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Comment by tyingq | Hacker News Reader

Surprised it hasn't been replaced by someone outside the US who wouldn't be pressured to make it a safe space. Not discounting the potential issues...just surprised it hasn't happened.

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The question is, could anyone else raise enough money to get something like this started again after what Yik Yak became? VC funds likely won't want to touch something like Yik Yak for a while. At the very least a platform that so visibly enables anonymous coordination of harassment is unlikely to attract the advertisers or sponsors they would need to become profitable.

Is it possible to make an open source peer to peer version? Seems like something along the lines of ipfs or dat would be a good substrate.

Is it open source feasible in walled gardens like apple or google app stores? With respect to dev costs, permissions, tooling?

I've dabled a bit with creating something similar (but without the radius limitation), my current experiment runs over at https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmdsQExVDxp2EgERDZFn2Q7Q6Ldi3uH4XSpQTu4... but it's still missing being able to scale + easily be able to host supporting nodes for making the content stay around longer than the browser sessions. The repository is here: https://github.com/victorbjelkholm/tree-talk

I honestly thought that was the whole idea behind it. I think an app like this could be run for cheap, it's essentially a P2P messaging app.

Not surprising, no one has figured out how to monetize it properly.

There is Jodel [0] which is quite popular among students in Germany. It has strict guidelines [1] which try exactly this.

[0] https://jodel-app.com/

[1] https://jodel-app.com/guidelines.html

It's popular in Sweden as well.

There is Jodel: https://jodel-app.com/

Probably, there just isn't the demand. Snapchat snapped up most of the market (not anonymous but similar)

The decline in interest happened after they got rid of anonymity.

I'm an alumni of Usenet and IRC from back in the early-90's. I can assure you that there's always been (and probably always will be) demand for anonymous forums, into which trolls can project sexual frustration and feelings of powerlessness.

I was a bit too old to know about Yik Yak during its heyday, but I can only imagine the troll-appeal of anonymity PLUS being able to target local real-world individuals by name. Old school trolling was limited to targets who were non-local, and by and large anonymous themselves.

So I have no doubt about the market demand from trolls. I just don't understand why there was ever any demand from ANYONE ELSE. And I certainly don't see a path to monetization.

You're right, there has been a disturbing trend in the US of creating safe spaces for racists [1], like in the White House [2] [3], college campuses [4], fraternities [5], Trump rallies [6], and even Broadway [7], to enumerate a few examples.

But don't be surprised, because it's already happened: Germany's Jodel network is much more successful than Yik Yak, with its strict guidelines [8] against racism, discrimination and hate speech, so it isn't a safe space for racists, like Yik Yak was and the White House still is [9].

[1] Trump’s election has created “safe spaces” for racists: Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich on the wave of hate crimes: http://www.salon.com/2017/03/08/trumps-election-has-created-...

[2] Sean Spicer turns the White House into a safe space for conservative media: https://newrepublic.com/minutes/140896/sean-spicer-turns-whi...

[3] I'm tweeting from under my desk because President Obama wiretapped me: http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/capitol-ink-white-house...

[4] On Campus, Trump Fans Say They Need ‘Safe Spaces’: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/political-div...

[5] The Trump Bros Have Found Their Safe Space: https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/the-trump-bros-ha...

[6] Republicans who once mocked ‘safe spaces’ are feeling sensitive over protests : https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-a-campaign-sea...

[7] Trump demands safe space for Mike Pence after he was booed at Hamilton: http://www.avclub.com/article/trump-demands-safe-space-mike-...

[8] Jodel Community Guidelines: https://jodel-app.com/guidelines.html

[9] Mr. President, come out of your safe space: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/page/ct-trump-med...

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