Or How Facebook inspired its future end
In 2012, I declared Facebook to be a time waster. For every useful post, I got at least 20 posts that were, at best, distractions. I stopped my daily incursion into FB. Then my weekly incursions became monthly. Eventually I turned my FB account into an address book to find people when I needed to find them. The account just got more and more dormant. A few months ago, I finally deleted my FB account.
Sad! You see, I still want to see your pictures of your family in front of the Christmas tree. Or your kids graduating and entering a new career. Or the trips you have taken. Or the health challenges you are facing. Drop me a few paragraphs to tell me and your following what you are up to. And I want an efficient way to tell people outside my Dunbar number my news. Social media has so much potential to keep people connected in a meaningful way.
I am a thinker. And an inventor. After lots of thought about my FB disappointment, I invented a co-operative social media website in 2015. I called it “Consensus.”
https://davevolekinventions.org/Consensus/
The basic premise of Consensus is that the members own this social media outlet. So the members, through democratic due process, will decide on the direction. That direction will be more focused on positive user experience, not profits for rich people.
Here are some other points about Consensus
Consensus will license software already developed by a fledgling social media site. There is no point in developing brand new software.
Consensus will have a two-tiered system of governance, modeled on my Tiered Democratic Governance invention. Consesus members elect about 100 members into the Low Ring. These members serve on various committees. The Low Ring members elect about 10 High Ring members, who will be making most of the decisions.
New Consensus software will have to be written or be found to provide for online meetings and voting. Consensus will also set up various forums for members to let the Low Ring and High Ring know what members are thinking.
Individual members will earn “Influence” to determine their voting power. This Influence is based on a mathematical formula that incorporates length of time on Consensus and the number of followers. So not all votes will be equal. This will prevent nefarious forces from taking control of Consensus when Consensus becomes popular. Corporate members will not have Influence.
Revenue can come from donations, membership fees, and/or advertising. Maybe even data mining — if the members agree. The High Ring will make the decisions on how to earn to money to keep Consensus solvent.
The High Ring will also set up a moderation committee of Consensus and provide policy. While free speech should be a worthy principle, Consensus also has the right to create its own culture. There will always be a few voices that need to be suppressed on Consensus. The members, directly or indirectly, decide on when the cultural limit has been exceeded. There will be a process of warnings leading to expulsions. Those voices can go somewhere else on the internet. I won’t say this process will be easy or perfect, but it will be better than “forcing” current social media outlets to “protect” us.
I want my feed to be chronological. Consensus will allow me this option to view all my follows. And this should be the default option.
There should be other feed options offered to Consensus members. For example, maybe some of my follows could be culled such that I see only 25% of their posts. Or maybe I could get an occasional post from a second-level connection, just to see what friends of friends are up to, which could lead to useful connections.
Member users control their feed — and see what they want to see. Algorithms deciding what we should see or should not see should be cast aside. Otherwise there is little advantage to Consensus.
Consensus in 2024
Well, nine years have passed since I put Consensus “out there.” Like my other inventions, it has failed to garner attention. But I think it still has potential. Profit-driven social media sites are getting a bad reputation. The public just might like this co-operative model.
But since 2015, I have come up with some new ideas for Consensus.
Financing in 2024
The 2015 version had redeemable preferred shares as the main financial instrument to bring in the capital. At that time, I thought this financing structure was too convoluted.
Earlier in 2024, I presented the world with my Spolu idea. The Spolu is an advanced co-operative. Profits are shared between investors, employees, customers, and suppliers. A one-hour read explains this concept better.
https://tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/blog_details.php?blog_cat_id=19&id=387
It would be much easier for Consensus to attract capital by issuing spolu shares. I believe many world citizens would be willing to “invest” in these shares to get Consensus started. The spolu shares might even get a reasonable return.
Monetizing in 2024
A few months ago, I somehow thought of a new way for Consensus to generate revenue.
Get ready for this novel idea.
· It will finance Consensus.
· It will enhance the member experience.
Here is how this works:
Each member gets one free post a week. In that post, the member can present whatever news he/she wants to his/her following.
If the member wants to post before 168 hours have elapsed, that member must pay a small fee. I suggest $1.00.
Think about this! The week delay between posts will force many members to create relevant posts for their following. No more pictures of restaurant meals or dissing the least favored political party. To save $1.00, members will put more effort and thought into their weekly post.
So our Consensus feeds will have fewer articles. But these articles will be more relevant to us. We need not scroll through a pile of crap to find the gold. Or miss important messages! Or have algorithms decide some important messages are not that important. Or unwanted advertising.
Corporate members of Consensus — business, non-profit, entertainment, educational, et al — will also be subject to the one-post-a-week restriction. If they want to post more often, they will pay that small fee. I believe this is how Consensus will cover its operating expenses.
For example, I envision the National Hockey League (NHL) will want to give a daily post to its future 50,000 followers on Consensus. That will cost the NHL $7.00 per week. Good deal for the NHL to reach its fans. Good deal for the NHL fans who want their daily NHL news alongside news from their Consensus following — and not impeded by algorithms. Good deal for me and other Consensus users who won’t be subscribing to the NHL feed: we’ll be happy the NHL and many other corporate members are funding Consensus for us. Win-win-win for everyone.
Well, maybe not the for-profit social media outlets. But I’m not feeling too sorry for them.
Did I mention that corporate members of Consensus need not fear losing their efforts to build a large following, then lose that ability to reach them because some profit driver drastically changing the rules to earn more profit. Corporate members can decide whether or not to pay that $1.00 per post. It is that simple.
And the High Ring can increase that fee to $1.25 at any time. This should bring in almost 25% more revenue! Most corporate members can afford this increase.
If I follow a corporate member which gets too crazy with “advertising,” I can just unfollow it. Or maybe I’ll put it on my 25% cull list to reduce the noise on my feed. I will be in control, not an algorithm.
We also might put a weekly limit on comments. Let’s say 20 comments per week? More than 20 means a small fee.
Dave Using Consensus
I envision a time when I come to Consensus once a week. I will spend a half hour to check up on people who have been in my life. Then I get back to other life things. I might post something once a month.
Isn’t that what social media should be about?
Published on Medium 2025
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