5 ms·

Sublevel – A personal network

31 points by davidbarker 12y ago

prawn 12y ago
Made me wonder about a Twitter-style social network where you were the only human, and you knew it. Those that gradually followed and interacted with you were all bots mimicking humans, but for once not spamming or with an ulterior motive. Your content would never be seen by anyone else. The bots would arrive to compliment, question and challenge you. Would people care that they weren't real? Outside of the friends we know on Twitter now, do we know which of the rest are definitely real anyway? Sounds a bit crazy, but just wondering if people will reach a point where they interact with bots and don't care if they give them what they want in terms of attention and validation.
- valarauca1 12y ago
  What if the bots weren't bots and were actually people. Just every single person would see every user with a randomized user name and no special 'user layout', and no identifying profile information. Everyone would think, and see that every other account on the site was bots. The site would claim that every account you interact with is a bot, but in the background they aren't, their all people.
  - nfoz 12y ago
    > What if the bots weren't bots and were actually people. Just every single person would see every user with a randomized user name and no special 'user layout', and no identifying profile information. So, the early Internet.
    - comex 12y ago
      Or 4chan.
  - rmorabia 12y ago
    This was mildly explored in the game Journey: http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/ http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/
RossM 12y ago
I like the advertising strategy - one unobtrusive ad for everyone, for a whole week. The free charity ads are a nice touch too. It's either going to stick in your head out of persistence (perhaps subconsciously) or get mentally blocked (though I'd bet on the former).
est 12y ago
Need gravatar.
voltagex_ 12y ago
So many words to say so little. What is this about? Is it closer to app.net or to OwnCloud? Why would I choose this over Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Blogger or Medium?
- davidbarker 12y ago
  I'm not the site's creator, but having played around with it for an hour or so, it seems to be a similar idea to the original Twitter (with additional things like threaded replies, and without a character limit).
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Questions for the site's creator, about http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html > No JavaScript. Sublevel works with JavaScript disabled. Dumb phones supported. Sublevel works with Opera Mini. Responsive design. Sublevel works on any devices with a modern browser from smartphones to TVs. Is the lack of Javascript motivated by security or minimalism? > Different than Twitter. Sublevel is not a clone of Twitter like App.net neither trying to reinvent the wheel. There's no character limit, Sublevel is limited by design only. Can you share more about the scalability of the backend? > No API. Sublevel doesn't need an API, just better web browsers. Instead of an API, Sublevel will try to have an open database. Do you mean CC-licensed, torrent delivered? That would support analytics, but what's the Sublevel position on third-party web clients? > No user tracking. Sublevel doesn't store any metadata associated with users or replies. Does this mean HTTP metadata, e.g. IP address, browsers, etc? Are you saying there are no web server logs ever written to flash/disk, or that these are stripped of user-identifying information? > Discoverable. Sublevel is using an explore page to keep people informed. Similar to HN, DN or Reddit. > Clear searching. Sublevel lets you independently search for replies or people's usernames, bios, locations. Is this mechanism intended for search by humans or apps? Is there any difference from Twitter's search functionality? > Just text. Sublevel won't provide support for images, videos, gifs, mp3s. Third-party services do a better job. Sublevel provides support for links, mentions and hashtags. Is there support for mentions? The following bullet says they are not needed. > Threaded conversations. Sublevel reply system is clear, there's no need for mentions. It lets you join in any conversation. Without mentions, how would someone invite/address another user to join a conversation? > Less spam. Sublevel prevents spam using two features. First, it lets the parent of a reply to delete any children replies. Second, it lets people send just one reply, expecting answers back from the other participants in the conversation. One reply per item? Can you reply to siblings of your reply? > Powered by mini ads. Sublevel is free and the ads will never be intrusive, actually they look quite good. Examples?
serf 12y ago
All I took away from from the page was the color codes for if I want to advertise for them, whoever it/they is/was/plans to be.
rjurney 12y ago
The value is subconscious.
chrislloyd 12y ago
It said "All you have to do is just write." so I started typing something and it didn't do anything.
gregschlom 12y ago
I came to the comments to see if somebody could explain what this thing is about. Seems like I'm not the only one not getting it... Feedback for the author: your marketing copy needs to explain clearly what your product does.
olh 12y ago
I am pretty sure this is satire.
metabren 12y ago
"Sublevel is to Twitter what Pinboard is to Delicious, Reddit to Digg, Linux to Windows, Android to iOS, etc." http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html
- walterbell 12y ago
  Thank you! Should be linked on sublevel.net
- azinman2 12y ago
  So they want to be an permeant underdog (w/the exception of Reddit)? Or a more geeky & less slick implementation? Odd goal.
  - ertdfgcb 12y ago
    They want to be a more powerful version for power users.
eigenrick 12y ago
"Sublevel is made for people like you" No it isn't. I run Linux :(
dmix 12y ago
They desperately need a copywriter. This is classic meaningless brand copy, full of platitudes.
personjerry 12y ago
I looked at the front page and got no info about what it actually and lost interest.
rdl 12y ago
Even after reading the comments here too, I still have no idea what this is supposed to be.

31 points by davidbarker 12y ago

prawn 12y ago

Made me wonder about a Twitter-style social network where you were the only human, and you knew it. Those that gradually followed and interacted with you were all bots mimicking humans, but for once not spamming or with an ulterior motive. Your content would never be seen by anyone else. The bots would arrive to compliment, question and challenge you. Would people care that they weren't real? Outside of the friends we know on Twitter now, do we know which of the rest are definitely real anyway? Sounds a bit crazy, but just wondering if people will reach a point where they interact with bots and don't care if they give them what they want in terms of attention and validation.

valarauca1 12y ago
What if the bots weren't bots and were actually people. Just every single person would see every user with a randomized user name and no special 'user layout', and no identifying profile information. Everyone would think, and see that every other account on the site was bots. The site would claim that every account you interact with is a bot, but in the background they aren't, their all people.
- nfoz 12y ago
  > What if the bots weren't bots and were actually people. Just every single person would see every user with a randomized user name and no special 'user layout', and no identifying profile information. So, the early Internet.
  - comex 12y ago
    Or 4chan.
- rmorabia 12y ago
  This was mildly explored in the game Journey: http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/ http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/

RossM 12y ago

I like the advertising strategy - one unobtrusive ad for everyone, for a whole week. The free charity ads are a nice touch too. It's either going to stick in your head out of persistence (perhaps subconsciously) or get mentally blocked (though I'd bet on the former).

est 12y ago

Need gravatar.

voltagex_ 12y ago

So many words to say so little. What is this about? Is it closer to app.net or to OwnCloud? Why would I choose this over Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Blogger or Medium?

davidbarker 12y ago
I'm not the site's creator, but having played around with it for an hour or so, it seems to be a similar idea to the original Twitter (with additional things like threaded replies, and without a character limit).
- walterbell 12y ago
  Questions for the site's creator, about http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html > No JavaScript. Sublevel works with JavaScript disabled. Dumb phones supported. Sublevel works with Opera Mini. Responsive design. Sublevel works on any devices with a modern browser from smartphones to TVs. Is the lack of Javascript motivated by security or minimalism? > Different than Twitter. Sublevel is not a clone of Twitter like App.net neither trying to reinvent the wheel. There's no character limit, Sublevel is limited by design only. Can you share more about the scalability of the backend? > No API. Sublevel doesn't need an API, just better web browsers. Instead of an API, Sublevel will try to have an open database. Do you mean CC-licensed, torrent delivered? That would support analytics, but what's the Sublevel position on third-party web clients? > No user tracking. Sublevel doesn't store any metadata associated with users or replies. Does this mean HTTP metadata, e.g. IP address, browsers, etc? Are you saying there are no web server logs ever written to flash/disk, or that these are stripped of user-identifying information? > Discoverable. Sublevel is using an explore page to keep people informed. Similar to HN, DN or Reddit. > Clear searching. Sublevel lets you independently search for replies or people's usernames, bios, locations. Is this mechanism intended for search by humans or apps? Is there any difference from Twitter's search functionality? > Just text. Sublevel won't provide support for images, videos, gifs, mp3s. Third-party services do a better job. Sublevel provides support for links, mentions and hashtags. Is there support for mentions? The following bullet says they are not needed. > Threaded conversations. Sublevel reply system is clear, there's no need for mentions. It lets you join in any conversation. Without mentions, how would someone invite/address another user to join a conversation? > Less spam. Sublevel prevents spam using two features. First, it lets the parent of a reply to delete any children replies. Second, it lets people send just one reply, expecting answers back from the other participants in the conversation. One reply per item? Can you reply to siblings of your reply? > Powered by mini ads. Sublevel is free and the ads will never be intrusive, actually they look quite good. Examples?

serf 12y ago

All I took away from from the page was the color codes for if I want to advertise for them, whoever it/they is/was/plans to be.

rjurney 12y ago

The value is subconscious.

chrislloyd 12y ago

It said "All you have to do is just write." so I started typing something and it didn't do anything.

gregschlom 12y ago

I came to the comments to see if somebody could explain what this thing is about. Seems like I'm not the only one not getting it... Feedback for the author: your marketing copy needs to explain clearly what your product does.

olh 12y ago

I am pretty sure this is satire.

metabren 12y ago

"Sublevel is to Twitter what Pinboard is to Delicious, Reddit to Digg, Linux to Windows, Android to iOS, etc." http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html http://lucianmarin.com/archive/sublevel.html

walterbell 12y ago
Thank you! Should be linked on sublevel.net
azinman2 12y ago
So they want to be an permeant underdog (w/the exception of Reddit)? Or a more geeky & less slick implementation? Odd goal.
- ertdfgcb 12y ago
  They want to be a more powerful version for power users.

eigenrick 12y ago

"Sublevel is made for people like you" No it isn't. I run Linux :(

dmix 12y ago

They desperately need a copywriter. This is classic meaningless brand copy, full of platitudes.

personjerry 12y ago

I looked at the front page and got no info about what it actually and lost interest.

rdl 12y ago

Even after reading the comments here too, I still have no idea what this is supposed to be.