A social network’s design influences the conversations that people will have on it. Can we design a social network that will facilitate healthy debate and discussion, while avoiding toxic discourse?
Consider this: a variant of Twitter where instead of a 140 character maximum, there’s a 1400 word maximum. (We could also impose a 140 character minimum?) And you’re limited to just 3 posts per day.
The real twist though? All posts are posted at the same time: at 8am, 2pm, 8pm, and 2am. We choose times scatter across the day so your timezone doesn’t matter.
Actually, scrap the reference to Twitter altogether. The feel I’m going for is discussion focused, not shouting-into-the-void focused. So, think Reddit with all these weird limitations tacked on.
The hope is that having infrequent postings gives people a chance to breathe: no one’s expecting a response in seconds or minutes. The hope is that this also gives people a chance to think; this can be a place where long-form well thought out discussion takes place. And the hope is also this rate-limited schedule eliminates any of the infinite-scroll / endless-refreshing that comes with existing popular social media.
Think it could work? I think it could.