Official announcements and happiness!
An interesting NPR piece.
I'm not sure if I should post this in /news, or /hallowimzy. I decided to post it here, thinking it quite relevant.
Here we are. The official launch of Imzy. Hold on to your hats folks. But that's not the only interesting thing happening in the world of social media today. No no, I'm not trying to steal Imzy's thunder, this is actually fuel for the launch.
Coincidence? Fate? Today, I find this article discussing some problems Twitter is having. Some of the problems discussed are problems that have been...well, to be frank, well-discussed. The being a bastion of hate speech and ignorance. First couple minutes of the piece are really nothing new.
At about 1:50, they hint at difficulties Twitter has had monetizing their users, and at 2:30 it is specifically said that it's just not a great commercial environment. 3:30 mentions that many of the users of Twitter are not even real, but the result of 'troll factories'.
This just begs the question...is hate profitable? To me, the answer is clear. No, hate is not profitable.
To everyone reading this that has been here for the beta: Forgive me for presuming to speak for you, but I believe you have come to the same conclusion. To everyone reading this that came in when the doors were triumphantly thrown open: Welcome, and I sincerely hope you also have come to that conclusion.
Today is a step forward. We have an opportunity to leave the past in the past, and embrace the future. Thank you for making the right choice and being here.




yeahhh, this pretty much sums up the kinds of things i came to imzy hoping to be more free from.
escalation is actively rewarded by twitter's setup, with everyone who escalates rather than de-escalating pretending that it somehow doesn't count because they're the ones doing it. clearly it's justified for them personally-- why else would they be doing it?
i hope really hard that imzy experiences a much smoother existence. i think the focused, intentional aim to provide that will go a long way.
Hi, I'm one of the newbies. In my humble opinion, I think that there are so many trolls on twitter because it's really easy to troll on twitter. Also, trolls create multiple accounts because, once again, it's easy to do. I have long since given up on twitter and only occasionally use it as a glorified RSS feed.
I consider myself an avid redditor but find myself posting less and less. There are very few subs that I even feel comfortable posting in anymore. I feel that all my issues with reddit aren't specific to reddit, but more endemic to the internet in general. Imzy seems like a cool place, but I'm curious at how it'll handle the popularity growth.
I'm quite excited for the launch. I recently deactivated or put on hold all my social media accounts. Ostensibly, the reason is because it's my senior year of college and social media takes up too much time, and social media tends to make me a little bit anxious (as does being social in real life). However, to be truly honest, the hostility and personal attacks on many social media platforms, including twitter and tumblr (which used to be my favorite) was getting exhausting to deal with. And I'm not even popular or particularly controversial!
I've kept up with Imzy, and I'm truly hopeful it gets going and gets more users. The beta has been a bit disappointing, only because many of my favorite things have small fanbases to begin with (Orphan Black, for example, or botany) and I find myself talking frequently to the same 2-3 people in those clubs. However, I am optimistic that people will be drawn to this platform now that it is open, and there will be more engaging conversation as there was during my favorite era of Facebook groups and tumblr posts.
Hate might not be profitable, but we don't know if the opposite is true.
Ads are profitable, sort of. Selling user data is super profitable for sure.
Whether anything can survive doing neither...
People are going to have to start making transactions. I subscribed to the main imzy com because there's no paid account and that seemed like the closest thing.
Hmm, a good point. Facebook is still the leader in profitability because its' ad scheme is so clever, something that other social media sites can't seem to get quite right. But, the ads on facebook are quite annoying.
I haven't "tipped" anyone yet; I wonder if that could be profitable? Does Imzy take a cut of that?
There is always the "producer" angle--that is, production of the site (keeping it running) can be funded by sponsors, art grants, public investors, or personal subscribers. But that's tricky. For example, I fund about 16 artists, magazines, and musicians on Patreon, but I would be hesitant to fund a social media platform. Perhaps because it seems less like a person?
Yes, they take a cut from tips.
Would you think of having to pay for your account as "funding a social media platform"?
I guess I'd think of it as a subscription, equivalent to paying for a Netflix subscription, or Girl Scouts membership when I was a kiddo. Maybe the difference is only semantic, but I'd end up comparing an Imzy subscription to other services and groups I subscribe to, rather than compared to artists I support.