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Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

theguardian.com

171–180 of 265 posts

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#171
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strava has a feature called Flyby that allows you to find out other Strava users who you ran past (flew by) on your activity. With a single click you could get the other user's entire route, likely including their home (start/finish). After some backlash about safety/privacy, it was disabled on everyone's account and required people to manually opt-in: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/strava-flyby-feature.htm... V…

Wasn't it also Strava or a similar app that revealed military bases by the staff on patrol having the app on? I mean given sattelite imagery is a thing I doubt army bases are secret, but that was still a bit of a whoopsie, on both the personnel's part and the app's.

Yes, Strava's heatmaps revealed some military bases. And it's been implicated in the assassination of a Russian general.

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#172
post #77

"Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Reddit has worked around their lack of it to some degree with location-based subreddits like r/AtlFilmmakers. But subreddits are high maintenance, and they isolate content. Plus, the naming conventions aren't standard. Maybe there's r/AtlFilmmakers for filmmakers in Atlanta, but another subreddit for m…

> "Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Funny this got mentioned as France just successfully got that very feature removed from Telegram by arresting the founder and citing that feature as the one being used most for abuse. Bunch of sources about that here: https://ground.news/article/telegram-to-start-moderating-pri...

It’s one thing to list yourself as being in Atlanta and quite another to basically publish your exact location.

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#173
There is always place for niche social networks e.g. the most weird niche social network that I remember(and that is legal) was Ashley Madison[0]; I found about it in 2015 when it was all over the media because of the embarrassing breach.

Apparently it was and is used by married people who seek affairs or in another words people who want to cheat on their partner. If you can build community and business around that then you can build community and business around anything.

Btw I think dating sites invented the whole chatbot affair thing because Ashley Madison was using fake chatbot accounts to catfish and lure people into buying Ashley Madison membership or whatever they use to monetize their product.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go into most gyms and it’s the opposite phenomenon. Men know that some types of physical activity (weight lifting) actually get them laid and others (I.e running) are the equivalent of what food does to get away from predators. The men who get good at that type of physical activity tend to be treated like the food is.

Women don't like men who do cardio?

Women like men who look good. Men who lift weights usually look more attractive than someone who has a “runners” body. (Skinny and not muscular) Some runners will look jacked but that’s probably due to steroids and/or weightlifting. Running alone doesn’t give one bulging biceps or a large chest.

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#175
post #28

Anecdotally run clubs are the dance halls of today (i.e. go to meet women)

I'm wonder what the appeal is of meeting with strangers for the purpose of running.

You do the activity - you run and chat with some folks if you can. Otherwise, you just go to the social after. A lot of them meetup at a bar or something as the final destination to socialize post-run. Same with socializing before everyone is together and starts running.

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#176
post #71

> “The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” says Gracewood. Comments happen in-line – similar to those on the Guardian and Observer websites – meaning that it’s less possible to performatively repost content into a main feed in order to encourage a pile-on. Similar situations exist on platforms such as Goodreads and Strava, where i…

>The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” The problem with Letterboxd that it's gamified and there is an incredible amount of noise and it's getting worse. Top reviews are all just copy paste like baits. "Me when watching a Ghibli film :cryingemoji:" 20k likes "Yes I'd let Ethan Hawke visit me every single night" 10k likes etc It's…

“Me when I used Rust at work” 500 karma

“Yeah I’d let Jim Keller design my CPU” 200 karma

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually many sport activities seem to be largely women based, which kinda says much about men not really caring about their health. :)

Go into most gyms and it’s the opposite phenomenon. Men know that some types of physical activity (weight lifting) actually get them laid and others (I.e running) are the equivalent of what food does to get away from predators. The men who get good at that type of physical activity tend to be treated like the food is.

[deleted]

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#178

"Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?" I don't know, but has anyone tried using Tinder in the US recently? Just scammers, crazies, wackos and strange people - if you can get a match. Tinder has gotten totally useless, in fact, it has become a marketplace for lemons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons Your chance of finding a decent date would be bigger on a…

I think the most straight forward dating app would be the one for "one night stands" because both people know exactly what they want but then again you would need to demand STD checks for all users perhaps on a monthly basis. This is just my humorous thought experiment idea.

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually many sport activities seem to be largely women based, which kinda says much about men not really caring about their health. :)

Go into most gyms and it’s the opposite phenomenon. Men know that some types of physical activity (weight lifting) actually get them laid and others (I.e running) are the equivalent of what food does to get away from predators. The men who get good at that type of physical activity tend to be treated like the food is.

Guys is it gay to run

Re: Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women don't like men who do cardio?

Women like men who look good. Men who lift weights usually look more attractive than someone who has a “runners” body. (Skinny and not muscular) Some runners will look jacked but that’s probably due to steroids and/or weightlifting. Running alone doesn’t give one bulging biceps or a large chest.

Men describing what they think women want physically usually reads like someone describing a Tom of Finland drawing. I agree that people generally prefer a physically fit partner.
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