5 ms·
Proposition: a better model for social networks
Current social networks won't survive because of two reasons:
First, they are effectively dictatorships. It means that the users ("citizens") don't have any vote in anything related to how the network ("society") operates.
Second, current social networks are monetized though ads which incentivizes them to create added value for advertisers rather than for users.
Therefore, the next generation of social networks should operate in a very different way. It should be a platform for creating self-governed "tribes" where each tribe decides by voting how it is governed. For example, accepting new members into a tribe can be completely open in some tribes, or by recommendation of N existing members in other tribes, or by paying X amount of money to the tribe's budget, or by accomplishing a task, or something else.
The goal of such social network would be not to govern the tribes, but to provide a variety of options and means for self governance in tribes. Tribes should configure their own rules, choosing from options provided by the network. Some tribes want to have a benevolent dictatorship model? No problem, a new update gives tribes the ability to assign a dictator that overrules any possible decision. A large tribe wants to have its own senate for delegated decision making? Here we go, the next update now offers this capability too.
Monetization for such social network is simple: free users don't have the right to vote. Paid users can vote or have the right delegate their vote. No advertisement ever.
- all2 8y agoFederated and decentralized social media platforms are already a thing. The ones I know of right off the top of my head are https://joinmastodon.org/ https://joinmastodon.org/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370208 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370208 (Aether)
- dgudkov 8y agoYes, but neither of them has a mechanism for self-governance which is the point.
- all2 8y agoAether has self-governance built in. [0] See the bottom of the page on the right: > Communities can elect and impeach their own mods by voting. If a mod behaves inappropriately, users can disable that mod locally as well. Doing so reverts all changes by that moderator for the user, and counts for one impeachment vote. [0] https://getaether.net/ https://getaether.net/
- dgudkov 8y agoThat's nice to know, although I'm not talking about just selecting a mod. The point is to configure all policies of a social network -- enrolling, banning, messaging, posting, collective decision making, connections to other societies, etc.