Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#1

Post by ben85ts » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 8:48 PM UTC

"Prime directives"

- Accessibility - Privacy - No ads

I know websites can exist that provide something of value without compromising what I would consider decent business/ operating ethics. Wikipedia, craigslist, etc. are massive, useful, and don't make money by exploiting their users. I quit facebook a couple years ago for multiple reasons but I have yet to see a true blue replacement. Is it too big of an ask? What does a Facebook alternative look like to you?

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#2

Post by gvb » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 8:59 PM UTC

There are facebook alternatives, none of which have become popular:

https://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/?license=opensou...

What are the alternatives lacking that you can supply which will make your facebook alternative popular?

Can you enhance one of the alternatives (and make it popular) rather than starting from scratch?

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#3

Post by erikbrodch » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

I'll start by saying social is extremely exciting to do. I also agree there is a need for a FB alternative. But before you start, I'd highly recommend (can't stress it enough) reading this: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service. It's the best read I found on social. I wish we had read it before trying to compete TikTok :)

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#4

Post by ben85ts » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

gvb wrote: post #2

There are facebook alternatives, none of which have become popular: https://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/?license=opensou... What are the alternatives lacking that you can supply which will make your facebook alternative popular? Can you enhance one of the alternatives (and make it popular) rather than starting from scratch?

Awesome list! I hadn't heard of some of these. At a cursory glance it appears more of the same. I don't think I need a crypo currency when I post a picture of my dog to share with friends. I'll do more research on current alternatives but from what I've seen they don't seem to offer the basic functionality of Facebook. Maybe I'm over simplifying the concept but wasn't the idea of Facebook just a website to share stuff with friends and family?

Enhancing an existing alternative is interesting. Do you think it would be a matter of contributing to some of the current open source alternatives?

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#5

Post by ben85ts » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:17 PM UTC

erikbrodch wrote: post #3

I'll start by saying social is extremely exciting to do. I also agree there is a need for a FB alternative. But before you start, I'd highly recommend (can't stress it enough) reading this: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service . It's the best read I found on social. I wish we had read it before trying to compete TikTok :)

Wow, thank you I will check this out.

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#6

Post by josepro12a » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:44 PM UTC

gvb wrote: post #2

There are facebook alternatives, none of which have become popular: https://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/?license=opensou... What are the alternatives lacking that you can supply which will make your facebook alternative popular? Can you enhance one of the alternatives (and make it popular) rather than starting from scratch?

Thank you very much for sharing!

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#7

Post by saluki » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:31 PM UTC

"Here are some odds, if you’re building just a simple company to charge a few people, what are the odds of that being a success? 1:5, 1:10 I don’t know. But the odds of you building the next Facebook or MySpace are probably not 1:10, if it was I wouldn’t be giving this speech, I’d be trying to make the next Facebook." - @DHH StartupSchoolTalk 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

This is still one of my favorite talks.

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#8

Post by bjourne » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:56 PM UTC

It must be decentralized. Any social network in which I have to put faith in a single party is not good. Look into ZeroNet: https://zeronet.io/ Either that technology or something similar could be used to create a distributed social network.

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#9

Post by whb07 » Wed, Dec 11, 2019, 12:46 AM UTC

How can you have a social network that is privacy first? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Re: Ask HN: Should I make a Facebook alternative?

#10

Post by ben85ts » Wed, Dec 11, 2019, 1:07 AM UTC

whb07 wrote: post #9

How can you have a social network that is privacy first? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Haha yeah I see what you mean. I was thinking more along the lines of never selling analytic data to third parties (something Facebook has capitalized on quite a bit). I think a lot of people see this as an invasion of privacy.