There are/have been several products (Tapestry, Super, Snapchat, etc) that are using the dynamic of visual based stories. In some they lean more to the meme style (Super) to the highly designed (Tapestry). In most cases, the mental cost of creativity reduces usage. Curious to see the roadmap around expected engagement. (Not how the features make it super easy, etc.)
With all content plays like this, your creator to consumer ratio has to get to 3-4% or else you will never escape being a nice, niche product.
Agreed, @micah. I loved Tapestry but found it was way too much work and they lacked significant distribution to encourage me to invest in the platform.
That said, I haven't played with THRED and don't know their long-term direction. There's always room to create new, compelling experiences despite how jaded we might become with all these "similar looking" apps.
Curious to hear @biz's thoughts on this.
@micah@rrhoover Having built Tapestry I can relate. We were trying to create a platform for storytelling. I believe the challenges to do that are manifold, but I think the biggest challenge happens before the software is a factor at all.
It's easy to take photo and filter it, or write a tweet, but building any kind of cohesive narrative (even for simple "x things like like about nyc") takes considerably more mental and time commitment.
As you add mental effort or time to the process, you also introduce points where someone can give up (intentionally, or as a prelude to prolonged procrastination). It was my experience that regardless of the software, there was a huge drop-off in authorship after the medium expected you to go beyond a single photo or status-update type block of text.
As for readership, there is also a commitment required on behalf of the person consuming the story. We've been trained to scroll through short glanceable photos, status updates, screenshots, videos, gifs, etc, so needing to be deliberate about consuming the media (tapping, swiping, watching a video) means you'll lose some people off the bat too.
@fjania@rhoover the hardest part is people want to be creative but don't trust their creativity. With a follower count of 1+n (that continues to grow) the pressure to be "creative" continues to grow. IG, etc are not creative platforms, they are communal fridges where a single photo gets lost easily.
This was the major issue @janatrantow and I would talk about with Tapestry. To make it work, you have to recruit creators which leads to having to build a value prop for creators that doesn't match the mass market. Hence Tapestry not really making it. A great example of a solid product being destroyed by its potential market.
Thred and Super will have difficulty bridging the gap as it can never be easy enough to not tie the quality of the output to personal self worth.
This looks fun. 😀
I was surprised to see @stupidfunwill, creator of Sim City, The Sims, Spore, and many other games I spent way too much time playing. I'd love to hear why he (and the rest of the team) chose to enter the crowded UGC photo space.
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