Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by Karrot_Kream on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @08:24PM
(#34075506)
Yeah 100%. Small chat rooms have been existing and thriving for years now. It didn't suddenly take the Twitter debacle to make them viable options. I mean, look at the drama spilling out of Twitter right now. There are HN posters posting 10-20 comments per day on every Twitter thread. Mastodon wasn't the beginning of private or small spaces on the net. I'm in dozens of them right now.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by neodymiumphish on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:21PM
(#34075941)
This makes me think that maybe Google Plus (God, what a shitty name), could have succeeded. The focus on sharing into circles of users who wanted your content would have made it a system where you pick who should view a given post. This circle-oriented sharing may have led to less self-promotion than the other platforms.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by jasonwatkinspdx on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:39PM
(#34076043)
Gchat is an absurd story of not realizing what was in front of it.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by Gigachad on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:29PM
(#34075991)
It's still just not as good as group chats. It has no community vibe as each person is posting to a different group of people. If I join a programming group chat, I'll get to know everyone there and the content will almost all be around the topic of the group. If I open something like Google Plus, it's going to be some content probably related to what I might like to see, but it's still just a public forum with no community.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by ocdtrekkie on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:25PM
(#34075966)
In practice the issue was few people understood and properly used circles. I mostly just used them to sort kinda a primary and secondary feed. One to keep up with, and one for casual browsing.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by maxbond on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:43PM
(#34076070)
I believe social media apps are much like markets, in that the structure of the app determines the incentives and the interactions that happen there. I think most would agree that the 140 character limit had a profound impact on Twitter, for better and for worse. This is why HN remains stripped down, without Reddit features like message alerts and visible karma for posts, and why the lists were stashed away; these features don't work towards curious conversation. The things you're citing about group chats are structural, as well.
We aren't doomed to terrible social media. But tech companies, with their particular incentives to drive engagement writ large rather than healthy engagement, may be structurally unable to deliver a good social media app.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative
by 2muchcoffeeman on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:01AM
(#34076856)
They give it away for free, want growth year over year and are answerable to their investors. That’s not a recipe for creating user centric applications.
You won’t troll in group chats because you’ll be removed and it’s difficult or impossible to get back. Unlike public platforms where you can sign up for 300 new accounts behind vpns. The groups are small and everyone knows everyone so you’ll have a reputation beyond just being banned.
There’s also no global admins / thought police. Each group gets to decide on their own what kind of discourse is allowed (illegal content excepted). In a group chat your friends can discuss things which would have you banned from Facebook/etc. The platform won't push your content on others so independent group chats don't ruin the experience for other users.