[tosh]

Path in its day was way ahead in ux and detail compared to other social networks. Stickers and reactions on facebook came later and even then/now never were as 'finished' compared to what Path had.

A great example of how the better product doesn't always win. There are just too many factors (like timing and network effects in this case).

[sneak]

Path was not better. They got busted repeatedly playing fast and loose with user privacy, and iirc their bad behavior was the proximate cause of Apple adding contacts permissions to iOS. Good riddance to these jerks.

https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-...

[drcongo]

Yeah, my memory of Path is that they spammed all my contacts in the first week of having it installed and then I uninstalled it and never went near it again.

[ulfw]

That's exactly how long it stayed installed on my phone and those of my friends who I helped originally sign up for it.

I don't think they ever recovered from that incident. https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-...

I can't believe they somehow trotted along for another six years. Never seen anybody use it since.

[whywhywhywhy]

Hard to find a mobile app these days that doesn't demand contact access, try using WhatsApp without providing it and it's a rough ride, I'm super reluctant to upload mine but that one was basically unusable without doing so.

How times change.

[ulfw]

That’s very true. Though it wasn’t the contacts upload on its own so much. It was that they were uploaded in the background without permission or notification and your contacts were spammed without your permission.

[cityzen]

Yes, the CEO was an ex-facebook d-bag. Playing fast and loose with user privacy is the name of the game in "growth hacking".

[pathseeker]

With social the product is always the network. If nobody uses it, the product is not better at all. It just has some nice features that would be good if a real product was there (the people).

I know it seems pedantic, but you cannot grow a social network with just a platform, despite how amazing it is. This fails time and time and time again.

You need a story that sets it apart from existing stuff that brings in people. Whether it's some disruption narrative, paying shills (a.k.a influencers), or whatever, that's what's required.

[stdbrouw]

This feels like a deliberate misinterpretation of the parent comment and therefore, yep, pedantic. It's obvious from context that they're talking about the product qua UX and features, not about the product as a whole including its user base.

[nailer]

Sure, but FB had a smaller network than Myspace. Instagram once had a smaller network than Flickr. They grew the network through better UX (ok it's hard to say now with their MS-Word style shotgun blast of icons, but FB was once miles ahead of MySpace).

[pathseeker]

No, FB initially grew because of exclusivity of the network. I only signed up because it was for college people only at the time. I didn't care about the interface at all, just the content and who was posting that content. It was absolutely not "myspace with an improved interface".