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Comment by baxtr | Hacker News Reader

Everyone, please stop thinking about HOW you want to build a twitter alternative. No one cares. I have tried to build one, I failed even though our tech was superb.

If you really want to build a twitter alternative think about how you would DISTRIBUTE it. How would you get a critical mass on the platform so that is viable, i.e. interesting enough for users to stick around.

Which existing social networks (not media ones, real ones) would you try to capture first? Facebook and Tinder both did the Uni campus strategy quite successfully. Slack did the Bay Area startups strategy. What’s your strategy?

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> Everyone, please stop thinking about HOW you want to build a twitter alternative. No one cares.

The OP specifically asked about this, and reading the comments a lot of people here evidently do care.

That’s fair enough :) I can’t stop this anyways. Just lending my thoughts.

While its true, it’s like asking “what nail and hammer am I going to fabricate?” , all while the market is flooded and capped to the brim with hammer and nail companies.

The better question is how to reach people and get them off their insert favourite platform , what makes you unique? What can you do to make sure people start buying into it? What’s your value proposition?

It’s far more a social question than a technology question (still with respect to OP who is interested in the tech)

>though our tech was superb.

Please don't leave us hanging. How had you designed it?

I would like to know even more: Did you have integration with other networks via ActivityPub or other protocols?

There is a huge risk of wasting time if I cannot migrate my social network. New services are prone to being discontinued, why should I invest in a new network that locks me in?

I don't understand why not all new networks offer ActivityPub migration by default. Distribution should be much easier.

Yes, every software problem is a marketing problem.

I think how is still an interesting question.

Interesting yes. But mainly a waste of time.

Depends the reason for asking it. I wrote this Ask HN because I thought I could maybe learn/discover something (technically) new from responses on how people would build this with today's knowledge and tech options.

Waste of time why?

Because you won’t become the next twitter, you probably won’t regardless….

I think there is more to asking the question than that.

If you waste time on something that's interestning to you, time is not being wasted.

Not if your proclaimed goal is to create a Twitter alternative.

It is probably not for you to decide if how someone spends their time is a waste. That is something only the person can decide.

Absolutely. I think it’s still ok and enriching to put energy into debating priorities.

> Everyone, please stop thinking about HOW you want to build a twitter alternative. No one cares. I have tried to build one, I failed even though our tech was superb.

what was it called? now I'm curious.

Yet Another Twitter - YaTwit

But focusing on the product doesn't address what color the logo should be, or how many bikes can fit in the employee bikeshed.

Maybe also think about WHY you want a twitter alternative.

Communicating via short untargeted messages was always going to be a shitshow, why not let Elon Musk run it if he so desperately wants to?

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