4 ms·

I love the idea of more book-focused social networks! Curious what the motivation here is to make it federated, instead of focusing on high-velocity user-focuse

I love the idea of more book-focused social networks! Curious what the motivation here is to make it federated, instead of focusing on high-velocity user-focused product development. My greatest gripes with existing book-social-media-networks aren't the federation, but rather the dated UX.

morisy 3y ago
It’s got a very ideologically-driven focus, including an anti-capital source license: https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENSE.md https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENS... I think the focus on federation is to encourage small, decentralized and communally operated sites that play well with the broader fediverse. I can see that working well for a lot of book communities! Also, spent a bit of time a few weeks ago and it already seemed to have the nicest UX of the open social book services, at least that I could see (would love recs - mostly interested in a personal tracker).
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Well, that's a license I've never seen before! This makes it entirely unpractical for any company to host a server, which is an... interesting approach. I'm not sure why the police or military wouldn't be allowed to host a book reading website, though. I guess this was written as some kind of anti-government protest.
  - thebooktocome 3y ago
    > I'm not sure why the police or military wouldn't be allowed to host a book reading website, though. Many religions have an injunction against killing or otherwise contributing to the harm of sentient beings.
bluefishinit 3y ago
One benefit to federation in book-focused social media is it helps stop Amazon from buying the centralized services. They bought Goodreads and Shelfari. It's great to know they won't be buying the book-iverse.
- briandear 3y ago
  What’s wrong with Amazon? They made it possible for self published writers to actually make a living. They disrupted the big five publishers and have done a lot for independent writers. Even the indy bookstores require an author to go through corporate publishing gatekeepers. Amazon gives literally any writer an opportunity to sell books.
  - bluefishinit 3y ago
    I buy tons of books through Amazon and own a Kindle. That being said they're horrible at running book social networks. Of the two they bought they killed one and froze development on Goodreads. A federated book community will stop them from swooping in and killing the whole party.
  - guerrilla 3y ago
    It's a blatant conflict of interest for the book store and the book review to be the same company.
  - izzydata 3y ago
    Amazon is too big. It attracts too many bots and fake reviews. They also have no incentive to remove fake positive removes as it is a conflict of interest for them to sell as many books as possible.
  - vidarh 3y ago
    I use Amazon a lot, but that doesn't change the rot that set in for Goodreads after Amazon bought them.

morisy 3y ago

It’s got a very ideologically-driven focus, including an anti-capital source license: https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENSE.md https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENS... I think the focus on federation is to encourage small, decentralized and communally operated sites that play well with the broader fediverse. I can see that working well for a lot of book communities! Also, spent a bit of time a few weeks ago and it already seemed to have the nicest UX of the open social book services, at least that I could see (would love recs - mostly interested in a personal tracker).

jeroenhd 3y ago
Well, that's a license I've never seen before! This makes it entirely unpractical for any company to host a server, which is an... interesting approach. I'm not sure why the police or military wouldn't be allowed to host a book reading website, though. I guess this was written as some kind of anti-government protest.
- thebooktocome 3y ago
  > I'm not sure why the police or military wouldn't be allowed to host a book reading website, though. Many religions have an injunction against killing or otherwise contributing to the harm of sentient beings.

bluefishinit 3y ago

One benefit to federation in book-focused social media is it helps stop Amazon from buying the centralized services. They bought Goodreads and Shelfari. It's great to know they won't be buying the book-iverse.

briandear 3y ago
What’s wrong with Amazon? They made it possible for self published writers to actually make a living. They disrupted the big five publishers and have done a lot for independent writers. Even the indy bookstores require an author to go through corporate publishing gatekeepers. Amazon gives literally any writer an opportunity to sell books.
- bluefishinit 3y ago
  I buy tons of books through Amazon and own a Kindle. That being said they're horrible at running book social networks. Of the two they bought they killed one and froze development on Goodreads. A federated book community will stop them from swooping in and killing the whole party.
- guerrilla 3y ago
  It's a blatant conflict of interest for the book store and the book review to be the same company.
- izzydata 3y ago
  Amazon is too big. It attracts too many bots and fake reviews. They also have no incentive to remove fake positive removes as it is a conflict of interest for them to sell as many books as possible.
- vidarh 3y ago
  I use Amazon a lot, but that doesn't change the rot that set in for Goodreads after Amazon bought them.