SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
https://hackaday.com/2025/11/12/join-the-the-newest-social-network-and-party-like-its-1987/
Algorithms? Datamining? Brainrot? You don't need those things to have a social network. As we knew back in the BBS days, long before anyone coined the phrase "social network", all you need is a place for people to make text posts. [euklides] is providing just such a place, at cyberspace.online.
It's a great mix of old and new — the IRC inspired chatrooms, e-mail inspired DMs ("cybermail") make it feel like the good old days, while a sprinkling of more modern concepts such as friends lists, a real-time feed, and even the late-lamented "poke" feature (from before Facebook took over the world) provide some welcome conveniences.
The pursuit of retro goes further through the themed web interface, as well. Sure, there's light mode and dark mode, but that's de rigueur. Threads might not offer a blue-and-white Commodore 64 theme, and you'd have little luck getting Bluesky to mimic the soothing amber glow of a VT-230, but Cyberspace offers that and more.
It's also niche enough that there's nobody here but us chickens. That is, it looks like a site for geeks, nerds, tech enthusiasts — whatever you want to call us — it might just be via "security by obscurity", but Cyberspace doesn't seem likely to attract quite the same Eternal September the rest of the internet is drowning under.
In the Reddit thread where the project was announced, there's talk of a CLI tool under development. In Rust, because that's just what all the cool kids are using these days it seems. A text-based interface, be it under DOS or something POSIX-compliant, seems like it would be the perfect fit for this delightful throwback site.
If nobody will join your homebuilt BBS, this might be the next best thing. For those of you who wonder where the hack is: this is a one-man show. If making your own social network in a cave with a box of scraps doesn't count as a hack, what does?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 22, @02:29PM (2 children)
IMO "All the things" are better shoehorned into a browser these days. When it's on a browser it's on all my computers (Linux, 'doze, Mac) as well as Android and iOS phones and tablets. It's the best cross-platform delivery system available, no software installation procedures for the users to do, and it's inherently remotely accessible.
"it might just be via "security by obscurity", but Cyberspace doesn't seem likely to attract quite the same Eternal September the rest of the internet is drowning under."
That will be an interesting test of "social management" - something that the green site and here kinda sorta implemented with comment rating, then Digg and later Reddit took to new levels with up/down votes (Oh, noes, Facebook doesn't like downvotes, they're mean...)
So - can the community organize and police itself sufficiently to keep "niche corners" both cozy and also aware of larger trends they "like" without getting polluted with political bots, commercial ads, and the general dreck of people who go to the internet to vent anonymously things they're repressed from saying in real life? It seems to take 5-10 years of popularity before a big social site is really tested enough to know if it's going to soldier on in some form, or descend into irrelevance.
SN seems to manage through a lot of security by obscurity, keeping the site small and manageable by the volunteers who admin it with a light tough. Thanks again to everyone who makes SN possible.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23, @01:20AM
> Thanks again to everyone who makes SN possible.
Yes!!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Sunday November 23, @08:24AM
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]