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Decentifying the social networking space

By Piyush Grover on 11 Comments / 3771 views

Isn’t it annoying to come across friend requests from fake profiles, trolls/spammers hijacking discussions and being exposed to obscenity of all kinds on social media websites?

Many of us have been put off by social networks due to the rising number of these elements. But, it is these negative entities that inspired us to build a platform that enables positive, healthy and enlightening interactions for its members.

So, in a nutshell, The Decent Planet is a social network for making new friends within an environment that is free from obscenity, fake profiles, trolls and spammers. This also makes it conducive for intellectually stimulating discussions.

   

 

Process

We believe there are 2 important considerations in the case of fake profiles/obscenity-lovers.

1. I want to ‘make a fake profile’/’post obscene content.’

2. It’s easy to ‘make a fake profile’/’post obscene content.’

We’re addressing both crucial points simultaneously.

Someone who wishes to be a part of The Decent Planet needs to fill the sign-up form which has some basic questions and some not-so-basic questions.

1st step: While studying their form, we try to gauge the thought process and the applicant’s interest level about this concept.

2nd step: We check their online presence to see if there’s any tendency or history of indecency.

There’s always a pattern which makes it easier to recognize the potential trouble-makers.

Having said that, we’re trying to make the sign-up process extremely authentic but at the same time hassle-free for the users.

So, we’re working on an algorithm to automate the 2nd step of checking their online presence, we’ve named it ‘Decency Quotient’. It will also serve as an automated control mechanism and as an alternative for manual selection that’ll help us in scaling up.

Differentiator

 

Let me start by writing, The Decent Planet is not competing with the likes (no pun intended) of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+. Because none of them cater to the social networking space where people can make new friends. 

 

Some of the websites in this space are: Badoo, Fropper, Stepout.

 

What differentiates us is the fact that we rely predominantly on a pro-active approach of not letting potential trouble-makers to pass through the entry barrier. None of our competitors use this approach, giving a free-run to trolls, spammers, obscenity lovers and fake profiles.

Despite culture being a non-quantifiable term, we consider it to be paramount. Hence, we’re trying to build a culture of decency, initially by applying a manual filtration process, which will eventually run in parallel to core users acting as recruiters, and finally ‘Decency Quotient’ merging with the existing setup.

To sum it up, Differentiator: Environment!

Future Plans

 

1. We intend to integrate ‘Gravity‘ which will be a clean, non-intrusive, curated dating application which will take into account Decency Quotient while addressing the problem of approaching the potential ‘SO’ (significant other).

 

2. Also planning to bring in an online debate platform, 3rd party apps & social gaming, astronomy themed design, ‘The Best Of The Internet’ and mobile app.

Thanks for reading this not so succinct post. 🙂

We’d really appreciate if you guys could take out some time and give us your invaluable feedback. 

It will mean a lot to us and will most certainly help us improve the website.

P.S. Thank you Alok for your feedback the other day and introducing us to this wonderful community. 

Regards,

Piyush Grover,

Founder, The Decent Planet

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11 Comments

  1. hey piyush,

    i just clicked your site link – haven’t browsed or anything – but my first reaction is though i like your name – The Decent Planet – i think you’ve OVERDONE the decency part.

    it’s okay till “make new friends in the most decent environment”

    after that “decency at the core” … “a social networking site where only the decent go through” is plain OVERKILL for me. 

    a) decent/decency is subjective.

    b) by overdoing it – it seems either prudish to me or “too good to be true” – it has put me off from exploring further 🙁

    but i shall go through your site at a later stage – since i love social media. and since you are a rodinhooder :))

    my initial reaction. sorry, but i always try to be brutally honest…!!!

  2. Thank you so much for your honest feedback, Asha.

    I have tried to address a couple of important points you’ve raised.

    i just clicked your site link – haven’t browsed or anything – but my first reaction is though i like your name – The Decent Planet – i think you’ve OVERDONE the decency part.

    it’s okay till “make new friends in the most decent environment”

    after that “decency at the core” … “a social networking site where only the decent go through” is plain OVERKILL for me. 

    This makes a lot of sense. The intention was to emphasize on the differentiating aspect. But I agree, there’s room for it to be more tacit so that it doesn’t appear to be a hard-sell. Point noted.

    decent/decency is subjective.

    There’s no denying that the manual selection process has an element of subjectivity. However, there’s reasoning involved. Applicant’s interest level about this concept and their online presence reveals enough information for it to be used as the basis for approval/rejection. Consider this process to be analogous to HR interviews that happen all across the globe; subjectivity that they have, they’re still the deciding round in most cases. 

    Having said that, the manual selection is a way for us to build the culture of decency (which is paramount.) Once we have that, gradual focus-shift will occur towards an algorithm which would factor the user’s online presence (posts/tweets/likes/shares/re-tweets/friends/followers etc.) and come up with a ‘Decency Quotient‘. Thus more automation, less subjectivity and alternative methods to manual selection springing up. That’s where we’re headed with this.

    Thanks again for taking out your time and helping us identify areas of improvement. 

    Cheers! 🙂

  3. Piyush,

    I otherwise keep myself highly optimistic, and always try looking at the brighter side of things.. But there are some very basic things in your concept, that are your own worst enemies..

    – You are trying to bell a cat here, by putting a tag of ‘Decent’ on people.. It is explosive in nature, and I am sorry to say this, but your venture might become its own first casualty..

    – People love to point fingers (even the Decent ones).. And even before engagement can start on the site, you will be facing the wrath of people, who might find the other approved people not so decent as them..

    – Last but not the least, segregating and classifying people as ‘Decent’ and ‘Non-Decent’ is akin to caste discrimination.. And in every country of the world, discrimination always causes havoc..

    I can sense that you are a man of taste and like to see order and decency around you, which is a valuable trait in today’s times.. But my friend, you are trying to change the way people evolve.. I hope you understand what I mean..

    All said and done, I wish you all the best in your venture, and hope to see a much finer iterated version of your startup in the days to come..

    Cheers!!

  4. Hi Piyush,

       The site looks good. However, a few points to note:

    -By saying the term “decent”, you are implicitly asking your users to behave artificially, and make them wear a Gentleman’s Hat & Tuxedo when they engage with your platform, like-making a post, making a comment. If you see FB, people can “write their mind” on FB, which is not indecent 98% of the time. However,  on decentplanet.com, you are asking your users to self-regulate their content and postings whenever they do. This is akin to asking someone to regulate his creativity.

    What you could have focussed on is “Verified Users”, rather than the decency part. This would have worked well in a cyberworld of Iran & Arab where production and consumption of indecent content is a taboo. But, in a liberal world, things are ok, because the community pushes-down something which is not indecent. With strict content and report control of FB/Twitter and the likes, it is actually tough to keep your account and still dish “indecent” content. Note that no Social Media says or guarantees a “decent” environment, what they guarantee is a prompt action on reporting a content or indecent behavior. What would you do if someone scoring a 100 in your DecencyQuotient posts something bad: whose mistake would it be deemed- the user’s or the sites’s (just thinking aloud) ?

    So, if i were you, i would have given a serious thought about pivoting decentplanet.com around “verified user”, or something like “no nudity or bad-phrases can be posted (auto-reject uploaded images and content by filtering with libraries like OpenCV and profanity filters”).

  5. hi

    Congratulations for taking the entrepreneurial leap and becoming a part of this awesome community.

    So i had basically very recently posted about “honest feedback” so here it goes.

    With all the mention of decency and removal of objectionable stuff you are basically trying to become the virtual version of adults(mummy papa). Now there is no problem at all in following this approach but i feel the packaging is very very confusing. I as of day now do not understand who would be the right person to join this site and enjoy it. If we take things practically every guy out here no matter how decent wants to see the pics of the girls they know and the girls want the hundreds of likes on their pic. that is a constant and that will not change no matter how decent the kids are. Also what is “indecent” in your culture might be commonplace in other cultures (kissing, bikinis in the west). So you will either be restricted by location/culture or be shunned as hypocrites. Not sure how this can be tackled in the current setup.

    Also if you are screening me at entry then well i’ll hate you and never tell anyone about you. That is a small loss. If you plan to moderate my content once i am approved and joined i swear to god i will hate you so much that there is no limit. If you do not allow me to use “indecent words” like shit and f**k then i will most likely go back FB and Twitter and post there. You might say “good for us. you are not decent” but in that case anyone can tell you how decent a person like me is. And everyone i know is like me only. So who uses this app?

    As far as i see, an i could be very short sided, it is going to appeal older people who are concerned about the safety and innocence of their kids and need a closed network. Come to think of it you can market it as a SN for kids what with age restriction of FB. 

    One last thing, one only needs a block button and stricter privacy settings to actually take care of spammers and obscene content providers. No matter how hard you try technology would never be able to completely replace human discretion. If i want a clean network i can have it even now. 

    I think you need to send out a clearer message (what with “decent” being a highly subjecting confusing term) and identify your TG. You network is unfortunately not that appealing for people like me but maybe it was never meant to be.

  6. Tech Feedback :

    😛 yeah i am back. this time purely technical 

    1. THE SITE HAS TO BE HAS TO BE MOBILE FRIENDLY. I CAN WRITE THIS WITH A LARGER FONT IF YOU WANT.

    2. SEO friendly urls please

    3. I see unicode errors in the static pages – about etc

    4. You should reconsider the fonts. Atleast the font sizes. 

    5. You seem to be using PHPFox for the framework which is good. Just make sure that you follow all the optimization guidelines. 

    6. Signup using social logins would have been nice 🙂

  7. Those are great inputs to be considered. As for the wrath, it has always been anticipated, but it’s this honesty to the broader vision which keeps us going. Thank you so much for the wishes, Vijay. 🙂 

  8. The site looks good.

    Thanks Ashutosh, glad you liked it.

    This is akin to asking someone to regulate his creativity.

    There are different ways of looking at creativity and freedom of expression. If person X is on the receiving end of abuses only because he disagrees with 100 others in a discussion, then that’s not the environment that facilitates creativity or freedom of expression. On the contrary, a healthy environment with people sensible enough to respect each other and their opinions would be ideal for encouraging creativity, freedom of expression.

    With strict content and report control of FB/Twitter and the likes, it is actually tough to keep your account and still dish “indecent” content.

    Well, I strongly disagree with that (and I could post various links in support of my disagreement). But then again it’s all about perspectives. 

    What would you do if someone scoring a 100 in your DecencyQuotient posts something bad: whose mistake would it be deemed- the user’s or the sites’s (just thinking aloud) ?

    We don’t claim to predict the exact behavior of users on our website. That’s a realistic expectation all users would have. However, we do our best at minimizing the possibility of such an occurrence.

    Having said that, there’s so much to learn from your feedback. Thanks for taking out your time and helping us.

    Cheers 🙂  

      

     

  9. Congratulations for taking the entrepreneurial leap and becoming a part of this awesome community.

    Thank you, Akhil.

    Also what is “indecent” in your culture might be commonplace in other cultures (kissing, bikinis in the west). So you will either be restricted by location/culture or be shunned as hypocrites. Not sure how this can be tackled in the current setup.

    The users on our website are open-minded individuals who can understand and absorb the fact that kissing/ bikini pics and obscenity can be mutually exclusive. There is nothing culture specific about that.

    If you do not allow me to use “indecent words” like shit and f**k 

    That’s an assumption on your part. For us, it’s always the context that matters.

    We have explicitly mentioned on our website that there is no such topic that cannot be discussed although there are ‘ways’ in which topics shouldn’t be discussed, which is a crucial difference for us. Here’s the link: https://thedecentplanet.com/index.php?do=/forum/thread/1/guidelines/

    As far as i see, an i could be very short sided, it is going to appeal older people who are concerned about the safety and innocence of their kids and need a closed network. Come to think of it you can market it as a SN for kids what with age restriction of FB. 

    That’s an interesting perspective.

    No matter how hard you try technology would never be able to completely replace human discretion.

    Exactly my point. 🙂

    Thanks a lot Akhil for this invaluable feedback. 🙂

     

  10. Thanks again. This helped. 🙂

  11. hey piyush,

    how are things in the decent planet? do share some updates – we’d love to hear more about your journey!

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