Comment by jokoon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jokoon | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I think that the only domain where social networks can be relevant is in the geoloc domain. Dating apps are quite an obvious example where it works very well, but dating is a very limited scope.

So of course, the single problem of anything geoloc is safety and privacy, which is not the strong aspect of any social network right now. Tinder and others work hard to make their users safe, and it's difficult because users are not aware of it.

Social networks always should have been used to meet people OUTSIDE of screens, for discovering other people and things.

I want to meet people through activities (board games, running, walking), (loneliness is a huge problem in the west!) and except bumble BFF, which isn't popular, there is no popular app to do just that. Of course there is meetup and other things, but those are too narrow.

Neighbor apps are nice too, but nobody use them because they're focused on services, which isn't fun.

Don't you think it's a huge contradiction that current social networks don't let people meet?

> Social networks always should have been used to meet people OUTSIDE of screens, for discovering other people and things.

The commercial nature of social media is that there's a perverse incentive to keep people attached to the app or site rather than encourage them to leave the app for physical face to face meetings.

I think the problem is social media in general. As an alternative, a friend of mine recently invited me to a "IT nerds social group" that meets every few weeks at a local pub. There's no agenda other than spending time with like minded people. We have dinner, a few drinks, talk about random stuff, then go home. Sometimes, members will organise between them to meet up for lunch, dinner, or board games.

People are invited by group members if a member thinks they fit the group. The entire thing is a list of email addresses and a regular calendar invites. There's no platform to monetise, no chat groups, no special software.

It's honestly been better than any IT related meetup I've been to.

My experience is that Neighbour apps are exactly as miserable as Facebook and equally populated only by people my parents age.

I have not found the humans on Nextdoor to be particularly terrible of late in my portion of the South Bay. There are occasional bad takes, for sure, but fewer than I would have expected. Mostly just been discussion of neighborhood cats, garbage days, people not picking up dog poop, etc.

Agreed, people act like every neighbor is terrible but they're just talking about a few that they saw years ago. Most of Nextdoor is like, did you see this coyote? Also diverse people taking to each other which is actually rare to observe on social media.

There's also a need to be filled to let your friends know which college you're going to, how awesome your last vacation was, what job you got,... LinkedIn seems to be filling the void left by Facebook. I don't know if many people who used social media other than dedicated apps to find dates.

Facebook fails with the segregation of social groups most humans have. In some countries a person does not make true friends at work, and friends are a personal casual thing. For some cultures a friend can be made in a few days, in other cultures it takes several months or years

Perhaps that's why LinkedIn seems to be doing better: it has some selection of connections built into its premise, plus the information shared there is the minimal set that you usually wouldn't mind too much sharing across most of your social groups (got a new job, hooray!).

I think for dating/sex people are willing to leave their comfort zone and meet new people/take some risks. I not so sure about boardgames and walking... who wants to play a boardgame with a complete stranger ?

but hey, why not? someone should try with the hope to become the new meta in social networking.

I would argue that “play dates” for parents of kids 2-5 would be a (small) niche.

Parents with young kids may have other friends with similarly aged children, but many don’t. It can be isolating because so much of your non-work life/time becomes child focused. Kids that age are too young to have friends from school or activities. Some can strike up conversation at parks, but many find the inertia too much.

Good foundation to expand into clothes/toys reselling/gifting, babysitting co-op scheduling, nanny share, etc. which could all be monetized .

Probably a good niche for Facebook though I would rather see someone else do it.

Wordfeud was/is very successful and it's a Scrabble type boardgame played with a stranger. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/why-wordfeud-worked-

Betapet is another example in the same vein. Local scandinavian community for playing Scrabble online against strangers, with many stories of people who even got married to each other. https://www.betapet.se/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com