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If I understand correctly, this is thoroughly different from "social media." In fact, it looks like "connections" are all but irrelevant - only "conversations"

If I understand correctly, this is thoroughly different from "social media." In fact, it looks like "connections" are all but irrelevant - only "conversations" matter. Of course, conversations are richest when you have an understanding of the other participants background and depth of knowledge, so you can explore, test, debate and grow your own knowledge, or adjust your beliefs. My impression is that Lyra targets a niche of individuals that "enjoy conversing." I'm not sure if there's a nexus, a central target topic of conversation (like a sub-reddit would have) or a connective tissue such as real-life familiarity (like a friends and family social network would have) to hold your users together. Can you elaborate on who your target audience is, and how they will be attracted to the site, or what will maintain their interest (while avoiding the trap of making their engagement addictive?)

lyra_comms 9y ago
Connections are relevant in the form of groups, which are private to you: you use them to set conversation audiences and control whose conversations appear in your news feed. Our target audience is those who want to converse online without the restraints and commitments of social media services which aim to addict rather than to support and convey language. We don't aim to enable the discovery of interesting links - Reddit has this completely down. But it's no good for conversing in a focussed way with people you know. Letters and email link people internationally in ways that are impossible on Facebook or Twitter. When you receive an email, you read it in a focussed space without distractions; and you're aware of the fact that it was personally sent to you as opposed to broadcast to a large channel. Narrowcast will always be a personal experience than coming across a message delivered by a mysterious algorithm. Lyra does have a public news feed in which conversations are viewable to all users. If you add people to your groups and set the feed to view only these, it's the exact equivalent of Facebook. What we don't do is offer particular spaces (hashtags or subfora) because these instantly offer a target for harrassment and abuse, and require moderation. Lyra's design makes it trivial for people and topics which are vulnerable to abuse, to control their reading and avoid it.
lyra_comms 9y ago
As for engagement, we are reliant on guerilla marketing and links with aligned groups. And as for maintenance of interest - Lyra is a very pleasant space for written conversations. By default, (configurable) you get an email when someone starts a conversation with you or replies to one of your messages, so you're informed of activity. Conversations between 2 people or small groups are a lot of fun.

lyra_comms 9y ago

Connections are relevant in the form of groups, which are private to you: you use them to set conversation audiences and control whose conversations appear in your news feed. Our target audience is those who want to converse online without the restraints and commitments of social media services which aim to addict rather than to support and convey language. We don't aim to enable the discovery of interesting links - Reddit has this completely down. But it's no good for conversing in a focussed way with people you know. Letters and email link people internationally in ways that are impossible on Facebook or Twitter. When you receive an email, you read it in a focussed space without distractions; and you're aware of the fact that it was personally sent to you as opposed to broadcast to a large channel. Narrowcast will always be a personal experience than coming across a message delivered by a mysterious algorithm. Lyra does have a public news feed in which conversations are viewable to all users. If you add people to your groups and set the feed to view only these, it's the exact equivalent of Facebook. What we don't do is offer particular spaces (hashtags or subfora) because these instantly offer a target for harrassment and abuse, and require moderation. Lyra's design makes it trivial for people and topics which are vulnerable to abuse, to control their reading and avoid it.

lyra_comms 9y ago

As for engagement, we are reliant on guerilla marketing and links with aligned groups. And as for maintenance of interest - Lyra is a very pleasant space for written conversations. By default, (configurable) you get an email when someone starts a conversation with you or replies to one of your messages, so you're informed of activity. Conversations between 2 people or small groups are a lot of fun.