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Good question, let's try to answer it. Suppose OP believes they have a serviceable replacement in place. What arguments could they use to convince their communi

Good question, let's try to answer it. Suppose OP believes they have a serviceable replacement in place. What arguments could they use to convince their communities to switch to it? Here's some ideas: - No ads. - Free, even for business-use. - No algorithm interfering with visibility. - It's usable by community members who do not have a Facebook account, for whatever reason. - Allows for more free-form content. - More choices for content delivery format & notifications (say, email, text message, newsletter links). Maybe you can come up with some. What would you find to be a convincing argument to switch to a community-owned organization platform instead of Facebook?

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briandear 2y ago
Who pays for it?
- lowercased 2y ago
  I'd suspect the 'free' and 'no ads' would be somewhat mutually exclusive. Perhaps a particular group organizer pays a modest amount - $19/year(?) - to manage/moderate groups up to X000 members.
  - pc86 2y ago
    Which means it isn't free, it's a charity project paid for by the group organizer(s). That's probably fine in the short term, maybe even longer, but eventually the organizer(s) will move out of the area, or get tired of managing the group, or die, or whatever, and someone will need to manage it. Honestly if it really would just need to cover the price of the cheapest hosting you can find and the domain registration a single small-to-medium Adsense ad in the sidebar might generate enough to cover it. I don't know how many impressions/pageviews it takes to generate $20 but it can't be that many.
    - lowercased 2y ago
      I didn't say it would have to be free. I run some meetup groups, and still pay for it for now, but the price hikes and other charges they're adding are onerous. I know many groups who have shutdown, and I know of some other players wanting to get in to this space to take over from meetup.com. $10/month to run a smallish group is affordable for a lot of folks. $50/month is not. $300/year is just not worth it to many folks, but... $99/year would be. Meetup seems to be moving in to some weird 'hyper optimize for short term revenue' move, which makes me think they'll be gone or acquired/dismantled in the next 5 years.
pixl97 2y ago
Hello, it appears you've never even ran the most basic internet platform before in your life. Simply put you have to ask the most important questions first, then build an app backwards from that 1) How will it be paid for 2) How will it be moderated. So, you've already failed number one. You have no means to pay for it. Then you failed number two. If it gains even a modicum of popularity it will be completely and totally over ran with spam.
- coldpie 2y ago
  I agree it's unlikely to succeed, but I find thinking about our problems and trying to fix them much more admirable & interesting than just rolling over and accepting things as they are. You can't improve things if you never even try.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    These aphorisms also don't improve things. There are actual barriers to trying something; if your suggestion doesn't clear them then yes, it's no point trying that suggestion.
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    You can't improve things if you never even try. There are things you should not try as you can easily deduce that they are not rooted in any reality, e.g. "free" and "no-ads"
    - sam_uk 2y ago
      Signal not existing at all proves your point i guess.
  - pixl97 2y ago
    The important issue in thinking about problems is understanding all the interconnected problems. The internet is a horrifically hostile place. If you design a product without that in mind you're creating a danger for yourself and for your users. Slap a community site up without thinking about COPPA or GDPR or whatever Californian law and suddenly you'll have problems. Slap a site up without heavy moderation and it will be filled with the most awful porn you can imagine. It's not about just accepting the way things the way the are, it's avoiding becoming a casualty of the way things are.

deleted 2y ago

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briandear 2y ago

Who pays for it?

lowercased 2y ago
I'd suspect the 'free' and 'no ads' would be somewhat mutually exclusive. Perhaps a particular group organizer pays a modest amount - $19/year(?) - to manage/moderate groups up to X000 members.
- pc86 2y ago
  Which means it isn't free, it's a charity project paid for by the group organizer(s). That's probably fine in the short term, maybe even longer, but eventually the organizer(s) will move out of the area, or get tired of managing the group, or die, or whatever, and someone will need to manage it. Honestly if it really would just need to cover the price of the cheapest hosting you can find and the domain registration a single small-to-medium Adsense ad in the sidebar might generate enough to cover it. I don't know how many impressions/pageviews it takes to generate $20 but it can't be that many.
  - lowercased 2y ago
    I didn't say it would have to be free. I run some meetup groups, and still pay for it for now, but the price hikes and other charges they're adding are onerous. I know many groups who have shutdown, and I know of some other players wanting to get in to this space to take over from meetup.com. $10/month to run a smallish group is affordable for a lot of folks. $50/month is not. $300/year is just not worth it to many folks, but... $99/year would be. Meetup seems to be moving in to some weird 'hyper optimize for short term revenue' move, which makes me think they'll be gone or acquired/dismantled in the next 5 years.

pixl97 2y ago

Hello, it appears you've never even ran the most basic internet platform before in your life. Simply put you have to ask the most important questions first, then build an app backwards from that 1) How will it be paid for 2) How will it be moderated. So, you've already failed number one. You have no means to pay for it. Then you failed number two. If it gains even a modicum of popularity it will be completely and totally over ran with spam.

coldpie 2y ago
I agree it's unlikely to succeed, but I find thinking about our problems and trying to fix them much more admirable & interesting than just rolling over and accepting things as they are. You can't improve things if you never even try.
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  These aphorisms also don't improve things. There are actual barriers to trying something; if your suggestion doesn't clear them then yes, it's no point trying that suggestion.
- bdangubic 2y ago
  You can't improve things if you never even try. There are things you should not try as you can easily deduce that they are not rooted in any reality, e.g. "free" and "no-ads"
  - sam_uk 2y ago
    Signal not existing at all proves your point i guess.
- pixl97 2y ago
  The important issue in thinking about problems is understanding all the interconnected problems. The internet is a horrifically hostile place. If you design a product without that in mind you're creating a danger for yourself and for your users. Slap a community site up without thinking about COPPA or GDPR or whatever Californian law and suddenly you'll have problems. Slap a site up without heavy moderation and it will be filled with the most awful porn you can imagine. It's not about just accepting the way things the way the are, it's avoiding becoming a casualty of the way things are.