Alternatives to Facebook
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I've started to poke around looking for alternatives to Facebook. It is a hard sell to tell people to get off without having a good alternative. Have any of you tried anything else that might replace it, or the parts of it that you use? I looked a little bit at Vero (https://www.vero.co), and it looks promising since they are subscription based. However that is a hard sell still. Thoughts?
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The most basic question I have to ask is, what do you use facebook for?
If you use it just to pear into people's lives I can't think of anything as capable and large as facebook is.
If you're using it for social media etc. . . the usual other channels. Twitter, Tumblr etc.
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Alternatives to facebook - having a life, talking to people face to face, going places that don't have wifi, being outside, accomplishing things....
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@dustinb3403 said in Alternatives to Facebook:
The most basic question I have to ask is, what do you use facebook for?
If you use it just to pear into people's lives I can't think of anything as capable and large as facebook is.
If you're using it for social media etc. . . the usual other channels. Twitter, Tumblr etc.
I don't use it much. I'm looking for something to recommend to others that use it heavily. My wife and her friends use it to share what is going on and to ask questions. Similar in idea to what we do here. That said, I don't think they would want to use a forum, but would what something more Facebook-like.
And I realize that there isn't much out there that is as large as Facebook, but the only way that companies are going to learn from this is if Facebook goes under for how they handled user information. The only way for them to go under is if people stop using them and revenue dries up. For people to stop using them requires an alternative.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
I've started to poke around looking for alternatives to Facebook. It is a hard sell to tell people to get off without having a good alternative. Have any of you tried anything else that might replace it, or the parts of it that you use? I looked a little bit at Vero (https://www.vero.co), and it looks promising since they are subscription based. However that is a hard sell still. Thoughts?
I'm glad you asked this, because I've been wondering the same thing.
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Hmm, MeWe looks interesting. Applying the freemium model to social media. I wonder how they are guaranteeing privacy with the addins?
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@dustinb3403 said in Alternatives to Facebook:
The most basic question I have to ask is, what do you use facebook for?
That's the hard part. Facebook is something different to everyone.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
I looked a little bit at Vero (https://www.vero.co), and it looks promising since they are subscription based. However that is a hard sell still. Thoughts?
Doesn't appear to be a real product. No way to use. Just a silly website touting something to "stop you using itself." Is it even a thing?
From what I saw, this is a failed product no matter how you look at it. If users can't "just sign up", it's already non-viable and in no way able to replace Facebook (or anything, for that matter.)
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@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives to Facebook:
@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
I looked a little bit at Vero (https://www.vero.co), and it looks promising since they are subscription based. However that is a hard sell still. Thoughts?
Doesn't appear to be a real product. No way to use. Just a silly website touting something to "stop you using itself." Is it even a thing?
From what I saw, this is a failed product no matter how you look at it. If users can't "just sign up", it's already non-viable and in no way able to replace Facebook (or anything, for that matter.)
It is mobile only, so only accessible via an app. That knocks it back for me, but for my wife it doesn't matter since her phone is her "computer".
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This might just tip it over the top for me:
"On MeWe, you control how your feed works. If you want to see everything in chronological order, you can. If you want new comments to bump posts to the top, you can. We let our users decide what they want to see not some black box algorithm."I'm still looking to see if their videos autoplay.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
@dustinb3403 said in Alternatives to Facebook:
The most basic question I have to ask is, what do you use facebook for?
If you use it just to pear into people's lives I can't think of anything as capable and large as facebook is.
If you're using it for social media etc. . . the usual other channels. Twitter, Tumblr etc.
I don't use it much. I'm looking for something to recommend to others that use it heavily. My wife and her friends use it to share what is going on and to ask questions. Similar in idea to what we do here. That said, I don't think they would want to use a forum, but would what something more Facebook-like.
What's funny is... they use Facebook exactly like a forum, most likely. There is something weird that @Minion-Queen found when trying to help women's groups with communications is that they wanted forums, but only wanted to use big, public, advertised spaces that stole their data. There was something about it being a bad, hard to use, insecure space that made them want to use it, and using something that met their needs better was of no interest. The assumption being that there is a lot of marketing on the one and that is driving the feeling that they want to use it and not the other.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
Hmm, MeWe looks interesting. Applying the freemium model to social media. I wonder how they are guaranteeing privacy with the addins?
Looks promising. Free and open are what make it all work. Although I think having ads is pretty much a necessity or the framework won't last.
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@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives to Facebook:
trying to help women's groups with communications is that they wanted forums, but only wanted to use big, public, advertised spaces that stole their data
I think a huge contributor to this is laziness in not wanting to create more credentials. My wife is in many "mom" oriented facebook groups and I can't imagine her having a forum for every separate group she is in. It's so easy to add people to multiple communication channels when they're all under the same umbrella.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives to Facebook:
@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
I looked a little bit at Vero (https://www.vero.co), and it looks promising since they are subscription based. However that is a hard sell still. Thoughts?
Doesn't appear to be a real product. No way to use. Just a silly website touting something to "stop you using itself." Is it even a thing?
From what I saw, this is a failed product no matter how you look at it. If users can't "just sign up", it's already non-viable and in no way able to replace Facebook (or anything, for that matter.)
It is mobile only, so only accessible via an app. That knocks it back for me, but for my wife it doesn't matter since her phone is her "computer".
So that's ANOTHER level of epic fail. They can't make a website that explains what they are. They aren't welcoming to potential users at all. And they don't work on primary devices? What garbage that would be. Total fail.
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@bnrstnr said in Alternatives to Facebook:
@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives to Facebook:
trying to help women's groups with communications is that they wanted forums, but only wanted to use big, public, advertised spaces that stole their data
I think a huge contributor to this is laziness in not wanting to create more credentials. My wife is in many "mom" oriented facebook groups and I can't imagine her having a forum for every separate group she is in. It's so easy to add people to multiple communication channels when they're all under the same umbrella.
That's why you use Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. as authentication so you don't have to. In the example case, they didn't need to.
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@bnrstnr said in Alternatives to Facebook:
It's so easy to add people to multiple communication channels when they're all under the same umbrella.
I don't believe that. I've used Facebook, absolutely nothing in it is easy or clear. Nothing. It's one of the most confusing, hard to use platforms around. You can't find anything you want, things just vanish, you never know when someone is trying to post. It's the ultimate is "hard to use".
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
This might just tip it over the top for me:
"On MeWe, you control how your feed works. If you want to see everything in chronological order, you can. If you want new comments to bump posts to the top, you can. We let our users decide what they want to see not some black box algorithm."I'm still looking to see if their videos autoplay.
It does have the most promise of what I've seen.
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@kelly said in Alternatives to Facebook:
That knocks it back for me, but for my wife it doesn't matter since her phone is her "computer".
This only works if 100% of people you ever want to deal with also feel that phones are their sole communications devices, forever.
To me, it's just a huge sign that the vendor doesn't feel that their platform has any longevity or value.
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@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives to Facebook:
I don't believe that. I've used Facebook, absolutely nothing in it is easy or clear. Nothing. It's one of the most confusing, hard to use platforms around. You can't find anything you want, things just vanish, you never know when someone is trying to post. It's the ultimate is "hard to use".
Totally not easy to use, at all, but it is trivially easy to add anybody you know to whatever groups you want, so long as they are on facebook and you're friends with them. The groups are absolute garbage and totally confusing as all hell, I agree with you there.
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I mostly use Facebook to keep in contact with Family and Friends who don't live close. Although lately I have been on it less and less with all the political BS from both sides of the aisle. I closed my other accounts.
