[cornfieldlabs]

I am building one with a chronological feed and no public profiles.

You need to already know someone to find them here.

Check out the waitlist!

https://waitlist-tx.pages.dev/

Edit:

Here are some rough layout designs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uLwnXDdUsC9hMZBa1ysR...

It's intentionally simple

[IshKebab]

Yeah... aside from all the very obvious problems with this (network effects, most friends aren't weird techy no-images types, etc.)... the moment has passed. Nobody is going to trust another tech company with their real name & permanent social life again. They've seen what happens.

[cornfieldlabs]

True though. We will be adding support for images in the next release.

We can add an option to export all data (in the pipeline) and let users delete account and data in one click (available on first release) but I don't know what else can be done.

End to end encryption is hard and I am not a programmer capable of implementing it safe enough to stop NSA level threats.

We will do what we can.

[IshKebab]

> I don't know what else can be done

I don't think there's anything technical you can do. I think it would require:

1. A stable income stream that doesn't depend on something at odds with your goals (i.e. not like Mozilla).

2. Incorporate as a non-profit with rock-solid "we're never going to transition to for-profit" legal terms.

I think Wikipedia is probably the closest thing we have to that, but even they don't have a reliable income source. I mean, they have more money than they know what to do with and waste most of it on outreach nonsense rather than putting it into an endowment... but it's not exactly a reliable source of money.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

In addition to exporting one's contacts from Facebook in order to import them into an alternative, there should be a way to use whatever is provided through Facebook's "Download your data" to populate new accounts in the new alternative.

Perhaps it already exists but I have thought about writing something that takes what is provided by "Download your data" and produces a local SQLite database, a local webpage, local website or some combination thereof that is served from the user's computer instead of Meta servers.

However I do not use Facebook enough to justify the effort, and when I do I never look at the "feed".

[cornfieldlabs]

We don't let anyone find you on the site without your short secret code which they need to ask you for. The code can be changed anytime. You (the user) need to actively ask your friends' code to build up the network. This also keeps the network small since you won't go out of your way to ask someone their code unless you really know them.

A really private place with only people that matter.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

"We don't let anyone..."

"A really private place with only people that matter."

Including an unnecessary third party at the controls.

Hmmm.

[cornfieldlabs]

Can't satisfy everyone

[fivestones]

Are you really planning to not allow photos? I understand your reasoning for why this works in places a group chat wouldn’t, and I have group chats that I wish could do what your site does (share things to all my friends but we don’t all have to have all the same friends). But something I really appreciate about some of those group chats, especially smaller ones like a group of three, are the photos that friends post. Usually it’s not low effort, it’s real photos of their real lives. I like what you are doing a lot but the ability to post my photos to show to friends seems like a must for me.

[cornfieldlabs]

Thanks for the response

Many early adopters have asked for photo support so we will be definitely supporting it in the next release.

We are just trying to figure out how to do it without it turning into a clout-chasing machine.

[fivestones]

Awesome. I was going to say just don’t have a way to like photos, but then I don’t know if that solves the clout-chasing problem.

[motoxpro]

What is the difference between this and a group chat? Most people have < 20 people that they know well enough to give a secret code to unless you're a creator or personality, in which care we are back to snapchat.

If the posts are more long form, what is the difference between this and a blog where the "secret code" is the URL?

Or even a finsta account currated the way you want.

I don't say these as a "it's not gonna work" as in consumer its about the experience, I genuinely wonder why the experience will be better

[cornfieldlabs]

These are very valid questions , thanks for asking them.

> Group chat Group chats work when everyone in one know each other. I have N different circles which don't overlap so group doesn't chat makes sense. Messages in group chat are more "in the face" - everyone has to. I just wanted a place where I can dump my thoughts without feeling like seeking immediate attention.

> Blog PostX is indeed something like a private blogging space. It's something I wanted for myself.

Honestly I am not fully sure how it's going to be used by people but I have built something me and my friends like and use.

[cornfieldlabs]

I messed up the formatting. Below is the correct text

> Blog

PostX is indeed something like a private blogging space. It's something I wanted for myself.

Honestly I am not fully sure how it's going to be used by people but I have bi uilt something me and my friends like and use.

[pulkitanand]

Your landing page talks about all the right goals. postx is a good placeholder name, I recommend ideating a better name for launch. looking forward, wish you the best.

[cornfieldlabs]

new users will face the empty feed problem since by design one can't find anyone without their code.

No "People you may know" or "select at least N interests or follow N accounts to continue".

I think early adopters will invite their friends to join and that is the only way.

Got any suggestions?

[vishalontheline]

Show 3 walls side by side: updates by friends, interactions by direct connections on shares by friends of friends, and public stories by those nearby (geographically). The latter could also turn into a way for local businesses to promote themselves. Keep the 3 in separate lanes in order to let the user decide how much they want to doom scroll.

[sebastiennight]

You're basically describing the 3 default pages for a new user on a Mattermost instance :)

[cornfieldlabs]

Thanks for the thoughts.

But we are not interested turning into Facebook. You will only see posts of your friends and nothing more.

I was spending 8+ hours a day doom scrolling which led to this idea. I just want to see what my friends want me to see and that's it.

[vishalontheline]

Sure thing. Oh - maybe let people follow non-friends that they want to see public updates from, and make everyone follow you, so their walls won't be so empty on Day 1 ;).

[cornfieldlabs]

Thanks :)

Few others have suggested the same. But it kind of defeats the purpose since the goal is to see updates from your close friends and have only private profils. Even though empty feed is not good, it's a feature in our platform. We want to see what users do when the feed is empty. Only real way to have a non empty feed without compromising the core idea is letting users invite friends.

I am thinking along those lines!

[cornfieldlabs]

Thank you Anand - for the encouragement and joining the waitlist!

It means really a lot to us.

We are working on a better name and the site!

I'll send you the welcome email manually soon!

[rglullis]

> PostX is a private, no-clout, no-AI social network for close friends

What can you possibly offer in this space that can not be done with a messaging group on WhatsApp/Signal/Matrix/XMPP ?

   - They are invite only
   - They are not public
   - People share updates in chronological order

[cornfieldlabs]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44402600

Basically group chats work only when everyone knows each other

[rglullis]

> Group chats work when everyone knows each other.

That is (a) not true and (b) a non-issue, because you can create as many groups as you'd like.

> PostX is indeed something like a private blogging space. I just wanted a place where I can dump my thoughts without feeling like seeking immediate attention.

So, you are working on yet-another blog engine and you are promoting it like it's some revolutionary new idea? It may be interested for you if you want to treat it as some exercise, but do you see how underwhelming this seems to anyone else?

[cornfieldlabs]

I am solving a problem I myself had and seeing if anyone else might find it interesting.

It may or may not take off like every other startup and I am fine with it.

Why the snark?

[rglullis]

There is no snark. I'm just genuinely trying to warn you that you seem to be going down a rabbit-hole. You seem to be more enamored by working on your solution rather than solving your problem.

For you, it might be that exercising your design/coding/architecture chops might be valuable in itself - which is totally fine. But do not think for a second that other people need to particularly care about your solution to a problem, when there are already hundreds of similar projects that are more mature, more familiar and ready to be deployed.

[cornfieldlabs]

(edited) Thanks!

We’re doing this just as an experiment — it doesn’t have to turn into anything big, so no rabbit hole problem.

English isn’t my first language, so it’s sometimes hard for me to infer things from just text.

Really appreciate your thoughts, especially since you’ve done a lot of work in this space.

We don’t think our idea is “revolutionary” or anything like that, and we’re not trying to spin it as one. At best, it might take off; at worst, it’s just a way to practice our programming skills.