm not a fan either but it serves as an example of my point that existing social networks might offer a solution for the poster.

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#12

Post by appleaday1 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #8

Bluesky has an algorithmic feed even though people think it doesn't. I am annoyed by emotionally negative political content on Mastodon and had to make a number of rules (no "fascist", "republican", "Trump", ...) to make it tolerable. I found Bluesky's algorithmic feed eliminated about 75% of emotionally negative content and thought it was a good feed without any rules (though I was being careful who I follow.) Then…

a lot of memes have texts in them, so you potentially remove ones where context matters a lot of people abuse these to redirect traffic from what I have seen.

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#13

Post by smt88 »

nextn wrote: post #9
smt88 wrote: post #7

You can't. Your best bet is to joint the fediverse so you can interoperate with existing networks, like Mastodon. > too much moderation > rampant bot abuse You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. These two of your goals are at odds with each other. I will also say that almost 100% of the value of reddit is the moderation. After Musk eviscerated Twitter's moderation, it became mor…

> You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. I want to see a social network that solves the bot problem by requiring a fee to post.

> I want to see a social network that solves the bot problem by requiring a fee to post.

I think this is doable without losing massive numbers of users. You could do it by requiring a small fee to post publicly, but you could post for free to your followers.

BlueSky kind of flirts with this model because you have to pay to get your own domain if you don't want to use theirs.

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#14

Post by asukachikaru »

nextn wrote: post #9
smt88 wrote: post #7

You can't. Your best bet is to joint the fediverse so you can interoperate with existing networks, like Mastodon. > too much moderation > rampant bot abuse You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. These two of your goals are at odds with each other. I will also say that almost 100% of the value of reddit is the moderation. After Musk eviscerated Twitter's moderation, it became mor…

> You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. I want to see a social network that solves the bot problem by requiring a fee to post.

Albeit the effect may very depending on the amount of the fee, I find it hard to imagine fee would stop the bot problem. World of Warcraft requires fee for accessing the most recent expansion, as well as the subscription, but it is swarmed by the bots all the same. IMO as long as there are traffic aka money, there will be bots.

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#15

Post by k310 »

Have a goal in mind. A social network is a tool to an end. What is the end?

I have found several use cases all trying to go on at the same time.

1. People with important group communications needing a large audience; i.e. scientists sharing research, organizations needing to contact people, special interest groups like Ham Radio (cuz they can't broadcast on their gear), photographers, musicians and so on.

2. Hot news feeds. These were added not to share news, but to lock people in with echo chamber news.

3. People simply wanting to communicate privately with friends and family and so on.

4. Local information of interest and need. Some is quite urgent, as in evacuation alerts; Some is important, like road closures and events, and some is caustic bullshit as in community gossip and flame wars. And LOCAL advertising can actually be useful and not just the "sports talk radio" carpet-bombing of tax attorneys, divorce lawyers, dick stiffeners, and house flippers.

5. Politics. I find that this is best in affinity groups that are heavily moderated. Trolls and bots gonna troll.

6. Probably more.

The more you address, the more diluted the product.

And the money model?

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#16

Post by paulcole »

nextn wrote: post #9
smt88 wrote: post #7

You can't. Your best bet is to joint the fediverse so you can interoperate with existing networks, like Mastodon. > too much moderation > rampant bot abuse You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. These two of your goals are at odds with each other. I will also say that almost 100% of the value of reddit is the moderation. After Musk eviscerated Twitter's moderation, it became mor…

> You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. I want to see a social network that solves the bot problem by requiring a fee to post.

Metafilter.com

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#19

Post by itake »

> The internet that I grew up with wasnt this political or bombareded with political news and such, I feel like this is really bad for peoples mental health and would like to help them.

maybe we had different internet (I grew up in the USA), but I remember a lot of shock porn/sites. I remember 4chan posting truly horrific content. I remember "prank" videos. I remember revenge porn. I'm kinda glad the internet has cleaned up a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How do I build a new social network?

#20

Post by setnone »

smt88 wrote: post #7

You can't. Your best bet is to joint the fediverse so you can interoperate with existing networks, like Mastodon. > too much moderation > rampant bot abuse You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. These two of your goals are at odds with each other. I will also say that almost 100% of the value of reddit is the moderation. After Musk eviscerated Twitter's moderation, it became mor…

for CSAM part i'm sure AI solution could work
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