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Yik Yak’s Founders on the Value of Anonymous Apps

35 pointsby Errorcod3about 10 years ago

6 comments

A_COMPUTERabout 10 years ago
Having used the app, if this is the future of discussion then I don&#x27;t want it. There are innumerable ways to trip concealed content filters that then deceptively remove posts in a way that makes it look like community action rather than top-down content moderation. Some of these filters are great for preventing liability for their app, but make the app worthless for useful discussion. I can&#x27;t wait until they implement their natural language filters so that mentioning suicide or a gun generates an automated community check or police visit, or it&#x27;s just impossible to violate opaque ideological norms set by app creators in a high-tech version of manufactured consent.<p>Using modern social apps for me is starting to feel like navigating a Kafka-esque bureaucracy. I don&#x27;t know the right thing to do to be heard, I don&#x27;t know the wrong thing to do to not bring down sanctions on me, and I often struggle to navigate the app because I don&#x27;t know the invisible use patterns behind unlabeled buttons and hidden swipe menus, dot-replies, etc. Am I shadow-banned? Does the app hide my replies until I pass some invisible commenting threshold? How do I page through replies? Are my posts being seen by a few people or everyone, and by what criteria? All invisible.
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rjbworkabout 10 years ago
Just went to install this app. Asks for identity, Location (understandable given the nature), photos, media, files, device ID and call information, and wi-fi connection info.<p>No thanks. How can you call your app anonymous and require my identity and contents of my device?
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lalosabout 10 years ago
Pseudoanonymous or unilateral anonymity, since I&#x27;m almost certain that Yik Yak keeps track of post and users and with the current state of machine learning it is trivial to later pinpoint a person with said posts. Don&#x27;t like the word anonymous being thrown out there and making users think that they have true anonymity, to me it almost feels like false advertisement.
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rajatrocksabout 10 years ago
&quot;For instance, Secret’s failure to quickly address the bullying on its network eventually led to its downfall.&quot; - this is pure conjecture being presented as fact...
AndrewKemendoabout 10 years ago
<i>For instance, Secret’s failure to quickly address the bullying on its network eventually led to its downfall.</i><p>I didn&#x27;t get that from the secret shut-down at all. From all the talk here after the shut down it was largely a factor of 1. low quality secrets being gamed to get to the top and thus not interesting and slowing growth and 2. it&#x27;s rebranding making it dull.
nlyabout 10 years ago
It sounds cool, but it appears to be full of bored stoner comments (&quot;waaaassssup&quot; etc.) and people just being obscene. There are also very few updates in my fairly populated area. It&#x27;s going to be hard to create a community<p>I&#x27;m also fairly sure I could just spoof the location of my rooted phone and view and post to whatever region I liked.