4 ms·

Yik Yak was one of the funnest things to come out in the last decade but it was too wild and dangerous to be allowed to thrive.

idontwantthis 3y ago
You just reminded me of the time my house party made it onto Yik Yak in college. That was a wild night.
Loughla 3y ago
Oh holy shit, I forgot about that. I work in higher education. You cannot genuinely imagine the heartburn that app gave college administrators across the country. It was amazing. Like a wave of anxiety washed across the country as Deans and Vp's all saw the statistics for bullying and suicide wash across their consciousness.
Aromasin 3y ago
Damn, that's a memory unlocked there. I forgot it existed completely. It was huge during my university days, and led to some very entertaining posts about things happening around the campus. In hindsight though, a huge amount of the posts on there were misogynistic. I keenly remember "slut-spotting" being a trend, with people commenting on girls walking home still dressed up from the night before, telling people to look out for them. Led to a lot of jeering out of windows and the like. Plenty of racist threads also. Targeted cyberbullying too; calling out various people by name and publicly insulting them under anonymity. I distinctly remember having to console a friend who was in hysterics because someone posted a thread about something relatively harmless that she had done, and she was publicly shamed. It was an entertaining way to spend a few minutes at it's best, but at it's worst was a social weapon for a lot of people who shouldn't have had that level of reach nor anonymity.
- avandekleut 3y ago
  Yep, that about sums up my experience with the app too. You could also remove any post automatically once it hit -5 points, so me and some friends got together and downvoted every new yak off the platform. People were big mad.
duped 3y ago
Imagine how much extra racist Yik Yak would have been during the summer of 2020 and today during the Gaza war
- Spivak 3y ago
  I really can't imagine how it could have been any worse than it was in its hayday. Having 4chan but I'm sure it's someone I probably know and not a distant internet stranger made it so much worse.
- ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
  My only reaction is: so? Silencing people isn't going to make them stop thinking things and preventing discussion won't make them Good(TM) people. The entire internet doesn't need to be sanitized.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    I agree with your concluding statement, but I don't think that the goal of moderating discussions is to get people to stop thinking particular things or to make them "good people." The goal is to encourage actual communication.
    - ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
      I don't think you can pile everyone into a handful of platforms and get good communication. There's too many opposing viewpoints, too much crossover, and too much intermingling. Forums didn't have the same issue because they were often single/few topic websites and you could just aggressively remove everything off topic.
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        Yes, I agree with that completely. Above a certain threshold, it all just becomes noise.
veeti 3y ago
An European clone called Jodel is very popular here and hasn't had such a negative reception.
danielvaughn 3y ago
So was Facebook Live. I had so much fun just perusing around the globe, seeing events play out in real time. But too many crimes were committed live, including a mass shooting in New Zealand. I get why it couldn't continue, but it was one of the only genuinely cool things Facebook has ever built.
- radlad 3y ago
  I'm confused by this comment - Facebook Live still exists, doesn't it? If I open Facebook and click "What's on your mind?" I can choose "Live video."
  - danielvaughn 3y ago
    There used to be a globe-type UI that made it really easy to see what's happening live across the world. I'm not sure what Live offers today, but I imagine it's more restrictive. Here's an article about it: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-quietly-killed-a-map-for-discovering-live-videos/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-qui...
    - radlad 3y ago
      I see, thanks. I never saw that UI, but it sounds really cool. I have similarly had fun bouncing around the "Snap Map" in Snapchat before.
nameless912 3y ago
Yik Yak was too good and pure for this world. Or maybe too bad and degenerate. Either way I guess. But the reboot was just sad! Who in their right mind thought they would be able to revive that cultural moment and moderate the shit out of it?

idontwantthis 3y ago

You just reminded me of the time my house party made it onto Yik Yak in college. That was a wild night.

Loughla 3y ago

Oh holy shit, I forgot about that. I work in higher education. You cannot genuinely imagine the heartburn that app gave college administrators across the country. It was amazing. Like a wave of anxiety washed across the country as Deans and Vp's all saw the statistics for bullying and suicide wash across their consciousness.

Aromasin 3y ago

Damn, that's a memory unlocked there. I forgot it existed completely. It was huge during my university days, and led to some very entertaining posts about things happening around the campus. In hindsight though, a huge amount of the posts on there were misogynistic. I keenly remember "slut-spotting" being a trend, with people commenting on girls walking home still dressed up from the night before, telling people to look out for them. Led to a lot of jeering out of windows and the like. Plenty of racist threads also. Targeted cyberbullying too; calling out various people by name and publicly insulting them under anonymity. I distinctly remember having to console a friend who was in hysterics because someone posted a thread about something relatively harmless that she had done, and she was publicly shamed. It was an entertaining way to spend a few minutes at it's best, but at it's worst was a social weapon for a lot of people who shouldn't have had that level of reach nor anonymity.

avandekleut 3y ago
Yep, that about sums up my experience with the app too. You could also remove any post automatically once it hit -5 points, so me and some friends got together and downvoted every new yak off the platform. People were big mad.

duped 3y ago

Imagine how much extra racist Yik Yak would have been during the summer of 2020 and today during the Gaza war

Spivak 3y ago
I really can't imagine how it could have been any worse than it was in its hayday. Having 4chan but I'm sure it's someone I probably know and not a distant internet stranger made it so much worse.
ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
My only reaction is: so? Silencing people isn't going to make them stop thinking things and preventing discussion won't make them Good(TM) people. The entire internet doesn't need to be sanitized.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I agree with your concluding statement, but I don't think that the goal of moderating discussions is to get people to stop thinking particular things or to make them "good people." The goal is to encourage actual communication.
  - ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
    I don't think you can pile everyone into a handful of platforms and get good communication. There's too many opposing viewpoints, too much crossover, and too much intermingling. Forums didn't have the same issue because they were often single/few topic websites and you could just aggressively remove everything off topic.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      Yes, I agree with that completely. Above a certain threshold, it all just becomes noise.

veeti 3y ago

An European clone called Jodel is very popular here and hasn't had such a negative reception.

danielvaughn 3y ago

So was Facebook Live. I had so much fun just perusing around the globe, seeing events play out in real time. But too many crimes were committed live, including a mass shooting in New Zealand. I get why it couldn't continue, but it was one of the only genuinely cool things Facebook has ever built.

radlad 3y ago
I'm confused by this comment - Facebook Live still exists, doesn't it? If I open Facebook and click "What's on your mind?" I can choose "Live video."
- danielvaughn 3y ago
  There used to be a globe-type UI that made it really easy to see what's happening live across the world. I'm not sure what Live offers today, but I imagine it's more restrictive. Here's an article about it: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-quietly-killed-a-map-for-discovering-live-videos/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-qui...
  - radlad 3y ago
    I see, thanks. I never saw that UI, but it sounds really cool. I have similarly had fun bouncing around the "Snap Map" in Snapchat before.

nameless912 3y ago

Yik Yak was too good and pure for this world. Or maybe too bad and degenerate. Either way I guess. But the reboot was just sad! Who in their right mind thought they would be able to revive that cultural moment and moderate the shit out of it?