Spoutible's Impressive If Imperfect Start - A Serious Attempt For More Civil Society

 I can understand readers here who think I'm spending way too much time on the new Twitter alternative startup Spoutible.  But hear me out.

Why I think this is important

Most of social media has become infected with trolls - from jerks to paid hit men.  Spoutible is a serious attempt to create a protected space where people can interact and discuss serious issues calmly (or even excited too) and rationally.  It's designed to keep out those who prey on the weak, and also on the not so weak.   

The creator of this project is credible and capable.  It has a chance to offer a safe place and be a model for others.  If this works, it would show that neutralizing the haters is possible.  

Who is Christopher Bouzy?

 Christopher Bouzy isn't your typical tech startup creator.  He created BotSentinal - an app that allows you to submit someone's Twitter handle and then scores it by how civil its cumulative tweets are.  He did this to help people recognize those trolls quickly.

In a reasonably small human setting - a school, a religious congregation, at work, on a sports team - you quickly get to know who you can trust and who tends to be a jerk.  Online anonymity means we don't know people's identity or history.  BotSentinel is a tool to help overcome that.

As Twitter became more hateful, Bouzy saw a need for a civil space to discuss the issues of the day, or one's personal life, or whatever one wants without being targeted. And BotSentinel suggested he also had a lot of technical resources to pull it off.   As Twitter's decline in civility quickened with Musk's takeover, things got more urgent.  Using what he knew from working on BotSentinel, Bouzy got to work with a collection of computer folks to create a new online forum.  He made it pretty Twitter like so it would be easy for Twitter users to navigate on it quickly.  

He's also happens to be black which gives him a view of the world most techies don't have.  He's pledged to have 40% of Spoutible workforce be women.  

Spoutible Background

The team spent about three months developing the site.  Then they invited journalists and some other celebrities to try out the site for a week or two.  Journalists, because Bouzy believes that they need a healthy platform to gather early news tips and to alert the world to what they are working on and have produced.  [I'd note that I resisted Twitter for a while.  But at an Alaska Press Club conference I attended a couple of workshops put on by the then Social Media editor of the Wall Street Journal who explained how and why he used Twitter - the reasons I just mentioned: to get early tips on emerging stories and to share their own stories.  That got me to try it.  And it does those things.  It also can help you waste a lot of time if you don't pick the people you follow carefully.

Because I've used BotSentinel to identify Twitter abusers, I appreciated that there was someone who saw this problem and came up with a way to combat it.  So when Christopher Bouzy came into my awareness saying he was working on a Twitter alternative and that his background included creating BotSentinal, I was ready to follow.  I'd already joined Mastodon and Post as I looked for Twitter alternatives, but neither really grabbed me.  

So I was eager for the Bouzy site to become real.  I listened to Bouzy talk to us on Twitter Spaces (ironic that he can use Twitter to promote Spoutible) and take questions.  I was impressed with what I felt was sincerity and openness.  He was going to be as transparent as possible without giving away information that might not be safe in the hands of competitors, scammers, or hackers.  There have been several other open forums and each time I'm impressed with Bouzy's sincerity, his motivation, and his technical knowledge of how to get this done and hire people to do what he can't.  

On February 1, 2023 (yes, just five days ago) Spoutible opened up for preregistered users, which included me.  It was both a strong and rocky start.  Lots of people signed on and started spouting.  But there were technical glitches and the site was really sluggish.  It got better by February 2 and then there were more problems the next day.  

Saturday Bouzy did another Twitter Spaces forum where he talked about the issues and answered questions.  By the time I saw the notice, the meeting was over, but I was able to go for a walk and  listen to the recording.

Meeting Takeaways 

[You can listen here. It's 2 hours and 44 minutes long. Good for an airplane trip, or doing some mindless task, as well as exercising.  Don't need to hear it all, but at least to get a sense of Bouzy.]

1.  Bouzy haters - He started out by taking all the blame for things that went wrong, including a sort of breach.  No data got compromised. But the attackers acted like there had been.  These attackers have been on Bouzy's case since BotSentinal examined online attackers of Meghan and Harry and they have turned their attention onto Bouzy and Tweeting how Spoutible was a scam and you would have all your data compromised. [Me:  I had wondered how much of the problem with Spoutible was hacker related and apparently some of it was.]

2.  Lots of people signed up and lots of kumbaya - Despite the technical problems, there was a surge of people signing up and it seemed that the tone of the conversations was great and that people were meeting lots of new people and following and getting followers and lots of comments and discussions.  Bouzy was a little cagey about numbers, though he Tweeted in mid December that 110,664 had already pre-registered.  His hesitance to talk numbers had to do with the haters, but I didn't quite understand the issues.  [Me:  I agree with the tone and warmth of the spouts.  And people commenting on my posts and following me much faster than they did when I first joined Twitter.  But I suspect there are other explanations.

• There aren't that many people on Spoutible right now and everyone is trying to find followers and people to follow.  And they are connecting quickly because of a sense of the safety of the site
• No cliques yet.  The crowd is mingling.  There are no groups yet.  So people are connecting with people they normally wouldn't connect with.  This is good.  But I suspect once people get familiar with each other, they will settle in to interacting with regulars more and won't be making friends so freely.

I also didn't see a lot of the serious political or theoretical discussions that I find important on Twitter.  It feels a bit like the early days of the internet where everyone was just looking around and having fun.  People didn't quite know where it was going or how to make money off of it.]

3.  Despite the technical issues in the first couple of days, people have been very forgiving  Lots of thank-yous to Bouzy.   Responses were similar to mine: grateful for this new space and understanding that this was put together in three months and has only had a significant number of users for four days.  A number of of commenters told Bouzy not to be so hard on himself.  We all recognize that Twitter has had  about 16 years to evolve.  Bouzy acknowledged that but said that protecting users was his top priority and anything they overlooked he felt was a problem.  That's good, but as many pointed out - going without sleep too long is not healthy.  

4.  Identification of bugs, suggestions for improvements

There were minor to serious technical issues - ie the Spout drop blocks the like button for some, can't sign up two accounts, some people's emails and some non-US phone numbers weren't recognized,  There were questions about when features would come out - like a phone app, a common suggestion box, the rules of engagement, foreign language options, podcast options, etc.  A couple of people wanted to have kids get access since it seems like a safe space.  That was the only one Bouzy was not receptive to.  In most cases he said it was coming and they were trying to prioritize the most important things first.  

5.  Transparency

This and previous online open forums demonstrated a level of openness we don't see very often.  I can't help but feel that Bouzy is a really decent person I'd love to have as a personal friend.  

My own suggestions:

1. people's profiles should pop up when you put the cursor over their image
2. easier navigation back to where you were - ie not jumping back to the top of your timeline after checking a comment
3. have the follow/unfollow button available with each spurt
4. I understand why they have the Bot-Sentinel button so prominent, but so far everyone is zero.  I think it would be better if it was on people's profile and popped up with the profile (see suggestion #1)
5. Will the BotSentinel score be 
1. just for Spoutible?
2. for Twitter and Spoutible separately?
3. for a combination of both?
4. just for Twitter?
6. Timestamps on Spouts seem to reflect the spouter's time zone - converting them into the readers' time zone seems to make more sense.
7. 
   Why does the Spoutable image in tabs bar look like a P instead of an S? OK, if I look closely maybe that's supposed to be a spouting from the vague but blue whale below.   WOW!  I went back to capture the Spoutible image alongside the Twitter image and there was already a new Spoutible image.  A minute after I wrote this.  But I think a bigger whale without the extra word (which shows where you are on Spoutible) would be better.    There are more, but this is enough for now.  
   
   Follow up:  If tab isn't open, then just the whale or bird show. [Update 4pm - the P is back.  Guessing they're experimenting.]

My hope for Spoutible is that:

1. The platform can be a space where journalists, artists, activists, and other humans can safely express themselves free of hate and vicious attacks. But 'safely express themselves' doesn't include people who make hateful and vicious posts or spread disinformation.  Paradox?  It might appear so, but if people object to something, they need to do it civilly and explain why.
2. That it will serve as a model that such places can exist and thrive online.
3. The world will adapt with the changes and find ways to protect safe spaces in general

My concerns are:

1. The various forces that want to preserve those parts of the status quo they benefit from will do what they can to find ways to infiltrate my ideal Spoutible and poison it as they've poisoned the internet in general.  These include:
1. White supremacists, fragile would-be alpha males, and troubled people in general, who out of anger, spite and/or for profit have used their anonymity to intimidate good people without consequences to themselves and to make truth harder to discern
2. The people who stir up such people with propaganda and pay them to disrupt the free flow of ideas
3. People who will see hacking Spoutible as a challenge.  Bouzy did say he hopes most of those people will be friendly and let Spoutible know of any vulnerabilities they find.  

But I also know that in the flow of time, as new problems emerge, new strategies emerge to overcome them.  The Right has had strategists working for years to exploit race and abortion in order to keep power.  They've plotted for decades to take over the Supreme Court.  The Left  has generally not been so calculating long term and have been slow to recognize the Right's strategy.  But now that they know what has been happening, they are more galvanized to fight it.  They have science and good will on their side and they will find ways to stem the evils that new technologies have unleashed

Slow: Busy First Day At Spoutible And Envelope Navigating USPS [UPDATEd]

While there were some influential (the word influencer grates) folks invited to try out Spoutible.com early, the pre-registered folks, like me, got our first look yesterday.  At 10am Alaska time.  The previous post covers what Spoutible is/hopes to be.  It appears to have been wildly successful in terms of lots of people signing up, but it's also been a massive traffic jam as the servers had trouble keeping up with everyone clamoring through the front door.  It took forever (30 seconds to over five minutes) for the site to respond to the cursor.  Here's this morning's Tweet from the driver behind Spoutible.

Clearly the 100,000 (my mind also remembers 200,000) folks who preregistered were eager to sign in right after the gates opened.  And that seems to have made it so sluggish that I've decided to wait a few days before trying to use it again.  Boozy had said Tuesday that they had built the platform with anticipation of lots of users.  Was he wrong?  Or were there more sinister players involved in making the debut hard to navigate?  I'm not accusing, just thinking out loud.  

The rest of the world can join next Wednesday as Bouzy launches this safer, less toxic version of Twitter.  And I will say, I saw no hate and lots of joy there.  Though I didn't see that much because of how slow it was.  

[UPDATE Feb 2, 2023 10pm:  I did go back and now Spoutible is running at a good pace.  They've fixed things, for now.]

And here's my other visual today (Feb 2):

We* mailed an 8X10-ish envelope at the midtown post office of January 14, 2023.  I made the envelope using old calendars pages.  It's going to Chile.  

As you can see, it purportedly left the midtown post office about five hours after we gave it to the clerk.  Then it took three days to get to the Anchorage distribution center.  (Not sure what that is - Airport Post office?  Something else?) THREE DAYS!  I've gotten mail from Los Angeles in three days.  

Four days later it was reported "in transit to next facility."  I took this to mean it was on it's way to Seattle.  But clearly I was wrong.  Why did this take four days?  It's got got a scannable code on it.  It's not some holiday mailing rush.

Nine days later it left Anchorage!  It took 15 days, just over two weeks to get from the midtown post office until it finally (it seems) departed from Anchorage.  It went first class and registered.  

I've had problems sending things to Chile in the past, but generally on the other end.  Just want this on the record here.  Not quite sure who to try to contact at the post office.  I'd leave a note for my mail carrier, but we're spending time with our daughter and her family.  

*I was sending it, but my wife actually took it to the post office.

Spoutible - From The Bird To The Whale

 Tomorrow, Spoutible will be available for the 150,000-200,000 people who have preregistered.  

⚠️Today at 5 PM EST, we are ending the preregistration phase. So if you have not preregistered for Spoutible yet, please do so now, or you will have to wait a week to create an account when it is open to everyone.https://t.co/N5QWQKI768

— Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) January 31, 2023

Right now [well I was from 9am PST to 11ish]  I'm listening to Christopher Bouzy on a Twitter Space talking to several thousand people about tomorrow's launch.  I've heard him several times before talking about how they plan to make a platform that's easy for Twitter users to navigate, yet corrects many of the problems of Twitters.

[I'd also note that Boozy was the creator of Bot Sentinel, a site where you can check on people who post on Twitter.  Using Twitter's standards, Bot Sentinel rates users so you can see if the account is normal or harasses people.  They'll use that technology to track Spoutible users and I heard earlier you will be able to see the Bot Sentinal rating of people who reply to you.  At right is an example of a Bot Sentinel report.] 

First I'll list some key points I heard, then I'll just leave a very rough transcript of what was said (starting about an hour into the discussion)

Overview of Key Points as I heard them

• User safety and security - the platform was designed to give users a safe space for discussion.  To that end a number of features have been put in place.
• General security of the site aimed at making it harder to be hacked, and if hacked, harder to steal personal info of users because all is encrypted
• Users can delete replies and block hateful users, this also blocks replies to the blocked users
• Spoutible has tighter security for users joining (they have to give their phone number which also prevents someone from making more than two accounts with one number) and more vigilant system to detect users abusing the rules
• Key feature ways to keep mis- and disinformation to a minimum 
• Money and size less important to Spoutible than safety and security
• Acknowledgement, repeatedly that 
• no system is completely safe from hackers
• that there will be mistakes, but they'll jump to fix them as fast as possible
• determining the  right balance on issues (ie what is misinformation) will always be difficult
• we're just starting, give us time to discover and fix bugs, work with us
• Want to promote media and news outlets important
• Only three months old, but have experience of Twitter, and will be adding features and tweaking system as it develops
• Intentionally made it easy for Twitter folks to move over to Spoutible - it will feel comfortable and familiar.  
• Expects that Twitter users with lots of followers will stay on Twitter until followers move over - but working on ways to post on both platforms at once

My notes - (not sure what time I moved to the laptop to take notes) (These are pretty rough, but I hope I've gotten the gist of the questions and the answers)

Anne - how quick a turnaround response to a hate attack? (She said she'd been a victim with death threats etc. on Twitter, had to call FBI and that Twitter was slow in responding.)

Christopher - we have tools to address swarming, trying to get folks to harass you, they'll get time out.  On the other side, sometimes people say dumb things, and they we won't take action if they aren't crossing the line.  

Crossing the line - is used a lot.  But Christopher recognized that figuring out where that line is.  

We have tools - you can delete replies and block people.  Would like to have folks hold off on those things until the platform has been up a while.  But you have tools to block things yourself if necessary.

Michael Morgan (was a test account for the last couple of weeks - says was not paid and is not connected to Spoutible)

Safe, Fresh, has your interests at heart.  Some platforms push the issues that rile you.  On Spoutible that isn't going to happen.  

Smoke detector - tells you about accounts.  [ I wasn't sure what Smoke Detector means.  sounds like some sort of warning system, or notification system.]

Spoutible eels like wearing comfortable slippers as you move from Twitter.

Q:  Will edition up tomorrow have push notifications?  What will Spoutible do to address feature parity  with other platforms.

Christopher:  We are trying to get Spoutible out as soon as possible, so focused on what people wanted first.  So yes, there will be push notifications so you know when people respond.  We can add features in suitable time frame.  Twitter, sometimes take months.  Some stuff we'll do in days, other in months.  The push stuff we'll have up soon.

Freature parity, laugh, we're trying not to fall into the trap, but don't have an  answer for that.

Melinda:  Thanks, sounds very good.  Planning on platform or stand-alone app, like Tweet deck, but they cancelled it.  Like it because dynamic.  Going to do something like that?

Christopher:  Tweet deck does still exist.  Don't worry about being nervous - I'm nervous.  It's in the pipeline to allow customize platform.  Most don't want that because they want to maximize platform.

Going to launch own app store to allow developers to extend the capability of Spoutible.  Not having that made making Spoutible work was much harder.[Not sure how to fix that sentence.]  Not sure when, but we'll do it.  Part of the road map to allow developers to come in.

Rick:  Working with media orgs?  Birdwatch?

Christopher:  That's the plan - like to work with other outlets to let you to text certain stuff.  Don't want just anyone to come in.  Not sure how, but will invite journalists to discuss.  Important to platform, but also to democracy in general.  Want to work with outlets to keep garbage off.  Don't want mis- and disinformation rampant.  Do we take off this misinformation?  Tag it?  Something deadly like treat COVID with bleach, will be removed.  Want to be the platform for media, researchers - people who fight this stuff.

???:  You're being really thoughtful in how you approach this stuff.  Use tools available and protect yourselves.  

Christopher:  Thanks for saying this.  I have a vision and had for a while.  Tried to get Twitter folks to see this, but they went on as business as usual.  Rare opportunity.  Twitter isn't the same anymore. If we had launched five months ago, it would have failed.  You wouldn't have moved.  I think we have a chance now - people want to leave for a better alternative - content moderation at scale is difficult, but we've built Spoutible with that in mind.  Someone being doxxed with phone number, user can remove themselves.  Be patient with us.  There'll be bugs.  Twitter had a long time to do this.  Give us time.  We've only had three months.  A year from now if you don't see us listening, then call us out.  First few weeks allow us to get our bearings.

Q:  Thanks, doing great job.  1.  Will you be able to keep media and reporters 

Christopher?  Will we address folks in the media who target Spoutible?  yes

2.  Have global manpower to support?  They have people in other countries, do you have that?

3.  Do you communicate with followers across the platform.  I have followers who are important for online fundraisers, will I be able to communicate with them.  

Christopher: 1.  going after journalists, I am pro journalists, news outlets, even ones negative to me.  But there are people who do that actively.  It would probably be addressed by the panel, do we ban the president, do we kick off journalists who are attacking?  Difficult questions.

2.  International?  Not yet.  Focusing on US first.  But there will be people using the platform, but if someone is spouting in another language, there are translators doing it automatically and can see.  But ultimately we will have people.  I believe in work from home model - you can have people moderating in France or Brazil and not have everyone in central place.  My team is spread around the world to develop safe platform. 

3.  Want to allow folks to cross post, - allow to Tweet and Spout simultaneously.  But present owner may shut that down.  One tech hurdle.  Spout 300 characters but Twitter fewer.  If you want to cross post you'll have to reduce # of characters.  I'm going to be Tweeting a while trying to get people over here.  People with 500k are going to stay on Twitter as well.  Not giving up those followers.  But eventually hope followers move.  If he shuts it off, he shuts it off.  Haven't figured out how to have seamless transition from one platform to another and keep all your followers.  

Dr. Kate - a lot of people earn a living saying terrible things about people.  Would you moderate for me or expect me to block them.  

Christopher -Say Meghan Markle.  How help this lady to breathe?  VP Harris and others.  Overwhelmingly women and women of color who go through this.   You have those tools in place you can use to prevent them from posting in your feeds.  I have been victim of people profiting off of hate.  On Spoutible will be extremely hard to do that. [But of course people will take that as a challenge.]  We also have to be proactive knowing who is own our platform.  If account is focused on attacking Meghan Markle or VP Harris we'll take it off.  Other platforms have this policy, but they don't enforce it.  Youtube channels could have 50 videos on Markle, they don't take it down.  On Spoutible, they will get removed.  Not just user, but Spoutible will too.  We know hostile nations will do this.  Why we want phone numbers.  We won't be perfect, but your experience on Spoutible will be vastly better than on Twitter

Gadi Ben-Yehuda - been on T since 2006.  I'm a  social media director, ability to manage those.  Someone mentioned Tweet deck, if I'm overseeing multiple accounts can I use single platform?  Encouraging businesses and more important government on.  My school is delayed, National Park Service.

Christopher:  Yes.  Extremely important.  But flip side to third parties to post on your behalf is completely different from a hostile foreign nation.  Only certain verified will be able spout on behalf of a user.  Outreach - we've had conversation, but focus for last few months was to get this up and running and then go for govt. agencies.  There are a lot of officials who have preregistered and even are on and testing.  Hope word of mouth.  Also want local organizations and authorities, so amber alert will be available on spoutible.  How can we make the platform better?  Part of us communicating?  Gotta be honest.  Only three months.  

Akunjee - They successfully brought in ways to onload people onto platform.  Get to set ethos - these are the sort of people here.  There townhall system allowing local conversations, to set up discussions on those issues.  Going to look at these?  

Christopher - Yes, no.  Not opposed to.  Open to suggestions.  How we've developed this platform - allowing you to give your ideas.  We took a lot and implemented them.  I took flak.  I had a vision.  Wanted you to participate.  So far worked well.  Something like that is a feature we'd be interested in that.  If you ask 10 people you get 10 different answers.  But if ask 10K you start seeing patterns.  I said earlier, no Nazis on the platform.  Misinformation/Disinformation number 2.  Took top stuff you wanted us to address.  Yes.  Clubhouse could work well on Spoutible.  Totally against waitlists.  You build something, you want a few folks to test.  We did.  But then need to open up.  If you have a waitlist, it stifles the momentum.  Even what we're doing, a week for the preregistered people, will slow us down, but I think it's for ???.  Not studio 54, you can come in, you can't.  Once the preregistered week is over, all can join

Julie - I was targeted by horrific racists - N word, videos, my 5 year old daughter.  Had to call FBI.  Eventually Twitter .   He duplicated my account  - bio, pics, etc.  And he Tweeted terrible things in my name.  Twitter wanted my drivers license.  I didn't want to give them that info.  If that happens on Spoutible.  Would we have to give Drivers License to verify identity.

Christopher.  Look at this from Twitter's perception, and sorry you had to go through this.  Horrible on platform and feel like platform not helping.  From Twitter's perspective.  How do I know that picture belongs to you.  Basic verification - customer service that handles bank security.  We don't want that.  But whatever company we partner with, what will they do with it?  Sell it?  No.  Just for verification.  If user targeted, get verified.  If another account steals it, we can take it down.  If this account is doing other stuff and doing crazy stuff - we'll take them down for other stuff.  But if stealthy, we have the problem of verifying.  People in this room opposed using phone numbers to verify.  We had to find balance.  Not looking to sell numbers or spam people.  With Spoutible resend an email or two a week.  No spam stuff.  Also to keep people from creating a bunch of accounts with one phone number.  It's encrypted.  Not selling.  

Hoping to launch about 12am, maybe 3am.  Definitely tomorrow.  Probably early.  

If you preregistered, your email address is on the list.  You have to use same email address, you have to use same email address.  Still debating about phone number confirmation.  Have 60-70 people try it out, have some bugs, but it's built to handle 1 million users, but we don't get those numbers.  If we have tech difficulties, be patient.  Prepared for more people.  Don't think 200K will sign up, it will be staggered.  

Is it fast?  Fast now, but we'll see in a week if it holds up.  Built with scale in mind.   Using service called ??Detectify.  Looking for vulnerabilities in our code.  Tried our best to make it as secure as possible.  But if a hacker finds something - there are people who spend all day hacking.  If firm tells us there's a problem, we'll notify you immediately.  Microsoft finds vulnerabilities all the time.  We will be.  If it happens, all they get will be encrypted data.  

Thanks for taking this journey with us.  I promised we'll get it up by mid-Jan or February.  We did that.  I promised certain features.  We did that.  Look at what we've done in 3 months and think about what we can do in a year.  Give us time to work it out.  It's not going to feel like a beta.  

We don't have to accept this crap, this misinformation/disinformation.  We can do something about it.  If you see us turning into another Twitter, you need to hold our feet to the flames.  Not about how many users or money, but success for us is protecting users.  

-------------------

I did notice the remarkable situation of Spoutible holding this meeting on Twitter to encourage people to leave Twitter.  Did Twitter not notice?  Not care?  One commenter during the meeting asked when Twitter was going to shut them off.  Twitter never did.