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Discussion on: Reimagining social media — gFam.live

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gfam profile image
gFam

I think this actually might be partly my fault... and I'm not super sure where to go from here.

The early documentation I put out was all about sharing selfies as a means of story-telling... the problem I was trying to solve was people just sharing any image they found on the internet and receiving tips on them from unsuspecting consumers.

What I was envisioning was a platform where people would share their stories, their artistic processes, their struggles and their highlights, and complete that with a selfie to ensure that their post is theirs - and not just stolen from elsewhere on the internet.

What we've been building in, though, is a verification system that will include manual checks to ensure that an account owner is who they say they are... and once an account owner is verified the assumption is that their work is their own... which honestly is hard to verify.

The amazing thing and the hard thing about cryptocurrency is that once a payment is settled, it's immutable. So if someone tricks others into tipping them, there's honestly nothing we can do to get those funds back.

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gfam profile image
gFam

Once this functionality is released I'll need to redo the documentation to move away from selfies and onto images that either contain the account holder or were taken by the account holder.... with the provision that verification can be removed if people are found to be using images they don't own.

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ericahargreave profile image
Erica Hargreave

Ah yes, the challenge of photo piracy. Despite lessons on copyright and creative commons in the digital media courses I teach, I still deal with that issue with my media students (who should know better). Ultimately when I'm teaching, if they decide to ignore copyright, they get a rude awakening in their assignment grades. But when one is just looking at a small number of students, piracy can easily be checked. With a whole platform, that is not as easy.

I like your vision of 'people sharing their stories, their artistic processes, their struggles and their highlights, and complete that with a selfie to ensure that their post is theirs - and not just stolen from elsewhere on the internet.' The problem however is that for the most part you are not getting that. Rather self obsessive selfies, which I think many people are now tired of. Also as teacher of digital media and journalism, it is all about turning the camera outwards and capturing the stories around you.

It is okay if the early documentation suggested selfies, and then there is a shift to broader pictures as a whole, as it is expected that new platforms will change and evolve as find their niche and their rhythm.

The beauty is that the transition has already begun. Lilian for example, never shares selfies. I'll make a point of sharing non-selfies regularly to help create that shift.

From the platform end, you'd just want to make sure none of the main information when joining states the need for the photos to be selfies, and make sure that you state that photos shared must be member's own.

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ericahargreave profile image
Erica Hargreave

Sounds like you have a solid plan there for evolving.