3 ms·

I like this, but I've blocked Facebook from my life. My /etc/hosts file directs all network requests to 0.0.0.0. Sometimes I miss Facebook for these kinds of t

I like this, but I've blocked Facebook from my life. My /etc/hosts file directs all network requests to 0.0.0.0. Sometimes I miss Facebook for these kinds of things, I wish there was a super popular open-source social network that all my friends would use. Or a free social network without all the nasty practices.

JeremyNT 6y ago
Yeah, sadly this is a nonstarter for me due to this. Perhaps somebody will expand the idea outside of the Facebook ecosystem, but I'm not about to sign up for Facebook just to give this a try.
- audiometry 6y ago
  yeah killed it for me. I use free cycle. It doesn't have the social/bilateral aspect, but I prefer that to zuckerberg.
- animal_spirits 6y ago
  There are similar groups to find on https://freecycle.org/ https://freecycle.org/
- davidclark22 6y ago
  I built https://www.giftingproject.org https://www.giftingproject.org for this. I quit Facebook last year but missed the Buy Nothing group.
  - myself248 6y ago
    When I initially typed in my zipcode and smacked Enter, nothing happened. At all. I tried again with a neighboring zip, but this time I hesitated for a moment to make sure I entered it right, and the search box did a weird thing where it popped down an expanded city name along with the zip code. I clicked this and THEN smacked enter, and I got a search results page! Of course there are no results in my area (and no way to tell how large a radius it considers "my area"; should I try again with a zip a few miles away? a few dozen miles away?), but now I know there's a secret-knock to get into the site.
aneemzic 6y ago
So essentially you want an open-source, mainstream free to use service that operates at a large scale and doesn't monetize through ads? Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath.
alisonkisk 6y ago
You could make a dedicated FB account that you only access from a proxy running on a VM on a cloud provider. The OP also talks about "open source", you can launch an off-FB group and tell your friends to advertise it on Facebook.
- SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
  Facebook bans accounts with fake info. They are pretty good at it too. I assume they simply use the contact info the scraped and look for your name in your friends contact lists.
WhyNotHugo 6y ago
Yeah, the idea is pretty cool, but expecting people to sign up for Facebook for it kinda kills it.

JeremyNT 6y ago

Yeah, sadly this is a nonstarter for me due to this. Perhaps somebody will expand the idea outside of the Facebook ecosystem, but I'm not about to sign up for Facebook just to give this a try.

audiometry 6y ago
yeah killed it for me. I use free cycle. It doesn't have the social/bilateral aspect, but I prefer that to zuckerberg.
animal_spirits 6y ago
There are similar groups to find on https://freecycle.org/ https://freecycle.org/
davidclark22 6y ago
I built https://www.giftingproject.org https://www.giftingproject.org for this. I quit Facebook last year but missed the Buy Nothing group.
- myself248 6y ago
  When I initially typed in my zipcode and smacked Enter, nothing happened. At all. I tried again with a neighboring zip, but this time I hesitated for a moment to make sure I entered it right, and the search box did a weird thing where it popped down an expanded city name along with the zip code. I clicked this and THEN smacked enter, and I got a search results page! Of course there are no results in my area (and no way to tell how large a radius it considers "my area"; should I try again with a zip a few miles away? a few dozen miles away?), but now I know there's a secret-knock to get into the site.

aneemzic 6y ago

So essentially you want an open-source, mainstream free to use service that operates at a large scale and doesn't monetize through ads? Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath.

alisonkisk 6y ago

You could make a dedicated FB account that you only access from a proxy running on a VM on a cloud provider. The OP also talks about "open source", you can launch an off-FB group and tell your friends to advertise it on Facebook.

SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
Facebook bans accounts with fake info. They are pretty good at it too. I assume they simply use the contact info the scraped and look for your name in your friends contact lists.

WhyNotHugo 6y ago

Yeah, the idea is pretty cool, but expecting people to sign up for Facebook for it kinda kills it.