9 ms·

Communities Now Available

97 points by mritzmann 4y ago

isoprophlex 4y ago
I guess if you can't get people to go to Facebook anymore, you can always bring Facebook to the people. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I like apps with a singular purpose, that do one thing well. This feels like it's going to intrude on my peace of mind with big, distracting groups that broadcast low quality, high volume information.
- baxtr 4y ago
  Sounds like it’s geared a lot towards businesses. I only use slack that way and slack I use in businesses contexts. > Communities like neighborhoods, parents at a school, and workplaces can now connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organize group conversations on WhatsApp.
digdugdirk 4y ago
I'm always intrigued by the crossover point between small scale more intimate group chats and larger scale message boards. Does anyone have any examples or experience with platforms that pulled off that transition space successfully? And what were the key features that made the transition successful?
- schmorptron 4y ago
  I'd say discord pulled that off pretty successfully. For what made them successful with it was maybe having a very okay moderation and permissions system, and the user interface lending itself to jump to different conversations pretty effortlessly.
iLoveOncall 4y ago
Wow, folders for your group conversations, that's definitely gonna save the sinking Meta stock!
arepublicadoceu 4y ago
What I want from Whatsapp is: - Option to block/filter/hide people within a group. This way I can mute inconsiderate jerks from groups I can’t leave (work/family); - alternatively, option to mute and hide groups forever, no I don’t want a red dot to signal there’s new message. I want it completely hidden until I casually remember to check it; - hide my online status These three action points would alleviate all my pain points with their platform. Unfortunately, I’m not confident they will give me this kind of control as this would be anathema to Meta core values: controlling their (product|user) and increasing engagement on their app to the expense of the user mental health.
- iLoveOncall 4y ago
  > - alternatively, option to mute and hide groups forever, no I don’t want a red dot to signal there’s new message. I want it completely hidden until I casually remember to check it; You can do this by archiving the groups, they will only appear if you go in the archived chats tab and won't notify you. > - hide my online status You can already do this in the Privacy options. > - Option to block/filter/hide people within a group. This way I can mute inconsiderate jerks from groups I can’t leave (work/family); This is honestly stupid, there's no way you will be able to follow a conversation where some people's messages aren't displayed. Leave your family groups and refuse to use WhatsApp for work.
  - nells 4y ago
    >You can already do this in the Privacy options. Whoa, that’s new! Thank the Lord.
    - systemvoltage 4y ago
      Hahaha now my entire extended family doesn't know I am online and available. Thank the lord indeed. I am almost religious right now.
  - arepublicadoceu 4y ago
    > You can do this by archiving the groups, they will only appear if you go in the archived chats tab and won't notify you. No you can't, read again, I *don't* want a red dot signalyzing there's new messages on my archive. > You can already do this in the Privacy options. Unless you're in some A-B test I definetely don't have this option on my Privacy setting. Just Triple checked. > This is honestly stupid, there's no way you will be able to follow a conversation where some people's messages aren't displayed. The hot take is: I don't need to follow any conversation that includes those individuals. But I need to follow notices, and important information regarding my job. How about hide behind a notice: "You mutted this person, click here if you want to read the message anyway.". There, some middle ground. > Leave your family groups and refuse to use WhatsApp for work. I'm not even sure how to respond to this, if you're privilleged enough to say this, good for you. I'm definetely not.
nimbius 4y ago
friendly reminder, whatsapp is not end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp and iMessage are vulnerable to law-enforcement real-time searches. WhatsApp shares message metadata with law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice. If legally required, or at its own discretion (such as for investigating Facebook leaks), it can provide critical location or account information, or real-time data on the recipients messaged a target subject. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_WhatsApp_security_and_privacy_features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_Wha... you should use Signal.
- po1nter 4y ago
  > whatsapp is not end-to-end encrypted. Didn't they work with the Signal team for their e2e encryption of messages and calls? Are you saying that they've removed that despite showing the opposite at the beginning of of every new conversation?
  - wahnfrieden 4y ago
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-encrypted-messages-arent-that-private-after-all/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-... https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/whatsapp-imessage-facebook-apple-fbi-privacy-1261816/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/what... It’s whitewashed surveillance via automated loopholes
    - morsch 4y ago
      Neither of those says that anybody other than sender and recipient can access message contents. Just metadata, which is well understood (and from what I know, also true for Signal, correct me if I'm wrong).
      - wahnfrieden 4y ago
        If you keep reading it says that there are automated flagging operations which enable third actor surveillance
galbar 4y ago
It looks like they copied Element's Spaces[1] [1]: https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/ https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  Unlike Matrix's implementation, I don't think you can nest WhatsApp communities as easily. Instead, I think their inspiration has come from alternatives like Discord where multiple chat rooms within a group of people is part of the core app design. I'd like them to copy the spaces feature, though, because it's quite useful to me personally.
pelagicAustral 4y ago
Thanks, but no thanks. I'm all comfy here in my Telegram corner.
- Markoff 4y ago
  yeah, I prefer apps which have E2EE messages by default and have actual user base
  - Kinrany 4y ago
    Neither can be trusted, but Telegram's UI and privacy track record have been much better so far.
    - palata 4y ago
      That's debatable, since WhatsApp has e2ee and Telegram doesn't (nobody uses Telegram for the secret chats, let's be honest).
      - hutzlibu 4y ago
        "(nobody uses Telegram for the secret chats, let's be honest)." Thats what you would think from a technical point of view, but actually I witnessed some drama with people installing Telegram, because the partner thought it was done only for this "secret chat" option, which seems to be popular for people having affairs. As it leaves no trace on the phone. Most people don't care about the NSA. They care about their partner, or parents spying on them (which says a lot about the integrity of those relationships).
        Markoff 4y ago
        Whatsapp has disappearing messages, though it takes 24 hours to disappear, don't understand, why they can't make it instant after reading or within minutes. Personally I don't use it. I mean if you wanna cheat is it really that difficult to not forget manually delete the chat instead using feature which does it for you?
olivermarks 4y ago
Whatsapp took Skype's market as a free voice over and video ip but the value of 'communities' is hopelessly questionable. We already have a crowded market for gossip groups (Nextbore, etc etc) and you could argue this directly competes with ye olde facebook. Maybe they are going to do a roll up of WA & FB as part of the brave new Meta era? More importantly Meta owns astounding amounts of undersea cable, which lends credence to the idea they are the new 'cable and wireless'... https://fairinternetreport.com/research/facebook-meta-submarine-cable-ownership https://fairinternetreport.com/research/facebook-meta-submar...
- cwillu 4y ago
  They have ownership interests in 6% of routes. This is not the same as owning 6% of routes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33443334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33443334
nikolay 4y ago
No, they are not - I have both personal and business apps up to date on Android plus the latest web and desktop apps - that feature is not available!
- mritzmann 4y ago
  First paragraph: > Today (..) we’ve started to roll out Communities (..) globally and this will be available to everyone over the next few months.
  - nikolay 4y ago
    Yes, I did - maybe they started to roll out to their QA server!
reitanqild 4y ago
I glanced through it and it looks like Facebook wants to copy Telegram while keeping law enforcement in the loop? Or is this something new?
reidjs 4y ago
How do I turn on this feature?
soorya3 4y ago
Wow...looks like Mark woke up now, and realized that the ad dollars are going to nextdoor and he wants to get it back.
0508014015 4y ago
- junga 4y ago
  I don’t get this. Is it a phone number? A phone number starting with a capital letter O, like in OOP or ORM?
0508014015 4y ago
- 0508014015 4y ago
eitland 4y ago
Any sufficiently complicated messaging system or Social network contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Google+.
- vram22 4y ago
  Please don't insult Greenspun and Common Lisp. http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html?viewfullsite=1#:~:text=%22Lisp%20isn't%20a%20language,%2C%20it's%20a%20building%20material.%22&text=%22Greenspun's%20Tenth%20Rule%20of%20Programming,of%20half%20of%20Common%20Lisp.%22 http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html?viewfullsite=1#:~:text...
ChrisArchitect 4y ago
Great more damn siloed chat nonsense masquerading as something to replace the forums everyone's trying to get back to.
vicnov 4y ago
Looks like Whatsapp tries to catch up with Telegram.
plantain 4y ago
>Today, we’re excited to announce we’ve started to roll out Communities on WhatsApp globally and this will be available to everyone over the next few months. Does anyone else find these soft-launches irritating? Give us a date?

97 points by mritzmann 4y ago

I guess if you can't get people to go to Facebook anymore, you can always bring Facebook to the people. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I like apps with a singular purpose, that do one thing well. This feels like it's going to intrude on my peace of mind with big, distracting groups that broadcast low quality, high volume information.

baxtr 4y ago
Sounds like it’s geared a lot towards businesses. I only use slack that way and slack I use in businesses contexts. > Communities like neighborhoods, parents at a school, and workplaces can now connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organize group conversations on WhatsApp.

digdugdirk 4y ago

I'm always intrigued by the crossover point between small scale more intimate group chats and larger scale message boards. Does anyone have any examples or experience with platforms that pulled off that transition space successfully? And what were the key features that made the transition successful?

schmorptron 4y ago
I'd say discord pulled that off pretty successfully. For what made them successful with it was maybe having a very okay moderation and permissions system, and the user interface lending itself to jump to different conversations pretty effortlessly.

iLoveOncall 4y ago

Wow, folders for your group conversations, that's definitely gonna save the sinking Meta stock!

arepublicadoceu 4y ago

What I want from Whatsapp is: - Option to block/filter/hide people within a group. This way I can mute inconsiderate jerks from groups I can’t leave (work/family); - alternatively, option to mute and hide groups forever, no I don’t want a red dot to signal there’s new message. I want it completely hidden until I casually remember to check it; - hide my online status These three action points would alleviate all my pain points with their platform. Unfortunately, I’m not confident they will give me this kind of control as this would be anathema to Meta core values: controlling their (product|user) and increasing engagement on their app to the expense of the user mental health.

iLoveOncall 4y ago
> - alternatively, option to mute and hide groups forever, no I don’t want a red dot to signal there’s new message. I want it completely hidden until I casually remember to check it; You can do this by archiving the groups, they will only appear if you go in the archived chats tab and won't notify you. > - hide my online status You can already do this in the Privacy options. > - Option to block/filter/hide people within a group. This way I can mute inconsiderate jerks from groups I can’t leave (work/family); This is honestly stupid, there's no way you will be able to follow a conversation where some people's messages aren't displayed. Leave your family groups and refuse to use WhatsApp for work.
- nells 4y ago
  >You can already do this in the Privacy options. Whoa, that’s new! Thank the Lord.
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    Hahaha now my entire extended family doesn't know I am online and available. Thank the lord indeed. I am almost religious right now.
- arepublicadoceu 4y ago
  > You can do this by archiving the groups, they will only appear if you go in the archived chats tab and won't notify you. No you can't, read again, I *don't* want a red dot signalyzing there's new messages on my archive. > You can already do this in the Privacy options. Unless you're in some A-B test I definetely don't have this option on my Privacy setting. Just Triple checked. > This is honestly stupid, there's no way you will be able to follow a conversation where some people's messages aren't displayed. The hot take is: I don't need to follow any conversation that includes those individuals. But I need to follow notices, and important information regarding my job. How about hide behind a notice: "You mutted this person, click here if you want to read the message anyway.". There, some middle ground. > Leave your family groups and refuse to use WhatsApp for work. I'm not even sure how to respond to this, if you're privilleged enough to say this, good for you. I'm definetely not.

nimbius 4y ago

friendly reminder, whatsapp is not end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp and iMessage are vulnerable to law-enforcement real-time searches. WhatsApp shares message metadata with law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice. If legally required, or at its own discretion (such as for investigating Facebook leaks), it can provide critical location or account information, or real-time data on the recipients messaged a target subject. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_WhatsApp_security_and_privacy_features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_Wha... you should use Signal.

po1nter 4y ago
> whatsapp is not end-to-end encrypted. Didn't they work with the Signal team for their e2e encryption of messages and calls? Are you saying that they've removed that despite showing the opposite at the beginning of of every new conversation?
- wahnfrieden 4y ago
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-encrypted-messages-arent-that-private-after-all/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-... https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/whatsapp-imessage-facebook-apple-fbi-privacy-1261816/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/what... It’s whitewashed surveillance via automated loopholes
  - morsch 4y ago
    Neither of those says that anybody other than sender and recipient can access message contents. Just metadata, which is well understood (and from what I know, also true for Signal, correct me if I'm wrong).
    - wahnfrieden 4y ago
      If you keep reading it says that there are automated flagging operations which enable third actor surveillance

galbar 4y ago

It looks like they copied Element's Spaces[1] [1]: https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/ https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/

jeroenhd 4y ago
Unlike Matrix's implementation, I don't think you can nest WhatsApp communities as easily. Instead, I think their inspiration has come from alternatives like Discord where multiple chat rooms within a group of people is part of the core app design. I'd like them to copy the spaces feature, though, because it's quite useful to me personally.

pelagicAustral 4y ago

Thanks, but no thanks. I'm all comfy here in my Telegram corner.

Markoff 4y ago
yeah, I prefer apps which have E2EE messages by default and have actual user base
- Kinrany 4y ago
  Neither can be trusted, but Telegram's UI and privacy track record have been much better so far.
  - palata 4y ago
    That's debatable, since WhatsApp has e2ee and Telegram doesn't (nobody uses Telegram for the secret chats, let's be honest).
    - hutzlibu 4y ago
      "(nobody uses Telegram for the secret chats, let's be honest)." Thats what you would think from a technical point of view, but actually I witnessed some drama with people installing Telegram, because the partner thought it was done only for this "secret chat" option, which seems to be popular for people having affairs. As it leaves no trace on the phone. Most people don't care about the NSA. They care about their partner, or parents spying on them (which says a lot about the integrity of those relationships).
      - Markoff 4y ago
        Whatsapp has disappearing messages, though it takes 24 hours to disappear, don't understand, why they can't make it instant after reading or within minutes. Personally I don't use it. I mean if you wanna cheat is it really that difficult to not forget manually delete the chat instead using feature which does it for you?

olivermarks 4y ago

Whatsapp took Skype's market as a free voice over and video ip but the value of 'communities' is hopelessly questionable. We already have a crowded market for gossip groups (Nextbore, etc etc) and you could argue this directly competes with ye olde facebook. Maybe they are going to do a roll up of WA & FB as part of the brave new Meta era? More importantly Meta owns astounding amounts of undersea cable, which lends credence to the idea they are the new 'cable and wireless'... https://fairinternetreport.com/research/facebook-meta-submarine-cable-ownership https://fairinternetreport.com/research/facebook-meta-submar...

cwillu 4y ago
They have ownership interests in 6% of routes. This is not the same as owning 6% of routes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33443334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33443334

nikolay 4y ago

No, they are not - I have both personal and business apps up to date on Android plus the latest web and desktop apps - that feature is not available!

mritzmann 4y ago
First paragraph: > Today (..) we’ve started to roll out Communities (..) globally and this will be available to everyone over the next few months.
- nikolay 4y ago
  Yes, I did - maybe they started to roll out to their QA server!

reitanqild 4y ago

I glanced through it and it looks like Facebook wants to copy Telegram while keeping law enforcement in the loop? Or is this something new?

reidjs 4y ago

How do I turn on this feature?

soorya3 4y ago

Wow...looks like Mark woke up now, and realized that the ad dollars are going to nextdoor and he wants to get it back.

0508014015 4y ago

junga 4y ago
I don’t get this. Is it a phone number? A phone number starting with a capital letter O, like in OOP or ORM?

0508014015 4y ago

0508014015 4y ago

eitland 4y ago

Any sufficiently complicated messaging system or Social network contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Google+.

vram22 4y ago
Please don't insult Greenspun and Common Lisp. http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html?viewfullsite=1#:~:text=%22Lisp%20isn't%20a%20language,%2C%20it's%20a%20building%20material.%22&text=%22Greenspun's%20Tenth%20Rule%20of%20Programming,of%20half%20of%20Common%20Lisp.%22 http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html?viewfullsite=1#:~:text...

ChrisArchitect 4y ago

Great more damn siloed chat nonsense masquerading as something to replace the forums everyone's trying to get back to.

vicnov 4y ago

Looks like Whatsapp tries to catch up with Telegram.

plantain 4y ago

>Today, we’re excited to announce we’ve started to roll out Communities on WhatsApp globally and this will be available to everyone over the next few months. Does anyone else find these soft-launches irritating? Give us a date?