[mattlevan]

Is there anything Zuckerberg doesn't want to get his company involved with?

It's been said on HN again and again, but I'm really looking forward to a decentralized digital publishing platform that gains momentum and actually gives Facebook a run for its money.

Anyone know of any such existing platforms up and running now? Last I looked into this, I discovered "Steemit", but it doesn't seem very promising.

[wyldfire]

> It's been said on HN again and again, but I'm really looking forward to a decentralized digital publishing platform that gains momentum and actually gives Facebook a run for its money.

I don't think one has a chance of succeeding in the short term IMO. Diaspora, GNU social are attempts. They all are on the wrong side of the network effect / Metcalfe's law. There would need to be a significant downside to using facebook or a significant upside to using the competition to get people to move. I don't think there are much incentives to be had there.

[notatoad]

>Is there anything Zuckerberg doesn't want to get his company involved with?

I've seen quite a few comments (on HN and elsewhere) since all the "fake news" buzz started saying essentially "Facebook needs to stop pretending they aren't a news company. They are where people get their news, and they need to take responsibility for that"

And I completely agree. Whether zuck wants to be in the news business or not, he already is. Might as well do a good job of it.

[aphextron]

>And I completely agree. Whether zuck wants to be in the news business or not, he already is. Might as well do a good job of it.

No, they're not. Facebook is a news aggregate. They are no more in the News business than I would be if I wrote a script to scrape news web sites for articles to read myself.

The confusion between actual news sources and information aggregates online has caused this "fake news" crisis in the first place.

[thrusong]

I agree. Their main product is called "News" Feed, after all.

[kristineberth]

PressReader.

6,000+ publishing partners around the world (USA Today, Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vogue, GQ, etc.) Unlimited access model, all you can read on your smartphone or tablet.

Two business models: (1) Consumer subscription ($29.95USD/mo) (2) Sponsored by a business (stay at one of 10,000+ hotels who sponsor PressReader access for their guests, fly with airlines like Qantas, visit a local library that sponsors access, etc.)

Millions of MAUs and growing at light speed.

Business model: royalties paid to publishers whenever someone reads their content, so generates revenue and audience for publishers.

(Full disclosure: I work for PressReader.)

[sogen]

Old stuff I remember that used to live on the internets: mIRC, BBS, Usenet groups, Online Chat, Forums

[mattlevan]

Oh, yea. How could I forget? I still use IRC on a daily basis... I don't think of it as a place to read news, though.

[Pigo]

I get back on once in awhile just to see if people are going back. I'm wondering if any network is growing besides Freenet. Freenet is cool, and I get on for work once in awhile. But I really miss when Undernet and Dalnet where massive, with all sorts of stuff happening. Maybe I'm just out of touch with what the active networks are.

[sogen]

Maybe that's the future, going back eventually to alternative places where the user can have a separate identity and speak their opinions (I.e. Redddit)

[pavel_lishin]

I mean, there's always RSS, but that's always had the issue of adoption.

Is Steemit just a Reddit clone with the blockchain buzzword sprinkled on?

[timdavila]

>decentralized digital publishing platform

Like the internet?