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Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

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Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#241

Post by seb1204 »

lsllc wrote: post #222
ecshafer wrote: post #14

> I live in a more rural community (moved from a big city). We have 5-6 small (~50k people) towns, all well connected. Everything happens on Facebook. I would like to move to a different platforms. Plus points for self-hosted, federated. Do YOU want to move off of Facebook for some reason, or do people want to move off of Facebook for some reason. MOST people in the US, especially in a rural are are not going to quit…

This. After WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook (this predates any of the current political stuff, it was entirely about privacy), I tried to get friends and family to switch to something else -- Signal in fact as iMessage was a no-go because of the lack of Android support. Out of ~30 people, I got precisely 3 people to switch. No one else cared, no one else wanted the hassle of switching. I even got a few comments alo…

I managed to migrate my family but no one else. So now I still have WhatsApp and Signal.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#242

Post by jaymzcampbell »

jasode wrote: post #95

>move our local communities off Facebook and onto our own platform. Is there a off-the-shelf solution To get better answers, you need to flesh out all the features of Facebook that your communities are using. E.g. Shared event calendars? Groups? Private Messaging? Video hosting for users to upload vids of community events? Live feeds? Etc. Look at the left side of navigation topics to help you enumerate and think abo…

This is such a great answer. You've given me flashbacks to many zoom meetings that started with "Can't we just...".

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#243

Post by narag »

scarface_74 wrote: post #210
PaulHoule wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is https://nextdoor.com/ which is very much about community organizing but it has an aura of "people spreading rumors about bicycle thefts at the movie theater downtown (why don't they call the cops?)", the woman who radiates creepy signs of precarity (is cleaning up and looking for the phone number of the people who are suspected to run an illegal landfill) and then posts sc…

Let’s be honest, Nextdoor is about people seeing that a black person is suspiciously going into a home using their garage door opener, driving in their garage and using their key…

Remove "black" and it's the description of living in a small town.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#244

Post by latexr »

jf22 wrote: post #228
latexr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, yes it is. By definition. “Limited” means “restricted in size”, not “an arbitrary number a random person thinks is small”. From the moment OP defined “this is for this specific community of this size”, it is limited. It will be abundantly clear when they have moved no one, or every one, or a critical mass, or not enough. Because it’s limited, bounded, constrained.

Mincing words and splitting hairs again.

Words have meanings. Communication between humans, which you’re keenly defending, depends on a shared understanding of them. I haven’t commented on it until now, but in my view you’re splitting hairs by repeatedly creating your own definitions (e.g. defining what is “real” change or not; changing the definition of words you said; saying “improvement” is not “change”; misunderstanding “limited”). So your repeated accusations don’t really land.

I don’t think it’s worth either of our times to continue, though. We’ve strayed too much from the original point.

A good evening (or your equivalent time of day) to you.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#245

Post by XCabbage »

chriswarbo wrote: post #201
XCabbage wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? When has Facebook ever implemented political censorship on behalf of Trump ? I am not aware of a single case of such a thing even being requested, let alone granted. The scandals about government-directed social media censorship were under Biden's admin, not under Trump's.

"Instagram hides search results for 'Democrats'" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g32yxpdz0o > While users who type "#Democrat" or "#Democrats" see no results, the hashtag "Republican" returns 3.3 million posts on the social media platform. > By manually searching Instagram for "Democrats", rather than clicking on a hashtag, users are greeted by a screen reading "we've hidden these results". > "Results for the t…

This is really obviously not intentional, let alone requested by the Trump admin.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#246

Post by BlarfMcFlarf »

bko wrote: post #198
bee_rider wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could communicate more effectively 20 or so years ago. Communication technology had already matured, but we didn’t have these engagement-driven social media platforms. The goal of these platforms isn’t to communicate, it is to sell ads and pick engaging posts to re-broadcast. What gets people engaged is stupid anger. Even stuff I agree with on some fundamental political level, the social media version is just stre…

I think you're mixing a few things here. There's social media (TikTok, Instagram, X, viral crap) and then there's social media (organize parties, facebook marketplace, Whatsapp, etc). They may share a technology platform, but they are not the same. If you have children you'll see social media (#2) is incredibly useful and facilitates greatly in communication. We're much more connected than our parents were thanks to…

Facebook is rapidly moving away from effective communication. AI slop, AI posters, and algorithmic preferences for decisiveness over local community with engagement farming algorithms. If the communication medium you use is turning toxic, it’s imperative to find alternatives before communication breaks down and a switch becomes impossible.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#247

Post by latexr »

scarface_74 wrote: post #221
latexr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, yes it is. By definition. “Limited” means “restricted in size”, not “an arbitrary number a random person thinks is small”. From the moment OP defined “this is for this specific community of this size”, it is limited. It will be abundantly clear when they have moved no one, or every one, or a critical mass, or not enough. Because it’s limited, bounded, constrained.

Well in that case so is the total population of earth.

We’re not discussing the total population of the Earth. The thing about words is that their meaning may depend on context.

If we were discussing everyone who has lived and will ever live, the current population of the world would be a limited snapshot. Same if we were discussing every planet and civilisation in the fictional world of Start Trek.

But we’re not discussing that. Making up something we’re not talking about to attack what we are is called a straw man argument.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#248

Post by heavyset_go »

jasode wrote: post #95

>move our local communities off Facebook and onto our own platform. Is there a off-the-shelf solution To get better answers, you need to flesh out all the features of Facebook that your communities are using. E.g. Shared event calendars? Groups? Private Messaging? Video hosting for users to upload vids of community events? Live feeds? Etc. Look at the left side of navigation topics to help you enumerate and think abo…

I've seen projects go off the rails trying to replicate Facebook's features for their groups, so make sure that your minimum actually means minimum in your MVP.

You can build out a million features for Facebook parity, but it doesn't mean much if you have low traction.

There were also cases where a simple Wordpress (or whatever) site would have worked, but the owners went all in on replicating FB features, instead of making sure users actually went to their new property at all.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#249

Post by scarface_74 »

latexr wrote: post #247
scarface_74 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well in that case so is the total population of earth.

We’re not discussing the total population of the Earth. The thing about words is that their meaning may depend on context. If we were discussing everyone who has lived and will ever live, the current population of the world would be a limited snapshot. Same if we were discussing every planet and civilisation in the fictional world of Start Trek. But we’re not discussing that. Making up something we’re not talking abo…

And for the purposes of the stated goal, for one person or even a company to get 50K people to switch from Facebook or to use another platform especially when all someone else has to do is start a group on Facebook, might as well be “the number of people on earth” difficult.

Re: Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook?

#250

Post by pc86 »

coldpie wrote: post #38
ecshafer wrote: post #14

> I live in a more rural community (moved from a big city). We have 5-6 small (~50k people) towns, all well connected. Everything happens on Facebook. I would like to move to a different platforms. Plus points for self-hosted, federated. Do YOU want to move off of Facebook for some reason, or do people want to move off of Facebook for some reason. MOST people in the US, especially in a rural are are not going to quit…

You're correct, but this is quite a boring response. If no one tried to make the world a better place, the world would never get better. It is an uphill battle, but I wish the OP luck all the same.

Nobody is talking about "making the world a better place," we're talking about a few Facebook groups using a different app instead (and approximately 100% of those people will still be on Facebook doing other things).
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