If I was going to remake a social network in 2019 to be sustainable and not grow into an anti-user beast, I would make it open-source, super remixable and rebuildable, and based on the simplest and most resilient parts of the web

If I could switch all of my Facebook contacts over to a giant mailing list I would do that in a heartbeat- but there are reasons why others wouldn't (even though those reasons are blurry and varied)

Twitter was like this for a while- more a protocol than a social network- super easy API, a variety of clients & creators. Then they decided to make money of selling data access and driving up engagement with addictive notifications that aren't available through 3rd parties.

The protocols already exist- and the existence of social media in our society reflects a profound failure of people making tools to make websites. I am lucky to own ejfox.com - how crazy is it that it's standard to host your identity under a corporate TLD?

The world would be dramatically better if we removed the tech-bro mold that is growing on top of our open protocols, re-selling convenience to users and stripping them of their autonomy and individuality and re-selling their data at every opportunity

To my original point- if I was re-making a social network, it would mostly look like the internet at large, but with the tools of creation and hosting made easier and accessible. Truly accessible, not "gonna make some money off being the middleman" accessible.

There is no reason that your personal website couldn't ping my personal website when you post an awesome new photo, and yet the entirety of some artists' work is held in an Instagram profile- these are choices we have made as developers, creators, and as a society