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Quick note that Facebook, unfortunately, has no real competitor for the sheer number of things it does. As soon as one comes out built for non-technical users t

Quick note that Facebook, unfortunately, has no real competitor for the sheer number of things it does. As soon as one comes out built for non-technical users the way Facebook is - and hopefully is a nonprofit - I’ll go running to it and encourage my friends, too.

fossuser 8y ago
I’d want one that’s just an online account with a single picture, name, address, phone number that lets you have friends. No posting - basically just a contact list that’s always up to date because people update themselves. Keybase could be this. The main way to get people in would be a focus on event scheduling relying on twilio and sms for including users that don’t have accounts. Make it cheap but not free ($1/month for people with more than 25 contacts) and advertise no ads or tracking ever.
- gowld 8y ago
  What would motivate everyone you know to use this service?
  - fossuser 8y ago
    Convenient way to do event scheduling - some friends I know are not on FB so it’s a pain currently. Also having up to date contacts to stay in touch. Phone numbers and addresses change and it’s hard to know when that happens (and currently most people don’t put this on FB).
- cheerlessbog 8y ago
  Could LinkedIn go this way...bridge from its business network to casual social network also?
  - fossuser 8y ago
    I doubt it - linked in is a mess. They also have too much tied up with recruiters being their real users. I’d want something simple.
mandeepj 8y ago
> non-technical users what did you mean?
- fossuser 8y ago
  I didn’t write that, but I’d guess easy to use like FB (grandma can use it). Not setting up your own locally hosted diaspora node.
  - gandutraveler 8y ago
    It's amazing how FB has gotten so easy to use now. As one of the early users I remember FB was more cooler I'm those days because majority found it too difficult to use. FWIW I deleted fb 3 years ago.
  - karmelapple 8y ago
    This is indeed what I meant.

fossuser 8y ago

I’d want one that’s just an online account with a single picture, name, address, phone number that lets you have friends. No posting - basically just a contact list that’s always up to date because people update themselves. Keybase could be this. The main way to get people in would be a focus on event scheduling relying on twilio and sms for including users that don’t have accounts. Make it cheap but not free ($1/month for people with more than 25 contacts) and advertise no ads or tracking ever.

gowld 8y ago
What would motivate everyone you know to use this service?
- fossuser 8y ago
  Convenient way to do event scheduling - some friends I know are not on FB so it’s a pain currently. Also having up to date contacts to stay in touch. Phone numbers and addresses change and it’s hard to know when that happens (and currently most people don’t put this on FB).
cheerlessbog 8y ago
Could LinkedIn go this way...bridge from its business network to casual social network also?
- fossuser 8y ago
  I doubt it - linked in is a mess. They also have too much tied up with recruiters being their real users. I’d want something simple.

mandeepj 8y ago

> non-technical users what did you mean?

fossuser 8y ago
I didn’t write that, but I’d guess easy to use like FB (grandma can use it). Not setting up your own locally hosted diaspora node.
- gandutraveler 8y ago
  It's amazing how FB has gotten so easy to use now. As one of the early users I remember FB was more cooler I'm those days because majority found it too difficult to use. FWIW I deleted fb 3 years ago.
- karmelapple 8y ago
  This is indeed what I meant.