Thanks mate---comments like yours make my day. :-)
I'm not actually planning on creating a new niche social network. I think, given the vastness of some of the ones that've emerged of late, it would be more fruitful to leverage the ones that exist today.
Given that niche social/mobile networks for short videos are so hot right now (ie. Vine, Instagram Video), it might be more fruitful for you to plan on creating a new one.
The Cinemagram guys started off down that path, an Instagram clone for animated GIF cinemagraphs, then quickly pivoted toward short videos to compete with Vine and Instagram on similar territory.
Yeah, I think there is a niche for this. One of the main criticisms of vine is that there is a certain magic to pictures compared with video which comes off as more real. We don't want to save the reality of our lives, just the filtered moments.
I really think this could fill a space in between the perfect single shot and the realness of video.
Glad to hear it. I feel the same on the format: it's closer to a photo on the left of the spectrum between photo and video, where vine/instagram/cinemagram are on the far right.
You've put it very nicely--there's definitely some magic about a "silent moving picture".
It requires and sparks the imagination in the viewer, evoking emotion perhaps as easily as a carefully crafted cinematic short.
It's also a photo with more context. If the presentation allowed the owner to pick the starting point, and users to slide forward and backwards, commenters could suggest other funny/interesting frames.
The work required to set up a basic social network around this would surely be insignificant when compared with what you've done to date! Yell out if you need help on the design side of things.
Great work on the "living photo" idea -- that kind of adds this magical sort of feeling to it, which, I've gotta say, I felt.
I hope your hard work pays off. You've built something special here :)