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Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#151

Post by post_below »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #146
TomMasz wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you but Facebook, for better or worse, is the social networking site everyone you know is on. It has a tremendous advantage over any upstart for that reason. Lots of geeky folks flocked to Google+ in its early days but that wasn't enough to replace Facebook. Even when they gave everyone who had a Google account of some kind a G+ profile it still wasn't enough. I will definitely check this out but it'll be back…

Google+ always had a weird broken interface and they just never finished it. I was one of the geeks that flocked to it, and had plenty of friends there. It didn't fail because of network effects, it failed because they stopped working on it before it was finished. It was really strange and I always assumed at the time that Facebook and Google had come to some agreement behind the scenes.

It really was strange, continues to be, the way Google wanders away from products before finishing them.

I get ditching things that don't work, but G+ is a great example of something that had plenty of traction in it's early days and, as far as I can see, lost it purely because G didn't seem to care about it.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#152

Post by jay_kyburz »

psweber wrote: post #62
jermaustin1 wrote: post #14

I can't see this as a Facebook rival. From my understanding, this is a social news site with fact checking. I use Facebook to post pictures of my vacations for my family, and get updates on my nieces and nephews since I moved from Houston, TX to NYC 5 years ago. Until someone replaces that aspect in a way that works while still enabling my family to do their memes and quizzes, and all that crap I avoid, there will be…

I fantasize about a product like that sometimes. A private, pay social site geared towards families. Your family pays a yearly subscription. Photo/video sharing. Event planning. Family news timeline. Everything purely linear. No manipulation to maximize engagement. No ads. Just real information about your family that you care about. One side of my family has about 30 people that are all willing to travel to meet some…

I've been saying for years I want to make it, but every time I suggest it I get laughed out of the room. I have a few totally "out there" startup ideas, this is one.

The thing about this is, every family has that one person who will pay for this and they keep it updated. Most family members will just lurk, but some will be totally into it.

I bet they would even take things off Facebook and repost in this app so that people off Facebook can see too.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#154

Post by war1025 »

I just signed up, which it seems hasn't actually granted me access, even though the initial page it took me to did look like I had access? I don't really get it.

I think something people maybe aren't taking into account is that this doesn't need to be a "Facebook killer". People with Facebook also use any number of social media sites. It could just as easily be something like a Reddit substitute since it seems to be somewhat "groups" oriented.

Also, from what I can see, it isn't pay-to-play like some people have suggested. Rather, it seems to be exactly what I've seen multiple people advocate for: Pay for preferential service.

I'll keep an eye on it at least. Why not.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#155

Post by mythrwy »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #14

I can't see this as a Facebook rival. From my understanding, this is a social news site with fact checking. I use Facebook to post pictures of my vacations for my family, and get updates on my nieces and nephews since I moved from Houston, TX to NYC 5 years ago. Until someone replaces that aspect in a way that works while still enabling my family to do their memes and quizzes, and all that crap I avoid, there will be…

My extended family uses this: https://spokt.com/

There was some talk years ago about switching to Facebook but I and a few others refused to participate on that platform and we wound up staying on Spokt.

The service is ok, nothing special, but it does serve the purpose of ongoing communication away from the spying and trash and noise and dark patterns of Facebook without having to set something custom up.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#156

Post by mythrwy »

psweber wrote: post #62
jermaustin1 wrote: post #14

I can't see this as a Facebook rival. From my understanding, this is a social news site with fact checking. I use Facebook to post pictures of my vacations for my family, and get updates on my nieces and nephews since I moved from Houston, TX to NYC 5 years ago. Until someone replaces that aspect in a way that works while still enabling my family to do their memes and quizzes, and all that crap I avoid, there will be…

I fantasize about a product like that sometimes. A private, pay social site geared towards families. Your family pays a yearly subscription. Photo/video sharing. Event planning. Family news timeline. Everything purely linear. No manipulation to maximize engagement. No ads. Just real information about your family that you care about. One side of my family has about 30 people that are all willing to travel to meet some…

Like this? https://spokt.com/

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#157

Post by behringer »

metalliqaz wrote: post #80
emptybottle wrote: post #70

To all the people poking fun at "thousands"... You have to start somewhere, and I'm sure you'd be tickled pink to see thousands of new users signing up for your app...

I agree with everything you said, but I still think "thousands" is way too low for newsworthiness. Social networks need a critical mass before they are good for anything. Surely that number has to be in the millions, right?

Do you think HN is in the millions of users?

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#158

Post by robbyking »

I'm curious if people are sick of Facebook or sick of social media in general. My only Facebook friends are people I'm actually friends with, and I mute the more obnoxious members of my family. Because of this my FB experience seemed to be a lot nicer than what most people experience, but in the end it just felt like a waste of time.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#159

Post by dimensi0nal »

Kye wrote: post #84
emptybottle wrote: post #70

To all the people poking fun at "thousands"... You have to start somewhere, and I'm sure you'd be tickled pink to see thousands of new users signing up for your app...

Seriously. Mastodon started at thousands. People wrote articles insisting it would never go anywhere. It's still growing with thousands of instances for every sort of community three years after the dismissive op-eds started, and it didn't have the benefit of a major profile promoting it.

The largest Mastodon instance is full of content that isn't exactly allowed on traditional social media (i.e. lolicon). I don't think WT:Social will have the same competitive advantage.

Re: Thousands flock to Wikipedia founder's 'Facebook rival'

#160

Post by mc3 »

jandrese wrote: post #2

Is that headline damning with faint praise? Mere "thousands" doesn't seem like enough to get critical mass on a social network. For comparison Google+ had something on the order of 300 million users and failed to get traction.

And Facebook had something like a college dorm, and did get traction.
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