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"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

"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
      - older 2y ago
        Is it some kind of secret bunch of people who know this?
        t-3 2y ago
        The secret bunch who pay attention to Africa. It's not exactly shouted from the rooftops in western countries as public opinion is not quite as favorable towards colonialism and patronage as they were 100+ years ago.
        older 2y ago
        I'm more interested to know how this secret bunch of people links all that to arrest of Telegram's CEO (who is a French citizen) in France. Sounds like a regular conspiracy theory and claims like "we all know..." just give more of the same conspiracy vibe.
        t-3 2y ago
        Yeah, I highly doubt Russian soldiers/mercenaries using Telegram is the main reason France went after Durov, but the conflicts and influence wars between Russia and colonialist powers in Africa is well-known and has been happening for a while.
        older 2y ago
        Do you consider the Tuareg a "colonialist power" in Africa? Because that's who russia is fighting in Africa: https://apnews.com/article/mali-tuareg-violence-c0b85f6ab284b5d22268605a88a6d034 https://apnews.com/article/mali-tuareg-violence-c0b85f6ab284...
  - broken-kebab 2y ago
    The last part doesn't sound very convincing. Russian mercenaries are not glued to Telegram, and can quickly switch to Signal if needed. I think "we all know" that real reason maybe more related to French gov't being a bit more direct about their wish to have a hand inside popular messengers.
  - foldr 2y ago
    > France is fighting against Russian troops in their former African colonies France and Russia are at war now? Wagner mercenaries moved into Mali after French troops withdrew from it. That's hardly the same thing as French soldiers 'fighting' Russian soldiers.
    - moi2388 2y ago
      There have been some skirmishes, but mainly it’s a Cold War for influence. France got kicked out and replaced by Wagner for example. France actually does take their control over their former colonies rather seriously. Perhaps my previous statement was a bit too bold. Let’s just say I would be very surprised if this wasn’t a factor in their decision to now prosecute the owner of Telegram.
      - foldr 2y ago
        >There have been some skirmishes, Source for this? Skirmishes between French soldiers and Wagner mercenaries?
- saagarjha 2y ago
  It’s one thing to list yourself as being in Atlanta and quite another to basically publish your exact location.
dqv 2y ago
TikTok is the only app I’ve encountered that gets this right. I’ve made connections with people from my town and places just outside where I live. I’d love to see more apps do what TikTok does.
- morkalork 2y ago
  How does Tiktok do it? Edit: I meant how does Tiktok help person above meet people locally?
  - cjbgkagh 2y ago
    By giving people what they want. A lot of this emergent behavior falls out of doing good search science. By optimizing other metrics YouTube etc are giving people less of what they want and more of what YouTube wants. YouTube would be useless if I couldn’t ban so many channels from my recommended feeds. At the early stages of TikTok there was some controversy that diverse, disabled, marginalized etc people were being underrepresented compared to other platforms and we now see how that turned out. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to give people what they want and I consider TikTok to be so addictive that I’ve avoided using it, but it’s definitely a successful idea.
    - goatsi 2y ago
      >At the early stages of TikTok there was some controversy that diverse, disabled, marginalized etc people were being underrepresented compared to other platforms and we now see how that turned out. The controversy was that they were being actively suppressed as a moderation decision. https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us...
      - cjbgkagh 2y ago
        There is more than one way to give people what they want, and in my haste I clumsily muddled two of them. All the platforms are being moderated heavily with thumbs on the scales to advantage one group over another. My personal preference would be to have no thumbs on the scales. Additionally I hate TikTok for the intentional addictive mechanism that requires an attention 'ante' to find out if a video is interesting by preventing jumping to a later point in the video to see where it is going. Basically gambling but with attention instead of currency, the algorithm optimized to give the user just enough to keep them coming back but not too much to satiate their desires. Search Science is one of those research domains where it appears things are going backwards, google barely works anymore, facebook videos was terrible from the start and AFAIK stayed that way, YouTube only works for me because I have a subscribe list to people I support on Patreon. Amazon is being flooded with duplicate listings which should be trivial to de-dupe and clean up but I guess they suck at search science as well. If Amazon doesn't fix their search and fake good problem people might as well buy from Temu. Almost forgot, Twitter can't find bots that are so easy to find that they become 'X in bio' memes.
kayodelycaon 2y ago
Unfortunately “Users near you” has the same problems AirTags has to deal with. If you’re looking for someone, these features often make finding the names of their new accounts trivial. It also tells you that person is within the app’s range.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Airtags are very near you. Knowing someone is within 50 feet/a couple of meters is much different than knowing someone is within 30 mins drive of you, in a dense urban environment.
- buzzerbetrayed 2y ago
  All you did was describe the feature. That is the entire point.
jerlam 2y ago
Strava has a feature called Flyby that allows you to find out other Strava users who you ran past (flew by) on your activity. With a single click you could get the other user's entire route, likely including their home (start/finish). After some backlash about safety/privacy, it was disabled on everyone's account and required people to manually opt-in: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/strava-flyby-feature.html https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/strava-flyby-feature.htm... Very few people opted back in so the feature became useless. Most people still have the setting that matches them with people who have run with them on a group run (same exact route at the same time).
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  Wasn't it also Strava or a similar app that revealed military bases by the staff on patrol having the app on? I mean given sattelite imagery is a thing I doubt army bases are secret, but that was still a bit of a whoopsie, on both the personnel's part and the app's.
  - jerlam 2y ago
    Yes, Strava's heatmaps revealed some military bases. And it's been implicated in the assassination of a Russian general.
- foobarchu 2y ago
  Good gravy that sounds like a stalkers dream
- shepherdjerred 2y ago
  Strava has features to make this safer, e.g. allowing you to hide the first n meters of an activity, though a dedicated individual could eventually determine your route. Honestly, though, there are easier ways to determine where you live and your routine, e.g. address books + parking a car outside of your house & observing.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

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
    - older 2y ago
      Is it some kind of secret bunch of people who know this?
      - t-3 2y ago
        The secret bunch who pay attention to Africa. It's not exactly shouted from the rooftops in western countries as public opinion is not quite as favorable towards colonialism and patronage as they were 100+ years ago.
        older 2y ago
        I'm more interested to know how this secret bunch of people links all that to arrest of Telegram's CEO (who is a French citizen) in France. Sounds like a regular conspiracy theory and claims like "we all know..." just give more of the same conspiracy vibe.
        t-3 2y ago
        Yeah, I highly doubt Russian soldiers/mercenaries using Telegram is the main reason France went after Durov, but the conflicts and influence wars between Russia and colonialist powers in Africa is well-known and has been happening for a while.
        older 2y ago
        Do you consider the Tuareg a "colonialist power" in Africa? Because that's who russia is fighting in Africa: https://apnews.com/article/mali-tuareg-violence-c0b85f6ab284b5d22268605a88a6d034 https://apnews.com/article/mali-tuareg-violence-c0b85f6ab284...
- broken-kebab 2y ago
  The last part doesn't sound very convincing. Russian mercenaries are not glued to Telegram, and can quickly switch to Signal if needed. I think "we all know" that real reason maybe more related to French gov't being a bit more direct about their wish to have a hand inside popular messengers.
- foldr 2y ago
  > France is fighting against Russian troops in their former African colonies France and Russia are at war now? Wagner mercenaries moved into Mali after French troops withdrew from it. That's hardly the same thing as French soldiers 'fighting' Russian soldiers.
  - moi2388 2y ago
    There have been some skirmishes, but mainly it’s a Cold War for influence. France got kicked out and replaced by Wagner for example. France actually does take their control over their former colonies rather seriously. Perhaps my previous statement was a bit too bold. Let’s just say I would be very surprised if this wasn’t a factor in their decision to now prosecute the owner of Telegram.
    - foldr 2y ago
      >There have been some skirmishes, Source for this? Skirmishes between French soldiers and Wagner mercenaries?
saagarjha 2y ago
It’s one thing to list yourself as being in Atlanta and quite another to basically publish your exact location.

dqv 2y ago

TikTok is the only app I’ve encountered that gets this right. I’ve made connections with people from my town and places just outside where I live. I’d love to see more apps do what TikTok does.

morkalork 2y ago
How does Tiktok do it? Edit: I meant how does Tiktok help person above meet people locally?
- cjbgkagh 2y ago
  By giving people what they want. A lot of this emergent behavior falls out of doing good search science. By optimizing other metrics YouTube etc are giving people less of what they want and more of what YouTube wants. YouTube would be useless if I couldn’t ban so many channels from my recommended feeds. At the early stages of TikTok there was some controversy that diverse, disabled, marginalized etc people were being underrepresented compared to other platforms and we now see how that turned out. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to give people what they want and I consider TikTok to be so addictive that I’ve avoided using it, but it’s definitely a successful idea.
  - goatsi 2y ago
    >At the early stages of TikTok there was some controversy that diverse, disabled, marginalized etc people were being underrepresented compared to other platforms and we now see how that turned out. The controversy was that they were being actively suppressed as a moderation decision. https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us...
    - cjbgkagh 2y ago
      There is more than one way to give people what they want, and in my haste I clumsily muddled two of them. All the platforms are being moderated heavily with thumbs on the scales to advantage one group over another. My personal preference would be to have no thumbs on the scales. Additionally I hate TikTok for the intentional addictive mechanism that requires an attention 'ante' to find out if a video is interesting by preventing jumping to a later point in the video to see where it is going. Basically gambling but with attention instead of currency, the algorithm optimized to give the user just enough to keep them coming back but not too much to satiate their desires. Search Science is one of those research domains where it appears things are going backwards, google barely works anymore, facebook videos was terrible from the start and AFAIK stayed that way, YouTube only works for me because I have a subscribe list to people I support on Patreon. Amazon is being flooded with duplicate listings which should be trivial to de-dupe and clean up but I guess they suck at search science as well. If Amazon doesn't fix their search and fake good problem people might as well buy from Temu. Almost forgot, Twitter can't find bots that are so easy to find that they become 'X in bio' memes.

kayodelycaon 2y ago

Unfortunately “Users near you” has the same problems AirTags has to deal with. If you’re looking for someone, these features often make finding the names of their new accounts trivial. It also tells you that person is within the app’s range.

fragmede 2y ago
Airtags are very near you. Knowing someone is within 50 feet/a couple of meters is much different than knowing someone is within 30 mins drive of you, in a dense urban environment.
buzzerbetrayed 2y ago
All you did was describe the feature. That is the entire point.

jerlam 2y ago

Strava has a feature called Flyby that allows you to find out other Strava users who you ran past (flew by) on your activity. With a single click you could get the other user's entire route, likely including their home (start/finish). After some backlash about safety/privacy, it was disabled on everyone's account and required people to manually opt-in: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/strava-flyby-feature.html https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/strava-flyby-feature.htm... Very few people opted back in so the feature became useless. Most people still have the setting that matches them with people who have run with them on a group run (same exact route at the same time).

Cthulhu_ 2y ago
Wasn't it also Strava or a similar app that revealed military bases by the staff on patrol having the app on? I mean given sattelite imagery is a thing I doubt army bases are secret, but that was still a bit of a whoopsie, on both the personnel's part and the app's.
- jerlam 2y ago
  Yes, Strava's heatmaps revealed some military bases. And it's been implicated in the assassination of a Russian general.
foobarchu 2y ago
Good gravy that sounds like a stalkers dream
shepherdjerred 2y ago
Strava has features to make this safer, e.g. allowing you to hide the first n meters of an activity, though a dedicated individual could eventually determine your route. Honestly, though, there are easier ways to determine where you live and your routine, e.g. address books + parking a car outside of your house & observing.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]