Yik Yak’s Founders on the Value of Anonymous Apps | Hacker News Reader

Yik Yak’s Founders on the Value of Anonymous Apps

techcrunch.com

35 pointsErrorcod320 comments

Having used the app, if this is the future of discussion then I don't want it. There are innumerable ways to trip concealed content filters that then deceptively remove posts in a way that makes it look like community action rather than top-down content moderation. Some of these filters are great for preventing liability for their app, but make the app worthless for useful discussion. I can't wait until they implement their natural language filters so that mentioning suicide or a gun generates an automated community check or police visit, or it's just impossible to violate opaque ideological norms set by app creators in a high-tech version of manufactured consent.

Using modern social apps for me is starting to feel like navigating a Kafka-esque bureaucracy. I don't know the right thing to do to be heard, I don't know the wrong thing to do to not bring down sanctions on me, and I often struggle to navigate the app because I don't know the invisible use patterns behind unlabeled buttons and hidden swipe menus, dot-replies, etc. Am I shadow-banned? Does the app hide my replies until I pass some invisible commenting threshold? How do I page through replies? Are my posts being seen by a few people or everyone, and by what criteria? All invisible.

Yeah, it's the classic tension between anonymity (also, security) and utility...this morning, a prominent part of Stanford's campus was closed off due to a memorial service for Dave Goldberg. Someone asked what was going on and someone attempted to reply...I don't know what the replier posted, only that it apparently got deleted, so the replier just settled for posting "whatever, just google surveymonkey"

I figure there's some kind of NLP entity recognition for names/proper nouns...and perhaps the mechanism/policy is set to be more safe-than-sorry (in favor of deleting content). I just can't see how this will translate into a valuable community, though. I go to YikYak whenever I want to know the kind of things that are going on but aren't covered in a news source, but factual/substantive discussion is effectively discouraged by the content policy. How long until the general userbase just gets bored of seeing ripped-off memes and shower thoughts?

(on the other hand, maybe it doesn't need to depend on a userbase that's not in college...every year, YikYak can count on getting a fresh userbase to replace the graduating seniors who end up quitting the app)

Yes, there is an automated system in YikYak that artificially applies downvotes on a timer if you make a post with an anglophone name in it, faking natural downvotes.

I admit there's a tension there, but a large part of my complaint is that it's intentionally opaque to the point of actively trying to hide itself. Ethical, human-friendly moderation systems have at least some degree of transparency.

Just went to install this app. Asks for identity, Location (understandable given the nature), photos, media, files, device ID and call information, and wi-fi connection info.

No thanks. How can you call your app anonymous and require my identity and contents of my device?

You lie.

More seriously since I can't be bothered reading another TC fluff piece, did they explain how they are going to make any money out of Yik Yak?

"And of course, there’s also the question of how Yik Yak will make money — as Crook joked, “don’t worry about the money” is something they say in Silicon Valley, but in New York they say “worry about the money” — a nod to the conference’s New York location.

But that $70+ million in outside funding allows Yik Yak’s co-founders to delay thinking about monetization for some time. Local ads are in the back of their minds, said Buffington, but they are not even looking to test that yet. Instead, the company has the freedom to focus on the user experience and growth, which is what they plan to do."

Two paragraphs to say we have no idea. I guess there is always the extortion option.

On iOS, it asks only for location data.

They should do the same for android then. I'd definitely install it, it seems interesting.

May it be that iOS quietly gives everything else to the app?

Pretty sure iOS allows no app access to some of that info.

iOS permission requests happen in-app rather than at install time, and they're definitely not "quietly given". Each permission gets a separate dialog, Apple's review process rejects requests that aren't tied to functionality, and iOS doesn't allow access ever to device ID, call information, etc.

> How can you call your app anonymous and require my identity and contents of my device?

The way these anonymous social media apps work is that they distinguish anonymity from traceability. Since you are traceable (or identifiable via your mobile device), you are NOT anonymous in the eyes of the social media service (in this case Yik Yak). It however, provides you anonymity against the users of the social media. For many Internet users, this is sufficient.

Recently, we did some analysis (sensitivity, type, potential audience and linguistic characterists) on the content posted on anonymous social media like Whisper [0]. One of the things we found is that not all content is equally sensitive in terms of anonymity.

[0] http://socialnetworks.mpi-sws.org/papers/anonymity_shades.pd...

It's about as anonymous as this forum if you're posting from a cellular or residential broadband network.

Yes, well i know this name is pseudonymous and someone who actually tried could probably figure out who I was.

Yik Yak seems very different from hacker news.

Pseudoanonymous or unilateral anonymity, since I'm almost certain that Yik Yak keeps track of post and users and with the current state of machine learning it is trivial to later pinpoint a person with said posts. Don't like the word anonymous being thrown out there and making users think that they have true anonymity, to me it almost feels like false advertisement.

"anonymous flavor" or "anonymous style" apps

"For instance, Secret’s failure to quickly address the bullying on its network eventually led to its downfall." - this is pure conjecture being presented as fact...

For instance, Secret’s failure to quickly address the bullying on its network eventually led to its downfall.

I didn't get that from the secret shut-down at all. From all the talk here after the shut down it was largely a factor of 1. low quality secrets being gamed to get to the top and thus not interesting and slowing growth and 2. it's rebranding making it dull.

It sounds cool, but it appears to be full of bored stoner comments ("waaaassssup" etc.) and people just being obscene. There are also very few updates in my fairly populated area. It's going to be hard to create a community

I'm also fairly sure I could just spoof the location of my rooted phone and view and post to whatever region I liked.

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