A few weeks ago, a forum started by some reddit ex-execs as the kinder, gentler reddit went public. The anti-reddit platform has been highlighting Lena Dunham as their partner.
- So, maybe getting let go from Reddit was a blessing in disguise for Dan McComas, the former SVP of product at Reddit. Since leaving Reddit, McComas has built Imzy, which aims to be a platform for healthy communities where its members are free from harassment and abuse. Already, the company has raised $3 million in funding from Charles River Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.
Today, Imzy is launching a partnership with Lena Dunham to form an online community for the Lenny Letter, an online newsletter started by Dunham and Jenni Konner with over 400,000 subscribers and a 65% open rate. Lenny Letter, in addition to comedian Dan Harmon, Feral Audio and Black Girls Talking, is one of Imzy’s first official partners. Official communities will be noted with a verified mark.
I learned about Imzy from a post here on Hubski in a post called Who are you online? submitted in a podcast by keopi.
I went to check it out when it went public and found a place somewhat similar in design to tumblr. What's missing for me is a way to find where the action is happening. I was able to pick my interests, but those interest didn't bring me much activity.
Have you heard about Imzy? Any thoughts about it?
So this is designed right off the bat to be a heavily-censored 'safe space' for Lena Dunham-type liberals. Expect that no dissenting opinions will be tolerated. This will quickly become an even worse echo chamber than other sites.healthy communities where its members are free from harassment and abuse
I'm sure that's possible, but users being annoying asshats was/still is a huge problem for reddit so I see the desire to steer away from that. It's easy in a small community to not have rules against it since users will just ignore the asshats but if they want a larger community they will need more rules. Of course it could be taken too far like anything but there's no reason to write it off just yet I don't think.
So, I've been using Imzy for a few days now. Here's my front page, for visual reference. Here's what I can tell: Posts (both outside and inside) are clunky, taking up a lot of unnecessary space to describe the same amount of data, comparing to Reddit and Hubski. This holds up for both the feed and when visiting a community (the local analogue to a subreddit). It's fixable and won't take much, but it's never going to be as neat as the two aformentioned forums, given Imzy's current design paradigm (900px-ish, with almost have of it off-post taken to display links to communities one's "participating" in). The fact that the post list is often interrupted by "WE RECOMMEND THIS COMMUNITY FOR YOU" is not helping the feed. The button to tip the poster takes more priority in the design than "report" (which is hidden behind a click-openable menu). I can't point out why, but it doesn't sit well with me. On the other hand, Imzy does well to remove the downvote button: if they want to facilitate a friendlier environment - their stated goal - then that's the way to go. The whole of Imzy's communities, even ones that would usually generate some interest - like Technology - is quite inactive, both in terms of comments and whatever the local likes/upvotes are called. Release of a new Android app update, for example, only has 19 "hearts" - and that's a community you're subscribed to by default (you pick additional to start with right after signing up). It is, perhaps, a matter of time, but for an advertised "anti-Reddit", it's not a promising start. Communities themselves are rather clunky. All the important details - rules, description, links and mod ("leader") list - are hidden behind separate tabs, each - their own webpage. Given the design paradigm, they would have to hide it in a drawer, but seeing how slowly the tabs load (there's nothing to accelerate that, despite there existing libraries for that), one loses interest well before getting to the very end. It's odd to see things this important hidden away behind anything other than a hover-openable panel. One of the advertised features suggests that, given the tip mechanic (which is attached to your credit card), artists can communicate with their fans and, at the same time, thrive off their financial support. I had no chance to test that, but there are some artist-based communities that are in the top 25, activity-wise. People there seem to be aiming for constructive and positive exchange, judging by the comments and the replies that I've got. That's all I can say. I'm going to check in every once in a while to see if there are any major updates, but I'm not going to take part in it at the moment.
I will remind the Last-psychiatrist on that: There is a push against cyber-bullying. But nobody care for real bullying. Because it make people/victim want to be more private. People should keep talking on the net without fear of bully, because, that's all the contents facebook (and the like) had, and never paid for. Those creating content on the net are paid with "like" and appreciation (and bullies are a hindrance) And they sure should not be anonymous else we cant sell their data to our advertisers. So under the pretext to stop cyber-bullying, Imzy and the like, would encourage you to participate with your real identity. So they can sell you more easily. . Or that's what I suppose their business plan should be.