The future of HashSpace

Background

Wait, HashSpace is still around? Yes, HashSpace is still alive and kicking although like your socks after a shiggy trail thru the swamp, it’s a bit crusty. Just a brief refresher:

• HashSpace was started in 2008 as a private social network for hashers (you need an invite from another hasher to get it) – groups, photos, videos, chat, etc. It was started when Facebook was still a thing mainly for the kids. Hell, it’s so old, our name is even a knockoff on MySpace instead of Facebook.
• As we all know, Facebook became the behemoth that it is today and hash life effectively moved to Facebook and away from HashSpace.
• Another exodus came in 2014 when I was forced due to financial reasons (the company that developed/hosted the social network software HashSpace was running on decided to change their rates from $60 per month to over $1,000 per month because of the amount of content we had) to move HashSpace to a new server and some new software and a lot of old stuff couldn’t transfer over.
• HashSpace is currently limping along with some major software issues and a few steadfast users.

HashSpace Future?

Pretty much every time Facebook makes a major policy change, I get people contacting me interested in HashSpace again because they want to leave Facebook behind. This time, I’ve actually looked at some new social networking software and put up a new test site. I think the software is pretty slick and it actually makes me interested in HashSpace again.

So here’s the question, do people have any interest in using an updated HashSpace site?

1. It would be a completely new site that I would not transfer over any old stuff. You’d need to create new accounts, new groups, etc. The old site would still be available for a while if you want to grab stuff from there but I think the best way to move forward is to just start fresh with people that are actually interested in using it now. The old site has 28,000 members and I don’t want a site of just generic unfinished user profiles.
2. It’s going to need ongoing funding. The software updates and server are going to cost $500+ per year. If we want an actual mobile app, that costs $1200 for development and then $120/month to maintain. If people are interested in continuing to use HashSpace, there needs to be some way for it to be self-sustaining money-wise so that it works properly. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open to hear them.
3. I don’t want to deal with the petty bullshit that went on when HashSpace was popular. The threatening, abusive, stalking behavior complaints I received were ridiculous. Grow the fuck up and act like adults!
4. Since I know #3 is a pipe-dream based on these Facebook groups, I’d like to build a group of community moderators to try to keep some order.

If anyone wants to see the new site I’m currently testing to see if it something you may be interested in using, send me an email to sux2blow@gmail.com and I’ll send you an invite.