@chrismessina Ultimately Spiral just wasn't getting the right engagement. Lotta lurkin'; really bad viewer/poster ratio; only a few short bursts of strong organic growth. One of the leading reasons seems to have been anxiety over mixing identity+location on a public forum.
Personally enjoyed Secret better before their last update, though even then they had an odd diseconomy of scale - the more friends I had on it, the less relevant the content seemed because I couldn't really guess who it might be coming from. I can understand why they pivoted into location.
YikYak obviously promising and quality of the content has gone up over time, at least in my geo. Wonder if they'll be able to go beyond colleges. I'm convinced anonymity has a place in our public discourse. The cost of speaking out can be too high. Whether it's cracking a slightly offensive joke or criticizing ideologies, there should be a space where ideas stand on their own merit and divorced from their messenger. (oops, got a little philosophical there).
For Loro, we're also trying to make micro-communities work (e.g. by having a "Nearest" filter you can have fun with house-mates/office-mates) and let you explore outside of your default fence (e.g. Explore all of Bay Area). Hope you get to check it out and find it fun/useful!
@ggiaco got it.
This is exactly Secret's premise: "Whether it's cracking a slightly offensive joke or criticizing ideologies, there should be a space where ideas stand on their own merit and divorced from their messenger." This is how they say it: "We... believe great ideas should spread on their own merit."
Secret has also moved towards geo-centrality to emphasize relevance/timeliness, following Yik Yak's model.
Curious to see how Loro fares; what is your plan to increase your growth and participation rate?
@chrismessina@ggiaco are you targeting SF as the initial hot bed? I played with the app for a while today. Excited to see where it goes. One thing better than yikiyak is that zoning in/out into locations is a bit more up front compared to yikyak
@ggiaco I think defining a core audience is a first step. If your target is college students, yiktak has the undeniable momentum for now. One thing about yikyak though, is that it has a very fratty vibe. Unless a posting hits that vibe, it doesn't quite garner attention. Targeting an alternative audience, in a specific region could be a smart move (working people,etc) - 2cents from a nobody :)
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