Working on the first VeSoNet prototype

Posted on 27 November 2023 in Programming

Yesterday I began work on the first prototype of VeSoNet, my new social network. VeSoNet, as a concept, has been in development for at least a year, probably longer.

What exactly is VeSoNet, you ask? Well, the idea is very simple, like all my ideas: it should be a social network that combines the best features of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, before they grew into giant, data-eating, privacy-violating monsters. VeSoNet should go back to the basics of what a social network is all about: following what your friends are up to, rather than whatever the latest “trend” is, or what the company that created the network “recommends” to you (often based on tracking your preferences so they can show you more ads).

In a sense, VeSoNet will be similar to the “fediverse” (Mastodon, and so on) since you will be able to create your own network, but there will also be some important differences. In general, it will be designed in such a way to optimally facilitate interaction with a close group of friends, as opposed to a large network where people “follow” one another.

Anyway, as you can see, there’s not much to see yet. There’s a login system and a rudimentary system for posts; that’s it. I will be working on this whenever, at my leisure, since it’s not really something that has a lot of priority right now.
As for the future, will VeSoNet be able to rival larger social networks like Twitter (or X, I should say, nowadays) and Mastodon? Who knows! Will I one day make money from it? Probably not, but who knows! Certainly not by showing ads or making it a paid service! We’ll see how it goes. When there’s an interesting update, I will let you know.