A Blogger's Review of Minds.com
A while ago I did a review of Gab and Minds on my Facebook. I'm updating it and sharing it here so that you all can share it if you wish! I've been blogging for 6+ years and have experience with both blogger and Wordpress. I have been in the link up communities, and have engaged in the hard work of building an audience and sharing content on various social media platforms. In this post I’m primarily reviewing minds from a blogger’s standpoint.
Minds.com is replacement for FB, blogs, snapchat (or so I've heard from other users), and is aiming to be a good alternative for Youtube, all rolled into one.
In political terms, if Gab is the new home of the altright, Minds is the home Libertarians.
Where Gab is a reaction, Minds is a pro-action. Both born from the awareness that freedom of speech is being squashed in measurable ways from Twitter, FB, and Youtube, where Gab rebels reactionarily, Minds is a carefully crafted and thoughtfully planned creation of something new, something with a distinct vision.
Minds is billing itself as a free speech zone. However, it's put in some real world privacy protections, most notably, it's encrypted, password protected private messages so that not even the founders know what you're typing to your friends. Yes. FB is tracking everything, even your keystrokes that you might erase, thinking better of it before posting (which will undoubtedly have me hanging from gallows should I ever be a governmental person of interest). Also, the social media does not require that you use your real name in the event that you'd like to remain anonymous.
Because free speech is hallowed here, there is content that is not for the faint of heart, which gives us all the opportunity to practice the grown-up skills of scrolling past and ignoring what is distasteful to us personally. There is an option to mark your content as “Mature” and in your settings you can opt out of always seeing that content by others.
Minds gives you hourly points for checking into the social media, creating content, and interacting with others. You can also buy points. They have taken steps to make sure their algorithms don't block your followers from seeing your content and, then, you can use your points to boost your content for viewership outside your following. You can also use your points to boost other people's content. A while ago, someone really liked one of my blog posts and used some of their own points to boost it! 1 point = 1 view, however, the boosts are only for views, not post interaction. Every time I've used my points to boost a post it always significantly passes the limit I set. If you are trying to promote yourself or your brand, run to Minds.com, now.
It’s a One-stop-shop: I love having the blog and social media connected. Those of you who have built an empire, and are used to all the bells and whistles, will struggle to see the benefit of Minds' blog feature, but those of you who just want to get your thoughts out there will love this! Build your following for your blog on your social media, and vice versa, because they are one and the same. You can also link your Minds to your FB and Twitter. When someone clicks on a link to your Minds blog post, shared on another social media platform, they're taken to your post. If they click on your image or name from within that blog post, they're taken to your Minds profile. Your blog posts stay on your profile sidebar where any visitor can access them. They also get added to the Minds blog stream- almost like you're a writer for Minds. People reading your post will immediately be take to the next post by other minds.com users. It seems to me that the "next post" updates to the most recently submitted everytime you click on the link to your post as, the one's after mine change frequently.
If you have an established blog on another platform, I recommend starting a Minds profile and creating a series of blog posts that are exclusive to minds that you can also feature on your blog. That way you’re using that minds blog feature as an incentive to build your following on Minds and still maintain your main blog.
I don't know about specific ownership of content yet (a reason many prefer Wordpress to Blogger), but the founders are very much about providing a platform for you to build on and are not interested in control. Every blog post has copyright options for you to choose from so, it seems to me that the content you produce is protected and belongs to you.
Keep in mind that Minds is still in beta testing. That's what the bug icon is on your top toolbar. Click on that to be taken to the problem reporting page, or make suggestions for ways to improve the user experience. Because it's just getting going, it lacks some creature comforts we're used to on FB. There are groups, but they don't have all the options you have on FB. There is little control over profile privacy settings. From what I can tell, all your profile posts are public and any user can comment so, it's not for the faint of heart (though I've not yet experienced any trolling) and not for those sharing all your family photos. Though there are a couple of priavcy settings for your Minds blog posts. I guess that's the price you pay for wanting to be a part of the censorship free internet.
There are some missing commodities, but it's still developing and they’re seeking developers who catch their vision and can help them catch up. It has a great and diverse community. More importantly, it is an entirely new thing, a visionary thing. It has the goal of beings a collection of the world's uncensored, minds with as many options for sharing those minds as it can provide. Minds.com is extremely inspiring to me and something that I feel is worth supporting. Where Gab isn't likely to last, Minds is likely a game changer for the future of Social Media.
For more of a sense about the vision of Minds' founders, check out this interview with Co-founder, Bill Ottman, by Dave Cullen of Computing Forever, CLICK HERE.
