from Hacker News

Elite social media

by sushobhan on 4/29/17, 9:56 AM with 59 comments

• by Animats on 4/29/17, 7:24 PM

  If you have a Bloomberg terminal, you get access to a message board much like Craigslist. If you want to rent out your yacht, that's the place to go.

• by Geekette on 4/29/17, 9:05 PM

  I belong to some of the services listed, including ASW and BOAW and haven't logged on in forever because they're boring. Despite all the hype, these services are ultimately no different from other social clubs and most people have sufficient avenues for socializing with and keeping in touch with people on diverse bases (interest/activity, work, school, family, etc).

  They proclaim exclusivity but are often trying to grow their user base (including stealth advertising via article mentions/placement) and monetize. When they focus on the latter is when they realize that their service isn't that useful because their members clearly aren't interested in paying. Exclusivity or not, a network is useless without X critical mass of users and Y minimum activity level.

• by kolbe on 4/29/17, 7:35 PM

  Hacker News is the only elite organization I like hanging out at!!

  All things aside, HN always seems to be so serious in its discussion about content, and I never get the opportunity to say how much I appreciate this place.

• by aphextron on 4/29/17, 4:33 PM

  Reminds me of the 'I Am Rich' app launched back in '08. It was just an app that says 'I am Rich' and cost $999.99 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich)

  Moral of the story: rich people will always want to show off that they are rich.

• by RichardHeart on 4/29/17, 7:30 PM

  Articles subheadline: "On the internet, no one can see your Rolex" Perhaps they're on a different internet where pictures and video aren't popular.

  I met some pretty cool people at the last ASMallWorld event I went to in Gstaad. Like any social event, some people will be interesting, some will be pompous, some both. You need to sort the wheat from the chaff on your own.

  I'd much rather associate with great minds behind a common goal, than by status of wealth. Wealth isn't that great of a filter by which to group peoples' interests.

  That being said, success leaves clues, and people who've earned their success financially often have lots of interests stories to tell and lessons to teach. Those that inherit their wealth, it seems, are soon to be parted from it.

  There's a place for networking, and there's a place for networking with people similar to you. That being said, I think you're better off focusing on your mission, and letting people attract to you, than you are doing the jetset thing.

  Remember these "clubs" are businesses, and they're there to make money on you.

• by dingaling on 4/29/17, 8:48 PM

  It's not quite 'elite' but The Well is a fairly exclusive and well-connected social network, which has been running online for over 30 years now:

  https://www.well.com/join.html

  I dabbled in it a couple of decades ago when there was a special-offer for a month's membership, it was certainly highbrow compared to Usenet at the time.

  $150 is a fair chunk of cash for a year's membership, but does keep the rabble out whilst not being much of a road-bump to those who are keen.

• by charlesdm on 4/29/17, 4:20 PM

  BOAWs website doesn't look all that great + their iOS apps haven't been updated in 2+ years. I'm not saying it couldn't be an amazing community, but unless someone jumps in here and tells me they're a user and it's amazing, I'd be suspicious.

• by Kalium on 4/30/17, 1:35 AM

  I had a brush with Ivy.com at one point. It was an art show. It was an interesting experience, but mostly it was full of the kind of socialite-types I am not particularly interested in associating with.

  The problem with elite social events is that they're full of the kind of people who value being at elite social events.

• by ThomPete on 4/29/17, 7:57 PM

  I am a member of Erik Wachtmeister first company A Small World I haven't logged in for ages heard they now charge.

  This sounds exactly the same and will probably fail for exactly the same issues. A lot of the people aren't really "1 percenters" at all but rather people who live of the "1 percenters" and so the benefits one ends up getting unless they are trying to make money on these people are easy to overlook.

  A much better example of a 1 percenter community is Angellist's syndicates. I got a lot of connections that way.

• by downandout on 4/29/17, 9:42 PM

  I wonder how much of the ticket-selling success of the Fyre Festival debacle was attributable to postings on these networks. I had never heard about it until it fell apart.

• by spitfire on 4/29/17, 7:31 PM

  half way through the article the writers let drop that the founder of BOAW's previous attempt was A small world. Which failed as it became commoditized.

• by rixed on 4/30/17, 3:51 AM

  Is my memory corrupted, or didn't Facebook also pretend to be reserved for the "elite" in its infancy? I remember several newspaper articles describing Facebook as the "secret" website where "important" people stays in touch with each others, with some celebrity names listed as reputed users.

• by OJFord on 4/29/17, 11:30 PM

  Poor, poor Sartre.