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A week or so back another user asked a pretty reasonable question "More and more, it feels like Facebook is a problem that needs solving. How can we solve it?"
Unfortunately the handful of thoughtful responses got lost in the inevitable torrent of "Facebook SUX! Twitter SUX! Internets SUX!" nonsense. You know, the on-line equivalent of saying "I read a book once and it sucked so ALL BOOKS SUX!"
I actually find Twitter really useful and rely on it heavily for some specific information flows. I also use Facebook for family and some close friends that I still want to keep in touch with. I have of course pseudonymized myself enough to keep FB out of my deepest private life.
Still, I'd love an alternative.
So, given that:
- Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms can actually be very useful when used sensibly
- Facebook and Twitter are still essential tools for many millions of people, including a lot of really smart ones.
- Platforms that connect people can be a very positive thing, and can even bring about some kinds of social change
- And given that Facebook is becoming pretty useless, annoying, and evil; and that Twitter is probably heading the same way.
I'm going to ask again, what do we need to create a functional social media platform that avoids the many problems that Facebook has, and that will actually attract a large enough user base to work?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 07 2014, @05:13PM
"it can be still be appropriated by small groups and used for effective communication."
Yes there's also the difference between the software, and the network. Many a time over the past 1/4 century I've tried to explain that there's nothing in cnews or inn that requires connecting to "the usenet network" so if usenet is a spammy hell, abandon it (the network not INN or cnews or UUCP or ..), fork the network itself, and carry on. Perhaps with somewhat more aggressive cancelbots or admins who actually care about removal of spammers, or a few other features.