online communities

Bumble experiments with group chats, polls and video calls for its new social networking feature, ‘Hive’

Dating app maker Bumble revealed more of its plans to strengthen its social networking features during last week’s Q2 earnings, which saw the company’s shares slump over its lowered finan

Mike Shinoda backs a startup that lets you do video calls as NFT avatars

As I speak to Tong Pow over Google Meet, he appears as a cartoon medieval-helmet-clad cat that talks and bobs its head, mirroring Pow’s movement behind the webcam. The visor may be hiding a Ches

Buffalo shooter invited others to his private Discord ‘diary’ 30 minutes before attack

Discord has provided more insight into how the shooter who opened fire in a Buffalo, New York supermarket over the weekend used its service prior to the tragic act of violence. The shooter, 18-year-ol

Arena bags $14M Series A to build Discord-like communities for businesses

Arena founder Paulo Martins grew up in Brazil playing video games, an industry that thrives on building communities among the players. Later, he came to the U.S., where he was an early employee at Hul

Facebook rolls out new tools for Group admins to manage their communities and reduce misinformation

Facebook announced today that it’s rolling out new features to help Facebook Group administrators keep their communities safe, manage interactions and reduce misinformation. Most notably, the co

What are the ‘jobs to be done’ of an investment manager?

The late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen found that in many sectors, low-end disruptors take hold at the bottom of the market and then work up to satisfy more demanding segments.

Facebook Groups to gain personalization features, subgroups, chat and tools for making money

At its Facebook Communities Summit today, the social networking giant announced a series of updates and new tools for managing Facebook Groups, including tools designed to help admins better develop t

Facebook to penalize rule-breaking Groups’ members by demoting them in News Feed

Facebook has been steadily rolling out updates to Facebook Groups aimed at giving admins better ways to manage and moderate their online communities. Recently, this has included a combination of produ

Social network Peanut expands to include more women with launch of Peanut Menopause

Peanut, a social networking app for women, initially found traction connecting women in the earlier stages of their motherhood journey. But over the years, the network expanded to support women throug

Norby raises $3.8M for an all-in-one creator marketing platform

Norby rolls together everything that creators need: a link-in-bio service, referral tracking, SMS, ticketing and other marketing tools necessary to keep a small brand or creator community humming. 

Facebook to target Nigerian learners with educational app Sabee, created by its R&D team

Last fall, Facebook announced it was opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria, which would provide the company with a hub in the region and the first office on the continent staffed with a team of engineer

Facebook rolls out new tools for Group admins, including automated moderation aids

Facebook today introduced a new set of tools aimed at helping Facebook Group administrators get a better handle on their online communities and, potentially, help keep conversations from going off the

Madrona promotes Anu Sharma and Daniel Li as partners

Fresh off the announcement of more than $500 million in new capital across two new funds, Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group has announced that they’re adding Anu Sharma and Daniel Li to the te

Hands on with Telepath, the social network taking aim at abuse, fake news and, to some extent, ‘free speech’

There’s no doubt that modern social networks have let us down. Filled with hate speech and abuse, moderation and anti-abuse tools were an afterthought they’re now trying to cram in. Meanwh

If you’re not investing in diverse founders, you’re a bad investor

We're tired of holding back anger and sadness as we talk about these issues, knowing our industry isn’t even doing the bare minimum to support Black investors.

Caterina Fake is known for her trend-spotting; here’s some of what she’s chasing now

Roughly a year ago, entrepreneurs Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström decided to form a traditional venture outfit called Yes VC. Fast forward, and the duo has nearly closed on $50 million for their deb

Instagram and Facebook will start censoring ‘graphic images’ of self-harm

In light of a recent tragedy, Instagram is updating the way it handles pictures depicting self-harm. Instagram and Facebook announced changes to their policies around content depicting cutting and oth

Tall Poppy aims to make online harassment protection an employee benefit

For the nearly 20 percent of Americans who experience severe online harassment, there’s a new company launching in the latest batch of Y Combinator called Tall Poppy that’s giving them the

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

I’ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story – a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness – seems finally over and perha

Monetizing computing resources on the blockchain

What exactly do you earn from monetizing your resources on the internet, and how accessible and reliable are your earnings? Here’s what you need to know.
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