My buddy is developing a new comments platform

[mmntech]

Was talking to this guy I used to work with yesterday. Was one of the people who got laid off with me. He's working on a new Chrome and Firefox extension that's designed to replace traditional comment systems on websites. It runs overtop sites, so you can post a comment on any page and it will be visible to anyone else who uses the extension. Oh, and it's completely unmoderated asside from the usual legal stuff. Site owners can't control or censor comments about their pages.

He gives an example of real estate listings. If someone visits a property that has a problem, they can share that with other users landing on the listing page.

In order to reduce spam, users will not be able to post links or pictures. It's monetized through advertising. He tells me postings are anonymous and the extension doesn't collect or track user data. He's a big web pricacy advocate, so I beleive him.

My biggest concern is trolls, which are obviously a huge issue on any unmoderated comment platform. Even Twitter has had to crack down what people can post. I can see things getting out of hand very quickly something like this.

Anyway, if you want to check it out, here's his Kickstarter. I have no financial stakes in this.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/commeta/commeta-comment-anywhere-everywhere?ref=discovery

 

[Vdubchaos]

Companies will be the trolls to shut this thing down QUICK.

Control and Administration of "reviews" is THE REASON why reviews exist and why they remain a great marketing tool/gimmick.

 

[BoberFett]

Old idea that has failed before. Didn't a browser do this? Was it Netscape?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

It's a great idea in a fantasy world where everyone is honest, but it's NEVER EVER going to work in the real world. In the real estate example alone 80% of the reviews would be from rivals who want to sabotage their competitors listings and 19.9% would be shills of people hyping their own listings. And that would follow to any possible market segment. If 1% of the reviews were actually legit it would be a shock and it would be impossible to know which ones they were.

 

[Leros]

Old idea that has failed before. Didn't a browser do this? Was it Netscape?

I remember something like this. I think it might have been a plugin.

Just because it failed before, doesn't mean it's a bad idea. A slightly different implementation might fare well. The earlier version might have been too early. Who knows? So far nobody has been able to successfully predict product success with any sort of confidence.

 

[gorcorps]

Not a bad idea, but I fail to see why it's on kickstarter. Needing funds for a browser extension seems really odd to me.

 

[SunnyD]

Augmented Comment Reality?

 

[Jeff7]

Largely unmoderated, and users won't be able to post links, you say?

Remove the 1 from each, and add a period where needed:
url1
with1
illegal1
content1addperiodafterthis
com1

What could possibly go wrong?


I'm assuming that, in order for comments to be visible to others, there'd need to be some kind of centralized database for all the comments?

It's a great idea in a fantasy world where everyone is honest, but it's NEVER EVER going to work in the real world. In the real estate example alone 80% of the reviews would be from rivals who want to sabotage their competitors listings and 19.9% would be shills of people hyping their own listings. And that would follow to any possible market segment. If 1% of the reviews were actually legit it would be a shock and it would be impossible to know which ones they were.

I've heard this idea a few times: Put a variable message sign in the rear window of a car, so that you could say "sorry" or "you go ahead" or "ice up ahead" or things like that to the person behind you.

These people must come from one of the friendliest parts of Canada. This is what its real usage would looke like:
- 85% obscenities
- 15% death threats
- The rounding error in those percentages would accommodate the originally-intended purpose.

 

[Ichinisan]

Without some kind of moderation, spammers would reign.

 

[Newbian]

Need to include the ability to be able to post pictures so we can see more porn.

 

[mmntech]

He's on kickstarter because he wants to make a go of developing web apps as a full time business. He already sells USB keys with his own secure Linux distro on them. Had some moderate success with that.

These people must come from one of the friendliest parts of Canada. This is what its real usage would looke like:
- 85% obscenities
- 15% death threats
- The rounding error in those percentages would accommodate the originally-intended purpose.

Yep, I told him that already. He admits he expects things to get messy but for such a tech obsessed guy, I guess he doesn't realize how vile the internet is. I think it's a good concept but it does need active moderation to filter the crap out.

 

[Jeff7]

...
Yep, I told him that already. He admits he expects things to get messy but for such a tech obsessed guy, I guess he doesn't realize how vile the internet is. I think it's a good concept but it does need active moderation to filter the crap out.

He needs to spend time reading Youtube comments on videos that deal with abortion, religion, or politics.
Or if he's really daring, spend some time on /b/.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Old, old idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation

 

[yllus]

I think his main concern should be that about 10 people are going to use this service because almost nobody knows what browser extensions are and even if they did know, aren't going to install that one.

 

[PliotronX]

Interesting idea especially for those videos with comments disabled, but it would get annoying to enter a captcha every time to post otherwise get ready for pages upon pages of free iPad offers.

 

[The Day Dreamer]

I'm sorry. Isn't Disqus and Wildfire already there?

 

[Homerboy]

ahhhh kickstarter.... digital panhandling

 

[dave_the_nerd]

ahhhh kickstarter.... digital panhandling

If only.

I'd probably donate to a homeless guy or thirty in my area if they posted a decent sob story on Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

Yelling obscenities at me on the street just doesn't have the same simulating effect to my generosity.