4 ms·

It is time to create a decentralized public social network

20 points by brisky 7y ago

superkuh 7y ago
So basically re-inventing microformats2 mark-up and webmention notifications: https://indieweb.org/ https://indieweb.org/
aklemm 7y ago
The author should first discuss what is already out there and working very well. Start with Pleroma (Mastodon) and IndieWeb.
- progval 7y ago
  and RSS. The only thing they seem to miss from the author's description is: "It has to be decentralized. The database would be hosted on many computers and each new entry would be processed using some sort of consensus algorithm." But there's no motivation for why this is a expected property of the network
  - ryanolsonx 7y ago
    RSS came to my mind too. If everyone self-hosted something that gives an RSS feed, your social network feed could really just be an RSS reader.
    - brisky 7y ago
      RSS is a good example. In the simplest form my proposed social network structure could be seen as RSS feed of all the social web that is stored in a decentralized database. The main feature is that the posts can be 'liked' or 'upvoted' by users (domains).
      - sovok_x 7y ago
        The sudden idea is to separate metadata and content on different services and merge them only for viewing and interaction. Then users can selfhost content and request its distributed social metadata (upvotes, emotes, other people's comments etc) dynamically without easily losing control over the content itself.
- askafriend 7y ago
  Neither of those examples are working well - not even close. They "work" in the sense that they have a checklist of features that I'm sure function as intended. But the product/network as a whole is far from "working".
  - progval 7y ago
    > But the product/network as a whole is far from "working". In what way?
    - elcomet 7y ago
      Number of users I guess.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - aklemm 7y ago
    Maybe, but the article needs to talk about that. That is my point. From my own view, I'm using both of those things and it does work, so why would I entertain a slough of new ideas to be started from scratch without seeing a compare and contrast discussion?
    - askafriend 7y ago
      Yep, that's fair pushback on the author; I agree.
- verify_sirrah 7y ago
  Masoton doesn't encode useful information in the URL like the author described in the first section.
  - progval 7y ago
    It's an implementation detail. You probably just need to change the code of file to change the format of Mastodon's URLs: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/app/lib/activitypub/tag_manager.rb https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/app/lib/ac... and this line: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/config/routes.rb#L91 https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/config/rou...
askafriend 7y ago
Oh god, someone posts this sort of thing every couple months. Also tends to have high correlation with crypto-folk. Decentralized social networks are a pipe dream. I'm sorry but no one wants to join you and your 50 shady hacker friends in a forum. People want to go where their friends and family are. People's friends and families aren't going to figure out whatever stupid, inconsistent, under-designed UX people inevitably build for these sorts of things. The bar is extremely high. Ideology seems to come before any practical notions of how people use products.
- aklemm 7y ago
  This is true and remains true, but if it ever changes and the UX becomes un-under-designed, I don't see any reason we can't proceed. Keep an eye on Matrix as they're undergoing a UX revamp and the people working on it are super thoughtful.
bvrmn 7y ago
There are only negative sides of decentralization for most of users. It's a very naive idea on its own.
alexandernst 7y ago
Aren’t there already like 5 or 6?
icedchai 7y ago
Anyone remember Usenet?
alexmingoia 7y ago
We have a decentralized public social network: blogs. Webmention and microformats2 standards build on top of blogs to add federated mentions, replies, likes, etc.

20 points by brisky 7y ago

So basically re-inventing microformats2 mark-up and webmention notifications: https://indieweb.org/ https://indieweb.org/

aklemm 7y ago

The author should first discuss what is already out there and working very well. Start with Pleroma (Mastodon) and IndieWeb.

progval 7y ago
and RSS. The only thing they seem to miss from the author's description is: "It has to be decentralized. The database would be hosted on many computers and each new entry would be processed using some sort of consensus algorithm." But there's no motivation for why this is a expected property of the network
- ryanolsonx 7y ago
  RSS came to my mind too. If everyone self-hosted something that gives an RSS feed, your social network feed could really just be an RSS reader.
  - brisky 7y ago
    RSS is a good example. In the simplest form my proposed social network structure could be seen as RSS feed of all the social web that is stored in a decentralized database. The main feature is that the posts can be 'liked' or 'upvoted' by users (domains).
    - sovok_x 7y ago
      The sudden idea is to separate metadata and content on different services and merge them only for viewing and interaction. Then users can selfhost content and request its distributed social metadata (upvotes, emotes, other people's comments etc) dynamically without easily losing control over the content itself.
askafriend 7y ago
Neither of those examples are working well - not even close. They "work" in the sense that they have a checklist of features that I'm sure function as intended. But the product/network as a whole is far from "working".
- progval 7y ago
  > But the product/network as a whole is far from "working". In what way?
  - elcomet 7y ago
    Number of users I guess.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- aklemm 7y ago
  Maybe, but the article needs to talk about that. That is my point. From my own view, I'm using both of those things and it does work, so why would I entertain a slough of new ideas to be started from scratch without seeing a compare and contrast discussion?
  - askafriend 7y ago
    Yep, that's fair pushback on the author; I agree.
verify_sirrah 7y ago
Masoton doesn't encode useful information in the URL like the author described in the first section.
- progval 7y ago
  It's an implementation detail. You probably just need to change the code of file to change the format of Mastodon's URLs: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/app/lib/activitypub/tag_manager.rb https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/app/lib/ac... and this line: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/config/routes.rb#L91 https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/config/rou...

askafriend 7y ago

Oh god, someone posts this sort of thing every couple months. Also tends to have high correlation with crypto-folk. Decentralized social networks are a pipe dream. I'm sorry but no one wants to join you and your 50 shady hacker friends in a forum. People want to go where their friends and family are. People's friends and families aren't going to figure out whatever stupid, inconsistent, under-designed UX people inevitably build for these sorts of things. The bar is extremely high. Ideology seems to come before any practical notions of how people use products.

aklemm 7y ago
This is true and remains true, but if it ever changes and the UX becomes un-under-designed, I don't see any reason we can't proceed. Keep an eye on Matrix as they're undergoing a UX revamp and the people working on it are super thoughtful.

bvrmn 7y ago

There are only negative sides of decentralization for most of users. It's a very naive idea on its own.

alexandernst 7y ago

Aren’t there already like 5 or 6?

icedchai 7y ago

Anyone remember Usenet?

alexmingoia 7y ago

We have a decentralized public social network: blogs. Webmention and microformats2 standards build on top of blogs to add federated mentions, replies, likes, etc.