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?

I think if enough people acted, these sites would change or evolve into what people are after. People moan about big sites but they have their strengths like large numbers seeing my "For Sale" post and picking the item up same day with cash.

I'll look into it, thanks

Yes, that's still good on FB. But I wonder how long it'll last. It's also no good if you get your account blocked for no reason

I’m not angry!

As you point out, you’re not an IT expert. Herein lies the problem.

Posters are trying to explain why it’s fundamentally a flawed idea, in our capitalist society.

You do know you can search for specific pages right? If you want to know when your local fair is, or what similar events are on nearby, you can just look it up or ask even ask someone IRL, you don't need to rely solely on your IG feed for this.

I've already said I'm no IT guru 🙂

But again, there are many charities and NGOs operating in our capitalist society (I'm not opposed to capitalism BTW), why couldn't this be one of those endeavours?

I do, but it's very time consuming

Because you don’t have a common cause/specific aim in mind? What will unite these volunteers? Who will fund this (most NGOs and charities get subsidies/grants)?

As a PP says, Mastodon is an option for you.

Because you don’t have a common cause/specific aim in mind? What will unite these volunteers? Who will fund this (most NGOs and charities get subsidies/grants)?

Perhaps volunteers together with small businesses that have become disgruntled and have been pushed out of these giant platforms? A cooperative? Like Rotary? It could work

Your two main issues seem to be having your account blocked on selling sites, spam and missing out on events.

If you have a site that has zero moderation you’ll likely end up with even more spam in your feed as people will post all sorts of irrelevant dross. Being banned unjustly does happen sometimes but if you’re livelihood depends on selling via Facebook or vinted, that’s the risk you take.

Honestly Facebook/Nextdoor do all the things you’re after. I’ve sold/given away/bought tons of stuff on there, both from marketplace and selling groups. Yes you get messed around a bit sometimes but I guarantee that would be worse on a site with no moderation or checks.

IG isnt an event marketing platform. The majority of ‘country fair’ type events in my area use Facebook to promote them as it’s free and has a massive reach. You can share posts in the groups for surrounding villages/towns to spread the message further. Local village Facebook groups probably have one if the widest total reaches of any online platform, but the ‘spam’ in your feed is the price you pay for all of those services.

It would take so long to build up an audience on a new site or app, people wouldn’t bother posting. If you’re promoting a local event or selling something, you want it to get in front of the biggest possible audience.

So, the small businesses pay a subscription to be able to use the platform to buy/sell?

Remind me again how it’s not monetised to participate?

So, the small businesses pay a subscription to be able to use the platform to buy/sell?

It wouldn't be a condition for selling (and there wouldn't be any profit). Just supporting the site

Look at it like a donation so that a free site can exist?

Like Wikipedia?

Have a look at what they cost to run:
donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/FAQ#How_is_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_funded?

If you have a site that has zero moderation you’ll likely end up with even more spam in your feed as people will post all sorts of irrelevant dross.

You wouldn't be spammed because you would only see posts from users you follow

Being banned unjustly does happen sometimes but if you’re livelihood depends on selling via Facebook or vinted, that’s the risk you take.

Some sellers cannot afford the high commisions of payment methods of other sites. There should be a marketplace for small sellers that do not want to abide by the draconian, everchanging rules of big platforms. Large platforms don't even want them there in the first place these days, they seem to have become a nuisance. Sad but true

@unsureatthispoint

Yes, there's always the risk of that. Maybe users should look at the track record or background of the founders? Their aims, etc?

Again, who is paying for this and how? Due diligence costs money in time, fees to access certain records etc.

With the best will in the world, I cannot see the sort of people with the skills required giving up tens, if not hundreds, of hours in time for free or dipping into their own pockets.

I see your point OP, and I get the principle, but as a PP said, good luck dissembling capitalism.

The majority of ‘country fair’ type events in my area use Facebook to promote them as it’s free and has a massive reach. You can share posts in the groups for surrounding villages/towns to spread the message further. Local village Facebook groups probably have one if the widest total reaches of any online platform

Probably I need to explore this more

The thing is, maybe you are interested in an event in your local country fair or one in Italy. They are not mutually exclusive. It's handy to have a platform that includes everything and where, through 'following', you can control what you see. It shouldn't be this difficult

It's still alive and kicking though

The problem is that for something like this to work you need people to use it. People don't want to change from something that already works (even if imperfectly) and jump to a new platform where none of their friends are. Even if it's better, what's the point if nobody is there?

Big commercial companies can afford to spend a lot on marketing and advertising to make their platform interesting to potential users. A free one wouldn't have that.

I'm not angry but I think you are very naive in thinking it could compete with big commercial organisations.

I don't think anyone is angry, but anyone who has worked in development has heard this pitch or ones like it a lot, asking why can't you recreate a major platform on no budget.

Running a donations based website is hard, mastodon instances are having a boom in donations right now, because of everyone riding the twitter wave, will they still have that in a year or even 6 months?
People get pissy when there Netflix goes up a couple of quid, its an entire website with a shit tonne of content on and yet people will still ditch it during increases. The amount of people who will regularly donate to a website or app for years and years is slim and you'd want to pivot towards adverts and affiliate links (like mumsnet) to keep income more steady so you know you can pay your costs, developers etc relying on donations means one day the website will go poof when you can't afford the ongoing costs.

Not promoting people to follow each other sucks on a social type network, you want to grow the circles, otherwise people sign up and leave after a couple of minutes/days/weeks
how do people find accounts they're interested in, you need that ooh you like x, y what about z to keep the platform alive with users interested in coming back, so so so often apps and websites die from lack of users or small amount.

If you're convinced though pitch it on reddit, LinkedIn etc and see if you can drum up volunteers, we might be wrong on here. But honestly the best bet is to use the tools on offer, for Instagram add favourites and use the bell, join local fb groups and use the pin function.

I presume if it was going to happen it would have by now?

My knowledge is not the best but i amongst others have or could one up with lots of reasons why it has assumed it hasn't

If you can't actually notcto do the technical side yourself you could arrange the volunteers etc. side yourself

Sure people come with lots of discussion topics and ideas thatctjry can't do the practical side themselves you do seem very incredibly intense about it

So I assume you have the people to back it all up seeing you have so much deep thought about it?

You don't understand anything about the reality of running a website, op.

None of it is free.

Why would I donate money to a website running costs rather than say, to a charity that helps homeless people or disaster relief or clean water, etc?

Also, the idea that people in their 50s with excellent IT skills are just sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for death, and will be delighted to do an expert job for nothing, is just ludicrous.

So ludicrous that I slightly wonder if you are genuine...

OP, with all due respect I believe that unfortunately there's far too much cost involved in doing this that would enable it to be free.

The majority of the "volunteers" you would need to set up, code, program, run, maintain and repair something like this would need to be highly qualified and experience in their field, they couldn't just be people who have completed an Excel course. People with this level of experience are usually busy making incomes or working in their chosen areas, they don't have the hundreds of hours of spare time to dedicate to work for free towards, nor should they be expected to. The technology you'd be requiring in order to set this up would be very modern, meaning many of the "older people in their 50s" who you want to volunteer may never have actually worked on this type of software, hardware or technology before. You're expecting younger people who are trying to advance and progress their careers in a competitive field to also dedicate large amounts of their own time for free and I don't see that offer being snapped up.

To have a physical server, you'd first need to purchase the servers (expensive), buy or rent the place to keep them, pay for the power to run them, the engineers to work on them and maintain them, you'd need to pay for the time of the people involved because realistically this would require several full-time members of staff, it can't be run like a charity shop with some older volunteers doing a few hours a week to keep it ticking over. Even the most simple program is complex behind the scenes and there also needs moderation, lawyers to ensure that what the website is doing/does complies with the laws of the country it is being used in, teams to review potentially illegal content that may be posted if the moderation is slack. There's so, so much involved in running something like you're proposing.

If you've got the spare time, you could of course start to study coding, put out fundraisers, try and gather support online, take out loans etc in preparation of purchasing what you'd need to set this up but I can't envision enough people being on board to put large amounts of their own time and finances into something that may not even take off the ground.

You’re being incredibly naive and ignorant.