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Secret Shuts Down

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Re: Secret Shuts Down

#121

Post by Giorgi »

nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

Yeah, except 4chan is not what it used to be, main user base abandoned the ship long ago.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#122

Post by Giorgi »

testguy34 wrote: post #103
maxerickson wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan isn't a cesspool though, that's just an image they project to push away people who would respond to such pushing (approximately, the olds). (There are certainly parts of it that are risky clicks though)

Moderation on 4chan and /b/ has increased over the last year. Mostly to prevent the posting of peoples personal information. But the posting of shock images has also decreased. I don't know if they are being removed as well.

Yes, so-called "Social Justice Warriors" took over and made once uncensored board into heavily censored tumbr.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#123

Post by olivierkaisin »

The founder pretends that the investors have put money on the table to build a great team and a great product. If the problem resides in the product, I think pivoting is the least they can do in respect of their investors.

Giving back the money is ridiculous, especially when they pretend to be guided by the motto "Innovation requires failure".

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#124

Post by mahouse »

sergiotapia wrote: post #118
nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

4Chan is not going strong, in fact a large majority of their core users have migrated to 8Chan because of Moot's brainwashing by SJW.

That was certainly a really bad move—Obviously people were very pissed off.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#125

Post by downandout »

diminoten wrote: post #84
downandout wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> http://i.imgur.com/jNXw5PZ.png Here was the intended use of the $25M: "The funding will be used to implement two new features, a Facebook login and the ability to follow posts on a certain topic" . This is what is wrong with Silicon Valley today. An afternoon project for a single developer gets $25M from investors. Please, someone give me just $10M....I've already implemented Facebook login for my apps.

I am beyond certain that investors did not fork over $25M for the two features outlined. There's simply no way that's all they were spending the money for.

Yep. They probably had to buy several cases of coconut water, made some very expensive visits to the Apple store, and the founders maybe bought a Mercedes or two.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#126

Post by yuhong »

nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

I remember the threads on Vic Gundotra on Secret. And yes I agree that the decision to use real names or be anonymous in general should be left to the poster.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#127

Post by billmalarky »

smt88 wrote: post #67
GCA10 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! In Web 1.0, people raised $7 million to buy a domain name. Needing $12.5 million to implement a Facebook login ($25/2 projects) is even more ridiculous.

Box paid 7 figures for the Box.com domain name, so I wouldn't say that raising money to buy domains is dead yet.

Box bought box.com roughly 6 years after they launched, they were already wildly successful (as box.net).

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#128

Post by w4 »

nlh wrote: post #55

This has been a fascinating story to watch unfold (and experience as a user.) When Secret came out, the addiction bug bit me hard too -- it was _extremely_ compelling. I posted. My friends posted. Everyone was checking Secret obsessively. People were "communicating" with their exes (or so they thought), people were guessing who was posting what. It was fun. It was interesting. It pulled some emotional heartstrings (I…

> Then, at least in SF, it started being almost entirely about gay sexual fantasies. Friends in my circle started using it less, so it got less interesting to me. Eventually I stopped using it when nobody I knew was posting.

This happened in Boston as well. It was really odd how rapidly it changed from a mix of different types of posts to nearly all gay sex posts.

I wonder if that won't flow over to Yik Yak now that Secret has shut down?

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#129

Post by dvirsky »

gsibble wrote: post #63

I've never been more addicted to an app than when Secret first came out. It was all the rage in SF. I had to force myself to delete it after a few weeks in order to get back to productivity. I completely understand the hype. Personally, I feel this is a story about poor execution. They changed the nature of the app so significantly over time that it lost its appeal and never expanded successfully beyond the bay area.…

It went extremely viral in Israel about a year ago.

At first with the start-up community that's very connected to SF used it for internal gossip and anonymous whining and dissing.

Then it expanded naturally to young creative types (developers, designers, bloggers, journalists, etc) who are connected to the start-up scene, and became big in the gay community in Tel-Aviv, that highly overlaps both groups.

And then the mainstream media started raving about it, and it exploded with the masses and especially teens. At this point it just became a cesspool of online bullying for teens, and I lost interest in following its path. There was even a proposed law banning it in Israel or something (http://pando.com/2014/08/28/israel-becomes-latest-country-to...). But seeing this expansion graph over a period of 2-3 weeks last summer was fascinating.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#130

Post by bgun »

beat wrote: post #48

From my very limited perspective from outside Silicon Valley, Secret looked almost like an exercise in Silly Valley self-parody - like an elaborate joke that went too far. Did it implode? Yeah, sure. Did it ever make sense in the first place? Not really. pg says that great ideas often look like bad ideas. But I think it's also true that bad ideas often look like great ideas.

And that it's often hard to tell that a great idea has been poorly executed until it's too late.
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