14 
Social network sites are big money. Facebook, with its $104 billion IPO and $1b profit (2011); Twitter valued at around $10-$11b; newcomers Pinterest getting $200m at a $2.5b valuation, and the behemoth Google gaining traction with G+. With these and a plethora of other international and niche networks, why would anyone bother trying to launch their own? Because, I’m kind of a knob.
I’ll expand on that.
I’m the kind of guy that goes into a bar and asks for the beer they don’t have (even if I know they don’t have it). I’ll ask for mint sauce with a pork dinner (because I like it) and up until recently I was the guy that got annoyed by too many adverts on Facebook.
Like a lot of other people out there, I didn’t feel like I was getting quite what I wanted, so I complained, bitterly. That was until I heard the following quote:
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way” – Thomas Paine.
I had to google that. I heard it on a film called Idiocracy; nevertheless it stuck with me and I took it to heart. I’m definitely not the guy who just gets out of the way; I wasn’t going to accept the current offering (because it does 80 per cent of what I want), so that left one option. Do something myself.
I share quite a few of the common complaints, but do have a list of many more, naturally –a lot more than the word-count of this column will allow. In an effort to be concise, I’m going to focus solely on Facebook, but I plan on writing “Why Google+ just isn’t enough (for me)” on my blog, too.
Like almost everyone else on the planet, I have a Facebook account. I do believe that they offer some pretty cool stuff, so it’s not all bad, but there is enough badness to irk me on a daily basis:
- Privacy & Adverts (symptoms of the real problem)
As a regular user, some of my biggest complaints are in relation to the use of me as a commodity, in the wrong way. The real problem is FOCUS.
From the off, Facebook’s plan for generating revenue was to sell targeted advertising space; as time went on, the amount of commercial messages on the site has become ridiculous. Even their signup page now features external advertising! 86 per cent of their revenue now comes from selling adverts, and this is annoying for a number of reasons…
1. Facebook uses your name; your image, and your data to make you unwillingly act as brand ambassadors in convincing your friends to click adverts.
2. You’re not getting the information you asked for. I opened Facebook the other day and 2/3 of the screen was used by stuff other than the information I wanted. Almost half of the screen was advertising (see picture).
3. Most importantly, because their focus is on selling adverts, it’s not on providing the service that we want and ask for. Simply, our goals are not aligned. And if you think the new (albeit beautiful) news feed will save you from advertising hell, you are wrong. The whole purpose of ‘de-cluttering’ was to allow larger images, to be used for larger adverts. Additionally, developers now have tools to create larger game ‘stories’ on your profile…which you still can’t filter out completely.
If you think the adverts are annoying now, wait until they start with the auto-playing video adverts on your walls, pages and eventually, inboxes.
- Choice & Control (what choice and control!?)
You have no say in the direction the site takes. Your opinion doesn’t matter. Although I personally quite like the timeline feature, a lot of people didn’t want it. My objection, the same as many others, is that this feature (and others to come) was not optional. We gave the data that is being shared, not thinking that we wouldn’t have a say over how it would be displayed.
Coupled with the fact that there are no customisation options (other than profile pic and timeline header) I for one feel like my individuality is not being, or able to be, expressed.
As of last week, there is a new news feed. It looks great, but how about making the change optional, Facebook? I don’t want to be a follower, I want to be in control.
If nothing else, I would love better control over notifications (read: Game Requests!). You either have to block each app/game, or switch off notifications from ALL apps.
A small number of other Facebook grievances:
- There is no ‘Dislike’ button. Despite protest and petition it still doesn’t exist.
- Hijacked threads. People go way off topic on a reply and I have to get the notifications. Why not enable ‘reply to a reply’ and allow people to unsubscribe to a branch?
- You can’t reply to a message with media, which is a feature I really want. Admittedly, this might be to stop people comparing photos of what they have for lunch every day. But let’s filter that crap out too, eh?
- I can only access my Facebook email, and Facebook contacts through the site. I want a unified view of my messaging, events and information.
Once upon a time if you had a business page, you would type a message and people who ‘like’ you would see it. Now, because of ‘sponsored pages’ and ‘promoted’ posts, that number is artificially restricted. In order to get your message out, you have to pay. As an example, I came across a group with 8,000 likes, but each post only had around 200-300 views.
For smaller businesses, Facebook is billed as a solution to increase exposure at no cost. In fact, for most startups it now increases burden. Not only do you need your own website, you need your own Facebook page, and to spend time and money updating both with content, only then to pay to get your message out. If you want any custom content, you will also have to pay for apps to be written, as there is no in-built functionality for content management.
Ok, so you’ve seen my list of gripes and no doubt have your own to add to the pile. You may now be even more annoyed with the FB affliction than I am.
But fear not. There is an antidote, from my fair hands: one with no more adverts or imposed changes, and one which offers privacy as a default: TheDownLow.
When creating my social networking site, I aimed to avoid all of the issues I saw in Facebook:
- TheDownLow won’t sell your personal data, or use your image to sell adverts.
- Our proposed revenue streams are focused on providing value-added services, not selling screen space, so to make money we have to give you the great features and functionality that you want.
- The site is customisable, modular, and allows optional aggregation of your existing social media accounts. You get to have your pages look the way you want, with the information and apps you want, where you want them. We won’t enforce unnecessary design changes; use the new features, or don’t.
- We will have a digital democracy. We plan on opening up our development process to the users who can actively suggest and vote on development priorities.
You could be part of a network where:
- You can turn off notifications by app category (or individually).
- Use Like, Dislike and Meh!-equivalent buttons.
- Threaded messages allow replies to replies, with media.
- You can use an intelligent, unified email system, with the option to only receive email from people you know.
- Enjoy amazingly beautiful, usable, features to better help you communicate, organise and manage your real life.
- As a business owner, our functionality will give you more control over your content, allow deeper engagement with your customers, all whilst reducing the overall time and cost needed to maintain your online presence.
Oh, and don’t worry about losing touch with your Facebook and Twitter friends, as the site reads/sends information between the two (only if you want to of course). So you get to have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.
Mark was an IT contractor…until he watched the film Idiocracy, and decided to set up TheDownLow. If you would like more information on the social networking site, visit it here, or leave a comment on this column and he’ll endeavour to answer any queries.
***
Spiels From “Them Below” is our new series of columns written by “them below”; the thousands of readers who comment tirelessly, or tirelessly read, Gizmodo UK. Have you got something to lament? Extol? Ponder? Get in touch at kat.hannaford[at]futurenet.com, after reading the details here. Disclaimer: Spiels From “Them Below” doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of Gizmodo UK or its editors.
Image Credit: social networking, from Shutterstock
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Sounds very interesting – please, keep us updated.
Incidentally, you can reply to a message with media on Facebook, just most people don’t know they can.
I really do wish you luck with funding this project, and I hope you get enough users to be self-sustainable.
Oh, and have you tried doing what Sean Parker did to Facebook, and removing the ‘The’ from the name?
It does make it sound snazzier.
I did think about dropping the ‘The’ but the domain was already taken (as with TheDownLow.com, which cost a few £k as it was) and they wanted silly money for it. Maybe I can get it at some point
That’s unfortunate
either way, i’ve learnt a new bit of sexual slang today!
Ha! Yes, I am aware of that. Maybe its a niche market that will be drawn to the site
ha, as said elsewhere, go with the niche!! good luck!
Really nice article, these are going really well!
Thanks,
I think I write terribly. Im much more comfortable when the only person reading what ive written is a compiler!
Nice article. I’m not sure I would agree that maintaining a small business Facebook site is a burden though, I think a lot os small businesses enjoy the realtime interaction with customers they get from Facebook and see their actual website as the burden, but anyway Idiocracy is a good movie, your project sounds cool and your lead paragraph was a blinder.
Thanks!
I probably wasnt really clear with the business page side of things as I was already quite a bit over the word count! The distilled message should have been that most businesses have to keep two ‘sites’ up to date. Why not include relevant tools so that you only have to have one site. Less cost, less time taken.
have you thought about simply not including businesses? or are they integral to your revenue stream? clearly brands see social media as a good opportunity but if you don’t need their money just don’t allow them. it would be a good selling point.
i don’t know if this is what you’re going for, but it would be interesting if someone came up with a wikipedia style of facebook. wikibook perhaps. run as a NFP organisation.
There are a few NFP style sites out there… zurker being one, and diaspora (think theyre no longer supporting).
Business will be integral to the model.
At the moment there is NO provision for games, so maybe that will be a selling point! At least until I get that part written and managed correctly. I HATE game requests with a passion! lol
I really don’t want to be a dickhead cos this is a Giz commenter work, but that site is gaudy. Its mainly that color and texture that throw the whole design off.
Hmmn, id probably disagree about it being gaudy but would be interested in knowing in particular what makes it so (to make it a little more palatable).
Admittedly, I have not spent a lot of time on the ‘info’ site as Ive spent most of my time coding the main site… which obviously looks quite different.
Looks aside, id prefer to know what you think about the core values behind the idea?
I just realised I criticised with out being constructive, which is lame of me. The reason Twitter and Facebook work so well is simplicity. I know I haven’t seen this site, but from the style of the home/splash page I believe that the designs need to be simpler and more universal.
I know this criticism isn’t very helpful as I’m not able to fully verbalise my thoughts, which is why I’m a designers and not a poet, wordsmith or (“shudders”) a journalist.
The design for the main site was done by professional designers, I put the info site together using bootstrap in an attempt to keep it simple. Perhaps the texture/red bits are necessary but I wanted to visually separate the ‘sections’ somehow with trying to leave it all on the one page.
I’ll probably re-visit the design sooner rather than later now, but as you are a designer yourself feel free to send me any ideas!
While we are continually told to not judge a book by its cover, most of us do. I’d seriously recommend fixing the design issues with the info section of the site (white box around the logo – colour treatment of the main section, and the spacing of the form elements in the login section). I’d also make sure to fix a few of the coding bugs – it all leads to an underwhelming experience for first time users. And while not everyone will “see” or notice these issues, they will detract for the user experience. I say this as both a designer and a developer, because if the front door doesn’t look well loved – a user will usually vote with the close button.
Coding bugs?
I didn’t originally plan on having an article on Gizmodo so have spent most of my time coding the main site and have, somewhat, neglected the info site.
Rest assured I will tart it up based on feedback from the discerning Gizmodo commenters!
Thanks
Very good article indeed… and i will follow the progress of TheDownLow closely.
Your new project certainly sounds interesting, so good luck with it.
But one thing that always puzzles me is how much people moan about advertising and having ‘no control’ over Facebook. It’s a FREE service, bearing in mind the millions/billions of people who use it the costs to keep it running, dev time, maintenances, server farms etc will be astronomical. So of course they advertise to make money from it.
Bottom line is it’s a free service, so you can’t really complain about any of it. if you don’t like it don’t use it. If you are paying for a service or it is something you have to use, then that gives you a right to have a moan, but you’re not.
I know lots of people who simply don’t have face book accounts because they don’t want they’re information publicly available, and everything about them data mined and shared with thousands of other companies.
Bottom line is it’s a free service, and a company who has to pay for the service they provide you at no charge. So it’s advertising and flogging you’re info or a pay-model… now who would actually pay for facebook?
Just because its a ‘free’ service doesnt mean you have to accept whats served up. Yes, you could just not use it etc but in the main social networking sites are pretty handy for certain things.. especially when they have everyone that you know in one place.
I think my fundamental disagreement is with the term ‘FREE’. You are being used as a commodity. You are giving something of yourself, which has value, ergo you ARE paying (perhaps in a non traditional sense, but still.).
I think (and am somewhat gambling on) that rather that focusing my energies on producing features and functionality that helps me to sell user data or advertising space, if I actively engage with users and build added value services, that people want, I can find a model that means I dont have to charge a monthly fee OR sell their data and advert space.
Worst case scenario, I end up with some software that I personally find useful… Would be a bit of a shame, but hopefully others will enjoy it too.
Time will tell
Good article, that.
And in the words of Kevin McAllister, I’ll give it a whirl.
Also, one the site, I think you’ve spelt enquiries wrong? (“Press Enqueries”).
Saying that, I’ve got red lines under spelt, enquiries and enqueries, so maybe this cold I have is making me trip hard.
Enqueries is *definitely* wrong.
In this instance it is spelled enquiries (rather than inquiries) because inquiries is rather British and implies investigation.
Spelt is a kind of wheat although it’s pretty much an accepted spelling for spelled these days.
Thanks Guys… Seems I have my spell check set on American English!
Updated.
The logo is very uninspired.
Apart from that, why would we sign up for updates to a site we know nothing about? I’ve seen countless social networks pop up trying to beat Facebook, but at the moment all this is; is a home page with no functionality and no preview of whatever the site will be?
You’re taking on a massive task, so good luck with it. I’m always open to trying a new network, and I always do haha.
I quite liked the logo :-S. I chose it from 80ish designs. Obviously, its not to everyones taste.
I wouldnt say ‘know nothing about’ There are a good few bits of information below the sign-up that explain what im trying to do.
I was toying with the idea of putting some screen-shots up there but think its a bit early, as the design layout does change somewhat regularly. As soon as I have something that im a little more happy with I’ll put an update on the site (and update people who want updating via the emails).
Also, as the site will initially be invite only I will be giving priority to those on the list.
Im very aware that its a HUGE task, but ‘We choose not to do these things because they are easy, but because they are hard”
Hopefully, i’ll see you on there one day
But this is 2013, not 1982!
I am not the type that walks all over anyone’s dreams, but I did not find anything new or innovative in this article. There is too much personal bias in the motivations and an assumption that everyone would agree with your view. I agree Facebook has a lot of adverts on it, but a single tweak on their website to manage adverts would completely crush your core advantage. Companies that are built over flaws in other companies do not get very far. A better alternative to invest your time in would maybe be a Facebook ad blocker of some sort. There are several companies out there offering social networking services. Without finding a niche, you won’t get anywhere. (Your niche cannot be others’ shortcomings).
Sorry. Forgot to wish you good luck.
Did you try kickstarter? A small test target could reveal what people think.
The core ‘niche’ functionality of the site is not listed in the article as to a certain degree its not relevant to the argument I was making.
The article was supposed to list the things I dont like, and how I would do them differently.
I had thought about KickStarter but as im not charging a free I cant really ‘reward’ people with free access.
Oh, if there’s more to it, ignore my comment. I had the notion that your article was addressing your core advantage.
Sorry, but that article just became an advertorial…..
Not cool.
Apologies, by nature of the title it was always going to be a little ‘advertorial’.. But I tried to keep it to a very minimum. My aim was to outline the things I didnt like about the current offering, and explain how I think they should work.
My comment wasn’t aimed at you to be honest, I wish you all the best for the future with your endeavour although as I don’t use social media I won’t be a user I’m afraid.
It’s a column, which by its very definition is personal in nature, and given our theme week, I thought it fit very well. Apologies you didn’t see it that way.
I don’t think you can apologize for his view. :/
She can if she wants, I don’t mind
Two points:
Just my view and I reserve the right to be wrong more often than I’m right 
1) Theme week, did I miss a post, what’s the theme
2) I accept your apologies (very kind of you) but seriously the whole ‘column’ was a “I don’t like this about this product, try my product instead” article. Honestly I’ve read more subtle advertorials in my local paper. If I wrote an article about the industries I work in or products within those industries that I have used but then went into an advert about how my developed products/software/training made things better etc, I wouldn’t expect it to get passed for publication unless a nice cheque was attached
There’s a blue boilerplate at the bottom of the column, and we’ve had about 20 features go up this week with the theme plastered all over them…
I did warn Mark not to focus too heavily on his own site, and to dedicate a large chunk of the column to fleshing out what’s wrong with the current offerings, and why he wants to strike out and do something himself. Even if his site doesn’t get any traction (I personally love Facebook and Twitter, just fyi), I admire his tenacity and ambition. More people should be like him, and take a gamble, particularly on something they feel so passionate about. If I can give those people a platform, then that makes me very proud.
Ah, OK, so as long as there’s enough criticism of the other product and you’re passionate and taking a gamble you’re willing to give people a platform….I may hold you to that in 3-6 months
Anyway, in the mean time fair enough, you are the editor after all
I agree with every point you make, my only problem is getting everyone I know to move as I have failed to manage with Google+. If as you say you can ‘forward’ to Facebook in the same way you can between different email addresses then count me in
. I wish you the best of luck.
You dont ‘need’ to get people to move from FB (id like it though
). The site reads and writes to/from. So if you type a status on Facebook it appears on TheDownLow, then if you comment on the status on TheDownLow the comment appears on FB etc.
I had planned on doing the same with G+ but they only allow read access.
That’s me ready and waiting then…..
I’m definitely interested in this. I think the mains issue new social networks have seen is that the current market leaders are just too big. If all my friends are on Facebook, why would I go anywhere else? There’s no point being on a social network without any of your friends!
You mention in your article that I’ll be able to feed in Twitter and Facebook to your site, that’s what I got from it anyway, am I reading that right? If so that’d go a very long way in getting over that hurdle. If I have tools to be able to customise what I see on my feed, ignore multiple posts from a friend of mine’s blog that tweets, posts on his personal facebook and his blog’s facebook, just see one instance of that content that’d be awesome. Also, I have a private group with my friends on Facebook. It would be great if I could receive updates from is and post to it from TDL. It’s already got an acronym, I like this.
If this could act not only as a social network but also as an aggregator for my other doings on other networks then I would be all over this like a nasty rash.
Also, do you have an email I could contact you at?
Drop me a line at the email on the site and I can get back to you from there.
Yes, I have currently only written the ‘sync’ for Facebook data but the API for Twitter looks even less complicated so I dont forsee any issues there. One of my main aims was for it to aggregate all the data from the various sites I visit each morning. In addition to Fb/Twitter there will be an RSS parser.
Im still developing the recipe so id get yourself to the docs and prepare for some rash cream!
Already got my repeat prescription.
If this had simply been a critique of current social media and how they are found lacking, then fair enough. But it does digress into a total advert for your site. Giz, can I write an article about my software that I have built and get it published on your site at no cost as well?
Fair play to you though for getting away with it!
I think i’ve ‘got away with it’ because Facebook is quite a topical issue (as it always is I guess). Perhaps if your software is of the same ilk they will feature your article too? Im sure there is a link somewhere for you to submit ideas.
Read my comments here http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/03/why-im-building-a-new-social-platform/#comment-182500
Fair enough Kat. Understand what you are saying about the quit moaning and do something attitude Mark has shown, just surprised to see the level of a plug that was included. And as JulianT points out, its your show!
Sounds very interesting, all the ideas are in the right place. Hope it does well.
I wish you luck trying to get into the market – Google+ doesn’t seem to be able to do it, and I actually like Google+. People ‘can’t switch’ because their friends are on facebook. Catch 22 in a way.
Also think ‘thelowdown’ could have a shorter name (saw your explaination below that you couldn’t get rid of ‘the’).
Anyhow good luck! Do you plan to have phone apps at launch?
Ah yes, sorry my Catch 22 description – you did say you could post to facebook from yours, so that does sort of solve it I suppose, sorry about that.
Thanks,
The name came about from the phrase “Catch you on the down low”.
A few people have mentioned low down, its something to consider.
I already have a social network cluttered full of idiot friends (Facebook)
And one with a sparse scattering of people who seem vaguely similar to me(G+)
I’m not entirely sure what this one is going to give me that’s different. Besides less adverts, but then I have an inbuilt Adblocker anyway, I scan for what I want and only really see that. Whenever I hear people complain about all the adverts on a site (Like this one) I actually have to go back and check and I’m always amazed I never really saw any of them.
Then I present to you a tool for collecting sparse people and idiots into one place
Seriously though, there are a lot more features beside what was listed in the article.
Oh the HORROR!!!
In all seriousness, a network aggregator (like the social network version of IMO) sounds like a good idea, especially if it’s scope can be broadened to the instant messaging sides of things as well but I’m not sure how well that goal would combine with that of setting up a competing service (if you see what I mean).
I do worry about ‘feeding’ other networks with data. Obviously I would prefer people to just move over and switch the ‘sync’ off.
I did think about having something which checks to see that all your FB friends have moved over and if they have offer a ‘Delete FB data’ button and deactivate the sync. One of the many things to consider!
It’s all noble and well and good to say you’ll never feature any advertising, never sell your user’s data, etc, etc – but unless you also plan on actually selling the service as a subscription, how exactly are you planning on making this a financially viable platform?
Without even bringing in the point of wanting to make a profit on it (and really, why shouldn’t you? No-body else offers their professional services for free, why should web developers be different?), the infrastructure cost alone needs to be supported with income from somewhere. Do you expect it to come from the goodwill of people’s hearts by means of donations? Good luck the month they fall significantly short of your costs and your servers get switched off.
There’s no solid business case here that can give the platform a solid foundation to live and grow upon. Why would any person, let alone a business, put their time and effort (and money) into _yet another_ social media platform when there can be no guarantee it’ll be there the next day?
I get the idea of seeing a problem with an existing product and wanting to improve upon it, I really do. My current personal project (and has been for over a year now) is very much along the lines of taking existing web products and distilling them to fit a more specific purpose that’s more beneficial to -my- needs (and hopefully others in time). But the majority of your proposal is to simply strip away the financial support structures of Facebook and launch a clone that somehow magically survives on wishes and good intentions. Quite frankly, it won’t work.
There are more than enough social media platforms out there now. To stand amongst them, you have to offer function over high-concepts like privacy or no advertising. Most users don’t care about online privacy and the few that truly care about the ads just use adblock anyway. I genuinely wish you all the best with whatever you do, but I have to be honest and say that I can’t see much from your pitch here that would sell me your idea as either a consumer/user or a business. Maybe you should reassess what it is you’re actually trying to do here, and if it’s _just_ “Facebook without ads”, maybe just download Adblock Plus instead…
Hi,
There are a number of mechanisms/models that will hopefully generate the revenue required to turn a profit. Just because I have not shared details of my business case shouldn’t really lead you to assume there is not one.
The nature of the article was me stating the things that I thought were wrong with FB, and how I would want to do them differently. It wasnt an exhaustive feature list. As much as I would have liked to advertise every piece of functionality or service that I plan to offer a) It would have been blocked b) It wasnt relevant to the argument c) im not in a position where I would like to share all the ideas I have with everyone else.
I suppose one of the mitigating features (for FB/Twitter users) is that if you want to you can continue to have your information posted to the external sites as well as TheDownLow, so if the site did disappear you still have all your data.
The interface and ideas I have will not be for everyone, I know that, but the software at the core of the model should provide reason enough for people to stay.
Dont get me wrong, I do appreciate the comments. Im effectively getting free critique. Admittedly, I would have prefered the critique to be about my proposed approach for the features listed.
I did ‘umm and arr’ about if the article was a little too soon, as Im not ready to share fully yet etc but still think it will be a useful exercise.
Thanks
Mark, it’s a great start but could I please suggest to pick a shorter(one word) domain name, something like http://www.friends.com?
Code looks good, short and wonder if you used HTML5 instead of ASP.NET. No sign of PHP, so that’s a good start, unlike facebook.
You might need to make it look more modern mate, and make it very lightweight.
Best bet is crate a facebook app that will link to this site, no adverts as a promotion will help more people to come to your site via Facebook.
Good hunting.
create*
Hi,
I paid a few £k for the domain so will be sticking with it for now. Maybe if it gains traction and I get some investment I can consider a different one, but I think it represents what I want to do, for now.
The index page is in fact index.php, although there really isnt any need for php on that particular page. There is a little bit of jQuery, but only to handle the form submissions.
In the next few weeks I will put a screenshot or two on the info site so you can get an idea of what it will actually look like as the info site doesnt really match massively. I think I will get the designer to look at the info site too, as previously I had put it together.
There is a fb ‘app’ that selectively runs on the site. After you sign in you hit the sync with FB button and it gets your old data and then keeps everything in sync from that point onwards. As part of that activation process ill probably prompt the user to post a message to fb saying “im now on theDownLow” or something like that.
Thanks.
Bootstrap is great but it sure is easy to recognise!
In some ways I think the familiarity makes sites seem more accessible? Needless to say although I have taken elements from bootstrap for the main site, there is a lot of modification. But yes, its GREAT for getting something together quickly!
That’s a great idea and jQuery is the way to go! Good luck.
Once I get through the initial prototyping I plan on moving a lot over to backbone.js I think… Once I get time to do some testing Ill make a decision, but yeah jQuery rules!
Sounds very promising. However to be taken seriously I would have a logo made professionally, the current one is hideous and looks very amateur.
It IS a professionally designed logo. In what way does it look amateur?
Topography: The font Eurostile was very popular on TV shows in the 60’s especially Sci Fi shows; so it is often used to convey a retro, sci fi feel today. This is the opposite of what you are conveying.
Colours: Black and Grey convey feelings such as Authority, Classic, Conservative, Serious, Tradition, Corporate Mentality. Again probably the opposite of what you want. Also why is the dot red, and why is it a different red to the one used on the red carpet?
Simplicity: The logo has too much detail going on. When shrunken down can you make out the door step, the knob on the door, the barrier? Also a logo should work in a single colour, if you use color to help distinguish parts of the design, the logo will look different in a single colour.
Hidden Meanings: If you are going to include a hidden meaning on the logo then it should be obviously linked to what you are about and also work on its own. Why is there a red carpet on a phrase that means to keep things quiet and secretive? The logo contradicts itself. Also I showed the site to a colleague and his first question when seeing the logo was is it for a door security firm – There is no point creating a hidden meaning if it doesn’t work. Below are some great examples of logos with hidden meanings:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/09/30-great-logos-with-smart-concepts/
http://smashinghub.com/smart-logos-with-hidden-symbolism.htm