Tag: Startup

Of Group Creation & Thought Leaders #Startup

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

One of major issues of Usenet when it existed as a major online force was newsgroup creation. If you were to aspire to create a service that would be as large as, say, Twitter, you would have to deal with that issue as well. To me, it seems the solution would be to give Verified Account holders the exclusive ability to create new newsgroups. That would fix that issue quite well.

You would have the ability to have lots of newsgroups with a very specific subject that would be attached to a specific thought leader. There obviously would be some redundancy caused by this, but I really like this concept. It’s really strong and scales well. It also gives the opportunity to lots of value added features that I think people would really enjoy.

It’s just a really cool concept. It’s a really interesting way of fixing the creation of new newsgroups problem. Of course, there are any number of other UX issues to be addressed. You want to make the service feature rich, but you don’t want to make it so complex that it overwhelms people.

How To Found A ‘Twitter Killer’ Based On Usenet & IRC Concepts

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It is pretty obvious that Twitter is a right-time-right-place kind of service. Modern life needs something like Twitter, so, for the time being, it’s a “success,” if, by “success” you mean a service pretty much everyone hates but only uses because there’s no option other than the insane Gab.

So, as a thought experiment, how might found a service with potentially explosive growth that would crush Twitter — and to a limited extent Reddit. Reddit, in my belief, is kinda sorta Usenet but not nearly as much fun as Usenet was and I think it’s UX it’s a complete mess. Though I’ve heard they’re going to revamp it, so maybe much of what I’m griping about will become moot sooner rather than later.

Having said all that, let’s begin.

What I would do is, study what made IRC and Usenet popular 20 years ago and then, from the ground up, work to not only fix the problems with Twitter but also make the service as accommodating to advertising as possible. Usenet died, in large part because no one could figure out how to use to advertise goods and services without it being spam.

Anyway, after I spent a little time doing that, I would establish a very small limited-invite service that would be used to get the kinks out. The service would, in large part, be a Web implementation of any number of great Usenet clients that used to exist. Of course, it would be on just one Website so you wouldn’t have the problem of distributed computing that Usenet had. (There was lag in distributing posts which no one would accept in today’s fast-paced world.)

After I had done that, I would a small group of thought leaders and celebrities on Twitter and give them invites. I would give them some time to get used to the service’s new UX and then explain to them that since they were verified account holders, they would have the exclusive ability to create new Groups that would within them have Discussions. After giving them some more time to figure out exactly what that meant, I would then give them a limited number of invites that they could give friends. I would think slowly grow out the service in such a way that I think it would have explosive growth. Huge growth in a very quick amount of time. Like, early Facebook growth.

Now, of course, once the service got the buzz I would expect it to get, the major online players would either want to co-op it or buy it. I would politely decline because, well, they suck. 🙂 I just can’t see Twitter getting its act together to co-op the features of this proposed service. Facebook has a completely different vision and the one service that would probably be the direct competitor — Reddit — has an established user-based that would not take kindly to too dramatic a shake up in the UX.

You wouldn’t even need that much money to begin with, I don’t think. You could probably accomplish a lot with crowdfunding. But no one likes me and I can’t code and don’t want to learn so this is just a daydream. It’s a very compelling daydream, but a daydream nonetheless.

Of Thought Leaders, Content Providers & A Service Based On Usenet Concepts

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some basic problems exist online that a new discussion service devoted to updating the concepts of Usenet and IRC could fix. The first major problem is content providers continue to struggle to make money online. I believe if you designed a service based on the concepts of Usenet you might not be able to fix the problem but you could definitely ameliorate it.

I say this because what if you came to an profit sharing agreement with major online content providers so they could shoot out their content into this new service with all their ads intact. People would be able to inline edit the content, pick it apart in discussion and still be exposed to all the ads from the original content provider. This is pretty powerful I think. If, say, there was breaking news and the Washington Post or New York Times shot the story in its entirety into this discussion service, all the ads associated with the story would be seen as people were engaging actively with the content. This, in a sense, would take blogging to the next level.

I think that’s pretty cool.

Meanwhile, there is another problem: thought leaders are really growing tired of Twitter. It seems pretty obvious that if you gave them a better option they would bolt Twitter and bring their community and its collected fans along with them. If you told celebrities and other thought leaders that you gave them a service that gave them exclusive administrative goodies they probably would be extremely pleased. Giving verified account holders the exclusive ability create and manage newsgroups (or whatever they’re called in the service) would attract them in droves and be the basis of the new service’s initial success.

There are seemingly an endless different ways you could use this service when it comes to thought leaders. Imagine a major musician dropping a track into the service in such a way that people could discuss it between themselves with significantly more engagement than the typical tweet. Or, hell, for that matter, you could put an entire podcast into the service and people could debate the podcast with great gusto. I really like that one.

Anyway, as I keep saying, I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn. It’s just fun to write about this. Though, if you want to see me talk about this at great length, look at my Instagram account.

The Curious Case Of Usenet, IRC & Why Twitter Needs To Die

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I had a dream last night about how easy it would be to use any number of great Usenet clients as a the basis of a Web interface for a new discussion service that would be a “Twitter Killer.” Some of these clients, especially the ones you had to pay for, were really, really good. They were feature rich and fun to use and got the job done. Figure out a way to integrate IRC concepts into the interface and you have the makings of something really, really cool.

Of course, you’d have to update the experience some simply because people have Twitter, Usenet and Reddit as a frame of reference. But the general concepts you would use for such a service are extremely powerful and useful in today’s world.

One of the reasons why it took me years to use Twitter is I was so used to Usenet’s interface that I didn’t get what the big deal was about. Even now, I struggle to understand how anyone would use Twitter instead of Usenet and the answer is, of course: they don’t know Usenet even ever existed.

Usenet was not perfect and any service you designed would have to be designed from the ground up to address some modern needs. You would have to be able to integrate advertising seamlessly and you would have to address some basic issues that simply didn’t exist 20 years ago when Usenet and IRC were popular.

One issue I think would be interesting to address is newsgroup — or whatever you called them — creation. In my imagination, you would give verified account holders exclusive ability to create new newsgroups. You would give them other privileges, but not too many simply because you wouldn’t want to burden them with administration duties. Yet I think a lot of thought leaders would get off on the notion they had more power than just the average user. Now, of course, being a verified account holder would come at a price: you’d have to use your real name.

Another issue that would have to be addressed is cross posting. Cross-posting spam was a real issue with Usenet and I think simply wouldn’t give people the power to cross post at all. Or maybe just give it to verified account holders within those groups they had created.

Once you assume you’re going to use Usenet and IRC concepts as the basis of a Twitter Killer, there are so many intriguing, interesting tweaks you would be able to implement. Because Usenet was based on the notion of threaded entire-page posts, you could do some interesting things with content providers. They could shoot out their articles — in full — into the system and then people could quote the content directly through inline editing. The content providers make money because the ads associated with the content would still be associated with it. Done properly, this service I imagine could not only revolutionize content online, but, in a sense, bring back blogging from the dead.

Another interesting twist to the old Usenet concept is directly integrating IRC concepts into it as well. This is a little bit more fuzzy, but somehow you would make it so you would be able to enjoy now only the experience of old AOL Chat rooms but the old Usenet experience as well with the same service. So, it would be something like, you would have a public chat associated with each new newsgroup. Or something.

Additionally, something that would be really cool is what you might be able to do with profile pages with this service. If you had a way of cutting through the enormous amount of discussion such a service would generate by linking what you contributed to the service to your profile page, that might be really popular. Of course, you would have the usual Trending topics as well.

I also really like the idea of one-click recorded video-conferencing being associated with this as well. It would be cool if you could have a text chat with someone, then hit a button and start a recorded public video chat that would be associated with a post. Maybe only verified account holders could do this, but I think, in general this is a pretty strong concept.

Now, I don’t expect any of this to happen. I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn. But I use Twitter so much and miss Usenet so much that I keep thinking about this concept over and over again. I keep thinking of different interesting use-cases. I have posted an enormous amount of Instagram videos on this subject and the only reason why I don’t do it again is I have started to use my Instagram account for pictures more than anything else.

Twitter Is A Threat To The Republic #Resist #Startup

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Trump, apparently, has repeatedly stated that he wouldn’t be president but for his use of Twitter. I tend to agree with him. The question now, of course, is can we go back to “normal” once Trump leaves office. That’s open to debate at this point.

What’s not open to debate is what a grave threat to the American Republic Twitter is as it is currently conceived. It’s just horrible. It’s damaging public discourse in ways large and small. Twitter sets the daily agenda for the chattering class, and as such the fact that it’s the playground of bots, haters and paid Russian trolls is cause for concern to say the least.

What’s worse, Twitter seems completely unwilling or unwilling on a managerial level to do anything about this enormous mess. Now, in an ideal world, I, personally, would have both the funds and the skills needed to design a startup platform that would crush Twitter and I’d be a successful entrepreneur, etc., etc., etc. Alas, that just isn’t the case. I am, however, a dreamer and I can make the case for a new platform that would be designed from the ground up to be a “Twitter Killer.”

If I could implement a Twitter Killer, it would be designed from the ground up to address trolls and bots. It would be designed from the very beginning to be a platform for debate that had some sense about it. It would be attentive to the needs of users and designed for actual conversation. Twitter isn’t very good for actual discussion, to say the least.

I would propose that we bring back two concepts from the dawn of the Internet being open to the public: chat rooms and message boards. If you were to somehow seamlessly and intuitively combine these two concepts together in a platform, I think you’d see ready success.

Right now, there’s Slack for the enterprise when it comes to real time text chat. But as best I can tell it’s not archived and searchable (maybe it is, I don’t know) and it’s not designed for the masses like AOL Chat rooms where. It kind of blows my mind that we rely upon Twitter to do what AOL Chat rooms used to do. It’s weird that we’ve gone backwards over the course of the last 20 years. But we have.

Meanwhile, I would also bring back the concepts of Usenet which were, at one point, pretty powerful and successful. If you updated Usenet in such a way that it provided an easy way to discuss a topic using threads, I think people would really enjoy it. Now, I am well aware that Reddit exists, but it’s just too difficult to use and doesn’t implement threading the way Usenet did.

Additionally, in this fanciful scenario, I would lean heavily on video chat. I would have a feature whereby you could have up to four people on screen as part of a recorded video conference. All of this would be nicely threaded and have inline editing, which would be pretty sweet.

It seems to me that if you were really attentive to the needs of former Twitter users and had a feature set as I have described above, a lot of people who wade through the verbiage of Twitter would be more than happy to give you a chance. A lot celebrities, though leaders and content providers would love the feature rich nature of such a service and if you thought it out enough from the beginning you could probably steal a march on Twitter.

Unfortunately, I can’t do this myself, so I’m left daydreaming. It just would be really cool to be able to ditch Twitter and start from scratch. I guess under the right circumstances Reddit could do much of what I have described, but they don’t seem all that interested in changing in the direction I want and need as a user.

Something needs to give, regardless. We need a new service that fills the function of Twitter but in a way that doesn’t give rise to racist, misogynistic bigot presidents. Once you gave people an option, one with the same aim as Twitter but did its cultural job a lot better, I think people would flock to it.

Late Night Mulling Over A “Twitter Killer” #Startup

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I still think the time is ripe for a “Twitter Killer” startup that also served the center-Left community. I say this because a lot of content providers, celebrities and thought leaders are unhappy with Twitter’s abuse problem and difficulty of use. At the same time, those people are also opposed to the Trump Administration. So, it makes a lot of sense for a new service to accommodate the two groups from the ground up.

Two things have been lost since the 1990s — “chat rooms” and “discussion boards.” So, why not design a service from the ground up that updated and combined those two services in an intuitive manner while also leaning heavily on video chat.

It makes a lot of sense, in my opinion. Of course, this is the point where you ask if I think it’s such a great idea, why don’t I do it myself? Well, I don’t see that as my purpose. My purpose would be to help organize it and promote it.

But, who are we kidding, it’s not like this is actually going to happen. The only way I could see it maybe happening is if Trump fires Bob Mueller and there’s a groundswell of people who want to protest on a regular basis.

How To Kill Twitter & Bring Down Trump #Startup #Resist

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It goes without saying that a lot of people are unhappy with both Twitter and Trump. It seems pretty obvious as well that if you did a venn diagram of these two groups the overlap would be the core of a new social media service designed to not only kill Twitter, but bring down Trump.

So, even though I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn, here’s how I feel you could accomplish these two goals in tandem.

First, you designed a service from the ground up specifically meant to have a robust on-boarding system as well as one that once and for all fixed the problem of the online harassment associated with bots and trolls. It would likely be popular almost instantly. That is the crux of the weakness with Twitter. Twitter is dead in the water in some respects and it wouldn’t take that much to kill it if you simply addressed the major problems with Twitter in an intuitive, effective manner.

An unintended consequences of all of this is a lot of celebrities, though leaders and content providers who are extremely unhappy with Twitter would flock to a service that gave them a better experience from the get-go. They, in turn, would bring with them a lot followers who simply wanted the opportunity to engage them like they currently do on Twitter.

Meanwhile, a lot of people know that should Trump finally do the unconscionable and fire Bob Mueller, that they’re going to want to take to the streets. But the United States isn’t South Korea. If you wanted to bring down Trump through people power, it would be a complex, national affair. You’d have to keep the protests legal and regular for no other reason than if you just protested without the proper permits, etc., you’d just get arrested.

Bringing down a president with people power in the States would be require the single greatest popular unrest the country has ever seen. It’s the kind of thing social media was designed for, but never, to date, used to do so in a developed country. So, I believe, you’d need a whole new service designed to specifically facilitate massive, regular nationwide protests if you wanted to bring down Trump.

Put these two concepts together in a social media startup, and I think it would be pretty effective. It would serve as the core of a Twitter killer that would blow up pretty quickly.

The question, of course, is how to actually do it. Probably crowdfunding it our best bet. So, it’s likely that we’d have to wait for Trump to fire Mueller before all the pieces fell into place. I just can’t see an angel investor being willing to shell out the money needed to design such a service. But if Trump finally swerved into a full blown autocrat, I think Americans wouldn’t stand for it. America isn’t Turkey, for Christ’s sake.

One feature I think a lot of content providers would like in my vision of this is that Verified account holders would have more power than the average user. I think if you gave specific power to Verified account holders, they would feel they were stakeholders in the service and their engagement would be higher.

As I have said before, I think you should divide the service into Groups that are divided into threaded Discussions. There would also be a strong video element to the service, whereby you’d be able to have four-way video chat with people in the context of a threaded discussion. This doesn’t even begin to address the features you’d need to facilitate people organizing mass protests.

Shelton Bumgarner is a writer, photographer and daydreamer living in Richmond, Va. You can contact him via email at migukin (at) gmail.com.

Mulling A “Twitter Killer” Designed To Facilitate Protests Against Trump

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I keep talking about this for no other reason than it’s fun and I like to daydream. But it seems the time is ripe for a “Twitter Killer” as well as a service designed from the ground up to aid and abet massive regular protests against Trump.

If you put the two concepts together, that would be the core of a new successful social media platform in my opinion. On one hand, a lot of center-Left celebrities and content providers would flock to a new service they felt worked harder to mitigate trolls and bots and those same people would be interested in a service designed to help bring down Trump from a strategic standpoint.

But, like I said, I just like to daydream. Because I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn this will never come to be. Below, I talk about this concept some more.

A New Social Media #Startup Is Needed To Bring Down Trump’s Administration

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Again let me stress that I’m a daydreamer. I just like to talk out loud about things and see if I can get any response. So, take that into consideration as you read this.

Anyway, it seems as though right now all the major social media niches are filled. Reddit, Twitter and Facebook all fill a niche and so there’s not much point in designing a news social media platform that challenges any of them. Having said that, I would note that there a lot of people — many of them content providers — who are fed up with Twitter. These very same people are also ardently against Trump’s policies.

So, it makes a lot of sense if you designed a service that was initially designed to help people organize protests against Trump’s Administration, but later could be repurposed to go after Reddit or Twitter, maybe even Facebook down the road.

I have given this concept a lot — a lot — of thought. It seems to me you would need to lean on video conferencing a lot as well as text chat. I would suggest something like this:

The service would be divided into Groups that were only created by Verified account holders. Those groups would be subdivided into Discussions that would be live text chat and threaded discussions. So, you would go into a Group called, say, “D.C. Protest May 2018” and you’d first see text chat on the right third of the screen. You’d have a text chat with someone then have the option of starting a video chat with them that would be done into conjunction with a threaded discussion based on a post.

You would have a brief video chat of up to four people, then once it was done, you could write a blog post beneath it. Now, you would have to figure out how to implement the text feature with threaded discussion. That particular issue might need some additional thought, but I have the general concept down.

Anyway, you would also have any number of features that would aid in organizing a protest in your city. You’d start off with the major urban areas, then roll that aspect of the service out to additional areas as needed. This concept is really powerful and important because we’re in dire times that are only going to get worse, I’m afraid.

As an aside, the Right has their own service, called Gab. It’s batshit insane and maybe we need a counterpart to Gab that was significantly more mainstream and devote to a more Twitter experience than Gab, which is a Facebook clone. It’s all just something to think about at this point.

People Power: End Trump’s Administration With A New Social Media Platform

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Now, let me get some things out of the way. I like to daydream. A lot. A whole lot. I like to daydream in a pure, impractical manner. Also, I have no money, can’t code and don’t really see it as my “function” in life. Having said all that, let me again say that we need a new social media platform designed specifically to aid in protests against Donald Trump.

I think we we should design a platform from the ground up that would be designed to specifically to make it easier for people to engage in massive protests across the country with the aim of bringing down Trump. Later, after you were successful, you could flip the switch and turn the service into at least a Reddit Killer and maybe even a Twitter Killer.

One reason we need to do this is we are lurching towards of codification of Trumpism at the state level, so it may grow ever more difficult for us to bring down the Trump Administration at all. If you’re all that interested in learning more about this contact me on Twitter and I’ll write more posts about this.

In my imagination, you could probably crowdfund this concept and then move from there. But maybe Trump has to do something really bad, like fire Bob Mueller before there will be any interest in this concept. But it’s something to think about. Something big needs to be done on a concerted level to bring down Trump.

I have explain at length on my Instagram account the specs for this concept. The account is under my name.

Anyway, it’s something to think about.