Hive – The Features

Registration/Adding Interests

1. At registration, the user will be prompted to add their interests and optional details such as real name, location, gender and D.O.B (this personal information will not be shared with any third parties without the user’s permission, and will be stated in the terms and conditions).
2. Users can import their interests from a number of social networking sites.
3. Users can search Hive for a specific interest, and it will have its own page with public posts from people tagged with that interest. Users can add interests to their own interest list this way.
4. Users can add additional interests to their interest list through their profile page; when they begin typing in a word, an auto-complete feature will display interests already on the Hive database.
5. The recommendations page will show users some interests not yet added to their list, but are shared amongst many of their friends (algorithm may take other factors into consideration).

Posting/Navigating the Homepage

1. When a user posts, they need to enter one or more tags for it; these tags must be things from the user’s list of interests.
2. Users can filter their activity feed so that they see posts with a specific tag or tags – ignoring a tag.
3. Users can embed images and Youtube videos in their posts.
4. Unlike Facebook, users cannot ‘Like’ posts or comments – this is to encourage more active participation, i.e. writing comments.

Adding Friends

1. To connect with another user, users must send a friend request which the other user must accept.
2. Users can search for other users by username, full name, etc. (to find people they know in real life).
3. The recommendations page will show users other users who have a large amount of mutual interests (algorithm may take other factors into consideration).
4. Users can find their existing friends from Facebook on Hive, using their Facebook account.
5. Users can invite other people from other social networks or via email, but they will not automatically become friends (since they may not share many interests, and it would defeat the whole idea of Hive if a user became friends with people who they never speak to).

Possible Future Features

• Instant messaging chat facility.
• Location-based recommendations – a user’s location could be a factor when recommending new friends, i.e. people with many common interests and live close to the user will be high on the list of recommended friends.
• Mobile app with location-based features (recommended friends close by, etc.).
• Groups – users create their own public or private groups for discussions on specific topics.
• Personalised UI colours, other customisation.