Simple: non-profit, worker cooperative is the corporate structure, dunbar number for the max social circle size, users moderate content, and no global/public/viral content at all. Open source software running on open source software.
Here's my counter thought to some huge platform technically speaking. We have these massively powerful devices in our pockets and everything is a web app, use the device to do more. Make content decentralized (no, not that crypto-bro or crypto-hater). Decentralize the storage of content to people's devices for things received. Then the platform itself is more of a message broker. Let users pick their cloud storage drug of choice (icloud, onedrive, google, dropbox, etc.) or abstract it away where you provision storage for them and charge beyond some sane limit but the client app gets the content from cloud storage (user defined or brokered). Once the content has been delivered to all users for a circle (max 150) its gone off the platform and when users view that historical content its local/cloud delivered (some caching algo to make it fast). Provide users the ability to tag content as archivable which just gives them a timeline feed of it they can browse whenever. Users literally own the content.
This sounds great on paper, but you would still run into a few major problems:
- the network effect or how do you get a critical mass of users
- moderation/abuse prevention since its distributed
Imagine someone uploads CSAM and now muliple people unwillingly and unknowingly have their computers redstribute it (become mirrors) or re-upload it to cloud storage.
In addition, most of these points are wet dreams for the average HNer, but the vast majority of people don't care about the company structure, if its truly distributed, nor if you're running FOSS.
They care about who is already there (chicken-egg problem) or about some innovative feature.
Network effect and critical mass of users isn't part of the plan. Scaling is done per the user population. If you end up with 100 circles of 150 people and it is sustainable with ads thats fine. No social circles are public, nothing is public.
Moderation is done by users since no circle or content is spread wider than 150. Their phones/devices are only end nodes receiving content, not distributing it at all. The idea is the platform doesn't need suggestion algo's or spying on people's content for advertisers. It just distributes content to those that are members in a circle. The client apps can be built to flag questionable content so it doesn't end up in the users cloud storage.
Again, in my head this is not a global/public "town square" (which any website thinking they are that is a fallacy). It is a social media site for private groups of people to use which is the vast majority of what people want. A social circle for family, social circles for current/former groups of workers, etc. Maybe allow larger private groups for churches, schools, etc. Private groups tend to have very good self-moderation.
Here's my counter thought to some huge platform technically speaking. We have these massively powerful devices in our pockets and everything is a web app, use the device to do more. Make content decentralized (no, not that crypto-bro or crypto-hater). Decentralize the storage of content to people's devices for things received. Then the platform itself is more of a message broker. Let users pick their cloud storage drug of choice (icloud, onedrive, google, dropbox, etc.) or abstract it away where you provision storage for them and charge beyond some sane limit but the client app gets the content from cloud storage (user defined or brokered). Once the content has been delivered to all users for a circle (max 150) its gone off the platform and when users view that historical content its local/cloud delivered (some caching algo to make it fast). Provide users the ability to tag content as archivable which just gives them a timeline feed of it they can browse whenever. Users literally own the content.