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I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

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Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#421

Post by dgellow »

vector_spaces wrote: post #126

The 'tapping phones' gimmick strikes me as something that sounds cute but will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of. Particularly given various unintended side effects -- I personally wouldn't want my connection to my deceased best friend to be subject to some decay feature on a social network. And either way, it's not the core feature that will draw users to the site If you want to differen…

> The idea of spending time on the platform itself should be appealing

Optimizing for time spent on the platform is exactly what results in the current social platforms. The idea that the platform itself should be appealing and not a tool to connect with each others is in itself toxic IMHO

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#422

Post by dgellow »

ineptech wrote: post #356
SamBam wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tapping phones feature -- for initial friend creation, not upkeep -- is THE killer feature of the app. Do I want my teens on any social media apps? No. Would I let them be on Facebook of 2006, when you were just connected to your friends and family, and not influencers and "the algorithm?" Sure! That and early Instagram were great ways to keep up with real-life friends. If you made this as easy and pleasa…

It also doubles as a way to verify that someone is a real person using their real identity, which is starting to become pretty important these days. If Alice and Bob are both on this platform, the confidence Alice can have in the proposition "the Bob account is really controlled by a guy named Bob who really knows some people I know, as opposed to being AI or an overseas scammer" would be roughly proportional to the…

I’m not convinced that’s the case. A relatively small subset of bad actors can join the network, create new accounts on a second phone, tap (or find a way to fake that process via the API), then eventually use those accounts from bots.

It’s of course more friction, which in itself is good to avoid spam/bots, but over time all of that can very likely be automated

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#423

Post by jamespo »

spiralcoaster wrote: post #296
vector_spaces wrote: post #126

The 'tapping phones' gimmick strikes me as something that sounds cute but will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of. Particularly given various unintended side effects -- I personally wouldn't want my connection to my deceased best friend to be subject to some decay feature on a social network. And either way, it's not the core feature that will draw users to the site If you want to differen…

[flagged]

I think you meant this snark for reddit?

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#424

Post by dgellow »

resident423 wrote: post #234
skybrian wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps "remember when you met with your friends?" But taking a photo (possibly a group photo) is a more natural way to do that. Maybe it should integrate with photo-taking somehow? It would be annoying if you met up, forgot to do the ritual in person, and had no way to fix it.

I don't really like the idea of an app telling me how to manage my friendships, my view is that people can handle their relationships without intervention. I'm not sure what problem it is trying to solve.

It gives you one way to experience your friendship. It’s not telling you how you should manage them. You can use it for just a few friends. Or ignore it completely

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#426

Post by [deleted] »

resident423 wrote: post #234
skybrian wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps "remember when you met with your friends?" But taking a photo (possibly a group photo) is a more natural way to do that. Maybe it should integrate with photo-taking somehow? It would be annoying if you met up, forgot to do the ritual in person, and had no way to fix it.

I don't really like the idea of an app telling me how to manage my friendships, my view is that people can handle their relationships without intervention. I'm not sure what problem it is trying to solve.

[deleted]

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#427

Post by dgellow »

Zeebrommer wrote: post #381

> You’d have to be specifically watching the domain friendster.com at the right time to find and participate in the auction, or you’d have to actively watch gname.com daily to see this auction. You're telling me there's no "notify me when domain X becomes for sale" service?

A domain being for sale can mean a lot of things. Here it meant it was auctioned on a very specific website

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#428

Post by andy_ppp »

saghm wrote: post #29

> He said he would sell it to me for $40k. I offered $20k, which he refused but he said if I had any domain names generating ad revenue, we could do a deal of domains and cash. He said he would accept a lower amount if I paid in Bitcoin. > So we worked out a deal where I gave him $20k in Bitcoin and a domain that was making about $9k/year in ad revenue, and he gave me the domain friendster.com. Now I was the owner of…

If Friendster.com was making around $9,000 per year, this would explain why paying $30k + domains returning a similar amount would make sense?

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#429

Post by dgellow »

chr15m wrote: post #98

Here's what I would do. 1. Make it QR code scanning instead of tapping so it can be a PWA. 2. Make it a PWA. This will make it accessible to many more people. Nobody wants to install an app. Nobody wants to install a PWA either but they will at least use a "web site" (a surprising number will install it if it's good). 3. Save yourself a lot of money by building it on top of the Nostr protocol. Run a relay yourself if…

That’s empirically wrong. All statistics say that people do install apps way more than PWA

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#430

Post by latexr »

RajT88 wrote: post #292
Esophagus4 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That… actually seems kinda fun… I know this wasn’t the point I was supposed to take from your comment but I’m liking this idea

It was really awkward, I can tell you. The lesson here is not to invite your whole friend list.

> The lesson here is not to invite your whole friend list.

Maybe the lesson is to curate your friend list and don’t keep as a “friend” anyone you wouldn’t want to hang out with in person.

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