14 ms·

Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

117 points by apo 9y ago

fenwick67 9y ago
What do you do when somebody posts death threats or child porn on your immutable social network?
- bevan 9y ago
  Front-ends like peepeth.com are censorable. Illegal content will be removed from the peepeth.com front-end. I think its criminal appeal is limited compared to alternatives. Use of a known and traceable payment+communications channel reveals more info about the perpetrators and their networks than non-crypto communication channels + crypto payments. Pairing communication and money removes a level of anonymity because of the traceable nature of blockchain transactions.
  - CharlesW 9y ago
    > Front-ends like peepeth.com are censorable. To make sure I understand, are you saying, "Every client developer has to handle this on their own, if they choose to at all"? > I think its criminal appeal is limited compared to alternatives. […] It seems like you're suggesting that anonymity is not possible with Ethereum, but searches suggests that it's possible now, and will become easier thanks to projects like Project Alchemy. (I don't know much about Ethereum, though, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!)
    - rhacker 9y ago
      Kindof an interesting legal question - what would make peepeth more liable for such data more-so than etherscan.io for example? If both sites have the feature to hide or prevent download of the data, whereas etherscan may not even bother? It kinda makes you wonder if the Ether wallet itself that can sync and download such data is also at risk of being called illegal. Are FBI raids now going to focus on targeting people that have a copy of the block chain to put them away?
      - icebraining 9y ago
        Freenet has been around for almost twenty years, it's known to contain illegal content (including CP), and as far as I know its users haven't been systematically raided. On a different note, Sone - microblogging over Freenet - has been around for quite a while, and it's under active development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://github.com/Bombe/Sone https://github.com/Bombe/Sone
  - shanev 9y ago
    You could deploy a smart contract that has an array of all censored/blacklisted peeps which other clients can choose to use.
  - OrganicMSG 9y ago
    How do you allow access and editing of any identifying data previously posted, so as to comply with GDPR?
  - erispoe 9y ago
    But this content would still be stored and distributed, even if it's not displayed on public front-ends?
bevan 9y ago
Hi all, Peepeth creator here. Would appreciate your thoughts. https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87k9iz/presenting_peepeth_a_decentralized_alternative_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87k9iz/presenting... https://www.producthunt.com/posts/peepeth https://www.producthunt.com/posts/peepeth
- __phantom 9y ago
  In terms of getting paid: As a content creator, I'd like the barrier to entry to be as small as possible. Youtube Views being the lowest, what's the draw for this over Patreon, or even a Paypal?
  - bevan 9y ago
    Good question. It's nice to be able to receive payments without relying on a company. Even if Peepeth.com goes down, you could still be in business on other front-ends (back-end data is open, anyone can build competing front-ends).
- berberous 9y ago
  1) The word "microblogging" threw me off -- for some reason, I hear "blogging", and don't realize it's meant to be a twitter clone. 2) Maybe it's just me, but the full page image of the woman on your landing page makes me want to close out rather than engage and find out what the product is. I'd rather see top peeps immediately, with a partial landing banner for new users. 3) I think the most critical task for a product like yours is curating a good community. With twitter already existing, how do you intend to avoid turning into a boring graveyard of crypto shills (like Steem) or a Gab-like place filled with only people offensive enough to have been banned elsewhere? 4) Otherwise -- it looks great! I'm on the waitlist...how long before you send out more invite? :)
  - bevan 9y ago
    Thanks! 1) Yeah, it's a weird word. Other suggestions appreciated. 2) Good feedback. 3) Branding is a top priority. This front-end is meant to polarize for a certain type of user. That becomes more clear during on-ramp and usage. Copy/messaging needs work. Suggestions appreciated. 4) Thank you. Best way is to DM me on Twitter at @bevanbarton with the email address you signed up with and I'll approve you ASAP.
wcr3 9y ago
(extremely nerds voice) mine peepeth
dmitrybrant 9y ago
Methinks thou peepeth falsely, good sir!
pram 9y ago
Don’t forget to Like and Repeep my Peeps on Peepeth
- chickenfries 9y ago
  Yeah, it's an unfortunate name :\. This is how I imagine any conversation about it going: "Hey friends, you all should try this app I'm using Peepeth" "Pee-what?" "Peepeth." "How do I spell that?"
  - bevan 9y ago
    The name jokes are many and hilarious, making a page on the site for that :)
    - chickenfries 9y ago
      I'm glad you find humor in it :). I sincerely hope it doesn't hurt adoption! I really want there to be alternatives to Twitter (I use Mastadon).
      - natestipe 9y ago
        You should check Peepeth out. It is a way better alternative to Twitter. It has more of a community feel without the garbage heckling, etc.
        TylerE 9y ago
        It seems to be great if your goal is to see many copies of the dickbutt meme.
  - hinkley 9y ago
    "Hey guys, I was wondering if we should migrate the Peepeth code base to pijul." "You wanna put the Pee-what in the pee-who?"
- Yetanfou 9y ago
amorroxic 9y ago
I like it, really! I believe this to be a good use-case for decentralization as opposed to anonimity - if paired with a good verification mechanism (so leaving behind the crypto-anonimity mantra) this would also guarantee integrity of timelines (tampering/algorithmic curation of news and what not). Good luck to you Sir!
- bevan 9y ago
  Thank you. Currently there's Twitter account verification (through a blockchain oracle contract). More verification options are on the way (incl. domain ownership).
HL1837 9y ago
Big fan of Peepeth.
- bevan 9y ago
  Thank you! All suggestions appreciated.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - elevenoh 9y ago
    Heads up: my username @twitter seems to trigger a bug, as I expected it would.
graceschroeder 9y ago
I love this. Is the notion that users will be able to monetize their own data?
- bevan 9y ago
  Thanks Grace. Yes, that's part of it. Also, content isn't controlled by a company (it's immutable on the blockchain).
whalesalad 9y ago
I’d seriously reconsider the name. I understand it’s a combo of peep+eth but combining them is really not gonna resonate with anyone.
- natestipe 9y ago
  I like the name and have found that the Peepeth community has also embraced it. It's catchy, easy to remember and is a perfect description of it's main components.
- CosmicShadow 9y ago
  Sounds like it's about Shakespearean Peepers, that's the reason I clicked: to find out what the hell could have that kind of name.
  - imron 9y ago
    Sounds like peepee
- api 9y ago
  Thou hast peepeth? I think it's clever. I don't think it matters that much as long as people can remember and spell it. Google wasn't a resonant name with anyone except math nerds.
- marssaxman 9y ago
  Yes, it's not a name I'm going to be comfortable pronouncing in discussion, so I'm not likely to discuss it with anyone.
chickenfries 9y ago
I feel like this Jack Dorsey profile is fake, because he hasn't mentioned Peepeth on his Twitter account or anything. https://twitter.com/jack https://twitter.com/jack However, it seems to have fooled the real(?) Fred Wilson. https://peepeth.com/fredwilson?id=QmNVmVaUiUHKq1B19deSoThkHsW8YquMvyaVbxNJP98BPL https://peepeth.com/fredwilson?id=QmNVmVaUiUHKq1B19deSoThkHs... Not that I think this says something bad about Peepeth... the situation is obviously not much better on Twitter, even with verification. Just a point about how easy it to be fooled online when you're not expect it...
- bevan 9y ago
  Haha, good eye. Don't tell Fred! :) Yes, Peepeth users are aware that unless an account is Twitter-verified (with a Twitter icon next to their name), the user is not guaranteed to be the "real" user. Other verifications like domain ownership are coming soon.
  - chickenfries 9y ago
    Yeah, having multiple ways to verify identity will be so much better than Twitter's manual situation that can't scale...
- elevenoh 9y ago
  Doesn't look like they claimed to be the 'real' jack dorsey?
KirinDave 9y ago
I'm genuinely curious how this compares to something like, say, Mastodon. It seems to me like Mastodon actually offers a lot of the same advantages.
- bevan 9y ago
  Good question. With Mastodon, there is no central data store. So if your chosen front-end goes down (which hosts your content), you're out of luck. I think they're working on that problem though.
  - KirinDave 9y ago
    Alternatively: Mastodon lets you run your own node on your own hardware, have it exist as an equal peer, and if you want to delete your own data you have that option. It's weird to me how the no-retractions thing is a benefit. Seems like a feature deficit. I can't imagine using twitter without the delete function, if only just to delete botched tweets.
    - briansbum 9y ago
      It looks like you're able to do a similar thing with their batching method to make using it cheaper. Re-read your peep before it gets pushed to the chain and you'll be able to delete them there.
      - KirinDave 9y ago
        That's fair, but I think the criticism still stands. Why is it good that you can't delete things? I can think of lots of situations where that's not a good thing. I can't really think of any situations where it's a good thing.
elevenoh 9y ago
Well done. The ui/design seems a just a little hard around the edges.
virgilp 9y ago
For me, the biggest roadblock is actually owning ETH. You may thing that's trivial, but I'm not so sure. Apparently 10m people in the world own SOME form of crypto[1] - so, there's your upper bound on number of users. For a mass-market product, 10m is really not that much .... you don't just need "traction", you need traction that is so significant that it pushes up the entire crypto market! I'm skeptical, but who knows? Good luck. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-own-at-least-some-cryptocurrency-as-of-January-2018 https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-own-at-least-some-cryp...
- rkangel 9y ago
  The counterpoint is that you could look at it like encrypting your messages. For years, using PGP for email was possible, but only a few people did, because it was clunky and they didn't care enough. The climate changed, but so did technology. WhatsApp now makes E2E message encryption trivial, due to the work they've put in to make it easy for users. You could argue that if a cryptocurrency based service made the usage of that cryptocurrency sufficiently easy then it wouldn't matter that there hadn't been much adoption up to that point. To put it another way - the market size for Peepeth isn't "people who already own some form of crypto", it's "people who don't want their messages censored". The use of crypto may be a barrier to entry for some of those people, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
  - virgilp 9y ago
    You're right but it's not really a counterpoint, it's just supporting/ alternate angle on my original point: for something like Peepeth to be mass-market-popular, it needs the underlying technology (cryptocurrencies) to be mass-market-popular, not just popular-in-some-niche (however large that niche is). So this service seems to be betting its future on the fact that some analogue of "whatsapp" will appear, that will make cryptocurrencies trivial to use. Do you know of any such service? THAT is something I'd be really interested to invest in :)
    - rkangel 9y ago
      The point I was trying to make with the WhatsApp examples is that the work to make it easier could be part of Peepeth. I don't think WhatsApp is leveraging much existing work to do what it does, they've just come up with a good flow that fits their model. Yes, the challenge for Peepeth is probably greater than that faced by WhatsApp, but not impossible. The implicit assumption being made in the parent is that the current market size is dictated by UX, rather than something else like a compelling use case for the majority of the population. I'm suggesting that with some UX work and a compelling use case (which Peepeth may or may not be), there is nothing preventing large scale adoption of crypto.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
josephwegner 9y ago
I appreciate all of these distributed social networks (Mastodon, Peepeth, Diaspora, etc.) getting some buzz right now. I think distributed hosting of social networks is an important step forward. However, they're all lacking one major thing that needs to happen in order for a true Facebook Exodus to take place - distributed discovery and consumption. Facebook has a HUGE network effect, and simply put there is no way any of my acquaintances are going to leave Facebook just because of the recent news. I can start a Mastodon node, but I would be shouting into a void - there's no one there to see my content, and no incentive for someone to move over. If I _did_ convince anyone to move, they'd be shouting into the same void, and get bored. There needs to be a way for us early adopters to post content, but let it still reach people that haven't jumped yet. Right now the best solution I have for this is something pull-based like RSS. Even that's not a great solution, though - my average acquaintance no longer uses RSS. I might be able to get my mom to install Feedly, but no way is my old friend from High School going to install it. Open to hear ideas around this.
- kristianc 9y ago
  For a lot of people, RSS hasn't gone away. They just call it Apple News. It has very quietly scaled to 70M MAUs and lets you add custom news feeds.
- eadmund 9y ago
  > I can start a Mastodon node, but I would be shouting into a void - there's no one there to see my content, and no incentive for someone to move over. That's what POSSE[0] is for: you Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. So you'd publish on Mastodon & (hopefully automatically) also publish a syndicated feed on Facebook. [0]: https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE
- kodablah 9y ago
  There is an opportunity here as this has parallels to the early internet. Think of your Mastodon node as your website, how would people discover you? Someone needs to build a scanner/crawler/indexer for the allowed-to-be-discoverable parts of these non-domain+HTTP services. A Google for the decentralized web will be built by someone and there can be a first mover advantage here. Sadly, to do it right requires money and time, so beware the motives of the ones that pop up. Regardless, I don't necessarily think it's the job of these services to provide that centralized index (it's against their core anyways). If anything, they just need to provide crawlable, opt-in hooks for the bots to hit.

117 points by apo 9y ago

fenwick67 9y ago

What do you do when somebody posts death threats or child porn on your immutable social network?

bevan 9y ago
Front-ends like peepeth.com are censorable. Illegal content will be removed from the peepeth.com front-end. I think its criminal appeal is limited compared to alternatives. Use of a known and traceable payment+communications channel reveals more info about the perpetrators and their networks than non-crypto communication channels + crypto payments. Pairing communication and money removes a level of anonymity because of the traceable nature of blockchain transactions.
- CharlesW 9y ago
  > Front-ends like peepeth.com are censorable. To make sure I understand, are you saying, "Every client developer has to handle this on their own, if they choose to at all"? > I think its criminal appeal is limited compared to alternatives. […] It seems like you're suggesting that anonymity is not possible with Ethereum, but searches suggests that it's possible now, and will become easier thanks to projects like Project Alchemy. (I don't know much about Ethereum, though, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!)
  - rhacker 9y ago
    Kindof an interesting legal question - what would make peepeth more liable for such data more-so than etherscan.io for example? If both sites have the feature to hide or prevent download of the data, whereas etherscan may not even bother? It kinda makes you wonder if the Ether wallet itself that can sync and download such data is also at risk of being called illegal. Are FBI raids now going to focus on targeting people that have a copy of the block chain to put them away?
    - icebraining 9y ago
      Freenet has been around for almost twenty years, it's known to contain illegal content (including CP), and as far as I know its users haven't been systematically raided. On a different note, Sone - microblogging over Freenet - has been around for quite a while, and it's under active development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://github.com/Bombe/Sone https://github.com/Bombe/Sone
- shanev 9y ago
  You could deploy a smart contract that has an array of all censored/blacklisted peeps which other clients can choose to use.
- OrganicMSG 9y ago
  How do you allow access and editing of any identifying data previously posted, so as to comply with GDPR?
- erispoe 9y ago
  But this content would still be stored and distributed, even if it's not displayed on public front-ends?

bevan 9y ago

Hi all, Peepeth creator here. Would appreciate your thoughts. https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87k9iz/presenting_peepeth_a_decentralized_alternative_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87k9iz/presenting... https://www.producthunt.com/posts/peepeth https://www.producthunt.com/posts/peepeth

__phantom 9y ago
In terms of getting paid: As a content creator, I'd like the barrier to entry to be as small as possible. Youtube Views being the lowest, what's the draw for this over Patreon, or even a Paypal?
- bevan 9y ago
  Good question. It's nice to be able to receive payments without relying on a company. Even if Peepeth.com goes down, you could still be in business on other front-ends (back-end data is open, anyone can build competing front-ends).
berberous 9y ago
1) The word "microblogging" threw me off -- for some reason, I hear "blogging", and don't realize it's meant to be a twitter clone. 2) Maybe it's just me, but the full page image of the woman on your landing page makes me want to close out rather than engage and find out what the product is. I'd rather see top peeps immediately, with a partial landing banner for new users. 3) I think the most critical task for a product like yours is curating a good community. With twitter already existing, how do you intend to avoid turning into a boring graveyard of crypto shills (like Steem) or a Gab-like place filled with only people offensive enough to have been banned elsewhere? 4) Otherwise -- it looks great! I'm on the waitlist...how long before you send out more invite? :)
- bevan 9y ago
  Thanks! 1) Yeah, it's a weird word. Other suggestions appreciated. 2) Good feedback. 3) Branding is a top priority. This front-end is meant to polarize for a certain type of user. That becomes more clear during on-ramp and usage. Copy/messaging needs work. Suggestions appreciated. 4) Thank you. Best way is to DM me on Twitter at @bevanbarton with the email address you signed up with and I'll approve you ASAP.

wcr3 9y ago

(extremely nerds voice) mine peepeth

dmitrybrant 9y ago

Methinks thou peepeth falsely, good sir!

pram 9y ago

Don’t forget to Like and Repeep my Peeps on Peepeth

chickenfries 9y ago
Yeah, it's an unfortunate name :\. This is how I imagine any conversation about it going: "Hey friends, you all should try this app I'm using Peepeth" "Pee-what?" "Peepeth." "How do I spell that?"
- bevan 9y ago
  The name jokes are many and hilarious, making a page on the site for that :)
  - chickenfries 9y ago
    I'm glad you find humor in it :). I sincerely hope it doesn't hurt adoption! I really want there to be alternatives to Twitter (I use Mastadon).
    - natestipe 9y ago
      You should check Peepeth out. It is a way better alternative to Twitter. It has more of a community feel without the garbage heckling, etc.
      - TylerE 9y ago
        It seems to be great if your goal is to see many copies of the dickbutt meme.
- hinkley 9y ago
  "Hey guys, I was wondering if we should migrate the Peepeth code base to pijul." "You wanna put the Pee-what in the pee-who?"
Yetanfou 9y ago

amorroxic 9y ago

I like it, really! I believe this to be a good use-case for decentralization as opposed to anonimity - if paired with a good verification mechanism (so leaving behind the crypto-anonimity mantra) this would also guarantee integrity of timelines (tampering/algorithmic curation of news and what not). Good luck to you Sir!

bevan 9y ago
Thank you. Currently there's Twitter account verification (through a blockchain oracle contract). More verification options are on the way (incl. domain ownership).

HL1837 9y ago

Big fan of Peepeth.

bevan 9y ago
Thank you! All suggestions appreciated.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- elevenoh 9y ago
  Heads up: my username @twitter seems to trigger a bug, as I expected it would.

graceschroeder 9y ago

I love this. Is the notion that users will be able to monetize their own data?

bevan 9y ago
Thanks Grace. Yes, that's part of it. Also, content isn't controlled by a company (it's immutable on the blockchain).

whalesalad 9y ago

I’d seriously reconsider the name. I understand it’s a combo of peep+eth but combining them is really not gonna resonate with anyone.

natestipe 9y ago
I like the name and have found that the Peepeth community has also embraced it. It's catchy, easy to remember and is a perfect description of it's main components.
CosmicShadow 9y ago
Sounds like it's about Shakespearean Peepers, that's the reason I clicked: to find out what the hell could have that kind of name.
- imron 9y ago
  Sounds like peepee
api 9y ago
Thou hast peepeth? I think it's clever. I don't think it matters that much as long as people can remember and spell it. Google wasn't a resonant name with anyone except math nerds.
marssaxman 9y ago
Yes, it's not a name I'm going to be comfortable pronouncing in discussion, so I'm not likely to discuss it with anyone.

chickenfries 9y ago

I feel like this Jack Dorsey profile is fake, because he hasn't mentioned Peepeth on his Twitter account or anything. https://twitter.com/jack https://twitter.com/jack However, it seems to have fooled the real(?) Fred Wilson. https://peepeth.com/fredwilson?id=QmNVmVaUiUHKq1B19deSoThkHsW8YquMvyaVbxNJP98BPL https://peepeth.com/fredwilson?id=QmNVmVaUiUHKq1B19deSoThkHs... Not that I think this says something bad about Peepeth... the situation is obviously not much better on Twitter, even with verification. Just a point about how easy it to be fooled online when you're not expect it...

bevan 9y ago
Haha, good eye. Don't tell Fred! :) Yes, Peepeth users are aware that unless an account is Twitter-verified (with a Twitter icon next to their name), the user is not guaranteed to be the "real" user. Other verifications like domain ownership are coming soon.
- chickenfries 9y ago
  Yeah, having multiple ways to verify identity will be so much better than Twitter's manual situation that can't scale...
elevenoh 9y ago
Doesn't look like they claimed to be the 'real' jack dorsey?

KirinDave 9y ago

I'm genuinely curious how this compares to something like, say, Mastodon. It seems to me like Mastodon actually offers a lot of the same advantages.

bevan 9y ago
Good question. With Mastodon, there is no central data store. So if your chosen front-end goes down (which hosts your content), you're out of luck. I think they're working on that problem though.
- KirinDave 9y ago
  Alternatively: Mastodon lets you run your own node on your own hardware, have it exist as an equal peer, and if you want to delete your own data you have that option. It's weird to me how the no-retractions thing is a benefit. Seems like a feature deficit. I can't imagine using twitter without the delete function, if only just to delete botched tweets.
  - briansbum 9y ago
    It looks like you're able to do a similar thing with their batching method to make using it cheaper. Re-read your peep before it gets pushed to the chain and you'll be able to delete them there.
    - KirinDave 9y ago
      That's fair, but I think the criticism still stands. Why is it good that you can't delete things? I can think of lots of situations where that's not a good thing. I can't really think of any situations where it's a good thing.

elevenoh 9y ago

Well done. The ui/design seems a just a little hard around the edges.

virgilp 9y ago

For me, the biggest roadblock is actually owning ETH. You may thing that's trivial, but I'm not so sure. Apparently 10m people in the world own SOME form of crypto[1] - so, there's your upper bound on number of users. For a mass-market product, 10m is really not that much .... you don't just need "traction", you need traction that is so significant that it pushes up the entire crypto market! I'm skeptical, but who knows? Good luck. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-own-at-least-some-cryptocurrency-as-of-January-2018 https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-own-at-least-some-cryp...

rkangel 9y ago
The counterpoint is that you could look at it like encrypting your messages. For years, using PGP for email was possible, but only a few people did, because it was clunky and they didn't care enough. The climate changed, but so did technology. WhatsApp now makes E2E message encryption trivial, due to the work they've put in to make it easy for users. You could argue that if a cryptocurrency based service made the usage of that cryptocurrency sufficiently easy then it wouldn't matter that there hadn't been much adoption up to that point. To put it another way - the market size for Peepeth isn't "people who already own some form of crypto", it's "people who don't want their messages censored". The use of crypto may be a barrier to entry for some of those people, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
- virgilp 9y ago
  You're right but it's not really a counterpoint, it's just supporting/ alternate angle on my original point: for something like Peepeth to be mass-market-popular, it needs the underlying technology (cryptocurrencies) to be mass-market-popular, not just popular-in-some-niche (however large that niche is). So this service seems to be betting its future on the fact that some analogue of "whatsapp" will appear, that will make cryptocurrencies trivial to use. Do you know of any such service? THAT is something I'd be really interested to invest in :)
  - rkangel 9y ago
    The point I was trying to make with the WhatsApp examples is that the work to make it easier could be part of Peepeth. I don't think WhatsApp is leveraging much existing work to do what it does, they've just come up with a good flow that fits their model. Yes, the challenge for Peepeth is probably greater than that faced by WhatsApp, but not impossible. The implicit assumption being made in the parent is that the current market size is dictated by UX, rather than something else like a compelling use case for the majority of the population. I'm suggesting that with some UX work and a compelling use case (which Peepeth may or may not be), there is nothing preventing large scale adoption of crypto.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

josephwegner 9y ago

I appreciate all of these distributed social networks (Mastodon, Peepeth, Diaspora, etc.) getting some buzz right now. I think distributed hosting of social networks is an important step forward. However, they're all lacking one major thing that needs to happen in order for a true Facebook Exodus to take place - distributed discovery and consumption. Facebook has a HUGE network effect, and simply put there is no way any of my acquaintances are going to leave Facebook just because of the recent news. I can start a Mastodon node, but I would be shouting into a void - there's no one there to see my content, and no incentive for someone to move over. If I _did_ convince anyone to move, they'd be shouting into the same void, and get bored. There needs to be a way for us early adopters to post content, but let it still reach people that haven't jumped yet. Right now the best solution I have for this is something pull-based like RSS. Even that's not a great solution, though - my average acquaintance no longer uses RSS. I might be able to get my mom to install Feedly, but no way is my old friend from High School going to install it. Open to hear ideas around this.

kristianc 9y ago
For a lot of people, RSS hasn't gone away. They just call it Apple News. It has very quietly scaled to 70M MAUs and lets you add custom news feeds.
eadmund 9y ago
> I can start a Mastodon node, but I would be shouting into a void - there's no one there to see my content, and no incentive for someone to move over. That's what POSSE[0] is for: you Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. So you'd publish on Mastodon & (hopefully automatically) also publish a syndicated feed on Facebook. [0]: https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE
kodablah 9y ago
There is an opportunity here as this has parallels to the early internet. Think of your Mastodon node as your website, how would people discover you? Someone needs to build a scanner/crawler/indexer for the allowed-to-be-discoverable parts of these non-domain+HTTP services. A Google for the decentralized web will be built by someone and there can be a first mover advantage here. Sadly, to do it right requires money and time, so beware the motives of the ones that pop up. Regardless, I don't necessarily think it's the job of these services to provide that centralized index (it's against their core anyways). If anything, they just need to provide crawlable, opt-in hooks for the bots to hit.