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This has been on my mind lately a lot with Nextdoor. I have really mixed feelings about Nextdoor which is a slightly separate issue, but it always seemed to me
by derbOac 5y ago
This has been on my mind lately a lot with Nextdoor. I have really mixed feelings about Nextdoor which is a slightly separate issue, but it always seemed to me that something like Mastodon or maybe even SSB would be an ideal use case in the same space as Nextdoor. You could have local communities around local servers, that have some natural reason to organize about that (geography), but are still loosely federated.
I'm not sure where my thoughts are going, as I'm not exactly surprised Nextdoor has more use than a more decentralized system for this use, but it's salient to me as I'd think something like SSB or Mastodon would ideally occupy the space that Nextdoor is occupying. I'm not sure if it is highlighting the legwork that Nextdoor did to build up its userbase (physically mailing people in a community), or the lack of technical sophistication of users in general, or the relative infancy of Mastodon/SSB/etc, or something inherent about getting a foot in the door with decentralized stuff in terms of mindset, or some inherent limitations of decentralization (can you really just compel/convince people to use decentralized services? People just use them).
I'm trying to imagine, for example, local police posting to Mastodon about some local safety issue in the same way as on Nextdoor. With Nextdoor, it's something known nationally, the state probably gives them recommendations, they just post to Nextdoor. Nextdoor might have even reached out to them. With e.g., Mastodon, I suppose I could see it being recognized as a thing if use got up, but where are they posting? The local popular servers? Do they run their own police server? Some kind of city government server?
This isn't a criticism of decentralization -- I'd like to see everything more decentralized. I just think something like Nextdoor is an interesting case to me to think through these issues because Nextdoor is so localized, and it seems like that's kind of the ideal use case for decentralized services.
- pessimizer 5y ago> Nextdoor is so localized, and it seems like that's kind of the ideal use case for decentralized services. Ideal use cases for decentralized services are also ideal business opportunities. You want to find collective action problems, charge rent for solving them, then manipulate your users to make you even more money from whatever resource is being collectively managed. edit: I can easily imagine an app started to organize and coordinate people who wanted to volunteer to pick-up and clean public parks 10 years later becoming a app that was de facto required in order to visit a public park.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoNextdoor is getting huge. I have family members who are always on it. The owners are in for a huge payday. I don't get the allure of the site. The site seems to attract complainers. That is not my point though. I am interested in decentralized sites, like Mastadon. Does anyone know of a good site that would walk a developer through building a rough clone of Mastadon? I know it uses Ruby on Rails, React, etc., but would like a detailed walkthrough. I did a rough search, but didn't find much on the programming of a decentralized social website on the technical side.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago> The site seems to attract complainers. Indeed. But what do you think (or suspect, or hope) would be different about a Mastodon instance playing the same role? My hunch is that the characteristics of ND are caused by its perceived role, not the technology, hosting arrangements or (lack of) federalization/locality.
- d110af5ccf 5y ago> walk a developer through building a rough clone of Mastadon There are already full featured clones that federate. Pleroma and Pixelfed for starters. There are also multiple alternative frontends for both Mastodon and Pleroma. Granted none of those are walkthroughs but they do provide full featured examples in multiple languages.
- JoshTriplett 5y ago> I don't get the allure of the site. The site seems to attract complainers. I think you get the allure of the site perfectly.
- crossroadsguy 5y agoWhat is Nextdoor? Google showed a .com address and it was asking for an address, but it didn’t seem to recognise any address of my country. App isn’t in App Store either. Is that the service you’ve mentioned? Is it something US only? Is it a social network that starts with your address?
- couchridr 5y agoThis one. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdoor-local-neighborhood/id640360962 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdoor-local-neighborhood/id...