Ask HN: Would you join a social network run by a non-profit? - sharemywin
======
nathcd
The tracking and data mining is only one problem, another is having my data
locked in a silo. What I'd like from a social network is for it to be more
like an RSS reader: my posts should be followable via RSS, and my news feed
should just be an RSS reader from which I can follow others on the same
network and from outside the network. That's a pretty simple way to get me
interested.

I also would like if messaging would be handled by something like an email
address (like Facebook added and then removed once upon a time), or better yet
a derivative of email that's easier to self-host and encrypted by default
(maybe something like matrix.org).

To me, working to break down the huge silos is the best thing a non-profit
social network could bring. And, to be completely honest, I'm not sure I'd
even join it, because in this system I'd be able to participate without
joining the network so I could just self-host my website (and RSS feed) and
use my own feed reader as I do now.

EDIT to expand on this after thinking about it a bit. Since podcasting has
been the most successful use case for RSS so far, perhaps a good way to go
forward with the above idea would be to allow attaching arbitrary files to
posts, and to embed images/audio/video (as they're be embedded on Facebook).
This would make it easy to host a podcast/video feed, or image feed on the
network while still being a part of the larger open podcasting/video/visual
art communities, and it'd be easy to follow. This could provide a decent
avenue for advertising the network to certain segments of potential users. And
(as long as you embedded items with simple img/audio/video html tags)
communities like the free software community and the open web community would
probably be pretty ecstatic about it at the very least.

~~~
sharemywin
you'd make a great microsoft exec. embrace and extend. it's a good idea btw.

~~~
nathcd
I'll put you down as a reference next time I apply to Microsoft! :)

If you're working on a social network, can you share more about what you're
thinking about building and what stage you're at?

------
NumberCruncher
A non-profit is run by real people and a social network needs an
infrastructure. There are a lot of bills to be paid. The money paying the
bills was obviously earned by someone doing things for profit or is donated by
a lottery winner. I don't trust lottery winners, especially when they want to
manage my personal data "for free".

If you're not paying for the product, you are the product. That's why I only
use social networks with a realistic monthly/annual fee, like Xing.com or
meetup.com.

~~~
blowski
What about Firefox, Linux, jQuery? Am I their product?

A lot of Facebook's infrastructure is about advertising and tracking. Also, if
you could run some kind of P2P social network you distribute a lot of the
costs.

So I disagree that the choice is between a large corporate-owned social
network or no social network at all. A non-profit network is feasible, if
tremendously difficult.

~~~
NumberCruncher
As a Linux user I have to admit this is a good argument.

I like how DHH thinks about it. Make a simple product (with his own words: it
is not rocket surgery) which solves problems, do it for-profit and put a price
on it. After earning your salary and paying your bills you can still do rocket
surgery for fun and give back to the community. Or do it also for profit
promoting yourself as a professional or even your product. That's totally fine
for me because in Rework he even points out that this is the part of the
Basecamp marketing strategy (Out-teach your competition).

If someone brands his social network as "non-profit" only to put ads on my
screen hoping for my paid op-out, that is not OK for me. I trust humans who
work for real money and sometimes give back to the community but I don't trust
saints.

Anyhow, we may be different and that is totally OK.

~~~
sharemywin
Not trying to come off as a true saint. I just believe marketplaces shouldn't
be run by corporations. All these corporations are sucking the life out of the
economy by imposing monopolistic taxes on everyone in their "networks".

Why because VC only fund monopolies and the stock market rewards giant hoards
of cash off-shore. Is it fueled by jealousy, some, but imagine if all the
businesses your talking about didn't have to pay 70 cents a click to advertise
and they were rotated or some other more user friendly way display ads. or if
you bought enough through a marketplace to cover your own costs you didn't
need to see any ads.

Non-profits aren't bound to maximize profits they just have to cover costs.

I think it would be more of a protocol than a service.

------
anotheryou
Most of us even joined one by a for-profit. The problem is how to get my
friends to move with me anywhere. Locked-in, network-effect, hen and egg
problems

------
2AF3
I'm waiting for a distributed system, any non-profit has to comply with
government censorship.

~~~
sharemywin
The problem with completely anonymous encrypted "speech"(assuming speech
enables transactions) is it comes with some nasty side effects. Murder for
hire, child porn, terrorism recruitment among others. Does any government have
it right absolutely not.

But, to me those are the types of battles you would need to be willing to die
for as well as your sons and daughters because your enemies are.

~~~
Aldo_MX
Why not treat anonymity as opt-in?

Not everyone is paranoid about government espionage, data mining, etc, but if
you are, then you'll have to deal with the additional baggage that anonymity
brings to the table.

~~~
sharemywin
how could you be sure the site/app wasn't a honeypot for government.

~~~
Aldo_MX
You can't, it is impossible to build a decentralized and distributed database
which prevents access to bad actors.

------
bbcbasic
No I'm bored of social networks. My email and phone number really are
sufficient

------
p333347
That depends on whether there are enough real people on it, and it is a
vicious circle because everyone would think the same. That said, if you can
create one without all the stuff people hate about current social networks,
you might make it attractive for enough people to join and set the ball
rolling, and I might consider joining. (I am not being facetious.) So it being
run by pro profit or non profit is a non issue.

------
_nalply
As long as I am sure that I am not the product and the non-profit manages to
overcome the network effect.

Bonus points for using or interfacing to standards like e-mail, RSS, IRC and
the like. Additionally if most of the infrastructure is peer-to-peer. For
example a social network based on WebRTC. This way a lot of centralized
infrastructure goes away.

------
znpy
Yes, as long as I am okay with how such social network treats its user and its
data.

I am still quite saddened hat Snake, the cryptographic social network, didn't
get the appropriate funding when proposed on indiegogo.
[https://snake.li/](https://snake.li/)

~~~
3ch1dna
I'm really disappointed that I had never heard of it until now. That looks
like something I would actually join.

------
anilgulecha
Non-profit is an orthogonal matter.

I think I'd much rather join a network where I'm in control of data. With
tech-progress in p2p and the blockchains, I think the building blocks are
already present for this kind of a network. If this were run by a non-profit,
all the better.

------
chrismonsanto
I don't care either way as long as there are people I care about socializing
with on the service.

~~~
sharemywin
I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel they way you do.

------
sharemywin
what would you like to see different from FB, LinkedIn etc.

~~~
f_allwein
probably the wrong question to ask. As has been pointed out, the key feature
is "are my friends on it or is it easy to get them on it?" I can't think of a
feature that would get the average FB user to switch.

~~~
sharemywin
if even someone comes up with a feature facebook it needs to not implement it
after it catches on. pinterest, periscope, etc. not saying I have a good plan
just interested in other peoples thoughts.

------
nuevoyork
if you pay me $5 i'll join :-)

