Document: WM-049                                                 P. Webb
Category: Project                                             2021.02.15

                           An update on socii

Abstract

   Yeah, I’m still working on this thing.

Body

   Social network fatigue is at an all-time high. Last year leading into
   the first couple weeks of this year resulted in me "doomscrolling"
   more than I’d like and presumably like you, I’ve lacked motivation
   after spending hours doing that. Despite the tone of this intro,
   socii is not dead. Quite the contrary, development on 2.0 has been
   underway for a while and unlike last year I’m seeing 2021 with 20/20
   vision. Let me explain.

   It is my belief that Big Social lacks the resolve and moral tack to
   do what is objectively correct…even in the face of overwhelming
   evidence that refusing to take action could result in
   catastrophic events.

   Corporations are not people and must move slowly by the very nature
   of massive companies. A raft turns a lot faster than a sailboat or
   freight-liner after all, right? Well, Big Social has shown time and
   time again their ability to move swiftly when it serves financial
   interest to do so. I don’t buy the oft-given example I started this
   paragraph with, it’s clearly a load of excrement.

   Here is how socii is shaping up:

   1. It is a paid service with a decent free tier.
   2. There is a strict anti-harassment policy that WILL be exercised.
   3. Communities are private by default and come with extensive
      moderation tools.
   4. Remember customization? You are unique, your profile will act like
      it (if you want).

   Per points 2 and 3, freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom of
   reach. This nuance is clearly lost on a subset of the American
   populace so here it is, upfront. Radicalization and violence stemming
   from disinformation has no place on socii. Or anywhere else, it
   seems. Anyhoo…

   You may have noticed that "socii" lost its capitalization. It
   occurred to me that too often, services try to get ahead of
   themselves and attempt becoming brand-like before their service takes
   off. Startup wisdom says to "become a tribe" and your fans will buy
   anything you sell. But, how is your service more important than the
   people you are serving? How are you an "ecosystem" when your only
   claim to fame is the Product Hunt hype machine? Too many services
   with that mindset are mere tools that will be acqui-hired into a
   bigger company and be shut down internally (or just shut down).

   You wouldn’t capitalize "hammer" or "scissors" (unless you started a
   sentence with them). In the same vein, socii is a tool. socii is not
   meant to be the forefront of your mind, your life. Just…a place to
   connect with a community (or communities!) that you care about and
   that cares about you.

   Until sometime last year I’d been coding socii in the open because I
   bought into the MVP (minimal viable product) hoopla the tech
   community spouts. As a result, no one used it because it lacked
   features people expected or wanted. Turns out, if something is too
   minimal it ends up not being viable and well, no one will use
   your product.

   New year, new moves.

   1.0 of socii is closed to new signups as work continues on 2.0. I may
   occasionally share updates on my Twitter @NetopWibby[1] so follow me
   there if you don’t mind sporadic updates. For those of you on this
   mailing list that already had an account on socii, y’all are
   grandfathered in. Something special may be waiting in your account
   once 2.0 is ready (please remind me).

   Stay tuned. 🕸

   P.S. If you were subscribed to the feed before this point, please
   delete and re-add it! I’ve added Markdown support to the feed so that
   you get formatting.