There is a new startup that acts as a social network for your favorite topics. Topick lets you select your interests from their very long list of available interests and will show you a feed of people who share the same passions. In a very real way, it is like a mini-Facebook minus the mainstream news and other stuff that your friends would post.
TechCrunch reported that possible interests could range from “tools for building products” to “essential reading for editors.” If you are so inclined, even “the future of fashion” is part of the list of interests that you can select on Topick. At the moment, there are already hundreds of people signed up for the most popular topics.
Topick also has a Facebook-style format in that you can like, comment, and share the links you see on your feed. Your feed will feature all the links from the communities you join. Of course, it is possible to lurk in specific communities, just like in Facebook, but it is likely that most of your time will be spent on the feed itself.
Many people share posts with their own two cents. This gives the feed a curation platform that you can also share to your Facebook and Twitter. This gives Topick diversity and can even entice others to eventually sign up. And speaking of signing up, it works very much like Product Hunt that you need to use your Twitter account to join.
Many others have tried to build communities centered on interests. One example is Branch but it was eventually acquired by Facebook too. The main challenge of Topick is to prove the need for a separate service for discussions. There are already communities like this on Facebook and Slack and the possibility of it getting acquired is all too real.
If Topick is successful, it just might reignite the popularity of forums (remember those?) but with an added social network feel that has become standard already.
