New Social Networking Website?

[The Titan]

Do you guys think that a new social networking website is even possible?

I was considering starting development on a new social networking website, I feel like I have some good ideas.

At any rate, I have been having a discussion with a few friends and some of them think that Facebook and MySpace control the market far too strongly for a new website to even start up. I disagree, I think a new social networking website could take off just because people are looking for it. About 820,000 monthly searches on Google.

What do you guys think? and on a side note, what kind of features would you guys like to see in a social networking website?

[doorknob60]

Eventually. Look at what happened to Myspace, the same thing is bound to eventually happen to Facebook, but I don't see it anytime within the next few years.

[gnomeuser]

I think Diaspora is all I need for social networking, I get the source code and it respects my privacy. I think effort would be better spent improving it.

[The Titan]

I have checked out Dispora, but i really want to try doing my own thing. I don't know why, I'm big on open source but I want to take a shot at something commercial for once.

[youbuntu]

Oh PLEASE, not another one! :cry:

[RiceMonster]

Oh PLEASE, not another one! :cry:

What about a social networking site for people who hate social networking sites? It would be right up your ally!

[fela]

What about a social networking site for people who hate social networking sites? It would be right up your ally!

Awesome idea, +1!

[Simian Man]

The problem with new social networks is that there is a lot of inertia, because there's no point joining one until your friends are all on it. Facebook beat out Myspace because it was significantly better ie better enough to overcome that inertia.

For a new one to have a chance, it has also to be significantly better than Facebook - not just slightly better. I think your time is better spent elsewhere imho.

[youbuntu]

What about a social networking site for people who hate social networking sites? It would be right up your ally!

That seems a little pointless and redundant, like cheese for people who hate cheese :lol:

Facebook think they own the world... and noone seems to realise (or admit) their addiction to it. Ugh.

[pi3.1415926535...]

I think their is a lot of potential for an academic collaboration and publishing tool, in the vein of a social network.

[rg4w]

I have checked out Dispora, but i really want to try doing my own thing. I don't know why, I'm big on open source but I want to take a shot at something commercial for once.
I can appreciate the motivation and pioneering spirit, but social networks are probably the last place to strike out on your own.

With FB so entrenched the only hope for any alternative is something completely different, such as the free, open, and distributed Diaspora.

Really, this one will likely turn out to be a time/money sink going up against FB alone. But if we all put our weight into a truly different alternative, there's a chance it could make a difference.

[fela]

I can appreciate the motivation and pioneering spirit, but social networks are probably the last place to strike out on your own.

With FB so entrenched the only hope for any alternative is something completely different, such as the free, open, and distributed Diaspora.

Really, this one will likely turn out to be a time/money sink going up against FB alone. But if we all put our weight into a truly different alternative, there's a chance it could make a difference.

What's wrong with Facebook? It runs on Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP and a few things they developed (like PHP to C++ conversion :o).

[rg4w]

What's wrong with Facebook? It runs on Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP and a few things they developed (like PHP to C++ conversion :o).
If you can run FB on your own server that's news to me.

Last I heard all your posts are belong to them. That, and their penchant for resetting privacy controls without notification, are enough to make an alternative like Diaspora potentially quite viable.

[DeadSuperHero]

I find myself agreeing with many of the other voices here. There are a lot of FOSS social networks in development at the moment: Elgg, Appleseed, Friendika, Gnu Social, StatusNet/identi.ca, Diaspora, to name a few. While I'm not saying that you absolutely shouldn't try to roll your own, realize that there's already a lot of duplicated efforts going on. It might actually get more done to try to join one of these projects and contribute bugfixes upstream. Diaspora, for example, has a lot of regular code contributors, who are quite active on their mailinglists, IRC, and in their Git repository.

[jerenept]

I think their is a lot of potential for an academic collaboration and publishing tool, in the vein of a social network.

http://edmodo.com/