lyra_comms

Decentralised social networks are a bad idea. Communication tools need to be inclusive and open to everyone, especially laypeople. Decentralised tools and blockchain turn off non-techies, and are overkill for the social networking problem.

It has to do, as you mentioned, with the amount of text.

Whatever land you're wrapped up in, I hope everything is awesome there, too.

We did research the name in advance and we're happy with it; we're not concerned that another company shares it.

We bow only to the Hypnotoad.

Thanks, this is excellent feedback.

- It's OK to have a small learning curve; we think users will be OK with the menu symbol.

- We've thought extensively about whether to show content to non-logged-in users. This isn't really Lyra's use case. You can see it as closer to email than social media. Our goal is not to categorise "content". The very term "content" makes us itch. We don't aim to provide searchable communities or hashtags, as these are easy avenues for harassment, abuse and targeting vulnerable communities.

- Most of Lyra's existing use cases look like this: start converstion (with existing contacts, or invite them otherwise). Have conversation, usually private, with contacts.

- The tour can be removed with a single click, it was actually a requested feature and has received positive feedback.

- The general design is constantly evolving and it will improve as we have access to more funding.

- We offer a growing number of customisable themes (left menu); the look and feel of a platform should be in the user's control. Style is very subjective; some like basic, some like glitz. If you have any suggestions for a theme you would like, we will be happy to set it up for you.

There's no need to apologise for good, constructive feedback!

We approach a completely different use case to Livejournal: hierarchical conversations rather than broadcast blogging.

Exactly! We agree that email and newsgroups do not have the most useful or accessible UI, and aim to offer a much better design. Needless to say, our design is constantly improving.

Thanks, we will add a page about the team.

We have been thinking carefully about whether to include a public conversation feed. Public communications are not Lyra's central use case, and as most conversations are private at the moment, such a feed would be quite sparse.

As a nonprofit which is not funded by advertising, it is not our main goal to support viewers without an account. There is no charge to sign up.

A quest to remain "more interesting" leads to constantly changing platforms, dark patterns, and intrusive notifications. A useful and effective platform enables communication in a reliable and stable way.

Thanks for your comments; we are very open to any more specific or detailed feedback on improving the platform.

These aren't developments that should be encouraged. The political influence of targeted advertising on social media has encouraged and enabled several nationalist movements. We believe that the lack of an open communication platform makes accessing and discussing complex ideas, whether ethical or political, much harder.

Yes, we did! Self-promotion in a relevant context (in a discussion of a worsening problem which affects many) is a very different undertaking than paid, off-topic advertising.

Thanks for the advice, we've been staying under the radar on HN recently but we honestly feel really strongly about this. We're a nonprofit, have been sinking lots of cash into this project, and are not in it for personal gain :)

As a nonprofit, we operate on grants and revenue alone, not investment.

We'd love to hear some specific feedback on what you think could be improved about our UI :)

We also think we're not doing too badly compared to Reddit and Hacker News!