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I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

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Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#451

Post by avianlyric »

dgellow wrote: post #419

> the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only. Isn’t it insane that Apple refuses for an app to be listed on the App Store if it is intended to be niche? If true that’s pretty shocking

It’s always been true. If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc

They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#452

Post by delis-thumbs-7e »

arlattimore wrote: post #319

Tapping phones seems very limiting. I don’t see most of my friends in person that often, different cities etc. I think a better alternative would be a phone number. You only give your number to friends, which aligns with the brand and product concept. Allows more of your friends to join via your address book, good for the app growth. Might also mean indirectly you can’t follow a non-personal page which also aligns to…

Maybe it’s just not for you then.

Why people automatically think that social media should be like facebook and you should be global entity with billions of users? Wouldn’t actual social - in the literal meaning of the word - media mean that you share cool shit with maybe 3-10 of your closest friends who you actually see and hang out with, who are local to you? If you have an online game community, maybe you should meet once a year for IRL beer to tap phones? Perhaps we don’t live in a global village after all, perhaps we are are dumb tribal monkeys with super computers in our pockets?

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#453

Post by pbasista »

JimDabell wrote: post #400
chr15m wrote: post #98

Here's what I would do. 1. Make it QR code scanning instead of tapping so it can be a PWA. 2. Make it a PWA. This will make it accessible to many more people. Nobody wants to install an app. Nobody wants to install a PWA either but they will at least use a "web site" (a surprising number will install it if it's good). 3. Save yourself a lot of money by building it on top of the Nostr protocol. Run a relay yourself if…

> Make it a PWA. This will make it accessible to many more people. Nobody wants to install an app. Nobody wants to install a PWA either but they will at least use a "web site" (a surprising number will install it if it's good). I’ve worked on a platform for social media apps. When the social network had a native iOS app, a native Android app, and a PWA, users chose iOS about two thirds of the time, Android about a qu…

> People strongly prefer native apps to PWAs

Such a conclusion cannot reasonably be made from the data you have presented. It merely means that your web app was not preferred over your native app.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#454

Post by karel-3d »

moondance wrote: post #399
vector_spaces wrote: post #126

The 'tapping phones' gimmick strikes me as something that sounds cute but will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of. Particularly given various unintended side effects -- I personally wouldn't want my connection to my deceased best friend to be subject to some decay feature on a social network. And either way, it's not the core feature that will draw users to the site If you want to differen…

As others have mentioned, “Bump!” did it 15 years ago and it was little more than a novelty, despite its Google acquisition. iOS has also had the tapping-phones-to-connect feature baked in for years (NameDrop) and no one uses it. Curious how that OS-level functionality might conflict with the app-level bumping. That aside, w all respect to the poster, it strikes me that they took that comment and ran with it before d…

I have used NameDrop about 4-5 times (in 10-ish years of using iPhone). It's not nothing! But it's also not that much.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#455

Post by Havoc »

dgellow wrote: post #419

> the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only. Isn’t it insane that Apple refuses for an app to be listed on the App Store if it is intended to be niche? If true that’s pretty shocking

It’s likely more the exclusionary nature rather than niche per se that was the challenge

Then again presumably there are plenty of organization specific apps that are also decidedly exclusionary

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#457

Post by kristopherleads »

moondance wrote: post #399
vector_spaces wrote: post #126

The 'tapping phones' gimmick strikes me as something that sounds cute but will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of. Particularly given various unintended side effects -- I personally wouldn't want my connection to my deceased best friend to be subject to some decay feature on a social network. And either way, it's not the core feature that will draw users to the site If you want to differen…

As others have mentioned, “Bump!” did it 15 years ago and it was little more than a novelty, despite its Google acquisition. iOS has also had the tapping-phones-to-connect feature baked in for years (NameDrop) and no one uses it. Curious how that OS-level functionality might conflict with the app-level bumping. That aside, w all respect to the poster, it strikes me that they took that comment and ran with it before d…

Funnily enough, I only use the phone bumping feature when AirDrop is broken and won't detect I'm literally right next to my spouse.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#458

Post by fundatus »

avianlyric wrote: post #451
dgellow wrote: post #419

> the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only. Isn’t it insane that Apple refuses for an app to be listed on the App Store if it is intended to be niche? If true that’s pretty shocking

It’s always been true. If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it.

> If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc

Yeah, but that wouldn't be an option for this app obviously.

> They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it.

Then they should add alternative methods. Instead they are actively sabotaging such efforts, for example by the EU. Want to distribute an iOS app in the EU through the web? Yeah, as a requirement you need an app with 1m annual downloads[1] already in the AppStore before they allow you to do that. Which completely defeats the point.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/support/web-distribution-eu/

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#460

Post by 1970-01-01 »

vidarh wrote: post #344
1970-01-01 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AOL has them beat by another 5. You need to go back to ARPA to find the first one. Social networks are just networks with humans at each end.

That's not how the term is being used. Six Degrees had all the features we associate with a social network, such as profiles, and the ability to create connections.

So AOL profile and friends
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