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Honestly, that so many people are on Facebook does little for me. (I mean, do users mind being the first to sign up for a new service? Don't many (an increasing
by jeffool 15y ago
Honestly, that so many people are on Facebook does little for me. (I mean, do users mind being the first to sign up for a new service? Don't many (an increasing number?) dig that?) But everyone I once knew from highschool wanted to add me on Facebook... And then we continued to not stay in touch with each other. It's not about social networks, but people instead go for the metagame of "friend accumulation" so they can pretend that they're Ashton Kutcher or something. Weird.
And actually, I closed my Facebook a while back. Well, I put up an image saying I was no longer responding there, but friends can contact me through other means listed in my profile. Close enough.
What do I want in a social network? Functionality that isn't about something trying to become the medium. That's what MySpace was and Facebook is, services trying to supplant the rest of the Internet. Messages, posts, walls, galleries, info, etc.? I have email, a blog, Twitter, IM, Flickr, a calendar, and a phone number for calling/texting people I talk to most often. I'm easily contactable for friends, as they are to me.
So all the problems that Facebook "solves"? Not really problems for me. And increasingly as more people use computers every day (yes, there are many who still don't,) those things won't be problems for everyone else either. These networks exist to help shoehorn those who aren't digitally literate (or those willing to sacrifice ability for ease) into the present. I honestly do think the need for this, will eventually start shrinking until it hits a base where people who are just uninterested in the Internet will be the only ones using them. Ironic, eh?
You want me to sign up for another social network? Offer some unique functionality I didn't realize I was missing, or build your network around something niche that I can't say "no" to. (Actually this reminds me of the "What would you do if you owned MySpace?" post from about a month ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499250 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499250 )
- starter 15y agoThese are parallel to my thoughts: All fine and dandy but what's the point? I don't want to copy FB's business model. I'm looking for a new mission. FB keeps adding features we didn't know we were missing. If what I build is better, it means going beyond functionality to build something that redefines what the Social Network is. I don't just want you to sign up for some feature you'll detest in a year. Maybe the question I should be asking is "What do You Wish the Social Network Could Do for You"?
- jeffool 15y agoAh man. I wrote a long-ass reply, but I lost it when trying to post. I'll try to quickly hammer out a readable version. "What do I want a social network to do for me?" The only reason I ever actively used Facebook was to look up info on my friends. So, I suppose I want a passive "black book" more than anything. A universal contact list. Let users enter their data for defined fields (personal email, professional email, personal phone, pro phone, address, IMs, popular sites) and then them also define their own fields for inclusion (in case I want to let people know a particular forum or new service I spend time on. It's a good way to see what your users use.) Then display it in a very minimalist way. Ever used Passpack? It lists my services, and has a grid of icons. So, list my contacts, and their info. When they don't have that info, leave the grid blank or grayed out. When they do, offer a clickable link for the site/service. (A link to IM them on that service, or to their profile on a site.) Also let me add labels to each service, and to my contacts. For example, my personal email would have "friends", "online friends", and "family" labels, allowing each person I assigned those labels to see my personal email. And bonus points if people sign up with their email addresses or phone numbers, rather than a site-specific username. It's silly for people to have to jockey for those on another service, relegating themselves to bigThunder1452 or the likes. Asking users for the passwords (but not storing them) to confirm they own the accounts they list is nice, too. If a user hasn't logged in within the past month, ask them to confirm their data upon login. With a minimalist design of a banner at the top, a list of recent contacts at login, and ways to list people by label, alpha, letter, or by account type, Throw an ad at the bottom or on a side. I'm betting many business professionals would keep that tab open like I currently do with Gmail. Hell, I've even thought of a name. Call it FriendInfo, and use FriendIn.fo, with, of course, purchasing friendinfo.com and friend.info as redirects.