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by _alex_ 2160 days ago
The "cold-start" problem of new social network sites
1 comments

Apologies for the condescension, and with all due respect, building a social network is a bit neo Silicon valley frothy.
the idea of building another facebook is just...ugh.

however, a friend of mine has been working on a community site for fishing enthusiasts for years. it's _extremely hard_ to bootstrap a community site of any kind, even if it's not "social networking" per se.

I think the idea is to build a not-facebook. I'm working in social media too, and there's a lot of things that FB does poorly.

The goal is usually media, centered around yourself. For some people, it could be their line of work, or happenings in their neighbourhood. FB, prioritizing growth, is like the BuzzFeed of social media, but we're starting to see why that doesn't work.