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I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it
- sikozu 5mo agoThis is crazy, but unfortunately I don't have an iPhone otherwise I'd totally sign up.
- NordStreamYacht 5mo agoOff topic, kind of, but this was genuine and genuinely nice to read.
- didip 5mo agoI have to ask, what is the difference between this and private WhatsApp groups?
- gnabgib 5mo agoRelated: Friendster Relaunch (28 points, 3 days ago, 14 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47883307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47883307 Ask HN: How to make Friendster great? (98 points, 11 months ago, 141 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44053119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44053119
- dang 5mo ago(The one from 3 days ago never made the frontpage so we won't treat it as a dupe)
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- mmclar 5mo agoCan you please make it (and keep it) so that friendships are symmetrical? I.e., "friend" rather than "follow". IMO that's the enshittification inflection point of Facebook.
- Ferdinandpferd 5mo agoOr at least use proper terminology for following someone with reciprocity: stalking.
- hoppyhoppy2 5mo agodo you mean "without reciprocity"?
- lwhi 5mo agoWhy no android app?
- pixel_popping 5mo agoWhy no website as well? Can't use it from a laptop, it's a bit strange for a social media, many don't like typing on a phone.
- GaryBluto 5mo agoEspecially odd considering that Friendster began at a time when social media on phones was unheard of.
- Quarrelsome 5mo agoI remember when we considered a website that tells the user to download an app an anti-pattern (e.g. earlier versions of iMusic).
- randallsquared 5mo agoThat's a great question, since the genesis of this was the domain name, which no one using the app will care about or visit. That is, the only thing that was actually needed here was the trademark, it appears.
- s0a 5mo agowhy not a proper Progress Web App so it can run on any device independent of app stores? it's not as though a social app needs deep OS integration. I'm sure Claude or Codex could vibe code that in an afternoon.
- axoltl 5mo agoThe central point of this app is to determine proximity of two devices. That's not possible today in a cross-platform way using web apps.
- 5mo ago
- addedGone 5mo agoWe can't seem to be able to login from the website, it requires an Apple account? The UI might not be showing up properly.
- altairprime 5mo agoIt’s app-only, right?
- sikozu 5mo agoiOS only unfortunately. Big shame.
- altairprime 5mo agoNot for the operators, I expect. If they flip a couple bits in the webserver I think they can lock the API down to require a device attestation, which would inhibit much of the API’s attack surface from being exploitable without a physical device that can afford to be console-banned (but I haven’t done my research to prove that yet, so grain of feasibility salt). Certainly in this day and age there is no desire to be “search engine optimized” by anyone using a social network for IRL friends, so they lose nothing by lacking a website. And there’s lots of small but nice services that are or have been iOS only (and a couple big ones that collapsed once they opened to other platforms). They’re explicitly selecting against the network effect already in favor of a nice experience, so it’s not like it matters if it grows more slowly. Are there drawbacks you see besides “requires an iOS device” that I haven’t considered?
- addedGone 5mo agothere is the fact that you just can't have your friends using it?
- altairprime 5mo agoMy friends would rather not be scraped and harvested and indexed, which tends to make them uninterested in social network websites and offers a certain degree of pressure against Android as well. Yours may differ.
- hateful 5mo agoThe only thing I liked when I did use Facebook was the "wall". To be able to post on a friend's wall semi- publically where their friends can see it. Most other Facebook clones have had the idea of tagging, but it wasn't the same. (E.g. Google+)
- philipnee 5mo agothanks for bringing it back!
- mjamesaustin 5mo agoThis looks exactly like what I've been looking for. I love the idea of using phone proximity as the only way to add friends. I think it will be very important for the onboarding process to be effortless, so you should focus on that. Until you reach some kind of saturation, most people will be downloading the app because a friend wants to add them. Having a way to generate a QR download code on my phone when I "add" a friend so they can take a photo and then download it, and immediately connect us, would be huge. Do you have any kind of development plan for new features?
- collinmcnulty 5mo agoI just signed up and it’s super fast. Download the app, put in your name, allow Bluetooth. No email, no password, nothing.
- macintux 5mo ago> allow Bluetooth I'd have a hard time getting over my aversion to this. I automatically reject any app's attempt to find local devices, etc.
- collinmcnulty 5mo agoI can't imagine how it would be possible to detect a phone in close proximity without allowing this though
- mkl 5mo agoAccelerometer, by putting the two phones together and shaking (some app used to do this, but I can't find it with a quick search). Edit: I might have been thinking of Bump, mentioned downthread, though it's a different physical mechanism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application) Camera, and point it at their changing screen (or both at the same scene at the same moment). Not too intrusive. GPS, but that would require location permission. Intrusive. Audio, but that would require allowing microphone. Intrusive.
- deadbabe 5mo agoCould you make it so you can have group chats but you can invite anyone you’ve tapped before and they can all talk together (but still not be able to talk outside the group chat)
- ca98am79 5mo agoyes this is already included
- ronbenton 5mo ago[dead]
- hasbot 5mo ago[dead]
- saghm 5mo ago> He said he would sell it to me for $40k. I offered $20k, which he refused but he said if I had any domain names generating ad revenue, we could do a deal of domains and cash. He said he would accept a lower amount if I paid in Bitcoin. > So we worked out a deal where I gave him $20k in Bitcoin and a domain that was making about $9k/year in ad revenue, and he gave me the domain friendster.com. Now I was the owner of the domain name friendster.com. I don't know anything about how to project future ad revenue of a domain, but would this be likely to be valued at only $10,000? Unless I'm misremembering my limits, even if it made $4,500 next year and continued to cut in half every year after that, it would still account for $9,000 of revenue projecting indefinitely into the future, even bumping that up to something like 60% of the previous year's revenue it would already put it at more than $10,000 (although I don't know whether ad revenue tends to scale with inflation or not; my instinct is that the prices of ads probably would roughly increase with inflation over time)? I know I'm nitpicking a bit about the title, but I can't help but actually be curious now that I thought of this.
- soared 5mo agoYou can check out similar sales on flippa.com - ad revenue does not last forever, even if it’s existed for years. And revenue is very much not profit, you could create a site and get $100/day in ad revenue tomorrow but it would cost you $200 in ad spend.
- eucyclos 5mo agoWhat does the spend go to, besides hosting costs?
- thrownthatway 5mo agoAdvertising costs, to drive traffic to your site(s).
- xorcist 5mo agoSo, spam?
- dnnddidiej 5mo agoNice. Quick hypoyhetical. Meta offers $1bn in 5 years time when you have 2m users. Will you sell? If so this is a meta-or-dead social network. Making it federated etc. would make me trust it more.
- pixel_popping 5mo agoAnyone will sell any project for $1bn, absurd take.
- MattRix 5mo agoThat is literally their point.
- trueno 5mo agoyea the moment 1bn was on the table id quickly think about how not-necessary social media is for humanity and id take the check and peace out like tom from myspace & proceed to drink liquor out of coconuts on a beach somewhere. though id have the utmost respect for someone who could hold onto the possibility to threaten the facebook/instagram/snapchat moat, realistically i don't think anyone in here could stick to the ideals so strongly. it's not even a valuable thought exercise. if this thing were to gain any traction at all it's assuredly gonna get acquired. you gotta be tech-buddha to resist that.
- ca98am79 5mo agoor already have enough money
- echoangle 5mo agoI think the point was that it should be unsellable. If it’s federated, how are you able to sell it? Then, it could be trusted.
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago
- readitalready 5mo agoI really wish more social networks would have a "fading connections" limit. So many social networks suffer from stale connections and networks, and these connections should expire after a year. Otherwise, it will permanently define a social network's content and editorial direction without algorithmic control. For example, Selena Gomez will always have 400million followers on Instagram, but she's socially irrelevant now. Same with other celebrities, like Kim Kardashian. If connections expired after a year (or 3 months or 6 months), people would have to maintain their social relevance, and it becomes a natural editorial filter, keeping the overall network fresh and relevant. If you want a business model, require payment for long-term subscriptions or large celebrity/news accounts, but you have to overcome the network effect first. Maybe have a dozen or so permanent connections to start with, like MySpace's 8 priority friends.
- alex1138 5mo agoDon't worry, Facebook already has Fading Connections You can be married to each other and your posts won't show up on the other person's feed (there's a post on HN about this)
- giancarlostoro 5mo agoWhat in the world lol
- alex1138 5mo agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14147719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14147719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16278631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16278631
- alwa 5mo agoI don’t post on Facebook—HN is my closest analogue. But I assure you my partner(s) have no interest in seeing whatever I post here. Any more than I want to be in the thick of the extended-family group chats. Or, frankly, Facebook. In that sense, maybe this is Facebook doing its part for domestic harmony…
- skybrian 5mo agoI'm imagining one of those tiny libraries with a garden gnome in it with a cheap phone inside, connected to a garden gnome Friendster account. And then it gets stolen and has a trip around the world, meeting new people.
- kgwxd 5mo agoBought Friendster, posted about it on Medium. Can't wait for the Justin.tv live stream!
- trueno 5mo agolmao i cannot stand medium. the amount of articles i've clicked into on medium that start with "in todays fast paced business environment.." the incentive structure on medium is so busted. just people churning out half-working insights to look good for job interviews or promotions, it's like the worlds laziest portfolio. it straight up isn't any sort of bastion of knowledge-share. makes things like https://beej.us/guide/ https://beej.us/guide/ an absolute treasure
- breezywheezy 5mo ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago> $20k dollars in bitcoin (I can’t say how much bitcoin that is because it fluctuates too much to be a stable currency), to buy a dead domain that makes $9k a year in at revenue That's...a good deal? Assuming even 50% margins, that's a solid yield.
- breezywheezy 5mo agoIt’s nothing of value buying nothing of value. If you only see dollars and not the utter nonsense you’re either young or not very bright.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago> It’s nothing of value buying nothing of value Doesn’t that make it fine? If I trade three acorns for a crayon drawing of a squirrel, that’s a nothing burger. If I bought those three acorns for a million dollars, then someone might have a legitimate gripe with my choices.
- andirk 5mo agoValue is in the eye of the beholder, as you clearly understand. The commenter is not familiar with how trade works. Personally, for such I transaction I will need to audit to ensure the projected value is accurate. Also, do you have a sample of said squirrel drawing? I have a squirrel book that might pair nice with it.
- andirk 5mo agoThere was stated value on both ends of the potential transaction. And this is Hacker News, not 4chan or Twitter. Comments are for insight, discussion, etc. But maybe you're just young or not very bright.
- trueno 5mo agoi bought friendster for 30k, heres what it taught me about b2b sales
- yieldcrv 5mo agoon the fading connection and monetization - you could let people pay to re-up the connection from fading as opposed to meeting in person again first, and its makes them really think about whether meeting in person is worth happening again or would ever happen again, is the connection itself valuable in another way any way on instagram, there is a social disincentive to unfollow people and you can also make someone else unfollow you in a couple ways (the button that does just that, as well as blocking someone for a second and unblocking them), doing these actions has a real cost to confrontation. people you thought you would never see again will see you again and say "I thought we were following each other???? oooo :O ... ooooh >:O" you are making that activity a first class citizen, with no presumption of ill will behind it, this has value to it
- bluebarbet 5mo ago>I don’t really care about making money from [$project], but I’d like it to eventually pay for itself. Warning bells. Slippery slopes. I think we should know by now that social networks do not mix well with the advertising business model. It would have been nice to see that eventuality ruled out explicitly here (PS: for the future as well as just for now).
- ca98am79 5mo ago"no ads" - it is explicitly stated on the website and app store page
- malfist 5mo agoFacebook also didn't have ads when it started
- irishcoffee 5mo agoFacebook ads began in 2004 with simple "Flyers" for small businesses, but the official, targeted Facebook Ads platform launched in November 2007. While rudimentary banner ads appeared in 2005-2006, the 2007 launch introduced brand pages, social ads, and user insights. Facebook launched in 2004. They always had ads.
- RF_Enthusiast 5mo agoJust a thought: you could incorporate a non-profit to run the site, like Wikipedia or public radio/media, and be the president of that organization. For me, donating to a non-profit is much easier than a voluntary subscription to a for-profit corporation. Love the app, I’ve already had some photos shared with me!
- halamadrid 5mo agoThis is quite amazing. I remember being on the original friendster way back in the day. They had so much potential. And there was also orkut.com that was even better because of the simpler UX. Then came Facebook and you all know the rest.
- QuantumNomad_ 5mo agoI tried to search for Friendster in the App Store and didn’t see it among the first few results. Instead, App Store was returning a sponsored ad followed by normal results for all other kinds of similar annd less similar apps. Instagram, Snapchat, Yubo (never heard of), Monopoly Go (mobile game related to the board game Monopoly), BeFriend (never heard of), Tinder, Friendly Social Browser (never heard of), Facebook, and at that point I stopped scrolling the results. For a moment I thought maybe the app was US exclusive or something and not available in my region. But following the link from the post worked fine and I could install it. I literally searched Friendster and the app is named Friendster but App Store gave me all kinds of other crap in the search result instead. Weird. Anyway, installed the app finally thanks to the link. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/friendster/id6760240416 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/friendster/id6760240416
- mikestew 5mo agoOdd, Friendster was the first non-sponsored result for me in the U.S. store.
- aprilnya 5mo agoWhen a new app is released, it takes a few days for it to get into search, for some reason. Pretty much every single time a new app releases I see a comment like this. Nothing malicious you just have to wait a bit.
- paulddraper 5mo agoAgreed. You can search apps by their exact name, identifier, anything, and App Store will not find them for day+.
- tantalor 5mo agoBookmarking this for the next time somebody claims Apple makes great software.
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- ianpenney 5mo ago“My wife and I met on okcupid” … 11 years going for me. Good on you. I don’t have any other social media accounts. I’ll do my best to join up on this one. Wholesome.
- vidarh 5mo ago> Friendster was the first social network Friendster was not the first social network. sixdegrees.com had it beat by 5 years.
- 1970-01-01 5mo agoAOL has them beat by another 5. You need to go back to ARPA to find the first one. Social networks are just networks with humans at each end.
- vidarh 5mo agoThat's not how the term is being used. Six Degrees had all the features we associate with a social network, such as profiles, and the ability to create connections.
- 1970-01-01 5mo agoSo AOL profile and friends
- orbital-decay 5mo agoAlso LiveJournal, launched in 1999.
- elric 5mo agoIt all depends on how you define "social network". We had BBS and forums that operated much like "social networks" in the mid 90s. I don't think being "the first social network" is particularly interesting or noteworthy.
- xvxvx 5mo agoWell, this sounds sketchy as hell. Pass.
- saltmate 5mo agoI thought I was the only one immediately sceptical when I heard domains, without content, bought for multiple thousand dollars just for ad revenue? How does that even work, surely there cannot be lots of legitimate traffic for a site that shut down 10 years ago?
- TZubiri 5mo agoProbably being pedantic, but this is not buying Friendster to be precise, usually what is meant by that is that the company was bought. In this case the domain Friendster.com was bought, and a trademark was conceded (a new different trademark), I don't know precisely the implications of the trademark though, I think it's a different trademark and you still cannot imply that you are a continuation of the previous trademark holder, it's just that you are given monopoly over that word as a trademark. Now, is that different than buying "Friendster"? A really interesting legal question, I think it is, and I think it has relevant implications, I don't think you can for example restore the website as it was and pretend a continuation as you would if you bought the company.
- sikozu 5mo agoI think the distinction is warranted. Honestly if the prior Friendster company itself was bought - including all the assets, codebase and historical documents (no user details) that would've been such an incredibly interesting read. Buying the domain and getting the trademark is still cool, just not as cool.
- TZubiri 5mo agofwiw, I think that subjectively it's roughly equivalent in this specific case. The domain name is a huge part of the brand, and is almost equivalent to the list of prior clients. I think that it will probably be fine if they compete in the same space of a social network, doesn't look like someone is going to go after them, the company that would have a claim against them is defunct, so even if they have a legal argument, who would raise the case? If the owners do so under their personal name it's even a weaker argument. So in practice, in this case, subjectively I believe that it's effectively very similar as buying the company.
- globalnode 5mo agojudging from what i hear people say. all you have to do is be able to display who's online from your friends list, and a chronologically ordered list of their posts. thats it. the major platforms are optimising for ads so much they cant even achieve this level of basic functionality
- chr15m 5mo agoHere's what I would do. 1. Make it QR code scanning instead of tapping so it can be a PWA. 2. Make it a PWA. This will make it accessible to many more people. Nobody wants to install an app. Nobody wants to install a PWA either but they will at least use a "web site" (a surprising number will install it if it's good). 3. Save yourself a lot of money by building it on top of the Nostr protocol. Run a relay yourself if you want guaranteed reliability. Run a Blossom server for media. Use email for auth and store people's keys for them if you want a traditional UX. Don't worry about what's on Nostr already, just build your own thing on the protocol. Let people come and go as they please and don't lock them in. They will love you for it later. Cool project. Have fun!
- thepasch 5mo ago> 1. Make it QR code scanning instead of tapping so it can be a PWA. Misses the point completely. The entire idea is that this enforces in-person meetings, which QR codes do not.
- stkdump 5mo agoYou could make the qr code extremely short lived, like 2 seconds or so.
- navigate8310 5mo agoone could video call and scan
- Happily2020 5mo agoIf one is going through the hassle of joining a video call on a different device to then scan it with their smartphone, all to just connect with another person, you could reasonably assume that they're friends. Maybe if there's a "celebrity" that displays it on a live stream, that's a bigger issue, but there could be other mechanisms to dissuade this behaviour. Perhaps you could only add one friend with one QR code.
- 5mo ago
- mattmerr 5mo agoWhat does "a domain that was making about $9k/year in ad revenue" look like? Is this domain one where people randomly stumble upon it and give ad views to a parking page? A website with regular use or other content that people visit for some purpose that is now under different ownership?
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 5mo agoProbably a parked domain with ads that people stumble across. We used to call these guys cybersquatters.
- justinclift 5mo agoThey're still called cybersquatters, except for some unknown reason ICANN has decided to not actually do anything about them. :(
- temporallobe 5mo agoI worked with the guy that created Friendster! IIRC he made it back in ‘06/‘07 and I had one of the first test accounts. Chill dude, really smart.
- sgerenser 5mo agoHad to be even earlier than that, I graduated college in 2006 and I’m pretty sure someone turned me on to Friendster at least a couple years before.
- theogravity 5mo agoWhen you're building a social networking site like this, when do you need to start to worry about laws from different states and countries (eg age bans, data export, etc)?
- martin-t 5mo agoAs a guy who used to run game servers[0] and some other small-web stuff, I hate that this is one of the first questions that springs to mind today, but I'd also like to know. [0]: in ancient times when server meant an actual server
- toast0 5mo agoI mean, it's good to be aware from the beginning, even if you don't intend to follow them right away. But, my rule of thumb is you don't really need to worry about laws from places where they don't have real jurisdiction on you. If they filed suit, would you rather respond or make a note to never visit that place / would you be ok if all your users from there were blocked from contacting you by law?
- 1970-01-01 5mo agoThis reminds me of the (also defunct) Bump app. https://blog.bu.mp/ https://blog.bu.mp/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)
- vector_spaces 5mo agoThe 'tapping phones' gimmick strikes me as something that sounds cute but will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of. Particularly given various unintended side effects -- I personally wouldn't want my connection to my deceased best friend to be subject to some decay feature on a social network. And either way, it's not the core feature that will draw users to the site If you want to differentiate as an alternative to toxic behemoth platforms, the framing of "Facebook but with chores" isn't it. The idea of spending time on the platform itself should be appealing -- I am not that interested in knowing how to connect with someone on the platform before knowing why I would want to be there in the first place. See e.g. how Nextdoor doesn't lead with "you'll have to verify that you live in the neighborhood", instead it's "Connect to your neighborhood with Nextdoor"
- skybrian 5mo agoPerhaps "remember when you met with your friends?" But taking a photo (possibly a group photo) is a more natural way to do that. Maybe it should integrate with photo-taking somehow? It would be annoying if you met up, forgot to do the ritual in person, and had no way to fix it.
- al_borland 5mo agoWhile this probably could only be done with the cooperation of Apple/Google, something like what they did for contact tracing during the pandemic would be ideal. Picking up that you were in the proximity of various friends without any active effort. https://covid19.apple.com/contacttracing https://covid19.apple.com/contacttracing
- skybrian 5mo agoThat sounds creepy to me. Taking a photo together doesn't seem like friction to be removed?
- al_borland 5mo agoDoing it via a photo implies facial recognition, which can potentially be more creepy for people. Is it happening on device or in the cloud? Do I need to register my face when joining the service? What happens to that data if the service is sold at some point in the future?
- daniel_iversen 5mo agoHi, congrats on the launch! Firstly, it doesn’t seem to work for me and my wife - we hold the phones together but clicking start does nothing (and we’ve accepted Bluetooth etc). Secondly, I wonder if you’ll have a massive chicken and egg issue with the physical feature. I get it’s the main feature but could you overcome it somehow initially while still maintaining your long term “gimmick”? Like could you allow people to connect with the first X friends (5? 10? 20? Whatever that can get virality and flywheel going) or connect with as many as you want virtually for the first X months etc. You could even have the contacts fade away slowly if they don’t get verified in person etc. You might want to model out different strategies (and be extremely conservative) otherwise you’ll be relying on lottery-level luck. Good luck anyway though :)
- homeonthemtn 5mo agoDo we actually need social networks? These, to me, feel like artifacts of a bygone era, now replaced by the boiled down version - group chats with friends. Telegram has every feature you need in a platform and you get the joy of "circles" as one poster mentioned, by simply having different group chats. Plus it's not exposed to the public.
- rileytg 5mo agoapp is snappy and solid. missing a “invite friends” link… i know the point is in person, i’m with two people in person but had to go back to app store to find a share link.
- ca98am79 5mo agoThanks, good feedback
- RF_Enthusiast 5mo agoI think this might be as simple as a QR Code I can show to my friends!
- Barbing 5mo agoWow, the phone tap requirement, love it! And your ethics, the best part. Constructively, of course (if you care for feedback devolving ramble-y): Could almost see myself using a web app version of this for kicks. But can’t sign up for another network (though would be happy to link a self hosted project, if I could stumble through setup). Apps don’t feel private (Apple neglects to offer basic firewall/other features), and not sure how someone would look at me trying to get them to register somewhere… maybe the phone tap pitch is enough? (Especially if it’d allow one-tap registration for friends inviting new friends, because the phone bump allowed for some data transfer.) Anyway, understand self hosting is ostensibly permanently destined to be unpopular but somehow feel if the pitch were “be your own network, tap the phone, use this Friendster infrastructure/instruction set to link your networks”, I’d be more tempted. Thank you for keeping it not evil!
- Barbing 5mo agoIt’s almost unfair for me to say this, still registered on Meta properties… even need them for work… uhg!!! Zuck pls retire to do philanthropy & hire OP
- vortegne 5mo agoLet's not praise a professional domain squatter for his ethics. I don't understand how this guy isn't getting laughed out of the room?
- Barbing 5mo agoMind clarifying? Also discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47924178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47924178
- vortegne 5mo agoSure. He talks about owning a bunch of domains, trawling domain auctions all the time, earning money passively via parked domains. That's just literally what domain squatting is. Buy up domains, put ads on them, hope for people to hit the domain randomly or promote it in some ad network. No value is being created. He's generating money by being a net negative. He should be fined and banned from every owning a domain. Sadly, ICANN does not care and/or profits from it.
- type0 5mo agoI haven't tried it but meeting functionality for smaller groups would be good, specially for different kinds of hobby meetups.
- makingstuffs 5mo agoThis sounds cool and similar to something I’ve been building! I say similar as we have different ideas and target audiences — What I’m building is a niche network specifically targeting people who are travellers or friends that like holidaying together. I don’t want to seem like I’m spamming or self promoting so will keep the link out but will share if people want. Anyway, I digress, it would be great to connect and exchange ideas if you have the time? I really like the idea of fading connections.
- vladmk 5mo agoLove it!!! Businesses that have genuine passion like these are the ones that really blow up…or die :-)
- shumatsumonobu 5mo agoThe tap-to-connect constraint makes this work. Every social network removes friction; this one keeps it on purpose. Won't scale to billions, but maybe that's the point.
- noplace1ikegone 5mo agoThe plot of Anaconda 2025, but Friendster.
- 0xbadcafebee 5mo ago> this failed Apple App Store review because of Guideline 4.2 — Design — Minimum Functionality. They said “the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only.” This is why we need laws regulating mobile platforms. Apple shouldn't be able to dictate what you use your phone for, or what apps you can give to your users. Doesn't work that way for PCs, shouldn't work that way for computers in your pocket.
- krupan 5mo agoHave you heard of Android? Graphene OS? You do have freedom of choice here
- inventor7777 5mo agoUnless you want third party WebViews... (on normal Android) (Technically besides the point, but that is a broad statement)
- krupan 5mo agoWell that's a totally different problem from restricting which apps you are allowed to install
- Groxx 5mo ago"There's a small corner where they're just as bad! Checkmate!" I totally agree that should be swappable, but what is your point? Apple doesn't even allow installing stuff outside their store in most places, and had to be legally forced to do it in some because of how ridiculous that obviously is (thanks, EU!). And even there they still have some control with their notarization process. Android is wildly more open in major, meaningful ways, despite some failures.
- matheusmoreira 5mo agoNot for long if Google has any say about it. Hardware remote attestation is here, and it's the number one threat to mobile computing freedom. The future is one where everyone can, theoretically, install anything they want, but they get banned from everything should they actually do so. Rooted system? Attestation fails. "Oh no, looks like someone tampered with the system". Can't access your bank account. Can't communicate via WhatsApp. Can't watch something on the streaming services. Can't even play video games. Discrimination against "untrustworthy" devices, where "untrustworthy" means not corporate owned. Leading to complete ostracization.
- huflungdung 5mo ago[dead]
- block_dagger 5mo agoI attended a concert last night and was wishing for this exact kind of app, being able to quickly exchange a follow with someone you just met in real life but will otherwise never see again unless you specifically ask for their name/number, which is awkward. Could spawn some special relationships.
- jubilanti 5mo ago> unless you specifically ask for their name/number, which is awkward How is this any less awkward? "Oh do you have the new Friendster app?" "Friendster? Isn't that from the 1900s?" "No, the new Friendster, see you download it, register, then we bump phones...." Maybe just because I'm an autistic introvert, but the idea of asking someone to exchange numbers is terrifying enough, but at least this is an almost universal social ritual that people understand implicitly. I ask if you want to keep in touch and exchange phone numbers. I do not need to explain literally anything else and the other person almost always knows what I mean, how to do it, and what thin social relationship that implies. And if they don't seem to understand or are hesitant, but are otherwise coherent and cogent, I take the message that they don't want to keep in touch. Now add a new app to download (iPhone only), a new social network to register, a new social ritual... Are they being hesitant because this is a new app or because they don't actually want to keep in touch? No thanks.
- block_dagger 5mo agoIn my mind the software would be written such that it could enable a new social norm. You'd just sort of offer your phone and the other person could decide to touch it with theirs or not. I get that's a pipe dream in terms of existing software, though.
- spiralcoaster 5mo agoI love that you're looking to "spawn some special relationships" but are unwilling to ask for a name/number. There's no app in the world that will stop you from "wishing" you took action in getting some girls number.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- giannicmptr1000 5mo agocan rename it botster
- jubilanti 5mo ago> So I created an iOS app CTRL-F "android" "linux" "git" 0 results sigh PLEASE if you are developing only for the Mac ecosystem, you should be required to put (Mac only) in your title so the rest of us don't completely WASTE our time.
- ljlolel 5mo agoI just made a similar idea focused on games only with people next to you, https://lorehex.co/ https://lorehex.co/ can you reach out to me and we can connect? my website and contact info at jperla.com
- dewey 5mo ago> The DNS records for lorehex.co are not properly configured. Please check your DNS settings.
- bigmadshoe 5mo agoI had this exact app idea back in 2019, but never got around to building it. Nice work!
- XCSme 5mo agoThat's so cool. I would have expected for the domain to go for hundreds of thousands or millions, or, more likely, not not be purchasable for some reason. I can see a future where google.com is purchased for fun by some robot in 200 years.
- faidit 5mo agothis is awesome. godspeed. or should i say friendspeed
- ChrisMarshallNY 5mo agoGood luck with this. I run an iOS-only app that Serves a small, specific demographic (and is free. It does not generate any revenue). It’s been shipping for a bit over two years, and has just over 1,000 users. I seriously doubt it will ever get more than a couple of thousand (a rounding error, for most folks around here). I did test it with 12,000 users, so it should handle the anticipated load. I am writing the 2.0 version, now. I think I’ll add the “tap to connect” feature, and probably QR codes, as well.
- forbiddenvoid 5mo agoThis seems really cool for people whose friend networks are physically located in the same place they are. That's not me, and hasn't been for probably 20 years. But it's a neat idea regardless.
- LoganDark 5mo ago> My wife and I met on OkCupid. I wouldn’t have my kids without it. Websites like that genuinely change the course of people’s lives — people meet, fall in love, build families. That’s incredible to me. > If Friendster helps even a few people find that kind of connection, it will have been worth it. Did you tap phones for OkCupid? The type of network you are building does not work that way -- you will not build the same types of connections in-person as you can online. I hope it goes well, but it's not the same type of thing.
- capitanazo77 5mo agoWe don’t need another company to hold our data and then change its mind later for the correct price. Make the social network private, end to end encrypted, not harvested by your servers
- fouc 5mo agoI remember Friendster being very popular in parts of Latin America / Brazil and Philippines. I think you could definitely get a lot of users through the nostalgia factor.
- everyos_ 5mo agoWhat if somebody's phone is of an alternative type, like a flip phone, and they can't install the app needed to tap phones? Then how will they become friends with another
- phyzome 5mo agoOr they just don't want to install another goddamn app.
- kube-system 5mo agoNot everything needs to be for everyone
- acrinimiril 5mo agoIt would be cool to leverage this proximity requirement to build a GnuPG web of trust. The one year 'weakening' would also help keep the web strong.
- rootsudo 5mo agoWow. Yes. Thank you!
- TranspectiveDev 5mo ago[dead]
- caust1c 5mo ago> I’d like it to eventually pay for itself [...] — but that’s a problem for later. Hard pass from me dawg. If you don't know the business model now, folks like me are tired of trusting their data to randos on the internet without a plan for sustainability. Guaranteed to end up being just another data farm. Neat you got the domain tho.
- notaloner 5mo ago>only way to make friends is actually make friends Good luck to the app, but I'll never use this. The overwhelming majority of people I know with whom I want to have long digital conversations with are also a minimum of 500 kilometers away from me.
- butterlesstoast 5mo agoI have the highest hopes for this. At the same time, I can’t help but be skeptical of the claims for no ads / no data selling lasting -forever-. Build the platform, then find out how to make money on it later.
- KPGv2 5mo agoPretty cool implementation, except when I read > a gentle nudge that real friendships are kept alive in person, not online my skin crawled. I live a fulfilling, creative life. I'm married, have kids, the whole nine yards. My best friendships are with people I know almost entirely online, or haven't physically seen in years because we live on different continents. I have little interest in most of the people I see regularly, because we're friends only because our kids are in the same classes.
- imrozim 5mo agoForcing phone tab to add friend is genius kills boots and fake account instantly every social network dies due to fake connections.
- mrtksn 5mo agoWho visits those long expired domains to generate ad revenue? People nostalgic? People who hear this Friendster thing and want to check out what they are doing now?
- _ink_ 5mo agoRight? And who clicks the popups? I have no clue about the economics of online ads, but my understanding is, it is cents per click. This would mean hundreds of thousands visits per year? Sounds like there are bots involved to me.
- jeroenhd 5mo agoThere are loads of dead links hovering around on the internet, no doubt plenty of people (and bots convincing enough that advertisers still pay out) will accidentally end up on one of these domains, sigh at the annoying ad that interrupted what they were doing, and never return.
- myway93 5mo ago[dead]
- jasonkester 5mo agoI really like the idea of a “facebook before it got bad “, with just people you actually know posting about what they’re up to. But the “tap phones” thing wouldn’t work for me. Most of my friends and family live halfway around the world from me. I visit the states every couple years, and make a point of seeing them when I can, but the reality is I live here and they live there (a dozen different theres in half a dozen countries) Those are the people I want an app like this to keep up with. But they’re the people your app won’t even let me add as friends.
- aleken 5mo agoThis is an awesome idea!
- arlattimore 5mo agoTapping phones seems very limiting. I don’t see most of my friends in person that often, different cities etc. I think a better alternative would be a phone number. You only give your number to friends, which aligns with the brand and product concept. Allows more of your friends to join via your address book, good for the app growth. Might also mean indirectly you can’t follow a non-personal page which also aligns to the brand and product concept.
- chadpaulson 5mo agoI agree. There should be a hierarchy of intimacy, as it were, in order to initiate a friendship. * Tapping Phones * Confirming Phone Number * Confirming Email * Connected via Other Platforms (Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky, etc) As far as maintaining a friendship by tapping phones, again, I would make the friendships a constant and graph / rank intimacy by how often you tap phones as well as how connected you are to your friend (phone, email, connections on other networks).
- arlattimore 5mo agoI love the idea of hierarchy of intimacy, that is a great concept/phrase. I'd make it so you could tap a phone, you know their phone number, you know their email. Importantly in my eyes, you shouldn't be able to navigate to a profile and just ask to connect as that'd mean you could do that to people you don't actually know (whereby knowing is inferred by you knowing some amount of their personal info such as tap, phone, email). I'd stay away from your last option of 'other platforms', per my other reply below in that those platforms allow you to connect to anyone/anything. There is nothing in them that say this connection is inherently personal vs being generic.
- chadpaulson 5mo agoYeah, I agree after thinking about it. Connecting other social networks makes it difficult to distinguish Friendster as an intimate and honest platform free of spam. The intimacy levels can be IRL (when you tap phones), Phone (when you friend via phone number) and Email (when you friend via email address). You could also measure the intimacy hierarchy / rank by keeping track of events (should events become a feature) you attend with other friends.
- dbgrman 5mo agoTIL ppl have domains that make $9k/yr and here i am being happy my niche app is bringing me $200/mo revenue
- wewewedxfgdf 5mo agoThe real social network has become WhatsApp - lots of small private groups with nothing in them but messages from people in the group.
- opan 5mo agoI don't use WhatsApp, but I've noticed a similar trend more generally. I've got several Matrix group chats with friends and family I regularly post in, a handful of small to medium IRC channels with internet friends I've talked to for years, etc. It feels like Twitter and Instagram and so on are a lot less personal now, just curated posts based on the algorithm, and lots of people who've decided they're comedians. I even will link an interesting post from a social media site in a group chat pretty often, but don't interact with the people from that chat on social media platforms themselves.
- rc_kas 5mo agoThis will be the ONLY social media my kids are allowed to use.
- sottomail 5mo agoHave you spent much time thinking about how the feed will work? Balancing the “quality” and enjoyment with the prioritization of “people you met in person”. I’m sure I’m far from the only one who misses the old Facebook feed, but curious what a modern take on that would look like.
- pjmlp 5mo agoI was going to complain about being the first given that I never used it, but indeed, Hi5 and My Space came an year later.
- petesergeant 5mo agoI love the idea generally of creating a social network that's meant to not suck, but the whole tapping phones thing is bad. The major benefit of Instagram, for me, is that it allows me to maintain relationships with people I am unable to physically see for long periods. I don't need social media to stay in touch with people I am physically present with, I need it for bridging distances.
- kenty 5mo agoGood article but sorry but it should not be normalized that you have to have an iPhone to join a social network. Something clearly wrong there.
- komali2 5mo ago> So I created an iOS app for Friendster, and I made it so that in order to connect with someone as a friend, you have to actually tap phones together in real life. And thus ensured your social network won't have 72% of the world on it... And locally for anyone outside the USA, a far higher percentage.
- jmye 5mo agoI mean, god forbid the guy start with one platform, right? Calling that "normalization" is just victimy, whining-about-blue-bubble bullshit.
- madduci 5mo agoI believe a cool initiative would be to create a mastodon instance with the domain
- dboreham 5mo agoInteresting project. I bought the domain name for a startup I worked for in the early 2000s. It was just there to be bought from the regular registrar process -- no need to bid or pay more than a few $. This article makes me want to do something with it. I don't own the trademark.
- RobotToaster 5mo agoHonestly, nothing could make me trust yet another centralised and closed source social network.
- rohith2506 5mo agoAny chance of making the code open source? Would love to contribute to this and build more features needed. It’s an absolute bliss to see such a clean UI and no nonsense. I think you should consider that. Thanks for building this
- DeathArrow 5mo ago>Why I’m doing this >My wife and I met on OkCupid. I wouldn’t have my kids without it. But OkCupid didn't require people to tap their phones together in order to be able to chat in the app.
- coupdejarnac 5mo agoSounds like a good usecase for WebNFC.
- Azantys 5mo ago+1 for an android app
- davidtio 5mo agoI visit the side but I don't have handphone so it seems like I get DQ-ed immediately. If the apps works on web will be nice.
- usaphp 5mo agoIf you meet someone this often to touch your phones, why do you even need to have an app to talk to that person? The beauty of social apps is that I can talk to someone who I can’t physically meet that often
- kube-system 5mo agoThe people I meet in person with the most are the people I talk to on social media the most.
- shahzaibmushtaq 5mo agoThe previous owner bought it for $8000 (quite less for domains like this) but here is the catch. This domain has a bad reputation and a lot of negativity since it has a long history. Those who are in domain name business knows that because it affects the value of every expired/operational domain.
- Zeebrommer 5mo ago> You’d have to be specifically watching the domain friendster.com at the right time to find and participate in the auction, or you’d have to actively watch gname.com daily to see this auction. You're telling me there's no "notify me when domain X becomes for sale" service?
- randomtoast 5mo ago> You're telling me there's no "notify me when domain X becomes for sale" service? I guess in today's age you would just schedule an agent to check the website every day.
- ryanjshaw 5mo agoGeez who did you offend? Half your comments are dead for no obvious reason I can tell. Vouched for you but you may want to reach out to @dang.
- Tade0 5mo agoI think it started here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47627269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47627269
- fnordian_slip 5mo agoWouldn't that be rather inefficient, from a resource perspective?
- FinnKuhn 5mo ago> You're telling me there's no "notify me when domain X becomes for sale" service? I looked into this a while ago and I'm pretty sure that there are hundreds of these services and even ones you can host yourself. No idea how well they work though.
- dgellow 5mo agoA domain being for sale can mean a lot of things. Here it meant it was auctioned on a very specific website
- psychoslave 5mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 5mo agoPlease don't post generic ideological sermons on HN. Sure, any money anyone ever spends or invests could arguably be put to better use. It’s a jerk move to bring it up in a tangential context like this. We have no idea what kind of charitable/benevolent work or giving this person does, or what they may plan to do in the future with any gains they make from this or other investments. It's not fair to post this kind of condemnation based on knowing very little about them, and it's against the guidelines to engage in ideological battle or introduce generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- psychoslave 5mo ago>Please don't post ideological sermons on HN. Promoting auto-censure is also falling in ideological sermons, so this is going nowhere consistent. Only in illusion can one think to stand on apolitical and ideological-less point of view. There is a rating system, and it’s fine some posts goes down to oblivion if it doesn’t fit the majority mindset of voting users. It’s true what’s this person is doing on charitable/benevolent work is unknown, and the post anticipated this scenario and did express appreciation if that was the case. Plus, calling for a step back to think about one own actions on their own terms, that’s not what we could categorize a harsh condemnation. Favoring closed information bubbles, void of any critical thought is doing no one a favor.
- tomhow 5mo agoThe guidelines apply no matter the topic; if it weren't that way, there'd be no point having them. We're here for curious conversation. Curmudgeonliness, fulmination and generic tangents are specifically off-limits here, and berating someone over personal, lawful decisions about projects and investments breaks the first rule of HN comments, which is to be kind.
- thinkingemote 5mo agoA dream I had last night was for a social network based on the deep but brief conversations we have in park benches, club toilets, hospital waiting rooms. Where we are totally open somewhat vulnerable but free from commitments. Think about the first conversation you have had with a friend, often it's the most revealing or deep one you may have. Somewhat anonymous, short in time, one to one, with the potential to connect afterwards on outside channels. Possibly only one conversation a day allowed, and possibly only available to pre set contacts.
- ptspts 5mo agoDoes the new owner of the domain friendster.com also own the company, the patents and the other pieces of intellectual property? The article seemed to be unclear about this.
- drcongo 5mo agoThe tapping phones thing really limits the utility of this, and I suspect gives away something about the age of the author - as one gets older, friends move away from the place where you originally made friends, often all over the world. Given I'm not allowed to connect with most of my friends via friendster, there doesn't seem to be much point in creating an account.
- anshulbhide 5mo agoI love the internet.
- juleiie 5mo agoI have sliver of idea for social media based on curiosity and knowledge tidbits. Each user gives itself some field of interest, maybe its makeup, maybe its molecular biology, maybe it's something else. Then the system finds similar people with same interests. There are no subreddits with abusive moderators, no rigid containers. Just that you get content you are interested in based on genuine people. Then you can like talk to them about these things or see them posting about the stuff and you get separate feeds for each kind of stuff,probably ai categorization
- Tade0 5mo ago> Fading connections. If two friends go a full year without tapping phones, the link between them softens. Not a punishment — a gentle nudge that real friendships are kept alive in person, not online. I have this guy whom I used to be in touch with but now we meet every seven years randomly - happened two times already in completely different places and we're due for a meeting this year. I would rather maintain this connection, because it's always fascinating to catch up after years.
- agentbc9000 5mo ago[dead]
- northernsausage 5mo agoIn a world where I am trying to use my phone much less due to ingress of tracking, destroying my mind etc having a social media where its required is a bit of a no-no for me tbh. Additionally I feel like this puts more friction on those of us that are shy and weird, for us the internet and online places are where we can be ourselves. I wouldn't ask you if I could follow you on Twitter, I'd just do it because I find your stuff interesting. Putting a hurdle in the way of connection might sound daft but is enough for many not to use it or miss-connections. For me the special sauce that's been taken away from SM is just seeing my friends stuff, I want to see your dog with out it having to be a 2min video with onscreen graphics, SEO keyword optimisation in the post title and brand tags. Show me your fluffy dog updates, just dont force me to ask you about it first.
- dgellow 5mo ago> the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only. Isn’t it insane that Apple refuses for an app to be listed on the App Store if it is intended to be niche? If true that’s pretty shocking
- avianlyric 5mo agoIt’s always been true. If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it.
- fundatus 5mo ago> If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc Yeah, but that wouldn't be an option for this app obviously. > They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it. Then they should add alternative methods. Instead they are actively sabotaging such efforts, for example by the EU. Want to distribute an iOS app in the EU through the web? Yeah, as a requirement you need an app with 1m annual downloads[1] already in the AppStore before they allow you to do that. Which completely defeats the point. [1] https://developer.apple.com/support/web-distribution-eu/ https://developer.apple.com/support/web-distribution-eu/
- elicash 5mo agoI would have previously said I don't blame Apple for not prioritizing that rare use case. But with so many people vibe-coding apps, I do think it'd be good if Apple simplified the experience for non-developers. I made a stupid little rhythm game ("Headbang") this weekend that is controlled by AirPods head movement and I'd love to share it with two people and two people only. They would run it once and then never again.
- 5mo ago
- fifticon 5mo agohmm, I have no iphone.
- e12e 5mo ago> All of this is built around the simple idea that real friendships happen when you actually meet in person. I understand the sentiment - but this would make it useless for my closest friends - we live in different cities and countries now - and it would take years to fill in the social graph. We would all have to travel and meet everyone else. I suppose this is alleviated by the talk to a friend of a friend feature - but does sound like it partially excludes friends with limited mobility.
- gk1 5mo agoSeen from another angle: this encourages you to make new friends locally. And yes, also one more excuse to visit faraway friends.
- Hitton 5mo agoToo bad Apple wouldn't allow the registration requiring the tapping - it would have been cool if whole social network was a tree with a single root - the founder. Ofc it's probably for the better if it's to have a chance to spread at least a little.
- UncleSlacky 5mo agoMaybe you could get together with the SpaceHey guy: https://spacehey.com https://spacehey.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25245740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25245740
- mfgadv99 5mo ago[flagged]
- jona-f 5mo ago[flagged]
- codingdave 5mo agoConsidering how little is actually interesting about the app aside from it using an old domain, my impression is that the entire post is just pseudo-marketing, attempting to encourage people to get back into domain name squatting.
- camillomiller 5mo agoWell this vibecoded chatgpt crap is quite clearly an attempt at making Friendster more valuable than 30k
- ca98am79 5mo agoCurious what you’d consider a better model for naming/ownership on the internet.
- phrotoma 5mo agoIIUC it's not the model of buying domains from registrars which stinks of crap, it's the buying from registrars by domain squatters who then flip them for a profit having provided zero value that bears a whiff of shite. These ticket scalpers of the internet who contribute nothing can well and truly fuck straight off.
- mothballed 5mo agoSpeculators provide time-allocation of resources. They're pretty critical part of market dynamics to help resources get sold and developed when they are valued most. That is, they prevent domains from being captured prematurely for lower value use. Society profits immensely from their contribution.
- phrotoma 5mo ago
- Fokamul 5mo agoMost ridiculous part of the story -> You can still make money from ADs in 2026.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- y42 5mo agoI can't believe that domain trading is still a thing.. I am sitting on a bunch of "nice" domains; I could never imagine someone actually bought for not even vor 100 bucks... and here we are, 30k? OK.
- mrsvanwinkle 5mo agoHeya. At first I wanted to pile on the negativity due to really. Really bad red flags from the title alone signaling slop, sociopathy (calculated sensationalism), sociopathy (guiltless artificial scarcity peddler), and some really big "Gretchen stop trying to make Friendster 2 happen" energy. But as a longtime HN lurker who lost my first account and now have to carry the "account created after 2022" stigma when I had been training GPTs in my own slop in 2018, I value a storied post history pre-dead internet and it may be your best investment yet. (also you have shared positive posts about some things I like). So just wanted to say I am rooting for you and I may be able to provide some acutely specific but embarrassing input(s) about how a Friendster 2 can happen, based on my Friendster 0 experience (it is definitely not about breaking up in high school where deleting profiles sends the news rippling to the whole universe) (it may involve learning that Indonesian black hats were scary and many and also how the social graph was uncached and always computed server side per profile visit). Now that you own the "Friendster" trademark, I hereby greenlight your soci-emdash-ability to manipulatively hint at the "possibility" of restoring profiles via the Friendster archive project, but keep it as a possibility until you big enough the patent trolls be phone tapping (this is really weird)
- m3kw9 5mo agoFriendster is a damaged brand, but the marketing and recognition is there for free when it does do something, news outlets will likely give them more then 30k$ worth of advertisement.
- jedberg 5mo ago> Fading connections. If two friends go a full year without tapping phones, the link between them softens. Not a punishment — a gentle nudge that real friendships are kept alive in person, not online. One of my very best friends lives in another country. We speak nearly every day, but I haven't seen them in person in over a year. Another of my friends lives on the other side of the USA. We speak a few times a week, but I haven't seen them in person in about four years now. And that was only because their mom lived nearby. His mom moved, so it's unlikely we'll see each other except once a decade when we do our friends trip to Vegas. I have other very close friends who I almost never see in person. My point being, having to tap phones is cool and all but not a great measure of the strength of friendship.
- mrsvanwinkle 5mo agoYou may have convinced me that this phone tapping thing may, and I am being super serious here, lead to something much much bigger than mere social networks. I am convinced that this weird Phone Tapping thing may be the next evolutionary step from both social networks and the dead Internet theory (evolution not meant jokingly i.e. both naturally selected and the baby only got the recessive regressions). The real solution hinges on maybe a future Turing award or Fields medal on physical cryptography for auth/integrity/privacy... but even without that. This is how Facebook got its "grassroots" userbase, from elite students verified via .edu email. If a Friendster 2.0 actually doubles down on this physicality, and actually concentrate its efforts on making the very act of having to RE-TAP the physicality of a social connection, for example your friends may have an option to fund your trips to meet together if about to get disconnected. Or of course it might end up being Facebook 2.0 and sell your Physical data to Cambridge Analytica 2.0 to make Grok beta emperor of Great North America CoProsperity Sphere
- tracker1 5mo agoWell, I'm an android user, so no onramp for me... not to mention, I prefer to use my desktop, where I can actually see the screen better.
- NikolaosC 5mo agoA guy bought friendster.com for $30k and built an app where you can only add friends by physically tapping phones. Connections "fade" if you don't meet in a year. Sounds wholesome. Also sounds like a feature set that filters out 90% of the people who'd actually use a social network
- selektionkey 5mo agoIt reads as "cute" but not sure the actual utility other than adding an unneeded digital layer to friendship lol
- Dave0X 5mo agoSome people clearly believe if you have money sitting in a bank, other people should be able to take it. They feel your money should help others. If you're not actively using it.
- rafram 5mo agoThat is generally how banks work, yes.
- demn 5mo ago[dead]
- tim-projects 5mo agoI bought a domain called youfriend.me about ten years ago with the exact same premise, tapping the phones together in real life. But I never developed it. Cool to see someone did
- mathattack 5mo agoI find it interesting how old brands are being rebooted. Andersen Consulting is back. If you can resurrect Old Spice, why not try it elsewhere?
- meisterbrendan 5mo agoRandom idea: What if all the activity notifications arrived at the same time, eg 8pm every day? If any interactions depend on people being synchronously online together, notifications could be a strong way to make those features work when people don't have a ton of friends on this yet.
- FinnKuhn 5mo ago"BeReal" tried this and I thought it was pretty cool. However, it died somewhat quickly.
- zimmund 5mo agoConsidering I have most of my friends living abroad and how little I get to see other people (especially the ones that would use this app), I won't even bother downloading it. I don't need an app to feel lonely...
- lossyalgo 5mo agoMaybe it's time to make new friends who live nearby :)
- andirk 5mo agoVery cool! If not for the $, for the fun. And you met your on OkCupid, so you can be the cupid this time. - Make a blog about this on the domain. I'll follow! - What do the logs say re: traffic? I see lots of links to the domain from articles about social media c. 2012 - What's your tech stack??
- silexia 5mo agoWhat a lovely idea. My wife and I also met on OkCupid. I hope someone taps my phone and gets me on here.
- xxxabcdefgxxx 5mo agoThere's no way I'd choose an app like this with which I can only talk to iOS friends I have the privilege of being able to meet in person every year when I already have Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp and Discord to talk to all of my friends, including those who are faraway. And most don't use apple, this is not an apple heavy country. I would get an app with a phone tapping feature if it was a game though. Like pokemon go but less about hurrying from place to place and more about spending time together, maybe even getting to know one another through a game. Something like that. I found more friends via webfishing than pokemon go because spending cosy time together always made for a good atmosphere for making conversation.
- carrot 5mo agoI understand it's a very lean MVP to start but I can definitely see the potential. I posted about this on my Threads and it blew up locally (Philippines). You should look into how much people loved it here back in its heyday and what kind of features the users really liked. In fact many people who learned about Friendster being available now have already started asking if those old favorites of theirs were still/will be available too. Hope you can look into it!
- atlasagentsuite 5mo ago[dead]