Like many other sites, Minds.com is a social network that allows users to share their thoughts as well as their links via the usual status updates with their followers. Minds hopes to attract users with its promise of security, as it officially launched both its desktop and mobile apps today. The program is entirely open source and encodes all private messages that are transmitted between the users. Bill Ottman, the founder of Minds told Business Insider “Our stance is the users deserve the control of social media in every sense.” This makes it treat itself different from Facebook, which for long has been having privacy practices that are questionable. To encourage content, Minds promises to use a clearer and easier algorithm. For years, Facebook has been changing the content that needs to gets pushed onto people’s newsfeed, which has in turn resulted in a huge fall in the organic reach. Instead of remaining a suspense to its users, Minds’ algorithm works by giving users more reach the more they post. People using Minds are then allowed to select and choose which post they want more importantly showcased throughout the website. As Ottman explained it, this allows users on Minds to “earn virality.” For a couple of years now, the website has been testing interfaces. Ottman told Business Insider that it has reached 60 million visits without a formal ‘launch’. Majority of the users who moved to Minds, said Ottman, were those “interested in alternative media.” These are people who want to learn about citizen journalism and online freedom. Over the last years, through these tests Minds has managed to attract a core group of online activists. In fact, the Anonymous Art of Revolution Facebook page – which has over 1 million followers – has called for a hackathon to develop on Mind’s code. “Anonymous is initiating a call to hackers, designers, creators and programmers to unite worldwide. Let us collaborate on the code of Minds.com and build a top site that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people,” this Anonymous-affiliated page posted. It remains to be seen whether or not this will help Minds to gather a core audience. A new program launches every few months – be it Yo or Ello – claiming to be better and different than the likes of Facebook. Minds is of the belief that its focus on trust and privacy will help it distinguish itself from other Facebook alternatives.
