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> Advertising is at the root of the problems of Twitter This is true, but it's not only advertising. Replace ads with any revenue generator large enough to sus

> Advertising is at the root of the problems of Twitter This is true, but it's not only advertising. Replace ads with any revenue generator large enough to sustain the service and you'll find that (1) the audience disappears or (2) big compromises in user experience or privacy. Maybe some services just can't be delivered by profit-maximizing corporations at all. A big reason for the wildly improbable success of Wikipedia and Craigslist is that they are non-commercial. No ads, no subscriptions, no selling firehose data, no paying for more access, no "freemium". We need an alternative asymmetrical social media service that is free for readers, free for posters, fosters deeper discussions than Reddit, and ruthlessly purges scammers, haters and trolls. Maybe the only way to accomplish that is with a community-driven collective effort, not a commercially-driven corporate service.

grey-area 8y ago
Interesting idea. Paying for the service/hosting could be a problem, but is not insurmountable if users take on moderation.
chillacy 8y ago
Woah wait a minute, Craigslist is definitely commercial, they charge to make posts about certain subjects like employment and housing in certain cities. Now granted it's not super high growth but consider this: > Last year, Craigslist took in upwards of $690 million in revenue, most of which is net profit, according to an estimate by the AIM Group, an Altamonte Springs, Florida-based research firm. Based on valuations of comparable publicly traded companies including eBay EBAY +0%, Forbes conservatively estimates that Craigslist is worth at least $3 billion. That makes Newmark, 64, who owns at least 42% of the company, worth at least $1.3 billion. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-craigslist-make-money/#48fb1f6a27b1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-cra...
lightedman 8y ago
"and ruthlessly purges scammers, haters and trolls." And there you become one of the haters. Purge thyself.
tomjakubowski 8y ago
> Maybe the only way to accomplish that is with a community-driven collective effort, not a commercially-driven corporate service. A modest fee to join/unban yourself (and not infrequent bannings) worked for Something Awful but social media is slowly killing it off.

grey-area 8y ago

Interesting idea. Paying for the service/hosting could be a problem, but is not insurmountable if users take on moderation.

chillacy 8y ago

Woah wait a minute, Craigslist is definitely commercial, they charge to make posts about certain subjects like employment and housing in certain cities. Now granted it's not super high growth but consider this: > Last year, Craigslist took in upwards of $690 million in revenue, most of which is net profit, according to an estimate by the AIM Group, an Altamonte Springs, Florida-based research firm. Based on valuations of comparable publicly traded companies including eBay EBAY +0%, Forbes conservatively estimates that Craigslist is worth at least $3 billion. That makes Newmark, 64, who owns at least 42% of the company, worth at least $1.3 billion. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-craigslist-make-money/#48fb1f6a27b1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-cra...

lightedman 8y ago

"and ruthlessly purges scammers, haters and trolls." And there you become one of the haters. Purge thyself.

tomjakubowski 8y ago

> Maybe the only way to accomplish that is with a community-driven collective effort, not a commercially-driven corporate service. A modest fee to join/unban yourself (and not infrequent bannings) worked for Something Awful but social media is slowly killing it off.