Minds: Facebook alternative with voting-based newsfeed

Again and again, new social networks are trying to position themselves as a real alternative to Facebook – so far with little success. After Ello, Diaspora and Co. is the next challenger Minds. The new Social Network from New York wants to do a lot better than the big rival and establish themselves similar to WordPress as an open platform. Minds runs its own network, but at the same time provides its own code to all willing developers. In the end everyone could open up their own Facebook alternative.


Anonymous calls on
to support Minds

In addition to the open-source idea, Minds primarily relies on a transparent newsfeed. Facebook has always been critically criticized, since users and site operators were dissatisfied with the displayed content. While Facebook compiles the newsfeed via a secret algorithm, this is controlled by Minds via a point system. Users earn points through their own interactions with the network - for example with comments, upvotes or uploading an image. These points can then be spent on reaching users outside their own fan or friends circle, called Channel, when publishing their own status contributions.


Minds then wants to earn money by selling these points. First, however, the work on the platform has to be completed. Currently, Minds and its apps for Android and iOS are still in beta. According to Venturebeat, the network has been in the alpha stage since 2012 and currently has over 30,000 users. A final release version is targeted for the end of 2017.


The transparent point system, the open source obligation and the secure encryption of private messages make Minds attractive to network operators - including Anonymous. For example, the Facebook page, Anonymous ART of Revolution, is calling its 1 million fans to support the development of Minds and other encrypted open source networks.


Also the Minds-operators themselves are represented on Facebook and stir there the advertising drum. According to Venturebeat, Minds CEO Bill Ottman is the operator of two popular Facebook sites with a total of over 1.5 million followers. Until they are able to gather so many users on Minds, it might take some time.