I can't stress enough how many people tell me that no social media app does what they want to do. X only works for famous people. Instagram only works for picture-perfect people. Linked-in is a giant circle jerk. Slack is not productive. Discord is a dumpsterfire. NextDoor is barely a glorified classified. Finding good communities on Reddit is harder than finding a good show on Netflix. Facebook only appeals to nostalgia. TikTok is a mindless stream of the same stuff over and over again. WhatsApp groups annoy users more than help. Etc. Which is really interesting after the billions of dollars these companies have put into developing them. It's almost as if their poorly designed incentive structure led these teams to fully ignore the user.

Replies (57)

eric's avatar
eric 1 year ago
maybe the answer is to not be on an app
"Nobody goes there anymore, its too crowded" Let's not overstate our position.
There's no one size fits all,no? WhatsApp groups works like wonders for small-scale businessmen & women. When TikTok was available here, the simple UX allowed a lot of small town creators to gain audience. Some apps work in some ways for some people
How do small business use Groups? I know they use WhatsApp DMs very effectively, but all instances of Groups I have seen are pushing Marketing BS which users just end up ignoring by Muting and Archiving the group.
Small venues that host stand-ups or art shows or pop-ups, get whatsapp numbers of visitors to promote future shows. I am a part of one that uses the WhatsApp channel feature for this (Of course this is in addition to FB/insta posts) I know a few instances where home-cooks or small caterers post their menu to multiple WhatsApp groups of residential association to solicit orders, and also gauge preferences and feedback (this is mainly only WhatsApp). In India, the concept of "dabbas" is quite popular in cities. These are anecdotal of course. I don't have stats 😅
sachin's avatar
sachin 1 year ago
There's this annoying factor called 'Stickiness' that skews their decision-making. They have to prioritise retaining users because that's what makes them valuable. Any feature that increases stickiness will take priority over everything else. In Nostr, Amethyst can set a direction for itself that is different from Primal and not care about retention because the stickiness is much much lower here. I switch between the two all the time because both give me different kinds of experiences that don't necessarily overlap. I love it here on Nostr.
They are doing their jobs quite well for the intended users. You just need to adjust your focus to who the users are. Features - Addicting Consumers - Harvesting Data of Consumers to Sell - Selling Propaganda Space and Data to Users. People think they are the target user. In many cases they are merely the product on the shelf. We can build better, offering tools that benefit people.
Yeah, so I don't see a lot of people using the Channel or Communities part of WhatApps. I am in a few, but they are all muted and/or archived. I never read those messages. I see a lot of people in large groups, but they never read those messages, even when they ring their notifications all the time. My mother used to delete dozens of group notifications when unlocking the phone to search for the ones from her friends. It's really bad.
Irc has the most enduring usefulness to me. It has declined with advent of slack and discord as communities move to those platforms. But the Slack clones don't provide the same easy movement between communities that makes irc useful.
I understand about group notifications being annoying, but these groups seem very popular for food & clothes. I am not sure what the success rate is for these businesses, though WhatsApp is trying hard integrating payments via UPI also in India.
Possibly... But I don't think it's too bad for users (In India, businesses are anyways not known for customer-friendliness, so I suppose it's within tolerable limits).
Troy's avatar
Troy 1 year ago
How many Amethyst users asked for their drafts to be stored on relays?
Chiming in to say this reflects my long-term experience using Discord as well. It's a decently designed application as far as channel management is concerned, but otherwise it becomes a graveyard of mildly relevant interests and communities. Even after purging my server list, I keep all but one server permanently muted with all notifications disabled except for private DMs.
frphank's avatar
frphank 1 year ago
They left some space for me to fill with my solution for which I am eternally grateful.
jack's avatar
jack 1 year ago
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jack's avatar
jack 1 year ago
In the pursuit of financial gains, lets not overlook the broader impacts. Remember, responsible investment practices and mindful decision-making can lead to a more sustainable and equitable future for all. If you haven’t join the rebelcapitalist newsletter yet then, I think it's high time you take a look , very effective community with top notch expertise. you can easily 100x some position with the current trend. Source:
jack's avatar
jack 1 year ago
In the pursuit of financial gains, lets not overlook the broader impacts. Remember, responsible investment practices and mindful decision-making can lead to a more sustainable and equitable future for all. If you haven’t join the rebelcapitalist newsletter yet then, I think it's high time you take a look , very effective community with top notch expertise. you can easily 100x some position with the current trend. Source:
#nostr aligns incentives in a beneficial manner especially with the #value4value model that will actually see creators be benefited for their work and not be juiced for profit. I made this video to onboard more normies as my small contribution to give back to #nostr for everything it has already given me, feel free to share 😉 :
Ge nostr
Vitor Pamplona's avatar Vitor Pamplona
I can't stress enough how many people tell me that no social media app does what they want to do. X only works for famous people. Instagram only works for picture-perfect people. Linked-in is a giant circle jerk. Slack is not productive. Discord is a dumpsterfire. NextDoor is barely a glorified classified. Finding good communities on Reddit is harder than finding a good show on Netflix. Facebook only appeals to nostalgia. TikTok is a mindless stream of the same stuff over and over again. WhatsApp groups annoy users more than help. Etc. Which is really interesting after the billions of dollars these companies have put into developing them. It's almost as if their poorly designed incentive structure led these teams to fully ignore the user.
View quoted note →
Those days still exist. I am more likely to get answers on an obscure topic in a irc channel with 20 nicks than I am in a Discord channel with 2,000. The difference is in how easy it is to discover a channel and pop in even if it isn't a main topic of interest. Discord et al make discovery and joining difficult enough that if you bother to jump through the hoops you will probably just stay joined even if you never check it again. Then there is the segregation of topics within a server. On irc you never feel like you have to declare. "I say, Reginald old pal, shall we retire to the 'compilation issues' sub-channel? I've some niggling warnings I've been meaning to run by you." You always get the vague feeling you are off-topic and that squashes lively conversation. I'd love to see a Nostr based irc clone with very simple structure and not even have to join an irc server.
zoé's avatar
zoé 1 year ago
ok maybe they consider their users, but not their ‘workers’. most porn comes from human trafficking 😵‍💫
eapo's avatar
eapo 1 year ago
Those are built from the top, #nostr is more like a bottom-up solution 💜
magic's avatar
magic 1 year ago
I think of the ones you mentioned, Discord is what works best for everybody, because every server is a closed community and everybody feels like friends. Too bad Discord is a private platform and servers that do not follow the ToS get frequently nuked.
Just realized all of those platforms suck because people go on them to sell a version of themselves or actual goods and services, warps authenticity. I still remember 90s html chat rooms where everyone was just chatting anonymously about nonsense, not selling anything, and it was fun— maybe it was the novelty of the tech back then and that has also worn off. Blew my mind to talk to all age groups, people in the UK and Australia from my small town, but also could’ve been the fact that I was young. Maybe you cannot go back to that state of mind ever regardless of tech.
And yet, billions of people still use them multiple times a day. Actions speak louder than words. I completely agree with the fact that most people are unhappy with the options but they are somehow serving a purpose or solving a problem, even if their user's can't articulate what that might be.
Pure digital philosophy Seguimos #Nostr #Venezuela #ElSalvador #Mexico #Argentina #España #Bitcoin #Amethyst
Vitor Pamplona's avatar Vitor Pamplona
I can't stress enough how many people tell me that no social media app does what they want to do. X only works for famous people. Instagram only works for picture-perfect people. Linked-in is a giant circle jerk. Slack is not productive. Discord is a dumpsterfire. NextDoor is barely a glorified classified. Finding good communities on Reddit is harder than finding a good show on Netflix. Facebook only appeals to nostalgia. TikTok is a mindless stream of the same stuff over and over again. WhatsApp groups annoy users more than help. Etc. Which is really interesting after the billions of dollars these companies have put into developing them. It's almost as if their poorly designed incentive structure led these teams to fully ignore the user.
View quoted note →
A university built a new wing. The didnt build sidewalks. They waited to see where the paths appeared, and paved those. Selah
Nothing is perfect. It’s impossible to create a product or service that everyone will love. The consumer needs to choose what works best for them. The social media companies mentioned target certain demographics and offer different types of online experiences. The same thing will be true for Nostr and probably more so since there is a strong resistance among Nostr community on making it more mainstream. People talk about wanting more diverse people and content on Nostr, but the actions within the community say otherwise.
LinkedIn comment is so on point. Corporate ‘spank bank’ meets Shreks ‘pick me pick me’ bouncing donkey. I’m still a part of the problem. The notional Rolodex has me hanging on for a bit but I think I am going to pull the plug soon and Cortez upon new shores that I am not the product.