15 ms·

Have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?

225 points by throwaway55479 2y ago

KineticLensman 2y ago
> “The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” says Gracewood. Comments happen in-line – similar to those on the Guardian and Observer websites – meaning that it’s less possible to performatively repost content into a main feed in order to encourage a pile-on. Similar situations exist on platforms such as Goodreads and Strava, where it’s possible to communicate with and message others, but not to publicly shame them easily. > Because hobby apps are nicer places to exist, people spend more time on them – and they can eventually turn into services that are more than advertised. That includes finding like-minded people with whom you’d want to spend your time romantically. > One reason that people may be starting to find love on apps not explicitly designed for that purpose is because the expectations are lower – and as such, the atmosphere is less sexually charged. I feel an 'Ask HN' coming on: "have you found love on HN?"
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  It has to have happened at least a few times, right?
  - KineticLensman 2y ago
    For certain values of 'love', perhaps...
    - EarlKing 2y ago
      Only if love is denominated in dollars and amounts to a seed round, anyway...
  - np_tedious 2y ago
    I have a crush on dang but it hasn't gone anywhere yet
    - throwup238 2y ago
      I get a new throwaway banned every week in the hopes that he notices me.
- thimabi 2y ago
  Or maybe there’s a “Who Is Looking for Love?” coming up on Ask HN, much like the job threads :)
  - nkingsy 2y ago
    If you think dating apps skew male…
    - danilor 2y ago
      Off topic: What setup did you use to make this comment so that you used the … character instead of three . characters?
      - kayodelycaon 2y ago
        Autocorrect on an iPhone converts three periods to an ellipsis. . . . => …
      - yismail 2y ago
        on macOS, option + ; seems to work …
      - falcolas 2y ago
        Windows: Alt+0133 - numbers typed with the number pad. The character map app on Windows can help find all of these codes for different glyphs.
      - thimabi 2y ago
        On iOS, you can also long press the period button, then select the ellipsis in the pop up menu for accented characters and diacritics.
    - kayodelycaon 2y ago
      Which means more opportunities for some males. :)
    - Der_Einzige 2y ago
      All the fun spaces on the internet are extremely male dominated. I strongly believe in the autism as extreme male brain hypothesis for this reason. Discord especially is such a sausage fest. Sad to see it kill web forums (which I suppose were all sausage fests)
- haunter 2y ago
  >The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” The problem with Letterboxd that it's gamified and there is an incredible amount of noise and it's getting worse. Top reviews are all just copy paste like baits. "Me when watching a Ghibli film :cryingemoji:" 20k likes "Yes I'd let Ethan Hawke visit me every single night" 10k likes etc It's a good site but also must users are writing dogshit Just look at the popular reviews page https://letterboxd.com/reviews/popular/this/week/ https://letterboxd.com/reviews/popular/this/week/
  - yunwal 2y ago
    I’m not seeing what’s so bad about the popular reviews. I guess my one complaint would be that no one is writing reviews and so they should stop calling it reviews when they’re really tweets about movies, but I think if Letterboxd were actually 100% in-depth reviews I’d log off immediately. Usually people writing a short quip about a weird/funny thing they noticed is way more enlightening than trying to go through some intellectual exercise after every movie you watch.
    - haunter 2y ago
      Letterboxd advertised itself as "Goodreads for film" yet here we are. We still don't have a Goodreads for film
  - saagarjha 2y ago
    “Me when I used Rust at work” 500 karma “Yeah I’d let Jim Keller design my CPU” 200 karma
marginalia_nu 2y ago
Can't be overstated how good having a setting centered on some common activity with low stakes social interaction is for building relationships, romantic as well as platonic. Hookup culture just isn't for everyone, and the notion that it is has been the cause of a lot of grief and agony.
- mritchie712 2y ago
  especially good when that common activity isn't: we're both drinking at this bar
  - sublinear 2y ago
    Easiest way to meet someone is for them to be a friend of a friend. I rarely date someone outside my extended circle even if I was trying to. We inevitably happen to know someone in common. That said, bars are a great way to expand that circle. Dating is just one aspect of socializing. People who go to bars specifically just to "pick up" are creepy.
    - tasuki 2y ago
      > People who go to bars specifically just to "pick up" are creepy. What does that mean?
      - ethbr1 2y ago
        That a lot of people go to bars to hang out with their friends, or especially hang out with their friends + meet some new friends of friends. And it's kind of weird to just go to a bar, alone, and try and find other lonely people to fuck for a single night. But hey, that's what some people are looking for.
        2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
        I'd argue this isn't weird but anthropologically speaking the norm. This being considered "weird" in and off itself is more like a very recent social development.
Gualdrapo 2y ago
I do use Strava a lot to record my rides and stuff, and even more since I could afford a Wahoo - but I really hate the 'social' side of Strava. It tries to make you 'competitive' so hard. Granted, as a professional loser I'd like to find someone that likes cycling too, though cycling alone is great too - still, I'd rather find that person in one of those rides than in some weird thing like Strava fly-by's or something.
- jamil7 2y ago
  Yeah, I used to use Strava to track rides when I was cycling a lot and at some point realised it just made feel bad about my own performance. I run a lot more than I ride now and only take my keys with me. I check the time before I leave and know roughly how far and log it in my calendar. Running without any tech or music/podcasts/audiobooks has also helped me focus on technique and breathing and gives me a proper break from everything.
  - alx_the_new_guy 2y ago
    Garmin Connect is actually fairly decent. Tracks activities (also sleep, which I find pretty useful), fairly detailed stats, little to none social features and a little gamification with challenges and achievements. Also the watch reminds you to move from time to time. Komoot is great for planning of "trips" and "stealing" other people's routes. I've done couple of them and you kind of never know what you're gonna see there (hopefully not agressive dogs), all of them were pretty enjoyable. It has a bit of a social aspect, but barely anyone uses it where I live, so IDK how it is. One thing I miss from Strava are segments (or whatever they're called) - short parts of your route with it's own leader-board. Has "speedrun, but IRL" vibes, which is pretty cool IMO.
    - jamil7 2y ago
      Yeah I use Komoot a fair bit for planning rides and hikes, it’s great and pretty widely used here in Germany.
    - theChaparral 2y ago
RcouF1uZ4gsC 2y ago
For a long term relationship, sex is the icing on a cake made of shared values and interests. It isn’t surprising at all that focusing on real life shared interests and values first instead of sex first would be a good strategy for finding a long term partner.
- dotancohen 2y ago
  Agreed 100%. The issue is that a long term relationship (and sex) is often considered creepy to pursue in venues not designated for that.
  - BaculumMeumEst 2y ago
    I mean if you're creepy about it, sure, but as long as you can pick up on social cues you can feel it out without rubbing anyone the wrong way.
  - marginalia_nu 2y ago
    The solution is to not pursue sex or relationships, but to simply have enough of a social life that it happens anyway. That completely gets rid of the leisure suit larry energy that going out hunting for a partner inevitably gives you.
    - Qem 2y ago
      > The solution is to not pursue sex or relationships, but to simply have enough of a social life that it happens anyway. One thing I find odd about having problems finding partners/establishing relationships, it's that for every other psychological problem, say, addictions, depression, et cetera, one thing people always says to be of utmost importance is to acknowledge the problem itself. To not pretend it's nothing, or that it's something else. With relationship-making there's a complete reversal on that. Default advice it's to forget it and delude yourself pretending you're trying just to do some hobbies.
      - marginalia_nu 2y ago
PLenz 2y ago
It's a cycle. The internet started with usenet and specific interest newsgroups and niche forums a la phpbb. Then the wide open of social media. Now back to specific again. A generation from now it will shift again.
- ethanol-brain 2y ago
  I have been using the internet since 1995, and I have yet to see the cycle. From where I sit, it has been more of just a steady trend toward compartmentalization and aggregation. (Not to say that there aren't a large number of great projects off the main path.)
- supriyo-biswas 2y ago
  Network effects, monopolization, a lack of diverse payment models on the internet, and reduced interest in system administration have primarily lead to the centralization of communities on a few platforms, which has lead us to this problem. If you could somehow solve 2, 3 and 4, I assume there'd be many thriving topical communities in parallel, just like the forums of yore that you speak of.
- dotancohen 2y ago
  > It's a cycle Strava is for running, too. Lrf, guvf vf n cha.
  - EarlKing 2y ago
    > Lrf, guvf vf n cha. And here with the birth of broadband I thought we'd moved past the age of line noise.
    - dotancohen 2y ago
      $ echo Lrf, guvf vf n cha. | rot13 Yes, this is a pun.
chungus 2y ago
https://archive.is/FA3UY https://archive.is/FA3UY
IgorPartola 2y ago
Sharing a common interest is the best way to meet lots of new people. It creates low stakes interaction opportunities and removes the creep factor (if you are at a meetup for fans of model trains along with like a dozen other people, it’s not weird that you are talking to some of them). Better than any app, go get a hobby in person and get out there to meet people who are into it. Chances are you present yourself way better in the real world vs online. Online dating, especially the Tinder variety, really skews to work for some demographics and not others (I am not talking about gender here so much as age, location, etc.).
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  This is the common advice, but it's also resulted in many of these hobby based events being overrun by people who are primarily there looking to find a date. It can be a weird dynamic. My suggestion is get a hobby that you explicitly are interested in, but don't go in with an expectation that you'll find someone, or make that your primary goal. > Chances are you present yourself way better in the real world vs online For many of us I don't think this is true
  - katamarimambo 2y ago
    And even for those with better intentions, the low stakes interaction will become high stakes as attraction and expectations increase. When rejection almost inevitably happens at some point, bringing feelings of innability and jealousy, it will be tougher to deal, specially for the less experienced following this path. In this sense hookup culture can relieve such pressure and allows for decoupling the sexual needs, and romantic ones even - personal note: I think it's weird how people online talk as if it's mandatory to mistreat/abandon the people you hook up with. I build a small but nice network of "friends with benefits" which for me are simply friends who enjoy a specific activity. Like, exactly the inverse of what everyone is recomending and it worked for me.
    - Der_Einzige 2y ago
      Let’s be honest, the kinds of people who are usually looking for this advice are actual incels who are seething with rage about the fact that they haven’t, and can”t hook up and have wild casual sex.
osigurdson 2y ago
>> “free speech” Does not belong in quotes.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - twixfel 2y ago
    What's that go to do with online dating and Strava?
    - llm_trw 2y ago
      I don't know, ask the guardian why they had to take a swipe at free speech in an article about dating.
      - twixfel 2y ago
        I took it as a swipe at Elon Musk and Twitter rather than free speech.
        llm_trw 2y ago
        Taking a swipe at Musk in an article about dating isn't any less weird.
        twixfel 2y ago
        In an article about the merits of different social networks, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to mention and even criticise Twitter, and Twitter's owner, Elon Musk. You may disagree with it, but it's not unreasonable nor "weird".
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- 2y ago
janmo 2y ago
I can really recommend HelloTalk which is a language learning app. Meetup.com also used to be a good option but not so much anymore.
- SunlitCat 2y ago
  Option for meeting a (romantic) partner or learning a language? ;)
  - janmo 2y ago
    You can do both at the same time ;)
- dagelf 2y ago
  Sounds like a case of... if it's too easy too find, too many people find it...? Aka. "Google ruins everything"?
osigurdson 2y ago
I used to use Strava a lot but now I don't even think of recording rides, runs, heartrates, etc. A lot of people I know are the same. The real "killer app" is Trailforks.
KaoruAoiShiho 2y ago
I heard Roblox and Valorant are also great ways to find dates, but perhaps for a younger demo.
mhh__ 2y ago
Anecdotally run clubs are the dance halls of today (i.e. go to meet women)
- SunlitCat 2y ago
  Actually many sport activities seem to be largely women based, which kinda says much about men not really caring about their health. :)
  - mhh__ 2y ago
    Hence the arbitrage. A very attractive mild acquaintance was either bored or lonely or whatever and set up her own run club, one guy showed up. Without wishing to think like a PUA these are good odds.
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    Go into most gyms and it’s the opposite phenomenon. Men know that some types of physical activity (weight lifting) actually get them laid and others (I.e running) are the equivalent of what food does to get away from predators. The men who get good at that type of physical activity tend to be treated like the food is.
    - hooverd 2y ago
      Women don't like men who do cardio?
      - bradlys 2y ago
        Women like men who look good. Men who lift weights usually look more attractive than someone who has a “runners” body. (Skinny and not muscular) Some runners will look jacked but that’s probably due to steroids and/or weightlifting. Running alone doesn’t give one bulging biceps or a large chest.
        hooverd 2y ago
hermannj314 2y ago
If your goal is to meet a human person, it is probably best to go to a social media site that is largely made of humans.
- mrkramer 2y ago
  That use to be Reddit but be careful bots run amok ;) kidding aside, in the age of LLMs how you can be sure that you are talking to human? Sometimes I'm not sure tbh. Reddit is perhaps the mother of all hobby social networks. You can not beat Reddit at least not yet or as long as majority of users are indeed humans.
mattrighetti 2y ago
We will see how long this lasts. We try to search for meaningful relationships, which socials stole from us apparently, by switching to different socials, pretending they're going to do better than the previous ones. Wouldn't ditching socials altogether get us in a better place on this matter? It is utopia at this point I guess. Some socials could actually be useful to make new friends/relationships but it seems to me that the very people that constantly complain about the "anti-social" aspect that our lives have taken are the ones that go on and try 1000 different dating apps, give up on friends after a couple of months to try and find new "better" ones.
xiaoxiong 2y ago
Strava is the only social network I’m on anymore, and I pair it with a number of weekly, in person group rides. It’s a great way to maintain connections, and a wonderful source of encouragement. Typical social network dopamine hits probably aren’t great for your health, but when it’s paired with 100 miles of exercise, I think it has a net positive. I’ll definitely admit to pushing myself further than I typically would for those Strava kudos. That said, I don’t think something like Strava is particularly useful without the in person aspect to go along with it. Heck I don’t even know how you’d gain followers without doing group rides.
- tchock23 2y ago
  I find Strava is also helpful for solo activities that aren't in-person. Knowing that an IRL friend/follower will see my activity pushes me to work harder.
  - xiaoxiong 2y ago
    Yeah definitely, gives you something to talk about at the next group ride too haha.
dagelf 2y ago
Sparknotes spawned a quiz site, TheSpark, that eventually morphed into OKCupid... that started out being successful because it gamified making quizzes for people, and then stumbled on the miracle of asymmetrical matching. Ie. matching people not based on common interests per se, but on curiosity... or "satisfying" their curiosity. Turned out to be a great way to get to know yourself, and what you are really looking for... I'm sure a lot of people figured out what to look for in their true ideal partners, and some even managed to meet them on the site... Match.com takeover obviously completely ruined everything... rooting for more copies, hell, even a decentralized protocol, that can bring back notjust the romantic, but also the platonic- and self-insight-giving parts of TheSpark...
Renaud 2y ago
I wish there were more offerings for socialising around hobbies. Strava looks great for some sport activities, but I’d like to meet other nerds into 80s computing, hobby electronics, comics, sci-fi, home automation, kayaking, city exploration, etc You invariably end up with lical Facebook groups, which are just a flow of posts, and require a FB account, or some non local reddit group, or small scale website you have no idea exists. Something is missing. It sure would require mass appeal to be useful, but a ‘Tinder for your hobbies’ might be nice. Get matches from people near you who enjoy a cross-section of the same stuff. Add some social aspects for those who like to show off or share (don’t force it though), make discovery easy, let people organise events…
- robjan 2y ago
  Doesn't meetup.com somewhat fulfil this, although it's most useful to people living in big cities
  - yunwal 2y ago
    Meetup.com in large cities has become a money-grab, spawning a bunch of semi-professional “event planners” who charge much more than the cost of putting on the event. Feeling like you’re paying for the privilege of talking to other people is demoralizing. People want a place to meet other people that doesn’t feel like they’re paying to be “set up”.
- randomdata 2y ago
  > Something is missing. It sounds to me like what is missing is community. Around here, if you go outside you're soon going to learn who the like-minded nerds are. Even if you don't chance-encounter them directly, the people you do encounter are apt to know them and let you know about them. From there, you can reach out. Connection made. In fact, I was just having a conversation with an old friend who recently moved to my area and he noted how everyone is out there talking to each other and finding out about each other, which felt foreign to him. He says where he moved from he was effectively anonymous. I suspect your living arrangement is more like his previously was. Perhaps the solution isn't tech-based, but simply for us to be more neighbourly the old fashioned way?
haunter 2y ago
WoW did this 20 years ago tbh. It was a social network for most before the game itself.
vxxzy 2y ago
Anyone wanting to get a feel for unintended uses of a product should go look at google map reviews of locations in India. It is fascinating and ingenious.
- weakfish 2y ago
  Howso? I took a peek around New Delhi and didn’t notice anything
  - vxxzy 2y ago
    Go out into more rural areas.
brushfoot 2y ago
"Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Reddit has worked around their lack of it to some degree with location-based subreddits like r/AtlFilmmakers. But subreddits are high maintenance, and they isolate content. Plus, the naming conventions aren't standard. Maybe there's r/AtlFilmmakers for filmmakers in Atlanta, but another subreddit for musicians uses the state in the name instead of a city. It's a bit like folders vs. tags. It would be nicer to have a single filmmaking subreddit with the option to filter on users' locations -- and default filtering out of location-specific posts in other places. That wouldn't just make for better dating, though it probably would compared to something like Tinder. It could also lead to stronger local communities and better health outcomes.
- diggan 2y ago
  > "Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Funny this got mentioned as France just successfully got that very feature removed from Telegram by arresting the founder and citing that feature as the one being used most for abuse. Bunch of sources about that here: https://ground.news/article/telegram-to-start-moderating-private-chats-remove-features-used-by-abusers https://ground.news/article/telegram-to-start-moderating-pri...
  - moi2388 2y ago
    That might have been cited as the reason, but I think we all know the real reason is that France is fighting against Russian troops in their former African colonies, and Russian troops mainly use Telegram for their communications.
    - older 2y ago
      Who are those "we" you're talking about?
      - moi2388 2y ago
        Anybody aware of what’s happening in Africa between France, Russia and Wagner
bradlys 2y ago
This article reads "we noticed certain apps have been increasing in users. Everyone is complaining about dating and dating apps. Maybe users have found love on these other apps!" But then doesn't show any proof or even anecdotal evidence of some users who would share their experience. "Yeah, I saw he would get the weekly record for the section between 14th and 34th. I just had to reach out... We're expecting our 2nd child this autumn - we're naming them Cassette." No, this "article" as far as I saw was simply conjecture. If there's any amount of this happening - it's hellishly small or limited to people who don't go out at all. If you didn't meet the love of your life in college, dating apps still seem to be the reigning king of the well educated white collar professional (HN audience). I think I've only met one couple that met at a club/bar - almost all others met through a shared hobby (where they met face to face originally) or at a party with mutual friends. By far the leading one though is college + dating apps. IRL meeting as a way to form a relationship after college seems pretty uncommon for my well off and well educated crowd.
tinybrain 2y ago
What happened to Meetup? I moved to a new city in 2015 and made a handful of long term friend groups, all started from meetup. I moved to a new city in 2024 and it's basically empty... except for some Wiccan book clubs, or MLM pyramid schemes or whatever. I don't get it. Seems like there would be competition in this space to replace Meetup, but there's nothing? Or did we all just collectively give up on meeting strangers.
- skhunted 2y ago
  In my area Discord took the place of Meetup. Meetup went downhill when WeWork bought them.
  - tinybrain 2y ago
    Hey thanks for the tip. I searched my local subreddit and found some Discord invites, maybe I'll find better luck there.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
datavirtue 2y ago
I didn't make it past "Singletons."
Beijinger 2y ago
"Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?" I don't know, but has anyone tried using Tinder in the US recently? Just scammers, crazies, wackos and strange people - if you can get a match. Tinder has gotten totally useless, in fact, it has become a marketplace for lemons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons Your chance of finding a decent date would be bigger on a Hire a dog walker app or hire a cleaner app. Some years ago, I was told that Couch Surfing is a dating app. Kind of. Good luck.
- mrkramer 2y ago
  I think the most straight forward dating app would be the one for "one night stands" because both people know exactly what they want but then again you would need to demand STD checks for all users perhaps on a monthly basis. This is just my humorous thought experiment idea.
  - Beijinger 2y ago
    At a time I was thinking with a buddy (and someone from HN) to make an up where you (speak women) can only date me and my friends. For men it would be invitation only. Supposed name was my name K: kandfriends
alistairSH 2y ago
Using Strava to match with cyclists is so weird to me… it’s a meat space activity, so go find a local group ride.
bilsbie 2y ago
New simple “social network” idea: Paste in a list of your interests (maybe use a list of subreddits you’re subscribed to, or you X inferred interest list) And it will suggest people to chat with ranked by most common interests. Could be a weekend project. Anyone want to team up?
- BlackjackCF 2y ago
  Neat idea. I think the challenge with social networks isn’t the technical implementation, but actually getting people to regularly engage with it.
- leobg 2y ago
  Has been on my list for a long time. Would love to build it. Email in profile.
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  I think you invented facebook
- jules-jules 2y ago
  If you build this I will come. Something like feeding your Reddit username to https://redditmetis.com/ https://redditmetis.com/ And suggest other users to chat to based on the analysis
2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
I don't like how the article arbitrarily mixes seeking hobby mates with pursuing romantic interests. While practically both realms naturally border on each other an intersect it is important to set an initial semi-offical mode of expectations. Networks like Couchsurfing died because mostly men started to use it as an app for hooking up. And that just kills the vibe and also undermines the trust. Anybody here from Germany who would share practical experiences with such apps? I'm quite apprehensive of the idea that this is now how you meet people. Of course it doesn't necessarily have to be but myself being in my early forties, single, few friends, full time computer job have to say that it is a challenge.
bilsbie 2y ago
Friend making wise, I’ve been trying to reach out to interesting sounding people on X and on Reddit. I’m still trying to figure out how to sound casual and just interested in chatting and not having the first message sound too weird. But I’ve made a couple friends and had a bunch of good chats. I wish reddit, X, and even HN would be more encouraging of direct messaging people. That would mimic real world networking better where you’re usually breaking off into one on one or small groups.
praptak 2y ago
I remember when I used to play Go online. Obviously the servers, in addition to supporting playing Go and observing the games, had chat functionality. The popular saying on the chats was "Give a man a chat server and he chats for a day. Give him a Go server and he chats for life."
bigfryo 2y ago
[dead]
amelius 2y ago
Just give people full control, and the protocol will be successful. Look at e-mail for an example. Of course, this doesn't mean that it can be monetized easily.
bitnasty 2y ago
“Hobby apps” are social networks. Just because some social networks try for mass appeal with generic features like microblogs and photos doesn’t mean that other social networks with very specific features like GPS logging of bike rides are not.
petesergeant 2y ago
I’m currently building this for TV shows. Our idea is that the social aspect should be limited to your real life friends and family only, because that’s where the really magical discovery happens. We’ve got a small number of very dedicated users who all know each other in real life, and they use the app as an adjunct to their real life conversations. We’ve finally got it in the App Store, so seeing if we can scale it over the next few months should be fun!
mrkramer 2y ago
There is always place for niche social networks e.g. the most weird niche social network that I remember(and that is legal) was Ashley Madison[0]; I found about it in 2015 when it was all over the media because of the embarrassing breach. Apparently it was and is used by married people who seek affairs or in another words people who want to cheat on their partner. If you can build community and business around that then you can build community and business around anything. Btw I think dating sites invented the whole chatbot affair thing because Ashley Madison was using fake chatbot accounts to catfish and lure people into buying Ashley Madison membership or whatever they use to monetize their product. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison
isaacdaoust 2y ago
Notably absent hobby in the article is music. I'm currently working on a website that will function as a "hobby app" for digital music/album collection. https://discollect.app https://discollect.app my public profile: https://discollect.app/profile/clo0oz2hw0005fv02qbxn866c https://discollect.app/profile/clo0oz2hw0005fv02qbxn866c
- Svoka 2y ago
  Oh! This is a cool service! Love onboarding experience
  - isaacdaoust 2y ago
    Thanks! Got the motivation to finish up the onboarding after seeing this article. Still adding features all the time so let me know if you have any ideas!
- ragazzina 2y ago
  There used to be an app called JQBX and at least one beautiful community came from it. It's not mantained anymore though.
  - isaacdaoust 2y ago
    Oh this is super cool. I actually started designing another project that's very similar to JQBX last week. Perfect time for me to see this. And the connection with Discollect will be that you can only queue tracks from albums you've collected, which hopefully encourages music discovery.
- Futurebot 2y ago
  Cool idea. Are you planning to add profile photo, description, and location support like Letterboxd has? Maybe messaging? Also, is there a way to find who else has listened to what I've listened to?
  - isaacdaoust 2y ago
TomMasz 2y ago
Strava got me to join a few clubs (I'm not in any IRL club) but the messaging I just ignore. Not everything has to be a social network. I'm looking at you LinkedIn.
fcatalan 2y ago
Small Twitch communities do it for me. I'm quite of an introvert. And all my long term friendships have faded or my friends have moved cities or countries. But around lockdown I took up miniature painting and started watching a bunch of 50 to 100 viewer channels about the hobby. With those numbers the streamer knows you by name by the second time you show up and you soon bond with others in chat. This got me in contact with the small local hobby club, but also by the time I could attend an in person nationwide convention my family was astounded: dozens of people they knew nothing about were greeting me, stopping for hugs and chats, giving me stuff from their stands... I've seen both romantic and business relationships emerge in that environment.
deleted 2y ago
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> “The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” says Gracewood. Comments happen in-line – similar to those on the Guardian and Observer websites – meaning that it’s less possible to performatively repost content into a main feed in order to encourage a pile-on. Similar situations exist on platforms such as Goodreads and Strava, where it’s possible to communicate with and message others, but not to publicly shame them easily. > Because hobby apps are nicer places to exist, people spend more time on them – and they can eventually turn into services that are more than advertised. That includes finding like-minded people with whom you’d want to spend your time romantically. > One reason that people may be starting to find love on apps not explicitly designed for that purpose is because the expectations are lower – and as such, the atmosphere is less sexually charged. I feel an 'Ask HN' coming on: "have you found love on HN?"

Trasmatta 2y ago
It has to have happened at least a few times, right?
- KineticLensman 2y ago
  For certain values of 'love', perhaps...
  - EarlKing 2y ago
    Only if love is denominated in dollars and amounts to a seed round, anyway...
- np_tedious 2y ago
  I have a crush on dang but it hasn't gone anywhere yet
  - throwup238 2y ago
    I get a new throwaway banned every week in the hopes that he notices me.
thimabi 2y ago
Or maybe there’s a “Who Is Looking for Love?” coming up on Ask HN, much like the job threads :)
- nkingsy 2y ago
  If you think dating apps skew male…
  - danilor 2y ago
    Off topic: What setup did you use to make this comment so that you used the … character instead of three . characters?
    - kayodelycaon 2y ago
      Autocorrect on an iPhone converts three periods to an ellipsis. . . . => …
    - yismail 2y ago
      on macOS, option + ; seems to work …
    - falcolas 2y ago
      Windows: Alt+0133 - numbers typed with the number pad. The character map app on Windows can help find all of these codes for different glyphs.
    - thimabi 2y ago
      On iOS, you can also long press the period button, then select the ellipsis in the pop up menu for accented characters and diacritics.
  - kayodelycaon 2y ago
    Which means more opportunities for some males. :)
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    All the fun spaces on the internet are extremely male dominated. I strongly believe in the autism as extreme male brain hypothesis for this reason. Discord especially is such a sausage fest. Sad to see it kill web forums (which I suppose were all sausage fests)
haunter 2y ago
>The thing about Letterboxd is there isn’t a ‘central town square’ like there is on X; it’s a very single-channel conversation,” The problem with Letterboxd that it's gamified and there is an incredible amount of noise and it's getting worse. Top reviews are all just copy paste like baits. "Me when watching a Ghibli film :cryingemoji:" 20k likes "Yes I'd let Ethan Hawke visit me every single night" 10k likes etc It's a good site but also must users are writing dogshit Just look at the popular reviews page https://letterboxd.com/reviews/popular/this/week/ https://letterboxd.com/reviews/popular/this/week/
- yunwal 2y ago
  I’m not seeing what’s so bad about the popular reviews. I guess my one complaint would be that no one is writing reviews and so they should stop calling it reviews when they’re really tweets about movies, but I think if Letterboxd were actually 100% in-depth reviews I’d log off immediately. Usually people writing a short quip about a weird/funny thing they noticed is way more enlightening than trying to go through some intellectual exercise after every movie you watch.
  - haunter 2y ago
    Letterboxd advertised itself as "Goodreads for film" yet here we are. We still don't have a Goodreads for film
- saagarjha 2y ago
  “Me when I used Rust at work” 500 karma “Yeah I’d let Jim Keller design my CPU” 200 karma

marginalia_nu 2y ago

Can't be overstated how good having a setting centered on some common activity with low stakes social interaction is for building relationships, romantic as well as platonic. Hookup culture just isn't for everyone, and the notion that it is has been the cause of a lot of grief and agony.

mritchie712 2y ago
especially good when that common activity isn't: we're both drinking at this bar
- sublinear 2y ago
  Easiest way to meet someone is for them to be a friend of a friend. I rarely date someone outside my extended circle even if I was trying to. We inevitably happen to know someone in common. That said, bars are a great way to expand that circle. Dating is just one aspect of socializing. People who go to bars specifically just to "pick up" are creepy.
  - tasuki 2y ago
    > People who go to bars specifically just to "pick up" are creepy. What does that mean?
    - ethbr1 2y ago
      That a lot of people go to bars to hang out with their friends, or especially hang out with their friends + meet some new friends of friends. And it's kind of weird to just go to a bar, alone, and try and find other lonely people to fuck for a single night. But hey, that's what some people are looking for.
      - 2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
        I'd argue this isn't weird but anthropologically speaking the norm. This being considered "weird" in and off itself is more like a very recent social development.

Gualdrapo 2y ago

I do use Strava a lot to record my rides and stuff, and even more since I could afford a Wahoo - but I really hate the 'social' side of Strava. It tries to make you 'competitive' so hard. Granted, as a professional loser I'd like to find someone that likes cycling too, though cycling alone is great too - still, I'd rather find that person in one of those rides than in some weird thing like Strava fly-by's or something.

jamil7 2y ago
Yeah, I used to use Strava to track rides when I was cycling a lot and at some point realised it just made feel bad about my own performance. I run a lot more than I ride now and only take my keys with me. I check the time before I leave and know roughly how far and log it in my calendar. Running without any tech or music/podcasts/audiobooks has also helped me focus on technique and breathing and gives me a proper break from everything.
- alx_the_new_guy 2y ago
  Garmin Connect is actually fairly decent. Tracks activities (also sleep, which I find pretty useful), fairly detailed stats, little to none social features and a little gamification with challenges and achievements. Also the watch reminds you to move from time to time. Komoot is great for planning of "trips" and "stealing" other people's routes. I've done couple of them and you kind of never know what you're gonna see there (hopefully not agressive dogs), all of them were pretty enjoyable. It has a bit of a social aspect, but barely anyone uses it where I live, so IDK how it is. One thing I miss from Strava are segments (or whatever they're called) - short parts of your route with it's own leader-board. Has "speedrun, but IRL" vibes, which is pretty cool IMO.
  - jamil7 2y ago
    Yeah I use Komoot a fair bit for planning rides and hikes, it’s great and pretty widely used here in Germany.
  - theChaparral 2y ago

RcouF1uZ4gsC 2y ago

For a long term relationship, sex is the icing on a cake made of shared values and interests. It isn’t surprising at all that focusing on real life shared interests and values first instead of sex first would be a good strategy for finding a long term partner.

dotancohen 2y ago
Agreed 100%. The issue is that a long term relationship (and sex) is often considered creepy to pursue in venues not designated for that.
- BaculumMeumEst 2y ago
  I mean if you're creepy about it, sure, but as long as you can pick up on social cues you can feel it out without rubbing anyone the wrong way.
- marginalia_nu 2y ago
  The solution is to not pursue sex or relationships, but to simply have enough of a social life that it happens anyway. That completely gets rid of the leisure suit larry energy that going out hunting for a partner inevitably gives you.
  - Qem 2y ago
    > The solution is to not pursue sex or relationships, but to simply have enough of a social life that it happens anyway. One thing I find odd about having problems finding partners/establishing relationships, it's that for every other psychological problem, say, addictions, depression, et cetera, one thing people always says to be of utmost importance is to acknowledge the problem itself. To not pretend it's nothing, or that it's something else. With relationship-making there's a complete reversal on that. Default advice it's to forget it and delude yourself pretending you're trying just to do some hobbies.
    - marginalia_nu 2y ago

PLenz 2y ago

It's a cycle. The internet started with usenet and specific interest newsgroups and niche forums a la phpbb. Then the wide open of social media. Now back to specific again. A generation from now it will shift again.

ethanol-brain 2y ago
I have been using the internet since 1995, and I have yet to see the cycle. From where I sit, it has been more of just a steady trend toward compartmentalization and aggregation. (Not to say that there aren't a large number of great projects off the main path.)
supriyo-biswas 2y ago
Network effects, monopolization, a lack of diverse payment models on the internet, and reduced interest in system administration have primarily lead to the centralization of communities on a few platforms, which has lead us to this problem. If you could somehow solve 2, 3 and 4, I assume there'd be many thriving topical communities in parallel, just like the forums of yore that you speak of.
dotancohen 2y ago
> It's a cycle Strava is for running, too. Lrf, guvf vf n cha.
- EarlKing 2y ago
  > Lrf, guvf vf n cha. And here with the birth of broadband I thought we'd moved past the age of line noise.
  - dotancohen 2y ago
    $ echo Lrf, guvf vf n cha. | rot13 Yes, this is a pun.

chungus 2y ago

https://archive.is/FA3UY https://archive.is/FA3UY

IgorPartola 2y ago

Sharing a common interest is the best way to meet lots of new people. It creates low stakes interaction opportunities and removes the creep factor (if you are at a meetup for fans of model trains along with like a dozen other people, it’s not weird that you are talking to some of them). Better than any app, go get a hobby in person and get out there to meet people who are into it. Chances are you present yourself way better in the real world vs online. Online dating, especially the Tinder variety, really skews to work for some demographics and not others (I am not talking about gender here so much as age, location, etc.).

Trasmatta 2y ago
This is the common advice, but it's also resulted in many of these hobby based events being overrun by people who are primarily there looking to find a date. It can be a weird dynamic. My suggestion is get a hobby that you explicitly are interested in, but don't go in with an expectation that you'll find someone, or make that your primary goal. > Chances are you present yourself way better in the real world vs online For many of us I don't think this is true
- katamarimambo 2y ago
  And even for those with better intentions, the low stakes interaction will become high stakes as attraction and expectations increase. When rejection almost inevitably happens at some point, bringing feelings of innability and jealousy, it will be tougher to deal, specially for the less experienced following this path. In this sense hookup culture can relieve such pressure and allows for decoupling the sexual needs, and romantic ones even - personal note: I think it's weird how people online talk as if it's mandatory to mistreat/abandon the people you hook up with. I build a small but nice network of "friends with benefits" which for me are simply friends who enjoy a specific activity. Like, exactly the inverse of what everyone is recomending and it worked for me.
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    Let’s be honest, the kinds of people who are usually looking for this advice are actual incels who are seething with rage about the fact that they haven’t, and can”t hook up and have wild casual sex.

osigurdson 2y ago

>> “free speech” Does not belong in quotes.

llm_trw 2y ago
[flagged]
- twixfel 2y ago
  What's that go to do with online dating and Strava?
  - llm_trw 2y ago
    I don't know, ask the guardian why they had to take a swipe at free speech in an article about dating.
    - twixfel 2y ago
      I took it as a swipe at Elon Musk and Twitter rather than free speech.
      - llm_trw 2y ago
        Taking a swipe at Musk in an article about dating isn't any less weird.
        twixfel 2y ago
        In an article about the merits of different social networks, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to mention and even criticise Twitter, and Twitter's owner, Elon Musk. You may disagree with it, but it's not unreasonable nor "weird".
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2y ago

janmo 2y ago

I can really recommend HelloTalk which is a language learning app. Meetup.com also used to be a good option but not so much anymore.

SunlitCat 2y ago
Option for meeting a (romantic) partner or learning a language? ;)
- janmo 2y ago
  You can do both at the same time ;)
dagelf 2y ago
Sounds like a case of... if it's too easy too find, too many people find it...? Aka. "Google ruins everything"?

osigurdson 2y ago

I used to use Strava a lot but now I don't even think of recording rides, runs, heartrates, etc. A lot of people I know are the same. The real "killer app" is Trailforks.

KaoruAoiShiho 2y ago

I heard Roblox and Valorant are also great ways to find dates, but perhaps for a younger demo.

mhh__ 2y ago

Anecdotally run clubs are the dance halls of today (i.e. go to meet women)

SunlitCat 2y ago
Actually many sport activities seem to be largely women based, which kinda says much about men not really caring about their health. :)
- mhh__ 2y ago
  Hence the arbitrage. A very attractive mild acquaintance was either bored or lonely or whatever and set up her own run club, one guy showed up. Without wishing to think like a PUA these are good odds.
- Der_Einzige 2y ago
  Go into most gyms and it’s the opposite phenomenon. Men know that some types of physical activity (weight lifting) actually get them laid and others (I.e running) are the equivalent of what food does to get away from predators. The men who get good at that type of physical activity tend to be treated like the food is.
  - hooverd 2y ago
    Women don't like men who do cardio?
    - bradlys 2y ago
      Women like men who look good. Men who lift weights usually look more attractive than someone who has a “runners” body. (Skinny and not muscular) Some runners will look jacked but that’s probably due to steroids and/or weightlifting. Running alone doesn’t give one bulging biceps or a large chest.
      - hooverd 2y ago

hermannj314 2y ago

If your goal is to meet a human person, it is probably best to go to a social media site that is largely made of humans.

mrkramer 2y ago
That use to be Reddit but be careful bots run amok ;) kidding aside, in the age of LLMs how you can be sure that you are talking to human? Sometimes I'm not sure tbh. Reddit is perhaps the mother of all hobby social networks. You can not beat Reddit at least not yet or as long as majority of users are indeed humans.

mattrighetti 2y ago

We will see how long this lasts. We try to search for meaningful relationships, which socials stole from us apparently, by switching to different socials, pretending they're going to do better than the previous ones. Wouldn't ditching socials altogether get us in a better place on this matter? It is utopia at this point I guess. Some socials could actually be useful to make new friends/relationships but it seems to me that the very people that constantly complain about the "anti-social" aspect that our lives have taken are the ones that go on and try 1000 different dating apps, give up on friends after a couple of months to try and find new "better" ones.

xiaoxiong 2y ago

Strava is the only social network I’m on anymore, and I pair it with a number of weekly, in person group rides. It’s a great way to maintain connections, and a wonderful source of encouragement. Typical social network dopamine hits probably aren’t great for your health, but when it’s paired with 100 miles of exercise, I think it has a net positive. I’ll definitely admit to pushing myself further than I typically would for those Strava kudos. That said, I don’t think something like Strava is particularly useful without the in person aspect to go along with it. Heck I don’t even know how you’d gain followers without doing group rides.

tchock23 2y ago
I find Strava is also helpful for solo activities that aren't in-person. Knowing that an IRL friend/follower will see my activity pushes me to work harder.
- xiaoxiong 2y ago
  Yeah definitely, gives you something to talk about at the next group ride too haha.

dagelf 2y ago

Sparknotes spawned a quiz site, TheSpark, that eventually morphed into OKCupid... that started out being successful because it gamified making quizzes for people, and then stumbled on the miracle of asymmetrical matching. Ie. matching people not based on common interests per se, but on curiosity... or "satisfying" their curiosity. Turned out to be a great way to get to know yourself, and what you are really looking for... I'm sure a lot of people figured out what to look for in their true ideal partners, and some even managed to meet them on the site... Match.com takeover obviously completely ruined everything... rooting for more copies, hell, even a decentralized protocol, that can bring back notjust the romantic, but also the platonic- and self-insight-giving parts of TheSpark...

Renaud 2y ago

I wish there were more offerings for socialising around hobbies. Strava looks great for some sport activities, but I’d like to meet other nerds into 80s computing, hobby electronics, comics, sci-fi, home automation, kayaking, city exploration, etc You invariably end up with lical Facebook groups, which are just a flow of posts, and require a FB account, or some non local reddit group, or small scale website you have no idea exists. Something is missing. It sure would require mass appeal to be useful, but a ‘Tinder for your hobbies’ might be nice. Get matches from people near you who enjoy a cross-section of the same stuff. Add some social aspects for those who like to show off or share (don’t force it though), make discovery easy, let people organise events…

robjan 2y ago
Doesn't meetup.com somewhat fulfil this, although it's most useful to people living in big cities
- yunwal 2y ago
  Meetup.com in large cities has become a money-grab, spawning a bunch of semi-professional “event planners” who charge much more than the cost of putting on the event. Feeling like you’re paying for the privilege of talking to other people is demoralizing. People want a place to meet other people that doesn’t feel like they’re paying to be “set up”.
randomdata 2y ago
> Something is missing. It sounds to me like what is missing is community. Around here, if you go outside you're soon going to learn who the like-minded nerds are. Even if you don't chance-encounter them directly, the people you do encounter are apt to know them and let you know about them. From there, you can reach out. Connection made. In fact, I was just having a conversation with an old friend who recently moved to my area and he noted how everyone is out there talking to each other and finding out about each other, which felt foreign to him. He says where he moved from he was effectively anonymous. I suspect your living arrangement is more like his previously was. Perhaps the solution isn't tech-based, but simply for us to be more neighbourly the old fashioned way?

haunter 2y ago

WoW did this 20 years ago tbh. It was a social network for most before the game itself.

vxxzy 2y ago

Anyone wanting to get a feel for unintended uses of a product should go look at google map reviews of locations in India. It is fascinating and ingenious.

weakfish 2y ago
Howso? I took a peek around New Delhi and didn’t notice anything
- vxxzy 2y ago
  Go out into more rural areas.

brushfoot 2y ago

"Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Reddit has worked around their lack of it to some degree with location-based subreddits like r/AtlFilmmakers. But subreddits are high maintenance, and they isolate content. Plus, the naming conventions aren't standard. Maybe there's r/AtlFilmmakers for filmmakers in Atlanta, but another subreddit for musicians uses the state in the name instead of a city. It's a bit like folders vs. tags. It would be nicer to have a single filmmaking subreddit with the option to filter on users' locations -- and default filtering out of location-specific posts in other places. That wouldn't just make for better dating, though it probably would compared to something like Tinder. It could also lead to stronger local communities and better health outcomes.

diggan 2y ago
> "Users near you" functionality is sorely needed in online spaces, considering how much interaction has moved online. Funny this got mentioned as France just successfully got that very feature removed from Telegram by arresting the founder and citing that feature as the one being used most for abuse. Bunch of sources about that here: https://ground.news/article/telegram-to-start-moderating-private-chats-remove-features-used-by-abusers https://ground.news/article/telegram-to-start-moderating-pri...
- moi2388 2y ago
  That might have been cited as the reason, but I think we all know the real reason is that France is fighting against Russian troops in their former African colonies, and Russian troops mainly use Telegram for their communications.
  - older 2y ago
    Who are those "we" you're talking about?
    - moi2388 2y ago
      Anybody aware of what’s happening in Africa between France, Russia and Wagner

bradlys 2y ago

This article reads "we noticed certain apps have been increasing in users. Everyone is complaining about dating and dating apps. Maybe users have found love on these other apps!" But then doesn't show any proof or even anecdotal evidence of some users who would share their experience. "Yeah, I saw he would get the weekly record for the section between 14th and 34th. I just had to reach out... We're expecting our 2nd child this autumn - we're naming them Cassette." No, this "article" as far as I saw was simply conjecture. If there's any amount of this happening - it's hellishly small or limited to people who don't go out at all. If you didn't meet the love of your life in college, dating apps still seem to be the reigning king of the well educated white collar professional (HN audience). I think I've only met one couple that met at a club/bar - almost all others met through a shared hobby (where they met face to face originally) or at a party with mutual friends. By far the leading one though is college + dating apps. IRL meeting as a way to form a relationship after college seems pretty uncommon for my well off and well educated crowd.

tinybrain 2y ago

What happened to Meetup? I moved to a new city in 2015 and made a handful of long term friend groups, all started from meetup. I moved to a new city in 2024 and it's basically empty... except for some Wiccan book clubs, or MLM pyramid schemes or whatever. I don't get it. Seems like there would be competition in this space to replace Meetup, but there's nothing? Or did we all just collectively give up on meeting strangers.

skhunted 2y ago
In my area Discord took the place of Meetup. Meetup went downhill when WeWork bought them.
- tinybrain 2y ago
  Hey thanks for the tip. I searched my local subreddit and found some Discord invites, maybe I'll find better luck there.
deleted 2y ago
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datavirtue 2y ago

I didn't make it past "Singletons."

Beijinger 2y ago

"Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks?" I don't know, but has anyone tried using Tinder in the US recently? Just scammers, crazies, wackos and strange people - if you can get a match. Tinder has gotten totally useless, in fact, it has become a marketplace for lemons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons Your chance of finding a decent date would be bigger on a Hire a dog walker app or hire a cleaner app. Some years ago, I was told that Couch Surfing is a dating app. Kind of. Good luck.

mrkramer 2y ago
I think the most straight forward dating app would be the one for "one night stands" because both people know exactly what they want but then again you would need to demand STD checks for all users perhaps on a monthly basis. This is just my humorous thought experiment idea.
- Beijinger 2y ago
  At a time I was thinking with a buddy (and someone from HN) to make an up where you (speak women) can only date me and my friends. For men it would be invitation only. Supposed name was my name K: kandfriends

alistairSH 2y ago

Using Strava to match with cyclists is so weird to me… it’s a meat space activity, so go find a local group ride.

bilsbie 2y ago

New simple “social network” idea: Paste in a list of your interests (maybe use a list of subreddits you’re subscribed to, or you X inferred interest list) And it will suggest people to chat with ranked by most common interests. Could be a weekend project. Anyone want to team up?

BlackjackCF 2y ago
Neat idea. I think the challenge with social networks isn’t the technical implementation, but actually getting people to regularly engage with it.
leobg 2y ago
Has been on my list for a long time. Would love to build it. Email in profile.
shortrounddev2 2y ago
I think you invented facebook
jules-jules 2y ago
If you build this I will come. Something like feeding your Reddit username to https://redditmetis.com/ https://redditmetis.com/ And suggest other users to chat to based on the analysis

2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago

I don't like how the article arbitrarily mixes seeking hobby mates with pursuing romantic interests. While practically both realms naturally border on each other an intersect it is important to set an initial semi-offical mode of expectations. Networks like Couchsurfing died because mostly men started to use it as an app for hooking up. And that just kills the vibe and also undermines the trust. Anybody here from Germany who would share practical experiences with such apps? I'm quite apprehensive of the idea that this is now how you meet people. Of course it doesn't necessarily have to be but myself being in my early forties, single, few friends, full time computer job have to say that it is a challenge.

bilsbie 2y ago

Friend making wise, I’ve been trying to reach out to interesting sounding people on X and on Reddit. I’m still trying to figure out how to sound casual and just interested in chatting and not having the first message sound too weird. But I’ve made a couple friends and had a bunch of good chats. I wish reddit, X, and even HN would be more encouraging of direct messaging people. That would mimic real world networking better where you’re usually breaking off into one on one or small groups.

praptak 2y ago

I remember when I used to play Go online. Obviously the servers, in addition to supporting playing Go and observing the games, had chat functionality. The popular saying on the chats was "Give a man a chat server and he chats for a day. Give him a Go server and he chats for life."

bigfryo 2y ago

[dead]

amelius 2y ago

Just give people full control, and the protocol will be successful. Look at e-mail for an example. Of course, this doesn't mean that it can be monetized easily.

bitnasty 2y ago

“Hobby apps” are social networks. Just because some social networks try for mass appeal with generic features like microblogs and photos doesn’t mean that other social networks with very specific features like GPS logging of bike rides are not.

petesergeant 2y ago

I’m currently building this for TV shows. Our idea is that the social aspect should be limited to your real life friends and family only, because that’s where the really magical discovery happens. We’ve got a small number of very dedicated users who all know each other in real life, and they use the app as an adjunct to their real life conversations. We’ve finally got it in the App Store, so seeing if we can scale it over the next few months should be fun!

mrkramer 2y ago

There is always place for niche social networks e.g. the most weird niche social network that I remember(and that is legal) was Ashley Madison[0]; I found about it in 2015 when it was all over the media because of the embarrassing breach. Apparently it was and is used by married people who seek affairs or in another words people who want to cheat on their partner. If you can build community and business around that then you can build community and business around anything. Btw I think dating sites invented the whole chatbot affair thing because Ashley Madison was using fake chatbot accounts to catfish and lure people into buying Ashley Madison membership or whatever they use to monetize their product. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison

isaacdaoust 2y ago

Notably absent hobby in the article is music. I'm currently working on a website that will function as a "hobby app" for digital music/album collection. https://discollect.app https://discollect.app my public profile: https://discollect.app/profile/clo0oz2hw0005fv02qbxn866c https://discollect.app/profile/clo0oz2hw0005fv02qbxn866c

Svoka 2y ago
Oh! This is a cool service! Love onboarding experience
- isaacdaoust 2y ago
  Thanks! Got the motivation to finish up the onboarding after seeing this article. Still adding features all the time so let me know if you have any ideas!
ragazzina 2y ago
There used to be an app called JQBX and at least one beautiful community came from it. It's not mantained anymore though.
- isaacdaoust 2y ago
  Oh this is super cool. I actually started designing another project that's very similar to JQBX last week. Perfect time for me to see this. And the connection with Discollect will be that you can only queue tracks from albums you've collected, which hopefully encourages music discovery.
Futurebot 2y ago
Cool idea. Are you planning to add profile photo, description, and location support like Letterboxd has? Maybe messaging? Also, is there a way to find who else has listened to what I've listened to?
- isaacdaoust 2y ago

TomMasz 2y ago

Strava got me to join a few clubs (I'm not in any IRL club) but the messaging I just ignore. Not everything has to be a social network. I'm looking at you LinkedIn.

fcatalan 2y ago

Small Twitch communities do it for me. I'm quite of an introvert. And all my long term friendships have faded or my friends have moved cities or countries. But around lockdown I took up miniature painting and started watching a bunch of 50 to 100 viewer channels about the hobby. With those numbers the streamer knows you by name by the second time you show up and you soon bond with others in chat. This got me in contact with the small local hobby club, but also by the time I could attend an in person nationwide convention my family was astounded: dozens of people they knew nothing about were greeting me, stopping for hugs and chats, giving me stuff from their stands... I've seen both romantic and business relationships emerge in that environment.

deleted 2y ago

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