To think by now non-commercial platforms for buying and selling goods and keeping in touch should have been developed?

[unsureatthispoint]

Inspired by a few current threads

I'm not a big user of social media (as in FB or IG), just mainly to be reminded about events I may want to attend or buy second-hand items occassionally

But I've noticed for instance the frustration with IG about how they now push posts by users you don't follow - making the platform annoying and time wasting (plus the known change to non-cronological algorithms)

Other tools started as 'friendly' buy/sell virtual spaces but quickly have gone all dictatorial, blocking accounts for no reason or deleting someone's good ratings if not enough sales are made regularly (hence being heavily geared to big businesses that can drive commissions whilst small businesses are punished)

And don't get me started with the latests trend to require uploads of IDs and biometrics to global sites with users having no control whatsoever where such sensitive data is going!

Aren't IT people familiar with the technology already? Couldn't we develop non-commercial platforms that would enable all this genuine, much needed, community activity without all the aggravation and grief? No ads, no moderation, no commissions, no frills, run by volunteers?

Forums like MN and the big players would continue to exist, and are a different 'beast' IMO

The novelty of the early days has pretty much warn off already, right? Isn't it time we went back to basics?

Bonkers.

Sites cost money to host, maintain, fix when they go wrong/suffer cyber attacks. Expertise is needed to set them up in the first place with users constantly making "helpful" suggestions for "improvements" or added features.

Feel free to study coding yourself and launch your own?

Well both IG and Facebook started out as non commercial, but the potential to make money was too big. Facebook starting to use ads was really controversial even within the company. With any online service you use that is ‘free‘ you are basically handing over your personal data as payment.

Problem is, any large-scale social media platform is very expensive to build and run. You need coders, designers, data hosting costs etc. I can’t see anyone doing that out of the goodness of their hearts and the larger it gets, the higher the costs are.

I assume the requirement to upload ID is for proof of age and to prevent identity theft.

Who’s going to pay for the development and upkeep?

All your examples started small and grew. Costs also grew. Nothing is free, costs have to be covered somehow. Who pays for hosting in your example? Or the software to allow someone to use their bank card?

How can you enable anything 'genuine' without verifying that the people involved are genuine? Otherwise you're just another troll/scammer.

Who’s paying for the sites?

There’s a monetisation schedule built into new apps and tech. It starts off free to gain users and traction. Then they monetise the ‘premium features’. Then when people are committed to the platform and they can, they sell to investors/shareholders. These then want a return on investment so the algorithms change to monetise more aggressively, sell ads etc. Eventually users jump ship to the new promised land of the next shiny app and the cycle continues…

so you’re unsure why someone hasn’t taken the time to use their valuable time and skills, to design a site …for free
And run it at their own expense?
with volunteers with valuable time and skills just working for free the whole time?

Problem is, any large-scale social media platform is very expensive to build and run.

Something with minimal, very basic features and almost no moderation though? Hosting costs have come down massively, and it could just host activiy for 30 or 60 days?

You need coders, designers, data hosting costs etc. I can’t see anyone doing that out of the goodness of their hearts and the larger it gets, the higher the costs are.

There are many people who do voluntary work with varying degrees of success, why couldn't it be run by volunteers? It would serve a social purpose

I assume the requirement to upload ID is for proof of age and to prevent identity theft

The proof of age is a joke as so much unsavoury content seems to fall through the cracks nowadays anyway. Also some users don't mind or are not at risk of identity theft and still platforms are increasingly asking for ID or threaten to close accounts

Reading with intrigue

I don’t understand what it is you want to be available and what problem you’re trying to solve, OP?

Is it Freecycle? Or what?

What if users are not interested or don't really need a transactional site? It would be purely pushing posts from users you wish to follow (as opposed to random 'suggestions') and offers to sell goods where you agree a meeting point and pay cash?

Just the basics really, for small users, associations, etc, no big corporations

Well, isn't it time the cycle stopped? As I say, the novely has worn off IMO

If you want free, you need ads or sell data to cover the cost of running it.

Good luck with dismantling capitalism. Sounds like a job for volunteers with a social conscience- I’ll look out for it.

I mean, sites like that do exist. Loads of them. But hardly anyone uses them because a) people don't know about them and b) they die regularly. Because a in a capitalist society, a non-monetized product or service is not sustainable.

There's a small country fair, for instance (which obviously you know is genuine as you live there). You follow their IG account as you want to be reminded when their event is taking place in the summer. Suddenly your IG feed is inundated with 'suggested posts' of randoms and, because this small event hasn't paid for their post to be pushed, you never see it and you miss the event

How is the platform even usable in its current state?

Why don't you create it then?

Also if it's unmoderated what's to stop someone/a group using it to post/share illegal content?

There's many places pushing away volunteers as there are so many. Why shouldn't this activity be a valid option?

Most large platforms are heavily moderated and illegal content and scammers pop up anyway

Are they pushing away coders and tech volunteers? There’s a huge employment crunch at the moment and people with these skills can make their price (capitalism again).

IG (or any other SM platform) isn't your diary. If you want to be reminded of when your local county fair is set a reminder in your phone or write it in your diary?

And who pays for the lawyers when somebody gets murdered by someone they met on this site and wants to sue? Who moderates to make sure that the "small associations" you allow don't turn into "big corporations" that you don't? Also hosting costs are a lot more than you're thinking. Take Twitter, which at its heart is a simple website – it's just text and image updates, right? Their server costs last year were, iirc, around $1.5bn.

Just read a few threads recently where people have had accounts blocked on Vintage or FB for no reason (or someone, perhaps a competitor, reported 'suspicious activity') This happened to a friend of mine as well, a small business who relied on one of these platforms for their livelihood.

Then the frustration of IG pushing nonsense and not allowing you to easily see the content from people you are actually following!

There has to be another way, surely

If you want to be reminded about when a country fair posts on ig, you can click the bell to get notified when they post or add them to your favourites to be shown higher.

I sort of get what you're saying OP - I am fed up with the endless ads and the "you might like" suggestions too.

But there is cost involved in running ANY website - hosting, coding, monitoring/moderating. How are you going to pay for that without either a subscription fee, or advertising?