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Ask HN: Is there a market for a "Facebook circa 2006" clone?

9 points by btucker ↗ HN
Since the recent F8 announcements I've been pondering the question of whether there's a market for a site which is basically what Facebook was back around 2005? This would be the point after it had photo sharing & the news feeds, but before all the blurring of public/private data and the whole "crapp" platform. It would have an incredibly straight-forward privacy model: if they're your friend they can see everything you post, if they're not they see nothing but your name (+ some other identifying detail).

I joined FB in the first wave in '04 and it had fantastic utility as an undergrad not to mention a crazy amount of mindshare on my campus (CMU). I can't help but wonder if this could be done again.

Anyway, just curious if anyone else has been thinking along these lines? Has the boat already sailed on social networks?

By the way, I have no intention of actually trying to build this.

14 comments

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bgnm2000
I would say no, solely for the fact the people will join social networks where their friends are, and their friends are on facebook.
Watts
I agree. As much as I want to leave Facebook I keep my account around so I can easily keep tabs on people I don't see very often. Ah, if only Facebook would let me take my data and connections with me... I can always dream.
jdminhbg
Circa 2004, they were on Myspace. It's a website, not a marriage -- given enough reason, people will move.
thisduck
People even end marriages, given enough reason.
wlievens
Reinforcing his point even more.
lenley
Yes. I bet there is a market for a wikipedia type soc-net.
fragmede
Ignoring the high cost of moving off Facebook, the simple friend/foe privacy model fails when your mother wants to be your FB friend and you can't hide last weekend's drunken debauchery from her (You're a college undergrad, remember?).

"So don't post that there" is the last thing you want as the site operator, because you want your users generating meaningful (to them) content. Which leads to slightly less straight-forward privacy model if you still want users to post pics, or less content if you keep the straight-forwards privacy. Arguably, there's more to be found on FB, but I'd rate seeing "pics of that party you missed" as an easy way to drive sign-ups in the college crowd.

btucker
Very true. But also remember that in '06 your mother wasn't on FB.
joe24pack
maybe what you need is a federated friendspace, or something that such a phrase would imply.
dca
Is there a market? Yes (edit: otherwise articles that we've seen recently regarding their changes wouldn't cause an uproar)

Will it completely disrupt Facebook? Not likely. At least not soon.

I've been wondering whether it might be possible to charge a small monthly fee to cover hosting expenses for such a service, with a value add being essentially flexible privacy controls, and lack of a business need to monetize in ways that hurt privacy.

TheSandyWalsh
No, but there's a market for a wikipedia-style Facebook.
Terretta
You don't just need a market. You need a business model. Facebook scale is not cheap. Facebook is innovating like crazy to figure out a business model that can pay for that scale.

Received wisdom was that privacy was sacred. Received from early adopter tech geeks, that is.

As Facebook matures, hundreds of millions of not-so-early adopters are revealing a different perspective: give them one stop social sharing that works for everyone they want to interact with, and they don't care.

This offers Facebook new business opportunities to monetize at scale, and they're taking them. Although they're not a public company, they clearly do want to be profitable, with no qualms about "all your base are belong to us" in pursuit of that motive.

You can't just build a Facebook circa 2006 clone. You have to build a Facebook circa 2006 clone that can pay for itself.

mrule
I would quickly joint a facebook clone if I thought it trustworthy, then shrink my facebook presence as more of my friends migrated to the new platform. Hell, people would probably use facebook to advertise such an alternative service. Once my core group of friends migrated I would destroy my facebook account.