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There have already been a lot of alternate Twitters built, including the federated Mastodon network. If you haven't heard of them, why not? That answers the que

by ufmace 4y ago

There have already been a lot of alternate Twitters built, including the federated Mastodon network. If you haven't heard of them, why not? That answers the question. For any Twitter competitor to work, they need a hook to get people to actually use it instead of Twitter. It's hard to think of a really good one. People who feel they have been too censored on Twitter are a possible source, but then the people who were enthusiastic about censoring them go on the attack at any new site, making them have to address a lot of hard problems earlier than otherwise. Not to mention being able to get top-tier software engineers to work there instead of Twitter or any other company.

TameAntelope 4y ago
The hook is, "Not owned by Elon Musk." A couple people have replied with the generic, "Network Effects are hard!" reply, but y'all seem to have ignored my whole point; Twitter's "Network Effect" is vulnerable right now. They could be a Digg looking for a Reddit, but nobody's trying to build a Reddit for some reason. Also, you definitely don't need "top-tier" engineers to build a Twitter clone. There are hard problems involved in running a site at Twitter scale, and Twitter definitely needs and (currently, anyway) has top-tier engineers, but even 1/100th of Twitter scale would make you a millionaire. Alternatively, you could just hire all of the engineers who want to leave Twitter because Elon runs it now. Just take the parts of Twitter that don't fit with Elon's vision (but might be the parts that make Twitter valuable), build a new company out of them, and make a bunch of money. I just see an opportunity here, is what I'm trying to say.
- ufmace 4y ago
  I'm not sure if "Not owned by Elon Musk" is a sufficient hook to get people to sign up. I mean that literally - it might be, or it might not be. But seeing as how technically Elon Musk doesn't actually own Twitter yet and this whole brouhaha only seems to have gotten serious a week or so ago, I'd say give it some time. Surely, no matter how good or bad Musk's ownership of Twitter turns out to go, somebody will start yet another alternate Twitter with that hook, and we'll all get to see if it works or not.

by ufmace 4y ago

TameAntelope 4y ago

The hook is, "Not owned by Elon Musk." A couple people have replied with the generic, "Network Effects are hard!" reply, but y'all seem to have ignored my whole point; Twitter's "Network Effect" is vulnerable right now. They could be a Digg looking for a Reddit, but nobody's trying to build a Reddit for some reason. Also, you definitely don't need "top-tier" engineers to build a Twitter clone. There are hard problems involved in running a site at Twitter scale, and Twitter definitely needs and (currently, anyway) has top-tier engineers, but even 1/100th of Twitter scale would make you a millionaire. Alternatively, you could just hire all of the engineers who want to leave Twitter because Elon runs it now. Just take the parts of Twitter that don't fit with Elon's vision (but might be the parts that make Twitter valuable), build a new company out of them, and make a bunch of money. I just see an opportunity here, is what I'm trying to say.

ufmace 4y ago
I'm not sure if "Not owned by Elon Musk" is a sufficient hook to get people to sign up. I mean that literally - it might be, or it might not be. But seeing as how technically Elon Musk doesn't actually own Twitter yet and this whole brouhaha only seems to have gotten serious a week or so ago, I'd say give it some time. Surely, no matter how good or bad Musk's ownership of Twitter turns out to go, somebody will start yet another alternate Twitter with that hook, and we'll all get to see if it works or not.