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Ask HN: Validate Idea – Build infinite communities around the internet

• h2odragon 3y ago
  So a commenting service like disqus, but requiring a browser extension? > not subject to control or review by any individual. If my anti-fans decide to use your extension to coordinate attacks against my site; I'll be helpless to do anything about it? How about you, will your company be taking responsibility for these "communities" or will you be allowing free speech and self governance? What if they "go bad"? What do you do when the someone in the Federal government asks you to "de-emphasize" discussions and viewpoints? Tell them the system can't do that?
  • edricnguyen 3y ago
    Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your suggestion of Disqus, I will take some time to research it further. However, I would like to highlight that unlike Disqus, the extension I offer allows users to connect with each other independently. > What do you do when the someone in the Federal government asks you to "de-emphasize" discussions and viewpoints? Tell them the system can't do that? The power of free speech is a fundamental right, like the way the government can not ask "shut down the bitcoin or the internet” Free speech has been a driving force behind many social and political movements. It allows people to challenge oppressive systems and advocate for change. It's crucial for democratic societies and should be a top priority for those who value individual freedoms and human rights.
• solardev 3y ago
  While well intentioned, I think this is basically a harder to use reddit (or Disqus, as the other poster mentioned). Browser extension means you exclude most mobile users, which is half or more of an average website's audience. People generally talk about topics, not domains, like "best air fryer" and not "Amazon.com" (which is too big a discussion) or airfryers.com (which is probably some spam site). The mapping between topics and domains is not simple. Your free speech ideals are going to run into massive spam, porn, abuse, trolling, and propaganda issues within a few days. Without extensive moderation your comments will be worthless within a few weeks. There is no discoverability and search. No way to find what other people are talking about unless you happen to have the extension and go to a specific website. You'll be hated by website owners because they have no say or control over this additional metalayer, no way to integrate it into their layout, respond to comments, delete certain ones, etc. I would love to be proven wrong though :/
  • edricnguyen 3y ago
    - We initiated the development of this idea by recognizing that any current website, application, e-commerce, or corporate website is striving to find the simplest and most convenient way for their audience to interact with others within their community. The most evident proof of this is that nearly 8/10 startup projects have Discord servers or Facebook groups to support their users, and this number rises to 11/10 for web3 projects (the surplus 1 accounts for a web3 project with a community, albeit one geared more towards deception than authenticity). - The topic of discussion has been effectively addressed by other social networking sites. However, we aim to tackle a distinct issue beyond link-based discussions. A clear illustration of this is evident on the homepage of Hacker News, where the majority of posts consist of a single link, and conversations revolve around the content of that link. - Put simply, our extension, in the case of Hacker News for instance, enables you to read the content of a website while engaging in parallel discussions with others. This eliminates the need to click on the web link and then return to read the comments from the Hacker News community. - The problem of spam and undesirable content is a pervasive issue across the internet, not specific to any one platform. The most effective moderation approach is to empower users themselves. - Website owners will have the authority to hide or downvote content they deem harmful or unfair. However, this process must strike a balance between the interests of the community and the owners, particularly if the website's content is genuinely detrimental to users. > "No way to find what other people are talking about unless you happen to have the extension and go to a specific website." => We provide an additional SDK that allows owners to directly embed Builder into their websites without requiring end users to install the extension. - Concerning mobile users, the ultimate goal is to create a mobile browser version where people can both browse the web and connect with the community on websites of their interest. Importantly, they are safeguarded by this community through a feature that detects harmful links, contributed and reported by users.
• KomoD 3y ago
  Is it "Builder" or "Buidler" Also I can't even look at the extension page unless I give my ID card or card details to google
• elamje 3y ago
  There is something here. Other commenters are comparing to Disqus and Reddit, but I actually think the surface area here is potentially larger. Imagine subreddits for every domain on the web, automatically. r/news.ycombinator.com, r/<insert popular blog url>, etc. Reddit kind of does this today, but only for sites with enough fans ~on reddit~. It's the last 2 words in that sentence that are important. Disqus's surface area is limited by site admins that set it up, Reddits surface area is limited by having a critical mass of reddit users for a particular site. This is sort of different. I don't think browser extension is your best distribution strategy. Largely I would go for a completely open thing closer to reddit r/<insert url> structure, but keep using the browser extension as a way to make interacting with that community a little easier for users. User adoption and critical mass is kind of the main way this is interesting, so you have to find communities online around content that has super fans, but doesn't have forums, etc. already up. Or you have to get those forums and subreddits to move to your thing which is a challenge. Here are a couple of ideas: - YouTubers, when people are watching a YouTube video by a certain YouTuber, have your extension build community around the YouTuber's channel rather than the video (which is the limit of YouTube comments today) - Find blogs with huge audiences, where the blogger only has a premium, paid community. You can be the open community for all of the fans that won't pay for the premium community
  • edricnguyen 3y ago
    Thank you very much for your insightful and helpful feedback. The idea of "r/<insert popular blog url>" is very similar to what we are doing. I want to turn a website into a community with the following format: [https://buidler.chat/](http://buidler.chat/)<blog_url> https://buidler.chat/](http://buidler.chat/)<blog_url> Your idea of connecting a community of popular YouTubers is fantastic! To be honest, we hadn't considered it before. Thank you very much for the excellent advice. We understand that convincing users to install our plugin can be challenging. However, our approach is designed to seamlessly connect users on any website. Rather than convincing them to use our product and keeping them there, we strive to go with the users and become a part of their lives. Furthermore, we plan to extend invitations to website owners to incorporate our plugin onto their website. This will allow for increased exposure to individuals who have yet to install our plugin and promote further growth. We still face several challenges that we must overcome. However, we firmly believe in the community's potential, and we anticipate a future where fans from this community will engage with one another on major websites. Thank you once again for your feedback. If you have any questions or new ideas, please don't hesitate to share them with us.