A couple of years back, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales launched a new media platform in Wikitribune. The platform was intended to be an online publication that would combat fake news with original reporting. The platform never took off because your parents/grandparents just love the television man yelling unsubstantiated talking points at them so they can recite at family gatherings.
A social media network to take on Facebook and Twitter
But Wikitribune isn’t a total failure and Wales intends to fold it into WT:Social, a social media network to take on Facebook and Twitter. WT:Social works much like those other platforms, with users sharing articles to their followers. It’s all by-the-numbers but with one big difference: business model.
WT:Social will not be funded by advertising like Facebook, rather it will be totally funded by user donations, much in the same way Wikipedia works. The platform also wont use algorithms to promote posts on your feed, instead it will show newest content first. It’s like the good old days of a chronological timeline.
The platform says it will community based with small, or niche, communities of like-minded people. It’s a nice idea but we all know how Facebook groups start small and innocent and before you know it are caught in power struggles and outing people they don’t agree with anymore.
WT:Social will be free to join when it eventually launches in full
WT:Social says they “will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.” It’s a nice thought, but call me skeptical. Still, I’d like an alternative to that wretched hive of scum and villainy that Facebook has become.
The best part is that WT:Social will be free to join when it eventually launches in full. You can currently sign up to get on the wait-list, donate money to get in early, or invite a bunch of friends for a better chance to get in early. WT:Social currently has 50,000 users but Wales says the ambition it to grow into the millions.
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