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Ask HN: What are the problems with using Twitter according to you?

I'm building Sage - The platform that Twitter was supposed to be. Twitter has accumulated a lot of unnecessary features and bloat over recent years. Sage is my brainchild which aims to be a stripped-down version of Twitter focusing more on the community platform side of things, without all the bells and whistles. There will be the highest level of privacy and security with a promise of having no ads on the platform ever. There is a huge market gap in the community and social landscape for Sage. What are the problems with using Twitter according to you?

smoldesu 4y ago
Fediverse interop or bust. It's fine if you want to build a new site with blackjack and WebHooks, but I will never see or interact with any of the site's content if it doesn't Federate. Even Tumblr is getting on the bandwagon, and I think there's a untapped market for "managed" federated media.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  This. Social media, ‘chat’ and similar programs go bad the way cheese does because once they get a two-sided monopoly they stagnate. Thus you have to squint to tell Facebook Messenger from AOL Messenger or MSN Messenger. If there was competition for clients and servers you’d see bugs get fixed and a long-term trajectory for improvements. I want to hear that your platform is financially sustainable whether or not there are ads. If there is one reason Twitter failed it is because it never found a profitable model for serving customers and had the most value to one individual who thought he could ‘own the libs’ and win every flame war if he owned the platform.
  - legrande 4y ago
    What's your thoughts on Matrix? https://matrix.org/clients/ https://matrix.org/clients/
    - PaulHoule 4y ago
      It's a step in the right direction but people need to be convinced of it. Unfortunately, the real motto of the social media revolution is "give me convenience or give me death."
- legrande 4y ago
  > Even Tumblr is getting on the bandwagon First I heard of this. I was reluctant to use Tumblr after the NSFW permabanning fiasco that happened not so long ago. Some people claiming their 'erotica' was art and shouldn't be censored. But then what if Tumblr decides it can arbitrarily ban other forms of art? See the slippery slope situation here?
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    I'll be hard-pressed to care, I don't have (or intend to have) an account on Tumblr. I'd just like the ability to follow certain users and mix it in with the rest of my federated feed, their personal platform rules don't really matter.

smoldesu 4y ago

Fediverse interop or bust. It's fine if you want to build a new site with blackjack and WebHooks, but I will never see or interact with any of the site's content if it doesn't Federate. Even Tumblr is getting on the bandwagon, and I think there's a untapped market for "managed" federated media.

PaulHoule 4y ago
This. Social media, ‘chat’ and similar programs go bad the way cheese does because once they get a two-sided monopoly they stagnate. Thus you have to squint to tell Facebook Messenger from AOL Messenger or MSN Messenger. If there was competition for clients and servers you’d see bugs get fixed and a long-term trajectory for improvements. I want to hear that your platform is financially sustainable whether or not there are ads. If there is one reason Twitter failed it is because it never found a profitable model for serving customers and had the most value to one individual who thought he could ‘own the libs’ and win every flame war if he owned the platform.
- legrande 4y ago
  What's your thoughts on Matrix? https://matrix.org/clients/ https://matrix.org/clients/
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    It's a step in the right direction but people need to be convinced of it. Unfortunately, the real motto of the social media revolution is "give me convenience or give me death."
legrande 4y ago
> Even Tumblr is getting on the bandwagon First I heard of this. I was reluctant to use Tumblr after the NSFW permabanning fiasco that happened not so long ago. Some people claiming their 'erotica' was art and shouldn't be censored. But then what if Tumblr decides it can arbitrarily ban other forms of art? See the slippery slope situation here?
- smoldesu 4y ago
  I'll be hard-pressed to care, I don't have (or intend to have) an account on Tumblr. I'd just like the ability to follow certain users and mix it in with the rest of my federated feed, their personal platform rules don't really matter.