Indie social networking service

10-15 years ago more people had active blogs. It makes me sad to see dead blogs. And to not be able to discover old content, because the domain expired or the content is just not discoverable anymore.

This is not a post about archival. Other folks are more passionate about that than I am.

I am passionate about the small web. I enjoy reading that stuff way more than I ever enjoyed scrolling on social media. And given that it's normally valuable prose from valuable people, trying to share value or thoughts, rather than trying to get the next viral post, I believe it makes me smarter to read that stuff, instead of dumber like when I scroll.

I am rather excited about the idea of people having their own websites as well, that they can customize however they please, instead of having the same deadbeat bland global design from some corp. that doesn't give a shit about the human soul.

Remember when each YouTube channel had its own theme?

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But of course the issue with the small web is that it's not a network. It's not "social media". It's not what the modern world has come to expect.

In the small web you write a blog post and it ends up...nowhere. You barely even know if anybody's reading it. There's no chance to promote yourself purely through the value of your writing, you've also got to crosspost and network (networking over the network, hehe) and optimize for search engine discoverability (or AI discoverability nowadays).

And with Google's algorithm becoming so crap that even paid competitors can enter the fray, like Kagi, it's even more unlikely to be discovered in the wild.

But with social media, you have analytics and likes. You know what did well and what didn't. You can go viral and suddenly have a large group of people looking at you. You can just add some value to some viral threads and get some people to look at your account.

We're competing against the advantage of a system with a locked-in network of users, designed to bring viral content to your face.

So then what?

A couple days ago I thought for a moment, and I had an idea that keeps me excited.

Wouldn't it be cool if in order to "make a post" you had to write a blog post? In other words wouldn't it be cool if instead of going to the social network and clicking "post" you had to publish an RSS feed on your own website?

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I came to the idea of an "indie social networking service".

What we tend to call "social media" actually has a broader technical term, "social networking service" (SNS), which BTW some cultures still use as their primary term for it these.

Social media is about the content, not the people. It's about farming your attention for ad money and selling your data.

SNS is about connecting people. (In theory.)

I want it to differ from social media in that it hopefully lets its users discover other people, rather than just get their next hit of dopamine and feed a random algorithm the latest on how to hook them into watching as many ads as possible.

Social media pretends to help you discover other people. It doesn't pretend for very long, it shoves viral rage bait in your face every chance it has. Rage bait gets more engagement, more engagement means more ad money.

Only personal blogs will be allowed. No corporate blogs or websites. This is about people, not companies.

Content will not be moderated for quality. If you want to ruin your website's reputation by posting poorly written content, it's on you.

I don't want to farm ads or attention, but there needs to be something to pay for the servers and my time, so there will be a small monthly payment in order to be a member of the website and be able to list your feed on there.

Making and maintaining a website is not for everyone, so I will host a separate simple CMS SaaS that is quick and cheap, as well for a small monthly feed.

The purpose is not to make a massive profit, it is to offer a positive platform for the exchange of ideas and make a humble amount of money from it. You don't need hundreds of thousands of minds in order to produce something great, you just need a dedicated community.