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Posted by ca98am79 12 hours ago

I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it(ca98am79.medium.com)
689 points | 367 commentspage 3
sikozu 10 hours ago|
This is crazy, but unfortunately I don't have an iPhone otherwise I'd totally sign up.
hateful 11 hours ago||
The only thing I liked when I did use Facebook was the "wall". To be able to post on a friend's wall semi- publically where their friends can see it. Most other Facebook clones have had the idea of tagging, but it wasn't the same. (E.g. Google+)
addedGone 11 hours ago||
We can't seem to be able to login from the website, it requires an Apple account? The UI might not be showing up properly.
altairprime 11 hours ago|
It’s app-only, right?
sikozu 10 hours ago||
iOS only unfortunately. Big shame.
altairprime 9 hours ago||
Not for the operators, I expect. If they flip a couple bits in the webserver I think they can lock the API down to require a device attestation, which would inhibit much of the API’s attack surface from being exploitable without a physical device that can afford to be console-banned (but I haven’t done my research to prove that yet, so grain of feasibility salt). Certainly in this day and age there is no desire to be “search engine optimized” by anyone using a social network for IRL friends, so they lose nothing by lacking a website. And there’s lots of small but nice services that are or have been iOS only (and a couple big ones that collapsed once they opened to other platforms). They’re explicitly selecting against the network effect already in favor of a nice experience, so it’s not like it matters if it grows more slowly. Are there drawbacks you see besides “requires an iOS device” that I haven’t considered?
lwhi 11 hours ago||
Why no android app?
ca98am79 11 hours ago||
I plan to make one in the future. It's just me
lawgimenez 5 hours ago||
Would love to take a crack on this on Android
pixel_popping 11 hours ago|||
Why no website as well? Can't use it from a laptop, it's a bit strange for a social media, many don't like typing on a phone.
randallsquared 10 hours ago|||
That's a great question, since the genesis of this was the domain name, which no one using the app will care about or visit. That is, the only thing that was actually needed here was the trademark, it appears.
GaryBluto 11 hours ago||||
Especially odd considering that Friendster began at a time when social media on phones was unheard of.
Quarrelsome 11 hours ago|||
I remember when we considered a website that tells the user to download an app an anti-pattern (e.g. earlier versions of iMusic).
s0a 11 hours ago|||
why not a proper Progress Web App so it can run on any device independent of app stores? it's not as though a social app needs deep OS integration. I'm sure Claude or Codex could vibe code that in an afternoon.
axoltl 11 hours ago||
The central point of this app is to determine proximity of two devices. That's not possible today in a cross-platform way using web apps.
s0a 10 hours ago|||
PWA has access to bluetooth (BLE on all platforms) and NFC on Android
JumpCrisscross 9 hours ago||
> PWA has access to bluetooth (BLE on all platforms) and NFC on Android

This (EDIT: this app) is iOS only right now. And I hate the normalisation of giving websites access to Bluetooth and NFC.

chabska 9 hours ago||
I managed to make an ESP32-controlled RC car move by sending it commands from a webapp running on my Android phone last year. I don't believe I have telekinesis magic power, so I'd rather believe that this is not in-fact iOS only.
JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago||
Sorry, clarified.
pixel_popping 11 hours ago|||
You can with the Geolocation API.
bossyTeacher 11 hours ago|||
The main functionality to add friends is that you need to use the phones physically touching feature of iPhones. This doesn't exist in Android afaik.

The guy wants people to meet in person rather than doing social media the normie way.

toyg 10 hours ago|||
Android has QuickShare which can be leveraged.

For the record, the feature you describe was first introduced on Samsung phones 14 years ago - and later removed, likely after poor adoption. Because Apple "reinvented it", it's now planned to be reintroduced on Android too.

goosejuice 10 hours ago|||
https://developers.google.com/nearby no?
moffkalast 11 hours ago||
Clearly targeted towards a US only audience I guess?
gpm 11 hours ago||
Even in the US... something like half of people have an android.

Starting a network effect product like a social network where you exclude half the social graph seems like... quite a decision.

pixel_popping 11 hours ago|||
It's likely much more than half because I don't see a guy working on his laptop and switching on his phone to be able to answer messages, I personally never use social medias on a phone, it's annoying to type.
QuantumNomad_ 10 hours ago||
I prefer most communication to happen from my phone. Keeps the laptop less distracting when I don’t talk with people so much on it. Except Slack on work computer. That one I keep open and use for talking with coworkers. But that’s because it’s part of the job, and also relevant for me and them to be talking about things we are working on.
citizenkeen 11 hours ago|||
Worked for Facebook.
temporallobe 10 hours ago||
I worked with the guy that created Friendster! IIRC he made it back in ‘06/‘07 and I had one of the first test accounts. Chill dude, really smart.
sgerenser 8 hours ago|
Had to be even earlier than that, I graduated college in 2006 and I’m pretty sure someone turned me on to Friendster at least a couple years before.
davidtio 3 hours ago||
I visit the side but I don't have handphone so it seems like I get DQ-ed immediately. If the apps works on web will be nice.
fouc 6 hours ago||
I remember Friendster being very popular in parts of Latin America / Brazil and Philippines. I think you could definitely get a lot of users through the nostalgia factor.
ianpenney 10 hours ago||
“My wife and I met on okcupid”

… 11 years going for me. Good on you. I don’t have any other social media accounts. I’ll do my best to join up on this one. Wholesome.

everyos_ 7 hours ago||
What if somebody's phone is of an alternative type, like a flip phone, and they can't install the app needed to tap phones? Then how will they become friends with another
phyzome 6 hours ago|
Or they just don't want to install another goddamn app.
mattmerr 10 hours ago|
What does "a domain that was making about $9k/year in ad revenue" look like? Is this domain one where people randomly stumble upon it and give ad views to a parking page? A website with regular use or other content that people visit for some purpose that is now under different ownership?
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 10 hours ago|
Probably a parked domain with ads that people stumble across. We used to call these guys cybersquatters.
justinclift 9 hours ago||
They're still called cybersquatters, except for some unknown reason ICANN has decided to not actually do anything about them. :(
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