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Things like this are what might actually turn the trending #deletefacebook statements into actions. Maybe. While it's nice that 'alternative Facebooks' are ga

Things like this are what might actually turn the trending #deletefacebook statements into actions. Maybe. While it's nice that 'alternative Facebooks' are gaining visibility, those I don't think will really get people out. Simple tools on the other hand, to give people their data in a usable format, will. Next, perhaps a nice 'export registered groups with Admin and user list,' or 'list of sites I've used Facebook login for,' or, 'export Facebook pack: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp...

andrewxhill 9y ago
heck yeah! thanks for the comment. we're down to do nice exports of some of the other data types. we'll look into it for sure.
carsonfarmer 9y ago
"Watch this space" for some of those other tools ;)
zamalek 9y ago
> alternative Facebooks I signed up for Mastodon a few minutes ago and... it's not Facebook. It's Twitter. My mother of 80 isn't interested in sending Tweets or Toots. Marketing and recommending these things correctly might be a good first step.
- mikenew 9y ago
  And speaking of marketing... Toot? Seriously?
askvictor 9y ago
Indeed, but for this kind of thing to make a serious dent in Facebook, it would need to include a photo hosting and sharing service. Which, unfortunately, cost money to hold the data, so you either need to charge for hosting, or collect revenue through ads or selling data (self-hosting would be nice, but difficult to get your grandma to do it) But, maybe even a simple photo sharing service _that lets you share those photos back to facebook users_ might be the first crack in the dam wall
- headsoup 9y ago
  I wonder if something useful here is a service like what some NASes (Synology) provide, where you 'self-host' on your PC/NAS, but also replicate to someone you know's PC/NAS. Basically, install the app on both PCs, swap keys (or authentication details) and start synching. Cloud backup without needing cloud and it would be bi-directional so you get off-site redundancy for your data/photos. Further leveraging the SAN capability is that you could share the photos online by providing public URL's. Maybe too difficult to manage for Grandma, but if either end can share (with only authorisation provided by the other party) it might work?
  - carsonfarmer 9y ago
    This is in line with what we are building right now at https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/. See andrewxhill's response above re: mobile and desktop apps that automagically sync with one another. Getting grandma on board is always difficult, but with super simple (and super secure) inter-device linking, we're hoping to lower that barrier to entry big time!
- andrewxhill 9y ago
  While it is going to cost money of course, this is exactly what we are building into our product. But instead of using centralized servers that know your private keys, we are building it on decentralized hosting (IPFS) and we never know your private keys. Take a look, https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/
  - wybiral 9y ago
    I thought IPFS required someone to pin/host the content in order for it to stay alive. So if it's private how many people are likely to host it? Or am I missing a detail?
    - andrewxhill 9y ago
      Until filecoin is live we are spinning up ifps nodes to ensure your content is available. Alternatively, we are building both a mobile and desktop client and you'll be able to just choose to have your desktop automatically pin your content. Finally we provide you a private wallet that will contain your personal hash list, making it so you could move your data to other services or tools however you like.
ieo2929 9y ago
Always felt a set of “content viewers” for Dropbox might also undo Facebook and “social media” Something for 1:1 or 1:ppl-I-trust type sharing. Couldn’t reason around a way to share comments such that they couldn’t be mucked with or adding a bunch of extra files to the Dropbox. Maybe an encrypted Sqllite file that each client signs on write so if it’s tampered with you’d know? Keybase and their builtin git and filesystem features might be useful for that too But Keybase is not as adopted as Dropbox be. Personally I find little value from social media that enables connecting everyone. And I don’t think I’m alone — last Xmas, got to talking to my nieces who are leaving home for college. They have zero interest or trust in Google and Facebook Twitter is useful for headline and current events updates but that could just as easily be RSS. Can’t IPO based on an open standard, I guess. Not enough sizzle

andrewxhill 9y ago

heck yeah! thanks for the comment. we're down to do nice exports of some of the other data types. we'll look into it for sure.

carsonfarmer 9y ago

"Watch this space" for some of those other tools ;)

zamalek 9y ago

> alternative Facebooks I signed up for Mastodon a few minutes ago and... it's not Facebook. It's Twitter. My mother of 80 isn't interested in sending Tweets or Toots. Marketing and recommending these things correctly might be a good first step.

mikenew 9y ago
And speaking of marketing... Toot? Seriously?

askvictor 9y ago

Indeed, but for this kind of thing to make a serious dent in Facebook, it would need to include a photo hosting and sharing service. Which, unfortunately, cost money to hold the data, so you either need to charge for hosting, or collect revenue through ads or selling data (self-hosting would be nice, but difficult to get your grandma to do it) But, maybe even a simple photo sharing service _that lets you share those photos back to facebook users_ might be the first crack in the dam wall

headsoup 9y ago
I wonder if something useful here is a service like what some NASes (Synology) provide, where you 'self-host' on your PC/NAS, but also replicate to someone you know's PC/NAS. Basically, install the app on both PCs, swap keys (or authentication details) and start synching. Cloud backup without needing cloud and it would be bi-directional so you get off-site redundancy for your data/photos. Further leveraging the SAN capability is that you could share the photos online by providing public URL's. Maybe too difficult to manage for Grandma, but if either end can share (with only authorisation provided by the other party) it might work?
- carsonfarmer 9y ago
  This is in line with what we are building right now at https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/. See andrewxhill's response above re: mobile and desktop apps that automagically sync with one another. Getting grandma on board is always difficult, but with super simple (and super secure) inter-device linking, we're hoping to lower that barrier to entry big time!
andrewxhill 9y ago
While it is going to cost money of course, this is exactly what we are building into our product. But instead of using centralized servers that know your private keys, we are building it on decentralized hosting (IPFS) and we never know your private keys. Take a look, https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/
- wybiral 9y ago
  I thought IPFS required someone to pin/host the content in order for it to stay alive. So if it's private how many people are likely to host it? Or am I missing a detail?
  - andrewxhill 9y ago
    Until filecoin is live we are spinning up ifps nodes to ensure your content is available. Alternatively, we are building both a mobile and desktop client and you'll be able to just choose to have your desktop automatically pin your content. Finally we provide you a private wallet that will contain your personal hash list, making it so you could move your data to other services or tools however you like.

ieo2929 9y ago

Always felt a set of “content viewers” for Dropbox might also undo Facebook and “social media” Something for 1:1 or 1:ppl-I-trust type sharing. Couldn’t reason around a way to share comments such that they couldn’t be mucked with or adding a bunch of extra files to the Dropbox. Maybe an encrypted Sqllite file that each client signs on write so if it’s tampered with you’d know? Keybase and their builtin git and filesystem features might be useful for that too But Keybase is not as adopted as Dropbox be. Personally I find little value from social media that enables connecting everyone. And I don’t think I’m alone — last Xmas, got to talking to my nieces who are leaving home for college. They have zero interest or trust in Google and Facebook Twitter is useful for headline and current events updates but that could just as easily be RSS. Can’t IPO based on an open standard, I guess. Not enough sizzle