Howdy, I'm Mike McGranahan from Blocvox

Introductions
#1

I’m a solo founder, living in Manhattan, trying to build a social network, that is predicated on disrupting concentrations of social power. I’ll continue when the laughter subsides :smiley:

Two years ago, having aggressively developed my software craft for the previous nine years, I decided to go full-time on a project I’d started on my nights and weekends. Blocvox aims to let communities represent themselves, through simple democratic means. On Blocvox, people join their communities and then, as a group, address the public as well as other groups. This is unlike other online communication platforms, which either silo different groups into isolated worlds, or lump all of humanity into one single “group”. The middle ground modeled on Blocvox is much more like the real world.

I think. The site is public, and I’m currently iterating between pushing for new users and improving the site based on their behavior. Looking forward to feedback and to exchanging ideas here!

1 Like
#2

Hi Mike. Not sure what type of feedback you’re looking for but I will say that I really like the simplicity of the design. Out of curiosity, what are you doing to attract new users?

#3

What does this mean? Its the 2nd line I read on your site? “THE MOST ENDORSED VOXES SITEWIDE AS OF 6 SECONDS AGO”

#4

Looking for all kinds of feedback, which really means “what thoughts enter your mind while browsing the site?” and “what inhibits you from signing up?”

Thanks for the compliment about the design. Right now I’m only doing the basics to attract users: leaning on my social network and basic SEO. I’m about to turn the corner and do more active things, such as in-person dialog with local NYC neighborhood groups, local NYC press, and online ads. I am focusing on NYC as the initial group to “cross the chasm”.

Unfortunately I’ve reached the end of my runway and at the moment am focused on finding a contract or full-time job that offers decent work-life balance.

#5

That is simply a one-line description of the content displayed on the page, using the language of Blocvox. Basically, a “bloc” is an interest group, community or cause that you can join on the site. A “vox” is a community statement that has more upvotes (“endorsements”) than downvotes (“denials”) within the originating community.

“Sitewide” emphasizes that the Front Page takes the highest-ranked voxes from any and all groups. (A group’s home page show a similar “opinion board” but is obvoiusly scoped only that that group’s voxes.) The “as of” timestamp indicates and reinforces the potentially volatile, dynamic nature of the page. Under heavy activity, the Front Page layout and content can reconfigure on each page load.

Thanks for the interest. What thoughts did you have when you saw that line?

#6

Hi, I was confused when I saw that line. I also don’t know why its all in Uppercase, it’s like the website is SHOUTING AT YOU.

#7

Interesting. The overall design intention is a clean aesthetic. Part of that required certain text not take up a lot of vertical space. Small font sizes are hard to read, but capitalization helps, while also creating cleaner horizontal lines. But I’ll note that it’s had a jarring (offensive?) effect on you.