How to make social media smarter

Current social media is not smart

Each social media network is a unique information ecosystem. The design, the policies, the community. It all creates a vibe. Now I don’t really have an issue with any individual platform. They all have their own individual benefits and problems. However, NONE, in my opinion, is well designed to create a smart information ecosystem. NONE, holds on to that gold, and makes it shine. It’s just not their niche.

I think the following problems are fundamental:

The same topics come up again and again… along with the same arguments. No iterative improvement is made. It all feels rather pointless. Rarely do we see any meaningful progress or synthesis of ideas. It's like watching a broken record, stuck on the same groove, playing the same notes over and over again.
A bazillion individuals each posting their own opinion on a topic… its just too much. No one has time to read everyone else’s opinions. Especially when many are half-baked. This really devalues long-form text and detailed discussion.
No one feels any incentive to make detailed arguments. Because once again… they would be lost in the churn. Instead, all incentives point towards making that snappy cheeky point. (Which i admit are very funny, and i don’t want to lose them… I just don’t think a smart information ecosystem would incentivize them so heavily.)

Essentially we are aiming for a Wikipedia that people want to use.

With an easy-to-read TLDR version (with slides!).
With images, videos, diagrams, etc.
Where people happily socialize.
Where people actually actively contribute.
Where the editing and accepting process is extremely visible.
We cannot promise the truth with such a system, but we can promise a system designed to iteratively improve over time.

Midflip’s approach

Midflip is not creating a reddit or twitter clone. We took a look at the problem and we came up with a fundamentally different solution.

Midflip is closer to a wiki. But it is unlike any wiki you have ever seen before. It is not a top-down stale curation. We want the creativity and fun of social media. Midflip is designed to take the bottom-up energy of the crowd and direct it towards iterative improvement.

At Midflip, you create topics. But stop, we are not Wikipedia. There are no limitations of what a topic is or what is in it. They can be questions like “How is AI going to affect the job market?”, or viral blog-like titles like “AI is stupid and I hate it!” or group specific viewpoints like “E/acc views on AI”.

Each topic has a social feed full of related topics and posts. However, what truly sets Midflip apart is that each topic also has a king text.

The king text is the best current expression of the topic. It can include text, images, videos, links, etc. To update a topic, someone submits an edit… but the edit is not immediately accepted. Instead, the edit appears on the feeds of people following the topic.

For instance, let's say John, a finance bro, notices that the king text’s content on "Inflation watch" is outdated. He submits an edit with the latest information and insights. This edit then appears on the feeds of anyone who have expressed interest in the “inflation watch” topic. They can then review John's edit… and vote on whether it should replace the current king text.

To become the new king text, the edit must win a vote and "knock" the current king off of its hill. At Midflip, we're essentially playing the childhood game of king-of-the-hill, but with the goal of best expressing a topic. With best expression meaning: Summarizing the topic in a fun, short, and meaningful way. If John's edit receives more votes, it becomes the new king text for "Inflation Watch." As the winner, John can now say, "I am the king of the hill of Inflation Watch! Na-na-na-na-na" He has bragging rights.

This is good gamification, but let’s be honest, it is still not enough of an incentive. We need something bigger to get people really invested with this social wiki.

Furthermore, this system presents an additional challenge: it is unrealistic to expect a dedicated group of individuals to thoroughly review and collaboratively discuss every single update made to the wiki.

But don’t worry, we solve these two problems with one stone. We use Localized Liquid Democracy.

How do liquid trust networks work???

Liquid Trust Networks allows people to accumulate trust within different topics. So that if John trusts Anne within the topic "How to fix the housing market", then every time Anne votes within that topic, John auto votes too.

Liquid Trust Networks allows people to delegate their voting power to those they trust within specific topics. This way, those who are most trusted in a particular area have a greater say in determining the best content for that topic, while still allowing for broader participation and input from the public at large.

This creates a powerful incentive to actually be thorough and clear when discussing topics. Because now you are not writing for likes alone, you are also writing to gain people’s trust. This is very different. I like the witty viral comment, but I do not trust its author. Trusted individuals gain credit and voting power within their specific topics. They can use their delegated votes to efficiently manage edits and to promote/demote related posts. This means we do not need to rely on a group of people to vote for every single edit, instead a single trusted individual can wield sufficient voting power.

But actually, Liquid Trust Networks is MORE powerful than currently explained. This is because Liquid Trust Networks creates trust chains. If Ron trusts John's expertise, and John trusts Anne…. well then Anne now wields the voting power of all three individuals. As trust chains grow, a small group of recognized experts can maintain the integrity and quality of a topic.

Of course, any individual can always change their vote. Liquid Trust Networks is as flexible as can be. It balances broad participation and efficient decision-making. It allows the crowd to push back and adjust who they trust at any time.

The benefits to midflip’s design

Midflip's approach offers several key benefits that directly makes social media smarter.

Iterative improvement of ideas: Elsewhere arguments go in circles and understanding is shallow. At Midflip, we have a system that pushes the best ideas and explanations to the top. The gold is now caught, polished, and refined.
Raise the discussion to the group level: A bazillion individuals selling their own ideas is too much! By making the king text the centerpiece of each topic, Midflip shifts the focus away from the flood of individual opinions and towards a substantive group viewpoint. This group viewpoint is then designed to improve over time. Different viewpoints on the same topic are automatically linked.
Meaningful change and reward: Elsewhere everything is lost in the flood. Here your valuable contributions are connected to group monuments which stand the test of time. In so doing, you earn the trust of others, and you gain greater influence over the direction of discussions and the evolution of the king text.
Efficient collaboration at scale: Localized liquid democracy enables large groups of people to collaborate efficiently on complex topics. An article influenced by tens of thousands of people is much harder to ignore.
Flexibility and adaptability: Midflip's system is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the changing needs and interests of its users. If the crowd wants a fun topic text full of gifs and YouTube shorts… hell yeah go for it.

In summary

Midflip aims to harness the collective intelligence of large groups. We do not lose gold. We collect, polish, and refine it. From the flood of opinions, we raise group viewpoints which iteratively improve. We push a new vision of decentralized organization - localized liquid democracy. Join us in this journey. Sign up for Midflip. Read and write about what interests you. Watch the crowd add and refine. Find people you trust and build something meaningful together.

Some of the best explanations and deep dives I have ever found were on social media platforms. Do not ask me to link to them. They are gone. Lost in the flood.

They were generally a comment to some question. You would not find them at the top. No, that spot is reserved for viral cheekiness. Instead you would find them some way down. A comment where some wonderful person poured their soul into the question and churned real gold. They explained the situation simply, beautifully and with eloquence. Pure gold.

Next week, same question, generic answers, and the gold is lost.

In this article I am introducing a new platform called Midflip. We style ourselves the public think tank. We have a lofty goal. One that underlies our pragmatic decisions. We believe that humans need to become smarter in larger groups or we will all share a troubling future. Our goal then is to make BIG groups smarter. Our plan is to sell internal communications software to companies while offering our innovations to the broader public for free.

https://piratepuppy.midflip.io/posts/how-to-make-companies-smarter-1st-edit-by-josh

Problems within current social media.

I think the following problems are fundamental:

The same topics come up again and again… along with the same arguments. No iterative improvement is made. It all feels rather pointless. Rarely do we see any meaningful progress or synthesis of ideas. It's like watching a broken record, stuck on the same groove, playing the same notes over and over again.
A bazillion individuals each posting their own opinion on a topic… its just too much. No one has time to read everyone else’s opinions. Especially when many are half-baked. This really devalues long-form text and detailed discussion.
No one feels any incentive to make detailed arguments. Because once again… they would be lost in the churn. Instead all incentives point towards making that snappy cheeky point. (Which i admit are very funny, and i don’t want to lose them… I just don’t think a smart information ecosystem would incentivize them so heavily.)

Midflip’s approach

Midflip is not creating a reddit or twitter clone. We took a look at the problem and we came up with a fundamentally different solution.

Each topic has a social feed full of related topics and posts. However, what truly sets Midflip apart is that each topic also has a king text.

This is good gamification, but let’s be honest, it is still not enough of an incentive. We need something bigger to get people really invested with this social wiki.

But don’t worry, we solve these two problems with one stone. We use Localized Liquid Democracy.

Localized Liquid Democracy

Localized Liquid Democracy allows people to accumulate trust within different topics. So that if John trusts Anne within the topic "How to fix the housing market", then every time Anne votes within that topic, John auto votes too.

Localized liquid democracy allows people to delegate their voting power to those they trust within specific topics. This way, those who are most trusted in a particular area have a greater say in determining the best content for that topic, while still allowing for broader participation and input from the public at large.

But actually, Liquid Democracy is MORE powerful than currently explained. This is because liquid democracy creates trust chains. If Ron trusts John's expertise, and John trusts Anne…. well then Anne now wields the voting power of all three individuals. As trust chains grow, a small group of recognized experts can maintain the integrity and quality of a topic.

Of course, any individual can always change their vote. Liquid Democracy is as flexible as can be. It balances broad participation and efficient decision-making. It allows the crowd to push back and adjust who they trust at any time.

The Benefits

Midflip's approach offers several key benefits that directly makes social media smarter.

Iterative improvement of ideas: Elsewhere arguments go in circles and understanding is shallow. At Midflip, we have a system that pushes the best ideas and explanations to the top. The gold is now caught, polished, and refined.
Raise the discussion to the group level: A bazillion individuals selling their own ideas is too much! By making the king text the centerpiece of each topic, Midflip shifts the focus away from the flood of individual opinions and towards a substantive group viewpoint. This group viewpoint is then designed to improve over time. Different viewpoints on the same topic are automatically linked.
Meaningful change and reward: Elsewhere everything is lost in the flood. Here your valuable contributions are connected to group monuments which stand the test of time. In so doing, you earn the trust of others, and you gain greater influence over the direction of discussions and the evolution of the king text.
Efficient collaboration at scale: Localized liquid democracy enables large groups of people to collaborate efficiently on complex topics. An article influenced by tens of thousands of people is much harder to ignore.
Flexibility and adaptability: Midflip's system is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the changing needs and interests of its users. If the crowd wants a fun topic text full of gifs and YouTube shorts… hell yeah go for it.