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Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

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Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#141

Post by [deleted] »

benibela wrote: post #115
wombatmobile wrote: post #57

This likely isn't what the op had in mind, but if you're open to it, the best alternative to both reading and authoring on Twitter is to get up from your desk and exercise outside for 10 or 15 minutes. If you see other people, start a friendly, civil conversation. The skills you develop once you get the hang of doing this, and the information you'll stumble upon outclass Twitter, which is merely an interaction betwee…

The audience is too small On Twitter you can easily reach thousands of people, in person you only talk to a handful

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#142

Post by wut42 »

erk__ wrote: post #113
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which means that in practice, it's very debatable how much more free these decentralized platforms are than centralized ones, and whether they're worth the extra effort required to make decentralization work. Especially since Mastodon seems to have (from my limited understanding) a "if you dare to talk to the Bad People you're also a Bad Person and getting dropped" mentality, effectively meaning that you cannot run a…

I think the amount of instances that would want to distribute anything from Gab [0] which is based on Mastadon is very very limited. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)

Gab ripped their federation code a while ago. Also, when they were federating, they never cared much about properly federating. They used federation as an argument to switching platforms but they didn't care about it. What they cared the most, I think, was the client ecosystem of Mastodon/…. Gab clients were banned, but Apple/Google cannot ban fediverse clients.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#143

Post by mumblemumble »

clairity wrote: post #128
BlueTemplar wrote: post #112

While somewhat offtopic, an important question is why would you want one ? IMHO the main issue of Twitter is not even the way how it's now a walled garden (and since recently, effectively outside of the Web). It's how the combination of a ~~140~~ 280† character limit, personal walls, hashtags, likes and an horribly hard to navigate comment system has resulted in a medium where constructive debate is almost impossible…

for better discussion, 280 would be a minimum rather than a maximum, but twitter doesn't want better discussion as that also depresses engagement.

Maybe? But, on the other hand, even at 147 characters, your comment seems like a complete and well-composed observation. I don't see how requiring it to be 90% longer would improve it.

I only got past 280 by counting just 185 characters, and deciding to add this sentence as filler.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#144

Post by thebigspacefuck »

Every time I go looking for one of these open alternatives it’s filled with fringe conspiracy theorists, actual racists, etc. Example is LBRY. Bryan Lunduke says he’s switching off YouTube for LBRY, so I go there to check it out. Top trending video is some white supremacist thing why I shouldn’t forget my ancestry. Search for “how to repair furnace”, second result is video how Epstein is alive. Even Lunduke is taking the opportunity to start his red-pilled politics channel. I have similar story with Mastodon.

The fundamentals are there but the big challenge is no censorship actually makes these smaller platforms something that people don’t want to use.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#146

Post by wut42 »

iFire wrote: post #139

Most of the decentralized Twitter alternative systems required AGPL to join. Are there any MIT licensed social protocols?

Protocols aren't licensed. You're totally free to implement an ActivityPub server with any license you like. AGPL is preferred by the community, but it's not mandatory. Honk uses ISC, Smithereen is unlicense, pubgate is BSD-3-Clauses, ….

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#147

Post by Buttons840 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #136
shawnz wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that this isn't a characteristic of the platform but of the users. The users don't want to be federated with someone who is federated with someone they don't like. How do you fix that, just force everyone to federate with each other? How do you stop people from forking their own clients to remove the forced federation?

Right, it's users, not tech (it's always people, not tech - Twitter is a problem not because it's centralized, but because of decisions made by people at the helm). What both 'tgsovlerkhgsel and I are trying to say is that there is this kind of realpolitik going on at Mastodon, of which you should be aware before considering to join. You start going against the "party line", you risk getting defederated or, if you're…

So start a federation that doesn't do that. Yes, it probably won't have many users. Once again, it's a people problem, and a hard one.

Maybe a blockchain? A public and unalterable ledger (which is what a blockchain is, of course). But being completely unmoderated users will use tools to moderate for them, tools that can block content they don't like. Indeed, users would coalesce and build lists of who to listen to, and who to not, and they'd keep that list on the unalterable and uncensorable blockchain.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#148

Post by jeffreyrogers »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #112

While somewhat offtopic, an important question is why would you want one ? IMHO the main issue of Twitter is not even the way how it's now a walled garden (and since recently, effectively outside of the Web). It's how the combination of a ~~140~~ 280† character limit, personal walls, hashtags, likes and an horribly hard to navigate comment system has resulted in a medium where constructive debate is almost impossible…

There's a lot of toxicity on twitter, but also some interesting discussion that I have not found anywhere else online. I routinely block people who get too political or are gratuitously mean. It makes twitter much more pleasant.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#149

Post by jere »

thebigspacefuck wrote: post #144

Every time I go looking for one of these open alternatives it’s filled with fringe conspiracy theorists, actual racists, etc. Example is LBRY. Bryan Lunduke says he’s switching off YouTube for LBRY, so I go there to check it out. Top trending video is some white supremacist thing why I shouldn’t forget my ancestry. Search for “how to repair furnace”, second result is video how Epstein is alive. Even Lunduke is taking…

I think you're right. A little surprised about Mastodon because I've only heard that from people I follow on twitter who tend to not be crazy, but I guess it makes sense.

I have an idea for an app whose primary motivation is offering a comment section for websites that don't normally have comments or have them disabled (yes, this idea is old as dirt and has been tried many times).

The part I'm really struggling with is how one would market such an app without targeting free speech absolutists and nutters, despite it being really useful for everyone. It seems like the moment you start highlighting free speech as a feature you become a magnet for the absolute worst kind of people.

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