[ourcat]

I founded and built a company based on a threaded, asynchronous multimedia forum system about 12 years ago. It supported any type of content that was 'V.I.T.A.L' : Video, Images, Text, Audio and Links.

(I sadly had to resign from it, after getting royally screwed over by the 'investor relations guys' who were on the 'pump and dump' of our OTA stock, after we went public via a reverse merger.)

I have been thinking of building something like it again recently, using everything I've learned since - technologically and financially.

Best of luck! :)

[jeffwhitlock]

Dang, sounds like an unfortunate experience. Now is a good time to do it! Happy to compare notes.

[ourcat]

The whole last year has definitely been 'the right time' for something like it again. And especially across timezones.

These days, I would probably only offer it as a white-label/SaaS model rather than an 'open' social network. Possibly something private/invite-only.

The past few years have made me think that I'm extremely glad to have not been involved at all with it any more. I'd had some extremely lucrative offers from political parties for them to use one of its features, which I'm glad I turned down. The effect it would have had on the incumbent beta-testers at that stage would have been catastrophic.

I would also stick to 'organic growth' rather than outside investors, who could absolutely destroy your vision for the product, for their own ends, without a care in the world for the users and community. Lesson learned the hard way.