Ask HN: I'd like your opinion on my social network idea | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'd like your opinion on my social network idea

7 pointsDiamons10 comments

Critiques/Upvotes/Downvotes appreciated. I'm 19 and young, I think there's a better way, so why the fuck not? Everyone's calling me crazy so I'd like some HN opinions.

I was one of the early adopters of Facebook. I remember it used to be very interesting with posts about you, topics that mattered, where people used to post on each other's wall. Now they're coming out with a phone and making other choices which I feel are nothing but detrimental to my original Facebook experiences. I've had a declining Facebook experience these past few months and I want to bring some of that back.

Name: PeopleVector? (Work in progress) A much simpler social network. People can post statuses, write on each other's profiles, send messages, and upload photos or videos under 1 minute long. People can also send money to one another, track who owes who money, create a cell phone number alias to receive texts, and manage a calendar which your friends can "pin" events, notes, and photos to.

That's it. No notes, no groups, no pages, nothing. That's our key feature to make sure that the site doesn't get too overloaded and remains a social network, not whatever the hell Facebook is becoming.

Instead of explaining why this likely won't be the Next Big Thing (tm) I'll tell you why I still think you should give it a shot:

1. The Experience. Building and maintaining a service you care about--even if only you and your friends are the ones using it--will help you work on skills that will continue to come in handy.

2. Learning to set realistic expectations. This is more than just saying, if you think it will take 1 month, it will actually take 2-3, etc. This is about learning how much you personally can handle without biting off more than you can chew. I know that, early on, I had hugely ambitious personal projects, and in many ways I still do, but I no longer get frustrated at myself for taking longer than I'd like to complete certain features. And, most importantly, I no longer feel like I'm letting down clients and friends, because I am less likely to give them unrealistic estimates.

3. The opportunity to spark more ideas. You may set-off with one goal in mind, only to find a much more interesting problem to solve. And that's okay. But sometimes the only way to find these nuggets is to get your hands dirty and start exploring a problem domain. Even if it never leads to a project of your own, you can blog about your ideas and maybe it will inspire someone else.

Anyway -- those are just my two cents. Don't feel like you have to change the world with your ideas, but also (and I guess this is the point I was trying to get at) don't be afraid to just try things out and see where they lead.

I have a feeling that if you have all of these other features (statuses, profiles, messages...), why not just stick in notes, groups and pages? I feel like (what you're saying) the big problem is that FB became a huge clutter of some sort. I gather this from the way you say "whatever the hell Facebook is becoming." However, it seems like in trying to cut down the tree, you end up just snipping a few branches off by cutting out notes, groups and pages. :)

That's just a minor observation. I think t0 says something really cool. It's about doing one thing really really good. Maybe it's reinventing the statuses system. Or maybe it's about the calendar.

By the way, you do realize that you say one of your features is to "manage a calendar which your friends can "pin" events, notes, and photos to," but then you say right after that, "no notes" will be included as features. :)

I would say give this a little more thought. :)

You say "much simpler", then proceed to list 10 features. Ideally simple means one feature you do really well.

You're on the right track. Remove more features.

When someone's calling you crazy, you are usually on the right track but you are facing some titans here with your idea.In order to beat those titans you have to give people something different than usual, something to WOW them.

Besides, you need a strategy in order to gain traction.But I am sure you can make money with an app like this.Maybe not 1 billion but hey, you can settle for less.Good luck with that.

IMHO, there are plenty alternatives out there for those who have facebook fatigue and are looking for something simpler, e.g. Path or even Google+. If it's beautifully executed it might have its room to breathe, but I think you'll struggle to mantain a healthy amount of active users on the long term. Although this might not be an issue if you are happy with it being a niche product.

I admire your enthusiasm. However, I'm not sure what your idea does that facebook doesn't do. Most people understand how to use facebook already; it's not complicated even for grandmas.

edit: if you want to discuss more shoot me an email (in my profile). I'd love to chat with you and bounce ideas off each other.

Agreed.

Half the reason that facebook is the way that it is now is because _everybody_ is there.

A new site with a close-knit community will be awesome, have real interaction, and be fun. Then it will either fail to attract new users and die, or become oversaturated with everybody, at which point the dynamic will change and the service will have the same problem.

Make it an app, not a website. You might still have a shot despite all the apps gaining millions of users in Asia.

Isn't that essentially Twitter?

I don't heavily use twitter because I hate the whole concept of it. I feel extremely limited on Twitter and never liked the "fixed" layout in the middle of the screen. Also, I don't think they let you pass money/manage your friend's calendar/post on someone's profile (not tweet @handle where it leaves a copy on your profile? correct me if I'm wrong).

Not trying to turn this into a feature fest, but these are simple little things I feel people would find extremely convenient and eventually love.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com