I'm in. Lets do this.
Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
241–250 of 399 posts
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#242My idea is for everyone to have their own personal website/app/space (could be very basic, prebuilt templates, drag and drop, something your grandparents could set up). That would then lead to the development of social networking protocols or being able to subscribe to web content modules. Basically, I want RSS feeds for web components/modules, but then a personal portal to interact with the items i subscribe to.
I, as userA, with site www.squarespace.com/userA, could subscribe to all or part of userB's site www.wix.com/userB or www.userB.com/photos but not www.userB.com/crazyBlog. Then, on your own site/app, you choose the things you are subscribed to that you want to "re-publish" or add comments to or share. userB could also choose to not let you follow their space.
This decentralizes away from any particular company and should limit the unintentional crazy that is broadcast across current platforms.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#243The issues with social networks aren't single dimensional.
The fundamental issues that arise have to do with the medium of the internet itself.
What happens communities when they can reach limitless scale and the communication channels which limit emotional understanding?
Those are the difficult problems to solve.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#244[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#245Fleeting idea that could be combined with that: a web-of-trust social network where you can only "friend" people in real life, by tapping phones. When you do so, the app might say, "The person you just met claims to be Joe Schmoe, do you want to vouch for them?" If you approve them, they can message you and vice versa. A friend of Joe's can see you in his friend list, and try to message you, and you can accept it if…
Currently working on implementing a similar feature, where instead of direct interaction it's location based relative to that users recent posts. That way if you don't want to be "found" you don't post and vice-versa.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#246I'm 100% confident I could build a "facebook" with a better UX than facebook. Heck, facebook used to have better UX back in the days before they started focusing on monetization.
That's not the problem. The problem is how do you get that critical mass of 10s of millions of users to make it viable. I keep wondering if there's an opening for niche social networks - but I've seen a lot of such small groups (e.g., python developers located in a specific city) set up shop on Slack and it seems to work well enough.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#247As someone else pointed out, that was Google Plus. The number one thing to realize is: this is not a technical problem. It's a marketing, political, and social problem. Facebook and Twitter have vast numbers of users who are not at all technical. How you reach people like that and get them to join is your problem, and it has nothing to do with deep understanding of the technology.
right, google plus failed bc it was a platform problem. Who would prefer to use that product over facebook, twitter, etc that duplicate the functionality 90%. ello was another hilarious example (that somehow... still exists...)
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always liked this idea! I think it should be device-level too, and not have a separate ephemeral identity. In other words if you get a new phone you have to start over.
This is an interesting concept. The biggest disadvantage would be losing a digital archive every two years (or as necessary).
Its sister idea is holding on to phones for longer. The big drawback would be losing the phone, I think.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#249Personally, despite its reputation I've gravitated more and more towards Twitter, because at HN I can't really trust what people are saying. People may sound smart and like they know their stuff, but you can come up with great sounding arguments for and against anything. It takes a lot of time and energy to figure out if someone is worth listening to, so to me it makes more sense to seek out the known experts and fol…
I have the opposite reaction. I like how all context of a persons argument is in one post. You could be The President or a homeless person and I will give your reply the same thought here, seems meritocratic to me.
Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?
#250Unpopular opinion: any social network, no matter how it’s architected will become terrible past a certain size. Perhaps some architectures will have different “maximum tolerable sizes” than others, but all will become intolerable once there is a large enough user base. More users, however, means more ad / tracking revenue, so these two ideas will always be at odds.
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