Ask HN: What to build into a better Social Network?

Honestly, that so many people are on Facebook does little for me. (I mean, do users mind being the first to sign up for a new service? Don't many (an increasing number?) dig that?) But everyone I once knew from highschool wanted to add me on Facebook... And then we continued to not stay in touch with each other. It's not about social networks, but people instead go for the metagame of "friend accumulation" so they can pretend that they're Ashton Kutcher or something. Weird.<p>And actually, I closed my Facebook a while back. Well, I put up an image saying I was no longer responding there, but friends can contact me through other means listed in my profile. Close enough.<p>What do I want in a social network? Functionality that isn't about something trying to become the medium. That's what MySpace was and Facebook is, services trying to supplant the rest of the Internet. Messages, posts, walls, galleries, info, etc.? I have email, a blog, Twitter, IM, Flickr, a calendar, and a phone number for calling/texting people I talk to most often. I'm easily contactable for friends, as they are to me.<p>So all the problems that Facebook "solves"? Not really problems for me. And increasingly as more people use computers every day (yes, there are many who still don't,) those things won't be problems for everyone else either. These networks exist to help shoehorn those who aren't digitally literate (or those willing to sacrifice ability for ease) into the present. I honestly do think the need for this, will eventually start shrinking until it hits a base where people who are just uninterested in the Internet will be the only ones using them. Ironic, eh?<p>You want me to sign up for another social network? Offer some unique functionality I didn't realize I was missing, or build your network around something niche that I can't say "no" to. (Actually this reminds me of the "What would you do if you owned MySpace?" post from about a month ago: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499250" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499250</a> )

<i>I think I can do better.</i><p>If you think you can do better than Facebook, then you have no reason to be asking us for advice. Clearly, you've already got some incredibly powerful idea that will get you enough traction to the "chicken/egg" problem for you, and compete with a company that has a user base of 600 million and billions of dollars in the bank.<p>So, don't waste your time chatting here-- go out and build it! And then, come back and show us, ok?

The real problem is that even facebook seems aol-esque from he onset. It was not technologically revolutionary. Its niche was the cachet conjured from the marketing strategy (harvard -&#62; ivy league schools -&#62; colleges in general -&#62; students in general -&#62; public). Given that facebook has reached critical mass, its hard to imagine a solution that is incrementally better than facebook that could achieve critical mass.<p>Yes there was myspace / whatever other social networking sites, but the problem there was that none of them reached critical mass.<p>The only way you could build a better social network is if you really re-thought the problem. Thinking about stuff like privacy controls and apps is taking a facebook-like perspective on the matter, and you won't get anywhere.<p>You need to think about how a 21st century platform would behave. Define your niche.<p>And unless you plan on setting up a 501c3, you need to think about how this could be monetized. Ads? Now it would really be slick if you could find a better way of executing ads -- somehow 5 ads per page doesn't really appeal to me

Been there done that. I spent over a year to create something that was supposed to be better than facebook. It took that long, because whenever I believed i had an idea that topped facebook- they went ahead and bought out another startup that offered the exact feature you were going to offer on your site. So you think of something new, and pretty soon, your site becomes as bloated as what facebook is now.<p>Like many posters, Facebook isn't "technologically revolutionary" - it simply went along with the flow and had the right people at the right time.<p>The reason why my social networking site failed was because users don't find another reason to jump ship from facebook to yours. All your close friends would definitely go and invite people, but there's a limit to how far people go to collect users for you before it's considered spam.<p>The top response I got was " Oh another social networking site?"

"Besides the fact that many people are already on FB" as pg might say: "that is the ONLY thing you should worry about. Don't spend time on ANYTHING else until you solve this."

<i>What's your opinion on more Privacy, more User Control and NO Apps &#38; Games?</i><p>Sounds extremely boring to me.

I am starting a brand new social network with two other developers on board. I would love to connect, even if it's just to bounce ideas off each other.<p>Don't worry I won't steal your idea my company already has in motion what we want in a social network :)