Be The Power
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
I go into a lot of detail about how, specifically you could disrupt the newspaper industry if you had, say, over $1 billion on hand to shake things up a little bit with a startup app.
idle rambling about a #startup concept to #disrupt the #newspaper industry https://t.co/4CMJudq29y
— Shelton Bumgarner ? (@bumgarls) October 21, 2018
by Shelton Bumgarner
@sheltbumgarner
While there are any number of features that Usenet had that have mysteriously not managed to make it to modern social media, the one feature that might be the most revolutionary in the end is in-line editing. For 20 years, news Websites have had a comment section that was either below or to the side of the content.
But if you gave people the ability to in-line edit the content that you generated in the app, I think that might be a killer feature. People would really enjoy the ability to have a conversation about the content inside of it. Of course, there is the issue of scalablity. I would propose managing that through redundancy of Groups that the fullpage Posts would be in as well as management of who could actually contribute content into the system.
Redundancy of Groups would be an important aspect of this service. I see this app as an Uber for news. You hire a lot of laid off reporters from around the country and use them to seed the service. I’ve proposed Time Magazine could save itself through this proposed app, but no one listens to me and so I’m just rambling at this point.
Regardless, this is a strong concept. I just wish someone would do something with it.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Below is the general idea of what I want to update for modern social media needs for a Website that would be marketed as a “Twitter killer.” You’d have to update the concept a lot, but the general concept is there. You’d have at least three panes you would be able to interact with.
The key thing is in the pane that you would use to write posts, you would have a fully WYSIWYG editor and the ability to in-line edit. This opens up a lot of really interesting possibilities when it comes to content distribution online. What if you could inline edit in the context of a threaded discussion? That would be a really powerful new feature for newspapers and magazines online. It would definitely change how people interact with content online.
The thing about it is, this is a pretty well developed concept, so it wouldn’t really take that much to update it for the modern Web. Throw in a modern newsfeed, a feature rich profile page and various other things people expect in social media and you have a real chance to bring down Twitter.
But as I keep saying, I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn, so this is just a daydream.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
If I was going to design a startup to “kill” Twitter and maybe disrupt content distribution online, the below is what would be my stepping off point. That’s pretty much my vision for how to do it, only updated significantly for modern social media users needs.
So, that’s my vision. I wish someone would take me up on it, but because I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn, no one ever will. But I feel there is still a minor window of opportunity to do such a startup. I wish I could get some traction on this. It would be so cool if I could.
There are some pretty big issues that would have to be address. Chief amongst them being how would you manage an enormous amount of people using the service. The only thing I can think of is you would limit who could actually post to the service in some way. You would have to earn the right to do that.
A lot of people probably wouldn’t like that, but that’s the only way you you base a service on the old concepts of Usenet and have it work. But one issue is, I think the below is what people actually want Twitter to be. They want a real discussion platform. Which, sadly, Twitter is not.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Below are some examples of later stage Usenet readers that inspire my vision for a Twitter “killer.” It just makes too much sense. If you used these Usenet clients’ designs as a stepping off point for a Website, I think you could actually get some traction. As you can tell, they don’t look anything like Reddit and I think if you gave it some thought, you could do something really cool.
As you can tell, there’s a lot you could use. If you updated this client design into something that was UX of a Website designed to “kill” Twitter and disrupt the online content distribution industry, I think something really cool could happen.
But as I keep saying, I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
The issue at hand is the newspaper business is dying. It seems as though the best way to fix the problem is to completely re-imagine what a newspaper is. Newspapers have always been a platform for distributing news, but over the years they have come to have significantly great cultural meaning than that.
I propose we get down to basics and provide a platform for writers, photographers and videographers to contribute quality content to a social media platform and be paid for it. Now, if you did it right, it’d be a win-win scenario because content providers would get paid and you, the startup, would make money from advertising.
I propose you base your startup loosely on Usenet concepts. I’m the first to say something like that already exists — Reddit — but this would take the Reddit model to the next level in various ways. Producers of quality content would be recognized and monetarily rewarded. They would have to be in possession of a Verified Account, but after that things would be pretty simple.
One a Verified Account holder could start a new Group and within that Group start a new thread, which I call a Conversation. All content would be threaded and based on the Post, which would be multimedia and have a WYSIWYG editor built in. Reddit has kind of moved towards this and that would be a danger — that Reddit would co-opt all your features even if you had a lot of cool ones, but anyway, I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn, so this is just a daydream.
Below are some videos where I talk about this at length.
how to #disrupt the #newspaper industry #startup https://t.co/OdcrehMpkl
— Shelton Bumgarner ? (@bumgarls) April 29, 2018
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
So, I’ve come up with what I think is a really cool way to “disrupt” the newspaper business. Here’s how it would work — the service to the uninitiated would, on the surface, seem a lot like Reddit. But it would, in fact, be much more than that.
The service would be a social media platform designed not only to “kill” Twitter, also reward producers of great content. All the reporters who have been laid off from newspapers would find a new home with this service which would lay out clear metrics for how you could make money. You would not only be “graded” by your fellow users for the content you provided, you would also credit for how many clicks and shares you got within the system. Using this formula your pay would be worked out for each article you contributed to the system.
Once you became a Verified Account holder, you might also garner additional remuneration for various things associated with the Groups and Conversations you created.
It’s really a win-win situation because a lot of people who are fed up with Twitter would flock to a service which actually rewarded people for producing quality content. Of course, a lot of people who use Reddit would say that the service was a rip off of it, when, in fact, it was actually an update of the old Usenet service.
I feel this is a pretty cool concept and if I had a few hundred thousand dollars laying around, I would try to establish the startup myself. But I can’t code and don’t want to learn, so this is just a daydream. I find the whole concept fascinating.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Instead of going into great detail via text about all of this, here are some videos I’ve done. I think you’ll think they’re pretty cool. I’ve already written a lot about this before, so again I know no one will notice or care.
Enjoy
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
The word on the street is that Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated are for sale. Rather than let some insane Right wing nutjob buy them and turn them into a mainstream Brietbart, why not do something really innovative. Why not think outside the box and turn those the writers and editors of those three publications into something really unique.
The thing about Twitter is a lot of really powerful writers and editors use it as some sort of public salon where they sit around and talk about issues of the day. What if you designed a “Twitter Killer” made up of Time and its sister publications that had a similar purpose to Twitter but was much, much better.
It seems so obvious. It would be really cool and I feel it would be a near instant hit. What you do is you completely re-imagine Time. You accept that the the print magazine is doomed and have all the content that the magazine’s writers and editors otherwise produce dumped into your new Twitter Killer.
You could also use those very same writers as the seed group of users. They would invite their friends as you grew the service and it would help the service star off on the right foot. This is such an obvious application of Time that I don’t understand why someone with a lot of money doesn’t run with it.
Twitter sucks so bad that if you did as I suggest, it would be quite popular, quite quickly I believe. As I keep suggesting, you design the service by leaning on the concepts of Usenet from 20 years ago. But no one listens to me and the social media space isn’t exactly bumping anymore. People with all the money are too interested in AR, VR and automation to worry about something so blase.
But I really do like the concept. It’s really strong.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
There is a big flaw with Twitter, and that’s the issue of engagement. The only way to get pretty good engagement with a tweet is to respond in thought provoking way to something someone famous has already tweeted. It’s much more difficult to get high engagement if you’re just some rando tweeting along on your own account. Basing a social media startup on Usenet in the way I envision it would definitely fix that problem, I think.
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