What I'd Like To Have In A Future Social Media Platform

Consider this my request for proposals for Facebook® 2.0 (no claim to the trademark is made here, this is purely nominative use):

* I'd like a platform that doesn't show you the same post over and over again, even if it is shared and reposted (even months later), or at a minimum, minimizes repeat posts to just show the person posting it and new comments and content.

* I'd like a platform that clearly displays when linked material was published and gives old news lower priority without completely censoring it. At a minimum, it should prevent material that was breaking at the time but is now old news from appearing suddenly new.

* I'd like a platform the automatically flags and attaches to linked material sources debunking the link as fake, or including subsequent developments about events reported in the linked material.

* I'd like a platform that allows you to "bookmark" posts that you see for future review and reference without having to share them which can appear to endorse the posts or let the public know you are interested in something that you'd prefer not to advertise without having to read it right then.

* I'd like a platform that automatically makes a first shot at categorizing posts you've expressed interest in by subject matter. Posts could have more than one category. For example, a post about today's school shooting in Santa Clarita might have one "Santa Clarita November 14, 2019 shooting" category, and another category about mass shootings or gun violence. The categories would be personalized based upon cluster analysis of content you've responded to, posted or shared.

* I'd like a platform whose spelling checker has a larger vocabulary.

* I'd like a better way to review archived material.

* I'd like an ability to back arrow to the exact page you were on previously rather than seeing an updated version of that page that might not have what you were just in the middle of reading and accidentally clinked away from.

* I'd like a platform that automatically "yellow flags" posts and comments from people with a history of being the kind of people you unfriend, downrate, etc., but doesn't censor them unless you choose to do so.

* I'd like a platform that automatically shows you something describing the credibility and bias of sources of linked material, which you could manually adjust (e.g. maybe one to five stars that have a color from red to purple to blue reflecting their bias or white if unknown).

* I'd like a platform that automatically yellow flags potential friends who seem spammy or like fraudsters.

* I'd like a platform that allows you to flag a few categories of ads (not all of them, I recognize that they have to make money) that you'd prefer not to see.

* I'd like a platform that promptly (but accurately) resolves cases of two accounts for the same person, one real and one fake.

* I'd like a platform that allows two or three links that have a preview page in a post, rather than just one.

* I'd like more fine tuned control over what I am notified about. I usually don't want to know that someone reacted to a post or comment, but I do want to know if there is a comment that I might want to react or respond to.

* I'd like for there to be an easier way to retroactively change privacy settings for large numbers of prior posts at once.

* I'd like it to be fairly easy to deactivate features like the "Your Story" feature in Facebook. 

* I'd like a feature that you tell you, at least when you have a large enough number of friends, how many have unfollowed you and how many you actually reach with your posts.

* I'd like a way to sort posts with links from posts without links (both my own and other people's).

* I'd like a feature that stops a repeat loop GIF after a certain number of loops, unless you manually choose otherwise.

* I'd like a feature that translates non-English text embedded in an image.

* I'd like a feature that allows you to manually nudge your feed to have more or less or some kind of content without making an all or nothing rule about it. Hence, maybe you'd like more cat videos and fewer political posts, but don't want all of one and none of the other.

* I'd like direct messaging that don't involve "winks" and allows you to filter out or deprioritize direct messages targeted at lots of people at the same time.

* I'd like a platform that doesn't flag Wikipedia links as spam and trigger content filters for them.

* I'd like to be able to globally deactivate image hiding features designed to protect people from seeing gross or violent or not safe for work content, even though I think it is a good feature to have in the system.

Feel to add your own suggestions in the comments.