Ask HN: What will it take you to shift to a new social media platform?

I am currently in talks with a philanthropic organisation about building such a platform. To me the challenge is not technical, it's commercial. How can you build a sustainable business model without adds? I'd be interested in peoples thoughts about ethical ways to monetise such a platform. The goal would be sustainability, not growth.

I've successfully left all social media platforms (except HN, if you consider it a social media platform). I would be extremely hesitant to get involved with a new one.

But to be tempting, the new platform would have to have no "algorithm" or machine-personalized feed, no tracking, no genAI presence, and most of my friends.

Other people there. Like I have people I like on Mastodon and Tumblr (furs and friends) but I am on Meta platforms too because my family is on Facebook as well as older people that I photograph and younger people I photograph and community organizations are on Instagram,

Personally I would really enjoy something that looks like Instagram but is focused on photos instead of images with senseless motion, pictures in text, and loose all the woman advertising their onlyfans. It's downright annoying that Instagram always puts up a picture from my one cosplayer/alt-fashion model IRL friend doing something outrageous because if it wasn't for that I would show people photos I take on the Instagram app on my phone.

The closest thing to social media I use is this site and as long as team dang keep doing a great job of moderation I will stay here. Aside from this site my little private and semi-private sites are the only options for me.

In my opinion the big platforms jumped the shark long before they went live. Bad incentives, bad motivations, bad operators with bad intentions.

What would a new social media platform offer that existing ones don't? Important to me: my time and the value I get from spending it. To move off X to a new platform the signal-to-noise ratio would need to be better.

I have two requirements: I don't have to disclose personal information, and I nothing is preventing me from using a third-party client.

I generally stick with forums, as they usually meet those requirements.

Monetization. All big platforms already have their "kings" and "queens" so it is more difficult to get space.

aiming to be and stay small rather than public square scale

people running it rather than the investor class

something that learns from and builds on AP & AT ideas, but makes permissions and privacy core to the open protocol from the start

I don't know.

I lost my Facebook account because they suspended me for "integrity issues". I tried and failed to appeal successfully. I was pissed at first because I had had that account for over a decade, but after some months, I was glad to have lost it.

I don't use Instagram.

I only use Twitter now.

Reddit on read-only mode.

WhatsApp to talk to people since everyone and their mom is on it. But I'm considering taking a long break from it and seeing if I survive.

Hacker News actively.

I'm not sure what it would take for me to join another social media platform because they do nothing for me if it's just scrolling through pictures and videos.

I love devouring useful information, though, hence my love my HN. So I guess, if a new social media platform comes out that's centered on intellectual conversations (anything that gratifies intellectual curiosity) I'd sign up.

Sometimes I think about how I'd need Meta services if I ever start a business, and I hate that thought.

I gave up social media years ago and the closest things to it I have are this account and a LinkedIn account that I never ever use or look at. I cant imagine anything that would tempt me to join any new platform as invariably they all devolve into enshitified cesspools.

It needs to be a distributed social media platform that does not obey a single for-profit entity and thus won't suffer from enshittification. Example: Mastodon.