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by nnash 5817 days ago
Personally I don't feel the need for a facebook alternative, and I'm sure that a majority of people feel the same way. Otherwise there wouldn't be 500 million facebook users. I'm happy with using facebook to connect with all my acquaintances, twitter to interact on the micro level and tumblr to blog. Here is a question you have to think about; "What can you possibly offer that would change my mind?"

I think everyone at some point wants to create the next big thing in social networking, but honestly, it just isn't a realistic expectation. Look how much Google has failed to compete, even with MySpace, in the social arena.Do you think you can you do better than Google?
1 comments
mindcrime 5817 days ago
II agree with everything you said, and still... I think there's a place for more social networks, if we redefine "social network" a little.

What there are are tons of communities, any of which a given user may or may not be a member of... and as long as people prefer to show a different face when interacting with a given community, or keep their interactions with the members of a given community separate - whether as a convenience, or for privacy reasons, whatever, there will be room for "social networks" around interests, geographic areas, etc.

So, yeah, a "social network" for Doctor Who fans, a "social network" for Mazda RX-8 enthusiasts, etc. This space is mostly filled by "forums" now, which don't necessarily have (or need, and this point is probably key) the same suite of features as a "full fledged social network."

But if there was a way to take advantage of all these discrete communities of interests, yet still give a user convenient access to their entire social-graph at all times, and a void "profile fatigue" and "password fatigue" then one could probably accomplish something.

Whether or not what Diaspora are building, or one of the other varied "decentralized social network" projects, remains to be seen. And how the hell you monetize it if you could build it also remains to be seen. But there point in all this rambling was really just to say that there are needs for "networking" that Facebook isn't filling at least not alone. Now the combination of Facebook, Gallifreybase.com and rx8forum.com may fill the needs of the hypothetical Doctor Who watching, RX-8 driving, social-networker. So would one really want to compete with Facebook or with rx8forum.com and gallifreybase.com?

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nnash 5817 days ago
It isn't just forums that are filling the gap it is sites like Ning, and Wordpress plugins like buddypress that are allowing people to develop their own "social networks" as well. Which has me thinking that it is probably better to create a service that allows individuals to design and develop their own communities that cater to whatever interest they may have.
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