A New Social Network

For…reasons...I’ve found myself contemplating what a new social network might look like. You know, if we to need a new place to share brief thoughts online.

Here’s a punch list of how I might structure it:

• Prioritize text.
• Paid accounts only, maybe $2.99/month.
• No ads. Only revenue model is subscriptions.
• No algorithms.
• Reverse chronological feed only.
• Real names only.
• Full API to encourage weird, vibrant third-party takes.
• Nuzzel-like feature for aggregating top shared links within a user’s community.
• No follower counts.
• No like button. Users must use text to express an opinion about another post.
    – Allow bookmarking to refer back to favorite posts.
• Enforced content moderation policy. Zero tolerance for abuse or hate.

And a few other odds and ends to contemplate after an alpha version:

• Allow editing? Maybe model after iOS 16 iMessage editing limits.
• Cmd-K menu and backslash menus for keyboard navigation.
• To mull over: must users log-in to view posts or are they always public? Allow for sharing URLs to individual posts outside of the service?

This is an evolving list. What do you think? What would you add or change from the above? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @focus_tools.