Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Text-Only Social Network

subreply.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 240 posts

Re: Text-Only Social Network

#111

Post by microcolonel »

joe_the_user wrote: post #74

When you say "social network", do you mean Twitter Clone? It seems like developers in particular have come to regard Twitter as archetypal social networks despite it's many problems and the way the user doesn't really much ability to define their own social graph. IE, N-character limit is still a determiner of Twitter (poisonous) discourse quality, just for example and Twitter isn't something most people enjoy being…

> the user doesn't really much ability to define their own social graph

Far as I'm concerned, this is the main feature of Twitter. The only thing that really sets it apart is that every exchange is a public exchange.

This also (until recently) set a standard for statements, where if there are enough replies, and even the critical ones don't cast doubt on the statement, you could have more trust in it. Now of course it's uncertain, since Twitter automatically censors and pseudo-censors replies, including quality ones. Sometimes Twitter does this thing where it won't even show you a reply that you sent unless you have a direct link.

Re: Text-Only Social Network

#112

Post by microcolonel »

inopinatus wrote: post #97
ehsankia wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The character limit is the last of Twitters issue, in my opinion. I think the #1 issue is the retweet model, it leads to people just brainlessly sharing low effort content with a single click. It's similar to how fake news and misleading content thrive on Facebook. But notice how Instagram where it's impossible to easily re-share content (well, you can now in stories) is far less toxic.

An honest UI might use the word “echo” rather than “retweet”.

Retweet used to actually retweet things (i.e. pretend "RT" and the OP's handle), so it's like the floppy disk icon. Parler uses a megaphone.

Re: Text-Only Social Network

#114

Post by alexashka »

russellbeattie wrote: post #54

Bringing back social isn't about getting rid of images and focusing on ASCII text, it's about getting rid of URLs and article snippets, and refocusing solely on user created content. Remember when streams were only filled with updates from old friends and family with things like birthday parties, vacations, graduations, concerts, restaurant meals, etc., and nothing else? (Sort of like Instagram still is, but with tex…

> I'm amazed that a social-only network hasn't taken off yet that provides this basic functionality

You'd have a hell of a time making it profitable. It'd have to be run like a charity, which would cost nearly nothing in the scheme of things, but we just don't seem to have any people who want to do good and happen to have enough money to do it.

It'll take a rich rebel who gets tired of billionaire fine dining and says fuck it, I'm for the people who don't have a penny to their name, not you rich schmucks.

Re: Text-Only Social Network

#116

Post by bigiain »

65536 wrote: post #80
bigiain wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you'd prefer a proprietory centralised re-invetion of usenet (with binaries) rather than this proprietory centralised re-invention of IRC?

It’s not proprietary. https://github.com/Minichan/Minichan It’s open source and MIT licensed. Usenet is flooded with spam to the point of being unusable, and besides, having everyone use the same interface and see images alongside is different from having people use a multitude of different clients that present binary attachments in various different ways. With a decently sized crowd from HN, there could be a lot of…

> It’s not proprietary.

Yeah. I was being snarky without enough context to make myself clear there... Sorry.

> Usenet is flooded with spam to the point of being unusable,

What mechanisms do you see in place to stop this being an inevitable result for Minichan as well? It's a social problem not a technical one...

> With a decently sized crowd from HN, there could be a lot of interesting content on a Minichan like site.

Maybe. pg's recent comment about the amount of time and effort it has taken to curate this community into some semblance of civility suggest even "we, the magnificent HM community" are subject to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory as well... (I've had a few "bad days" and needed pulling into line by dang or others over the years...)

> Imagine an imageboard with people from HN

From what pg says, that'll most likely end up closer to 4Chan that HN - without several people in full time (well paid) roles who's job description includes community management/moderation (and who are good at it).

HN is a magical place _only_ because YC values it enough to have people like pg and dang and scott spend as vast chunk of their paid time making it this way. Those of us who benefit from this place owe a debt to pg's vision and YC's commitment, and are lucky it was founded by someone like pg instead of moot. (And at the same time, people who benefit from 4Chan owe similar thanks for diametrically opposed visions there.)

Re: Text-Only Social Network

#120

Post by bigiain »

leephillips wrote: post #93
bigiain wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanna try making that the letter E? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_(novel)

Yes, that always astonished me. This novel is famous, but I’ve never met anyone who’s actually read it.

I have :-)

It is, as you and everybody you know seems to have worked out, not really worth the effort, unless you are amused in just the right way by such things.

(I did start the French novel influenced by it, but my decades-rusty high school French comprehension was not up to the task...)

Post reply on HN