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Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

blog.chaddickerson.com

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Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#51

Post by baroffoos »

extra88 wrote: post #14
wrs wrote: post #10

I'm not sure what Mailchimp is doing in this scenario. Couldn't you just…you know…send an email? Using BCC, of course.

* Mail email hosts are not cool with sending messages to large quantities of recipients because it looks like spamming, sending via a host that exists for sending mass email solves that. * The Mailchimp platform provided some automation for the author when first asking people to opt-in. Presumably each message also includes an Unsubscribe link at the bottom which is less awkward to use than replying to the author, as…

Mailchimp basically is a spam company, except its "legitimate spam" because you signed up for a website once and forgot to opt out of spam letters. I could block every single email from mailchimp and I doubt I would miss anything that wasn't spam.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#52

Post by [deleted] »

miles_matthias wrote: post #48

I would use Google groups for this instead of a true newsletter product, but I totally agree with this approach. It's similar thinking to the philosophy behind ctolunches.com. An earlier thread had me think about productizing this actually: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585534 My thought: For a social network, I see it being a cross between a Google Group and a newsletter. * List my profile somewhere with a…

[deleted]

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#53

Post by Alex3917 »

miles_matthias wrote: post #48

I would use Google groups for this instead of a true newsletter product, but I totally agree with this approach. It's similar thinking to the philosophy behind ctolunches.com. An earlier thread had me think about productizing this actually: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585534 My thought: For a social network, I see it being a cross between a Google Group and a newsletter. * List my profile somewhere with a…

We built some of this functionality for FWD:Everyone, but haven't yet gotten it to a point where it's polished enough to release. One of the issues we ran into is that Gmail translates unicode characters into images, which are then difficult to resize to get them to properly match the surrounding typography.

We also didn't build this as a fully automated service, but rather as something that generates MJML that you then have to compile and embed within an HTML email. But it does let you embed all the replies to an email in a new outgoing email, which you can conceptually see here in this marketing email we sent out:

https://www.alexkrupp.com/fwdeveryone_email_blast.html

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#54

Post by EduardoBautista »

charleshan wrote: post #47

Here's how I replaced Twitter with email. https://www.tinyfollow.com e.g. Weekly digest of the tweets by Paul Graham: https://i.imgur.com/kd8SCKv.png

Wow, this is something I did not know I wanted. After having left Twitter a while I find myself missing some of the tweets from the more interesting people I followed.

I mainly stopped using Twitter because of the ads, slowly ruining third party clients (Tweetbot was what I used), and the tracking.

Thanks for sharing this!

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#55

Post by NoPicklez »

Lesson 2: Email is more intimate and leads to better conversations.

Lesson 3: You control the narrative completely in email which provides a much better opportunity for story-telling.

Facebook Messenger?

Facebook isn't just a place to post publicly on your wall. Arguably the reason why Facebook messenger exists on the platform is provide intimacy.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#56

Post by abrichr »

baroffoos wrote: post #49
rubidium wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s the fundamental thing. We don’t need digital social networks. Email, just like mail, is sufficent.

Pretty much. There is simply no reason why I need to know what all my friends are doing and how they are feeling every single day. I just wish we had a good alternative for event organizing because that imo is the greatest value in facebook.

>I just wish we had a good alternative for event organizing

There are many alternatives, see: https://blog.thefetch.com/2013/05/28/10-cool-sites-for-event...

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#57

Post by abrichr »

vertexFarm wrote: post #25
echevil wrote: post #12

For any social network to work you’d need most of your connections to get onboard the same thing, whether it’s Facebook or anything else. It’s easy for some people to start emailing their friends but it’s hard to imagine that the general public start doing the same thing, and without that, the alternative won’t go very far. In fact I’d find it much more annoying than Facebook if I start receiving such emails from fri…

Luckily I've solved both problems by removing all the friends from the equation. No annoying emails, no dystopic social media platforms! Just me and a bottle or five. What's the downside?

In case you're serious, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/loneliness:

>Not surprisingly, feelings of isolation can have a serious detrimental effect on one's mental and physical health. Loneliness can be a contributing factor to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, among other critical diseases. Lonely people are also twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. At the root, isolation compromises immunity, increases the production of stress hormones, is harmful to sleep, and impacts cognitive abilities. All of this feeds chronic inflammation, which lowers immunity to the degree that lonely people even suffer more from the common cold. Loneliness can be a chronic stress condition that ages the body and causes great damage to overall well-being.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#58

Post by zapzupnz »

throwaway287391 wrote: post #41
bscphil wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>With FB, a person has opted in to being your friend. And if for some reason you feel obligated to be someone's "friend" on Facebook, you can still opt out of seeing their updates. Not so with email, unless you write a filter that sends it straight to the trash.

> Not so with email, unless you write a filter that sends it straight to the trash. Right, so how is that not the same thing as opting out on FB? Because it’s 3 or 4 clicks (in Gmail) instead of 2?

It doesn't matter how many clicks it is. Email is one of the few sanctuaries away from mass social media. People are not expected to know how to do mailbox rules, nor should that ever be forced upon them. That is not the reason why they use email, it is not what they signed up for.

When you force people to learn things like that, you know what you're called? A spammer.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#59

Post by zapzupnz »

rubidium wrote: post #29
echevil wrote: post #12

For any social network to work you’d need most of your connections to get onboard the same thing, whether it’s Facebook or anything else. It’s easy for some people to start emailing their friends but it’s hard to imagine that the general public start doing the same thing, and without that, the alternative won’t go very far. In fact I’d find it much more annoying than Facebook if I start receiving such emails from fri…

Here’s the fundamental thing. We don’t need digital social networks. Email, just like mail, is sufficent.

It may be sufficient, but sufficient isn't the same as ideal. What people have come to expect of social media, of forums, etc. does not translate particularly well to email.

Yes, it can be done, but it's not going to be how people, _ordinary_ people, expect. The world has had 10 years to get used to the Facebook and Twitter workflow, they're not going back just because we think email is sufficient.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#60

Post by samatman »

abrichr wrote: post #56
baroffoos wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much. There is simply no reason why I need to know what all my friends are doing and how they are feeling every single day. I just wish we had a good alternative for event organizing because that imo is the greatest value in facebook.

>I just wish we had a good alternative for event organizing There are many alternatives, see: https://blog.thefetch.com/2013/05/28/10-cool-sites-for-event...

Sadly, the very fact that there are many alternatives means that none of them are good.

The goodness of an event planning platform comes from everyone using it. Metcalfe’s law in action.

I say this as a non-Facebooker, fyi. Events kept me on the platform well after the rest of it became net-negative.

I do maintain my social graph and as a result use Messenger sometimes. If someone really wants to talk I go elsewhere for the conversation.

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