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I think the key problem was the hype train and the lack of product-oriented/technical leadership. remembered them doing very well on campus last two years of c

I think the key problem was the hype train and the lack of product-oriented/technical leadership. remembered them doing very well on campus last two years of college. They had on campus reps to hand out "schwag"; probably not very fun to scale. The obvious bullying was the problem. If they had found some way to solve that and snuck their way back into high schools... then again, kids can be so cruel.

madamelic 9y ago
The issue was their entire app. The exact same reason bullying could happen was the exact reason people loved it (anonymity). Group A (parents, schools, etc) wanted complete de-masking + real-world identity while Group B (the users) wanted some anonymity with no real-world identity. Yik-Yak could've never won as far as I can see.
- MichaelGG 9y ago
  Could be anonymous but still keep the unique phone ID and boot/hide disruptive users. Users probably want anonymity at a far weaker guarantee than, say, Tor offers.
  - cgriswald 9y ago
    I was a frequent user for quite a while. It was never truly anonymous in that Yikyak obviously maintained some type of internal ID to identify you. This was fine with me. We had some deep, real conversations (along with the usual nonsense). I stopped using it when they added mandatory profiles. For online discussion, there is a huge difference between anonymous and pseudonymous. While anonymous, no persona is formed in the mind of other users, except within the context of a specific discussion. It is impossible to form factions. Group think is somewhat minimized, because no one knows it is you that is not following the party line on issue A, even though you are totally on board for issue B. When you are pseudonymous, factions form, grudges form, prejudices form. Suddenly someone remembers your position on gun control and assumes your position on the death penalty. If you say something stupid, it stays with you. I don't want to share my sexual interests and my political point of views with strangers and have those things be linked to the same account (from the user perspective). I DO want to do that without that link. I think it tends to focus more on the issues, and let's people avoid the artificial barriers that otherwise might come between them. When they made this switch, it was suddenly an entirely different app. It was no different than just finding a random web forum, except that you could be sure the people around you were geographically close to you (sort of). Completely non-anonymous Next Door is better in that regard anyway, and Yikyak no longer had anything to offer me.
    - arprocter 9y ago
      >I stopped using it when they added mandatory profiles Same here. It seemed to me that they got rid of the one reason people were using the app in the first place. Also if this was to prevent abuse it actually made it easier to harass another user - 'oh it's that jerk qwerty123 again' Another issue with being localized is if there aren't many users in the area. It was always busy in a city, but in a rural area there were very few posts - this could've been mitigated by scaling up the coverage zone The -5 making things disappear wasn't the best solution, as the 'top rated' could become pretty generic stuff, whereas funny but controversial things could vanish quite quickly
pyromine 9y ago
College student, it was fun for a year or two and then pretty much everyone gave up on it. The unique commentary was what made it, there was essentially humor that everyone could relate to and the unique perspectives people felt were too uncomfortable to share with their persona attached. It was fascinating to watch what would come up over the day
- yangmaster 9y ago
  To add onto this, college meme groups on Facebook have largely replaced Yik Yak's niche in the past year or so. And those don't require millions in VC funding!
cokeandsympathy 9y ago
What did them in for me was the insistence on creating usernames which could not be hid. It ruined the localized aspect of the anonymity by focusing on the person, creating a power-user shit-posting environment instead of letting content arise organically from a faceless localized mass.
cokeandsympathy 9y ago
What did them in for me was the insistence on creating usernames which could not be hid. It ruined the localized aspect of the anonymity by focusing on the person, creating a power-user shit-posting environment instead of letting content arise organically from a faceless localized mass.
iamatworknow 9y ago
I live in a small college town, and it's still fairly active around here. I downloaded it to see what it was all about after someone Yaked (Yiked?) a bomb threat at the college and it made the news. Most of the time it's just kids complaining about finals and being melodramatic.
OliverJones 9y ago
I'm glad to see this one winding down. In my city it was used by high school students to hassle and mock each other. Yeah, I know, according to their terms of service and geofencing stuff high school students aren't supposed to use it. Tell them that.
Vadoff 9y ago
They did eliminate bullying... by making the app non-anonymous (forced usernames) and it's what killed the app.

madamelic 9y ago

The issue was their entire app. The exact same reason bullying could happen was the exact reason people loved it (anonymity). Group A (parents, schools, etc) wanted complete de-masking + real-world identity while Group B (the users) wanted some anonymity with no real-world identity. Yik-Yak could've never won as far as I can see.

MichaelGG 9y ago
Could be anonymous but still keep the unique phone ID and boot/hide disruptive users. Users probably want anonymity at a far weaker guarantee than, say, Tor offers.
- cgriswald 9y ago
  I was a frequent user for quite a while. It was never truly anonymous in that Yikyak obviously maintained some type of internal ID to identify you. This was fine with me. We had some deep, real conversations (along with the usual nonsense). I stopped using it when they added mandatory profiles. For online discussion, there is a huge difference between anonymous and pseudonymous. While anonymous, no persona is formed in the mind of other users, except within the context of a specific discussion. It is impossible to form factions. Group think is somewhat minimized, because no one knows it is you that is not following the party line on issue A, even though you are totally on board for issue B. When you are pseudonymous, factions form, grudges form, prejudices form. Suddenly someone remembers your position on gun control and assumes your position on the death penalty. If you say something stupid, it stays with you. I don't want to share my sexual interests and my political point of views with strangers and have those things be linked to the same account (from the user perspective). I DO want to do that without that link. I think it tends to focus more on the issues, and let's people avoid the artificial barriers that otherwise might come between them. When they made this switch, it was suddenly an entirely different app. It was no different than just finding a random web forum, except that you could be sure the people around you were geographically close to you (sort of). Completely non-anonymous Next Door is better in that regard anyway, and Yikyak no longer had anything to offer me.
  - arprocter 9y ago
    >I stopped using it when they added mandatory profiles Same here. It seemed to me that they got rid of the one reason people were using the app in the first place. Also if this was to prevent abuse it actually made it easier to harass another user - 'oh it's that jerk qwerty123 again' Another issue with being localized is if there aren't many users in the area. It was always busy in a city, but in a rural area there were very few posts - this could've been mitigated by scaling up the coverage zone The -5 making things disappear wasn't the best solution, as the 'top rated' could become pretty generic stuff, whereas funny but controversial things could vanish quite quickly

pyromine 9y ago

College student, it was fun for a year or two and then pretty much everyone gave up on it. The unique commentary was what made it, there was essentially humor that everyone could relate to and the unique perspectives people felt were too uncomfortable to share with their persona attached. It was fascinating to watch what would come up over the day

yangmaster 9y ago
To add onto this, college meme groups on Facebook have largely replaced Yik Yak's niche in the past year or so. And those don't require millions in VC funding!

cokeandsympathy 9y ago

What did them in for me was the insistence on creating usernames which could not be hid. It ruined the localized aspect of the anonymity by focusing on the person, creating a power-user shit-posting environment instead of letting content arise organically from a faceless localized mass.

cokeandsympathy 9y ago

iamatworknow 9y ago

I live in a small college town, and it's still fairly active around here. I downloaded it to see what it was all about after someone Yaked (Yiked?) a bomb threat at the college and it made the news. Most of the time it's just kids complaining about finals and being melodramatic.

OliverJones 9y ago

I'm glad to see this one winding down. In my city it was used by high school students to hassle and mock each other. Yeah, I know, according to their terms of service and geofencing stuff high school students aren't supposed to use it. Tell them that.

Vadoff 9y ago

They did eliminate bullying... by making the app non-anonymous (forced usernames) and it's what killed the app.