121–130 of 147 posts
I really can't see the point in this. > Tagline: “Instagram for your thoughts.” That will be a hard no from me thanks.
Public networks are dead. We did it for two decades and now people need to go back to something more real and private. Social networks in the current form are just attention seeking. We've been trained to say things that will garner likes and retweets. I welcome text and chat, maybe even voice to text but not in the public form. Closed networks only now.
Public networks are a lot more hostile than we realize while we have moderation armies at work. That may not be a sustainable model. I think the way forward is building the right tools to help communities self-manage. It will be more like Discord and less like Twitter.
Self-hosting content is really the only solution for a social network that doesn't include moderation. Any centralized datastore will be subject to local laws around the globe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instagram isn't used by most people to 'drive insane engagement'. It's a relaxing place to share pictures and memes - and one that fortunately avoids most of the political insanity which makes other social networks exhausting and polarising. I don't want less 'limited' conversations on instagram. Its a place I look at and post pictures from my life, memories, moments with friends. Fuck engagement. Fuck the competitiv…
I guess that is why its a separate app. Its not turning instagram to twitter, but it offers an additional space.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I use WhatsApp, my family uses WhatsApp, my wife's family uses WhatsApp. I found it to be an incredibly effective tool and was a really big fan of Jan Koum and Brian Acton pre-sale to Facebook. And now, I wonder how to replace it. Signal did not become a replacement, if anything it's not that great because user friendliness trumps everything else. Networks are sticky and shifting a network is a damn near impossi…
Telegram seems like the logical choice. It has everything WhatsApp does and more.
I want the com util app to be contacts only and groups invite only.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I use WhatsApp, my family uses WhatsApp, my wife's family uses WhatsApp. I found it to be an incredibly effective tool and was a really big fan of Jan Koum and Brian Acton pre-sale to Facebook. And now, I wonder how to replace it. Signal did not become a replacement, if anything it's not that great because user friendliness trumps everything else. Networks are sticky and shifting a network is a damn near impossi…
> I'm personally developing more and more conviction around the idea of doing something that first tries to tackle this on a personal level before doing it for others e.g How do I get my family off WhatsApp. You are on the right track, but I would say we don't need even need to get them "off" WhatsApp, we just need to get an intolerant minority [0] who refuses to compromise. I deleted WhatsApp from my phone and told…
I would say the problem with this idea is that your family is often just one group chat. She has maybe 50 threads of different groups in WA, for her moving off WA would be near impossible not because all the groups she communicates with are on there. The other thing to keep in mind is, the "HN Crowd" knows the full implications of having conversations on WA, for just about everyone else they just see a really convenient app that works extremely well. After using it I concluded that it works better than the native iMessage app on your iPhone, which just speaks to how good the app is (in terms of being an app).
The argument to move people to another app is really uphill battle because it's purely ideological/data privacy/etc related. I could easily convince someone to move to Slack from Teams because Teams sucks as an app. But the issue with WhatsApp is that as an app, it's one of the most well build and best performing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm personally developing more and more conviction around the idea of doing something that first tries to tackle this on a personal level before doing it for others e.g How do I get my family off WhatsApp. You are on the right track, but I would say we don't need even need to get them "off" WhatsApp, we just need to get an intolerant minority [0] who refuses to compromise. I deleted WhatsApp from my phone and told…
Thanks for sharing that sentiment. I don't quite take the same view on it but understand the approach can be effective. I stopped using slack at some point and it meant I did not speak to the specific group of friends who only communicated through slack. It turned out to be a so-so thing. In some ways I don't know whether it had more negative or positive impact. By taking a stance on it, maybe it was only detrimental…
Both my parents are getting closer to their 70's, I got both of them to use Element. Yes, they are still on WhatsApp, yes they would prefer if I used it as well and my grumpy old man always complains about the many quirks from Element's UI on iOS. But at the end of they day we still talk frequently, they still get to see their grandkids, we still have a group to share photos and videos, etc.
The important point that I want to drive home: even if they are still using some other app, my refusal to join has made them aware and able to adopt an alternative.
> I personally want to move some of my private content and conversations off public servers and on to one I control.
As long as you are using
(a) your own domain to keep control of your identity
(b) something based on open standards so that you can port different providers
(c)end-to-end encryption
does it really matter if you are running the service?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm personally developing more and more conviction around the idea of doing something that first tries to tackle this on a personal level before doing it for others e.g How do I get my family off WhatsApp. You are on the right track, but I would say we don't need even need to get them "off" WhatsApp, we just need to get an intolerant minority [0] who refuses to compromise. I deleted WhatsApp from my phone and told…
My girlfriend is Brazilian and she uses WhatsApp a...lot... I would say the problem with this idea is that your family is often just one group chat. She has maybe 50 threads of different groups in WA, for her moving off WA would be near impossible not because all the groups she communicates with are on there. The other thing to keep in mind is, the "HN Crowd" knows the full implications of having conversations on WA,…
There is nothing "impossible" about leaving Whatsapp. I'm also from Brazil, I also had the "family chat group". My cousins are still my cousins after I left the group. I can still talk with them through in person, on the phone, email, SMS. The fact that some of them don't want to join Matrix is not a deal breaker, just like my refusal to be on WhatsApp should not be a deal breaker for them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't count DAU as an accurate measurement when you're subsidizing half the number with carrier deals. For hundreds of millions in other countries, FB is the internet because it's cheaper than...the internet.
It's also often the only place to find local information even if you do have affordable internet. Especially in smaller counties and towns. Someone might show up in the count, but it doesn't mean a strong attachment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm personally developing more and more conviction around the idea of doing something that first tries to tackle this on a personal level before doing it for others e.g How do I get my family off WhatsApp. You are on the right track, but I would say we don't need even need to get them "off" WhatsApp, we just need to get an intolerant minority [0] who refuses to compromise. I deleted WhatsApp from my phone and told…
>deleted WhatsApp from my phone and told my close friends and family "For reasons X, Y and Z, I don't want to use Facebook products anymore. If you want to reach me, I am using Matrix. I can add you to my communick account [1] and I can help you set up your client. I know that this is an inconvenience but I think we should all revise our priorities and stop putting "convenience" above all else I'm assuming you're soc…
> 90+% didn't want to deal with the hassle of using a different application.
On the positive side, this means that 10% of your friends are willing to try a different application to keep connecting with you. This means that if we take Dunbar's number (150) as the average size of a social circle, every person that refuses to join WhatsApp leads to 15 other people getting acquainted to an alternative network. Any network that managed to capture 10% of WhatsApp userbase would be more than sustainable, and if you imagine that as soon as secondary effects kick-in, the friction will get lower and lower.
> I wonder what percentage of your friends and family dropped off?
Dropped off from casual conversation? A good part. They are still friends, though. I can pick up the phone and call them, or send them an email like people used to less than a generation ago...
If your friends/peers can not accept personal change or let it affect your relationship, then you are dealing with shitty friends to begin with.