spacehey becoming mainstream

i would like it if SpaceHey was about 1/4 the size of Tumblr's current userbase but i don't think they'll get enough donations to support that

I'd like for this site to gain more users, although I am concerned about the site becoming user hostile if it does become mainstream. Just take a look at what happened to other mainstream social media websites such as YouTube over the years and compare them to how they were when they first started.

I don’t feel like spacehey remaining “lowkey” or becoming “mainstream” is really even a matter here.

This site seems to fill out a very specific niche, which is to simulate the layout and functionality of an old school social network web page. the fact is, not everyone online is looking for a “retro” theme. mostly, people are looking for a straight forward way to follow and update on creating and commenting over posts across platforms with other close connections or mutual random participants.

All that said, there are so many other networking avenues available which ngl better fill out those requirements, this place has nothing to worry about if keeping together some form of “consensus” is the concern lol.

Really tho, the big influx is moving towards more the direction of alternative competitors like lemmy, mastodon, peertube, even GNU social is soon approaching on top of whatever Bluesky is gonna turn out to be.

Moreover, I hope no one takes it the wrong way this is just me, but spacehey is -not- the de facto platform for a retro or old school styled network. There are several differently configured avenues which serve several diff purposes. Pubnix are full blown public access mainframe systems accessible via terminal program to take part in either a custom userspace or interactive BBS system circa 70s - 90s internet (that’s right, 70s, look up ‘ARPAnet’). 

In fact, I’d implore a lot of you who might be technologically proficient enough to go ahead and openly setup and explore discovering much of these old, new, and even hybridized protocols including gopher:// (the original web), gemini:// (memex-realized), IPFS (p2p nodes), freenet, i2p, the list goes on, there’s even an IPFS-Gemini bridge protocol to serve capsules over decentralized nodes.

TL;DR - This place has nothing to worry about, there’s a boom happening across all manner of smallnet and deepweb, and that said i’d invite much of you who are reasonable and rational to expand your horizons and get out of your comfort zone a bit discovering protocols and networks old and new. You kight be surprised.

i don't really think it's mainstream. like ppl join then they disappear and its mostly empty accs. i doubt its becoming insanely popular ngl

I would love to see my friends join here, and I gush about spacehey on tumblr at every opportunity I get. imo it's not influxes of people that ruin places like tumblr, it's staff changing the ui to make it worse/tiktokified

It doesn't matter to me. I just hate knowing it's gonna become a censored safe space.

It doesn't matter to me. I just hate knowing it's gonna become a censored safe space.

I honestly hope that this site gets more popular. I like how customizable it is compared to the social media sites we have today, and it's more fun in my opinion.

As a new user I'm of the opinion that the site could definitely serve to be more popular but there's a balance to it. The more people join the more likely it is to become less user friendly and more like new social medias, and the more resources need to be used to keep the site running. There is a balance between healthy and sizeable userbase and having one that's so large that it becomes a detriment to the vision of the site itself.

Honestly, I do hope this site grows pretty big and stays the same with all the customizable profile pages. It deserves a lot of love since it brings back a ton of nostalgia to others, and also lets other new generations to have what would nearly be a perfect replica of a MySpace experience. This place is lovely, even after just one day of joining this site! Right now imo, it feels a lot better than experiencing any other mainstream social platform.

I think that if people don't make it messy is fine. Also, it's not a network for everyone, most ppl ik would wanna have a cool layout n sht but they'd probably give up on the first try and abandon their acc that easy, so I don't think it can be too mainstream under these conditions lol, principally when no smartphone app alternative.

Honestly, like many other users said, it would be great to have more users so the site can be more active. On the other hand, I’m worried that even with the nostalgic feeling the layout of spacehey provides, it will become like other social media, in terms of topics of discussion and modern fan wars…

how spacehey should stay lowkey and exclusive to the people who are nostalgic about "the old internet".

there was a time when spacehey was like this... and it was boring as hell

90% of mastodon and lemmy are like this... and it is boring as hell

do what you will

i think its stupid to gatekeep the old internet, reserving it only for those who were there for it. everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy a place where you are fully in control of what you see instead of what the algorithm wants you to see

In my opinon, I don't think it will ever become THAT mainstream. even if the wannabe scene kids on tiktok exist, if they're not into it enough, they won't have the patience to engage in such a ""weird"" site. me personally i didn't get here to fit into an aestetich, but rather because i'm tired of algorithms, tired of ads, tired of celebrities/influencers, tired about discourse, tired of the xenophobic comments and discussions i see EVERYWHERE. i already have places like tumblr where i'm active, but here, it's even more peaceful. (sorry for getting some words wrong english is not my first language!!

In my opinon, I don't think it will ever become THAT mainstream. even if the wannabe scene kids on tiktok exist, if they're not into it enough, they won't have the patience to engage in such a ""weird"" site. me personally i didn't get here to fit into an aestetich, but rather because i'm tired of algorithms, tired of ads, tired of celebrities/influencers, tired about discourse, tired of the xenophobic comments and discussions i see EVERYWHERE. i already have places like tumblr where i'm active, but here, it's even more peaceful. (sorry for getting some words wrong english is not my first language!!

i want everyone to use it, EVERYONE used myspace before they all switched to facebook, and spacehey is a myspace 'recreation' so why shouldnt it become mainstream?

Just let it grow organically and see what happens. It's not even remotely close to mainstream yet, probably not any time soon if ever.

More people getting onto a platform with less algorithms trying to get them addicted to social media can only be a good thing, the way I see it; social medias like Instagram and TikTok especially are really unhealthy

i dont really care about more people coming but politics always being brought up is annoying. im just tired of seeing stuff you can easily find on virtually every other social media platform. im trying to escape modern social media and every corner there is more of the same stuff. i fear that more people joining will make this problem worse. is this the future of social media as we know it? i wish the blogs were actually blogs instead of politics, dni lists and drama. at least normal blogs exist but drama always overshadows them which is why i just gave up on looking at the blogs here. unfortunately it is true that people troll and cause problems even more now because the internet is accessible to literally anyone though

I wouldn't mind a huge userbase, as it's not really the problem. It's always the social site's response to a huge userbase that turns into a problem. Site sells itself and becomes less unique and borrows concepts from other sites in the name of competition. It'd be great if spacehey doesn't do that, but also I don't know how it could stay afloat.

It's not about the size of the platform. It's got more to do with the corruption within the business world.

MySpace was pretty fucking (although nothing compared to Facebook) huge during its heyday and it wasn't selling our personal information to advertisers. Then again, said advertisers weren't convinced of the potential of social media the way they are today.
I guess it's a matter of culture. Americans worship money. This site is being made by some German guy if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps he's not as right-wing liberal as Zuckerberg is.

This is a bit ironic, but hopefully people will support the merchandising side of Spacehey by buying that mug every now and then. That way we can remain independent and algorithm-free.

I think it would be fun with a little more people but not too much (like, it would be kind of uncommon to know anyone irl with it, but you know tons of ppl online). As long as the website STAYS THE WAY IT IS and doesn't become Instagram-ified or Tiktok-ified I think it will stay enjoyable and keep that nostalgic feel most people on here are looking for. 

I've read a few comments on this post and I agree with most of them. This site should be perfectly fine as long as it doesn't get TikTok-fied it should be fine.

I seriously hate when they constantly make nonsensical changes in the UI of social media like youtube, useless new functions to the website nobody asked for, the gather of personal data and trying to be as addictive as possible.

I'm the first one that sometimes scrolls through youtube shorts and videos and I hate that fact. Plus, all social media platforms copy each other to make this possible (although to be fair, this has been the case in technology since the beginning).

In conclusion, this is an amazing social network and probably how these should have stayed. As long as it has enough moderation, I think the more users the better.

I definitely agree with Zecnetovk V. This shouldn’t be an extension of TikTok/Twitter with mental illness glorification and extreme political correctness. Having it being a hangout site for different interests is perfect. I was too young to use MySpace back in the day, but it really sounded like a fun place to hang out, share music, etc.

I’m hoping a full fledged music player like the one that was on MySpace will be added as the user base grows. I think that could be at least a little bit of something that could solidify this site as different from TikTok/Twitter.

100% agree. The site is being ruined by all the stupid teenagers flocking in and spamming groups, posting their ridiculous gore images. 

You can tell the people who were around in the original MySpace and those who weren't. MySpace was a legitimate GIANT with a massive user base. And it didn't have a single problem that people are worrying about now.

The issue isn't "will more users destroy this platform". Not by a mile. The issue was, and continues to be, corporate (read: Shareholders) ownership and the rules they implemented on the other major social media platforms to establish a profitable advertising and data-harvesting business.

So no. You can have all the users in the world as long as you don't have a profit-maximizing corporation/investor to snuff out the soul.

I think this platform could become mainstream without a problem as long as the creator doesn't focus on maximizing their profits.
That's the main reason why every single social media online became such a hostile and bland environment to be in.
This place should not be a "safe space" for people with thin skin. This should not be a place bombarded with tons of ads, data collection, algorithms, etc.
The beauty of this place is taking your time to find blogs and posts that you like by yourself.

im realizing a lot of yall just wanna be edgy... who cares if teenagers come and put their pronouns or disorders on their profile? the point of this website is that communities are more sheltered from each other and anyone can just interact with whomever they want... like if the userbase becomes Tiktok-ified ur not gonna notice babes i promise. there is no algorithm. u just have to not accept friend requests from people u dont wanna b friends with... chill

The people being triggered by profiles with pronouns are cringe. Just don't talk to them if it upsets you that much, stop wasting your own time and energy whining about it

i doubt they would ever become mainstream because we're definitely a niche of people who miss the old internet, and honestly i doubt a lot of people (i mean specifically the average joe) from my gen (gen z) really even know much about the old internet in the first place, since we didnt really get the chance to experience it much -if at all. on top of that, it is a site that is way more compatible with a computer or laptop rather than an app. like yea, it has an app but i just downloaded it to check it out and tbh it only seems good for keeping up with blog posts and chats when on like, vacation or something, but i would probably never actually use it in replacement of the site seeing as it fucks up the best part of spacehey, which is the blog customization imo. these days i cant imagine something that doesnt majorly -if not entirely- run on an app, going mainstream. personally, i love it, but unfortunately i can see why not many people would be interested, as much as i disagree. i dont think i would want it to become mainstream anyway, though. i would personally worry that it would just get ruined, bought out by some bigger company that would just fuck it up for money like what happened to deviantart, something like that. whenever something becomes a cash cow, it inevitably gets milked dry. i would rather this site stay populated enough to run successfully but underpopulated enough to not catch the attention of greedy scumbag capitalists who wanna, idk, sell fucking NFTS or shill their stupid AI bullshit.

I feel like it would be insanely difficult for SpaceHey to become mainstream especially with how it is compared to more popular social media sites. There isn't enough stimulation on here and especially for new users to get them hooked onto the app, with their short attention spans I highly doubt that they'll stay long enough to actually enjoy this site for what it is. People hop onto social media for instant communication, not what this site is for lol. Though I wouldn't mind for SpaceHey to gain more users, I wouldn't want the large audience of this site (if it ever happens where a large influx of people come and actually stay) to change the way that it is now. It's a site that reminisces the old internet days and if the creator of this site changes it to become more "modern" then that just ruins the whole point of why SpaceHey was created to begin with.

echoing what others have said, it would be nice for spacehey to gain users so that the community can grow and flourish, but can also understand the concerns of people bringing twitter and tumblr style discourse onto here, although i'm sure myspace of the past had its similar share of drama and strife. it's hoping for growth at a risk.

The format of the website would make it impossible for it to be like another twitter or tiktok. Those websites work on an extremely scattered model that is hard to moderate. So any worries about that happening feel unfounded. Sure someone can come over here with the mindset of sites like this, but the environment here doesn't encourage a lot of aspects that make those sites infamous.

This is speaking in regards to people getting worried about the notion of people treating spacehey like other social media.

Granted I just joined recently myself. A bit over a week ago. So that is one more member added.

I don't see it blowing up like twitter or tiktok. I think it depends on whatever cultural shift regarding the internet we may see in the future. If anything, I think it will at least be nicher than tumblr. Perhaps on the level of neocities right now.

I think the "plug-and-play" aspect of modern social media (email, password, then you're all set to scroll) has conditioned a lot of people, especially younger, not to learn or navigate older UI's and learn HTML and that's what will stop spacehey from being a large platform. It would be great for a larger, more active community as long as they left all their drama and bs at the door.

:I joined yesterday so take this with a grain of salt :>)

(edit: registration for spacehey is also very quick and easy but learning how to edit your page is the biggest roadblock for a lot of folks, i personally love it and the reason I am here)

I think it would be cool if it was mainstream and would encourage people to put more effort into their presence and learning cool stuff like picking up HTML and there's so many niches on here that it makes it feel way more in-depth and cooler than any other site, but I hope that it doesn't get too heavy of an algorithm that would favor short-form and instant gratification content like other social medias.

Nothing ever getting better by being more popular, much less something as niche as a site like this. Fortunately most people that end up here probably searched for something like this and have enough respect for the concept to keep the spirit of the thing in tact. That said a site like this or Neocities that largely relies on your own creativity fueled by your ability to code your page (or at least look up a tutorial and put the pieces together) will never catch on with the mainstream because most people in this day and age that are looking for social media couldn't be bothered to do all the work and the very idea of a site with this much customization might even be a foreign concept to them.

I'd love to see it become mainstream and rebrand itself MySpace if the site admins can purchase the URL.

I think that this site is not the kind that sticks to most people, I have friends that like the retro and the customization and even they didn't get into it V(=^･ω･^=)v so if spacehey becomes mainstream it will be as a temporal trend like half of the sites and games recomended on tiktok

but with that said, and with the irony of me being a new user, I do think that gatekeeping is good and even necesary in cases like this, spacehey deserves more popularity and a bigger audience, but it has to be people that are really into the old ways and not froce it to newgens that could endanger this safe space

it would be sweet if social media like this one keep on going for ages to come, but I fear of what it could become with a mass migration of ppl knowing how is the state of the internet rn 

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in my personal opinion, SpaceHey needs essentially 3 ingredients and its golden;

1.) an inbuilt mp3/music player and music tab/ it may be hard to implement and would use up storage space ofc but some type of music player you can put on your profile would be a huge step toward OG myspace

2.) an events tab; myspace flourished because of the way u could find local events 2 go to and as a musician but also rave organiser itd be great to have somewhere more visible to post my events besides instagram

3.) again a tough one to crack due to server hosting costs but a way to easily post ur own photos would be great coz u can then just keep people in the loop

as for popularity and mainstream recognition; i think spacehey would be in a good place if it was able to be popular with alternative people on a wider scale, maybe a similar or slightly less popularity level to tumblr, so there can be a thriving and self fufilling community, especially when mixed with the events tab

a return to slower paced social media and an emphasis on customisation is what we need and although theres people here being like "spacehey will never get mainstream" thats not what the point of the site is IMO, theres no need for instagram/tiktok levels of popularity

tl;dr spacehey should be to the hot topic of the social media world

I'd like to see it. Like, I'd REALLY like to see it. But the internet culture is different now. You can't just innocently add randos from anywhere in the world anymore and befriend them like you could anytime before around 2008. Or maybe you can in certain subcultures but not on a mainstream level which is what you'd need to see your wish come true. In 2024, that stuff is regarded as weird.

You can see that right here, where there are 2 distinct groups - teenagers who came here from Discord and people like me who used the original MySpace and there's almost no crossover between them.

It would really help if they got the advanced search working. I met a lot of people using that, way back when.

I also think this site would be vulnerable to hackers and bots if it got too popular. Dashlane is telling me the site has already been hacked more than once and right now it's totally insignificant. If it got big it would be a huge load on the devs.

I'm not a teenager from Discord, and I'm not someone from the original MySpace, but I like retro stuff and the potential for the revival of old internet culture and technology, such as Spacehey and Web 1.1 sites.

I'd love for websites like this to get popular.

But it's strange how apparently there's people joining all the time but almost no one is populating the forums or group discussions.

Most of the content is either populated with years old discussion threads, or brand new threads with nearly 0 people interacting with them. 

Don't know why people are joining just to do nothing on it.

Tbh I wanna see it happen, I think it'd be cool if history repeated itself sorta and we had even a more tame version of myspace LOL, it would be fun. not TOO popular though, if it became mainstream I'd want it to be on the same level as like Discord or Facebook, a lot of people have it but only some people actually use it.

I'm adding onto what others have said, that the old Internet shouldn't just be reserved for people who were there for it.

Honestly I love finding this site and being able to feel nostalgia like I'm back at my family desktop playing on map and deviantart or new grounds.

But I feel so excited for kids being able to grow up with this site.

At first I was a bit shocked to see so many minors, but like I said with my nostalgia it just reminded me of how I used the Internet as a kid and I totally see the appeal. I would've loveeeeeeddd this website as a kid.

And it's even more exciting to me to see these kids making profiles way cooler than I can make anytime soon. Kids are getting excited to code and develop their own indie projects. As a creative person I'm just really eager to see what kinds of art and games and stories these kids are capable of making when they get older after being free to create whatever here on space hey.

I think of all the artists on deviant art and new grounds that inspired me and being able to have my own little ring of friends push each other to make cooler and cooler things and share new discoveries and experiment.

And I'm also excited to see kids being able to freely express and self identity themselves here. Tumblr right now is honestly having the same interest in kids as space hey, and again it reminds me a lot of how I used Tumblr when I was a kid. Having stupid arguments about things that don't matter and figuring yourself out with other kids in your own private space it's pretty rad.

If space hey gets mainstream my honest biggest fear is clout chasers flocking to the site to gain followers and make money off of pushing products or something I don't know. I came here to get away from the exploitive social media platforms and clout chase mentality that insta and Twitter have. It's really gross and it will kinda fuck up all of this for everyone lol. Censorship is also a big concern, we need an internet that can keep us safe but won't censor us.

But I'm not worried about it becoming something like that, space hey isn't modeled after sites that create exploitive and capitalist platforms. And it can't sustain that either. Forums and bullitens and profiles as it is here just can't help clout chasers thrive and there is no room for advertisers. And then as someone else mentioned before the user base would need to explode in numbers lol and I don't think space hey could manage so many new people at once.

Space hey will become more popular over the next 5 years i 100 guarantee that! The only reason I think it isn't as popular now is because people are still sticking with mainstream social sites and haven't wanted to make the change. And they don't know space hey exists. As people get tired they will leave and find sites like this one and share it with their friends and followers.

Again, I'm glad because space hey isn't a site for poster v follower dynamics as everyone has a profile and a say. And you have total control over what you find on space hey, it doesn't control an algorithm for you and it won't suggest "posts" for you. Just etc i can seriously go on. (Obvs)

So the real only concern is the site culture. And that's easy to control. As long as OGs and forums like this help welcome newcomers and show them the ropes the culture won't be shifted and space hey will continue to be mostly the same. Most people tend to form small groups and subcultures here easily so there won't be any large take over.

Sorry for the huge rant, I had a lot of thoughts

Spacehey mainstream? Yeah okay. I remember using earlier 'old social network' revivals as well (remember FriendProject? That was kinda cool too), but no SpaceHey doesn't seem to be mainstream. But I do like it because it just helps remind me of why I used to enjoy browsing the web and hagning out on it. :D

I don't think the site is user-friendly enough to become mainstream, period. The UI is pretty clunky compared to what most people are used to on the modern web and there's fewer features like no photo uploading or sharing something to your own page/a timeline. It also moves a lot slower than other social sites, so it doesn't hit the same receptors in the brain that keep people coming back.