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Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

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Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#271

Post by [deleted] »

periegetes wrote: post #270
paulcole wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You may gain social attention but you are handing over control. Yeah it's a tradeoff and for many people giving up that control is worth it.

No it's not. They think it's worth it until the negative aspects catch up to them. Then they weep. Due to some unexplainable optimism, people always believe that injustice won't happen to them. Just like with car accidents. And just like with car accidents, there should be some sort of "insurance" against unforeseen douchebaggery. It's like this : - let's say there's a 1% chance of FaceGoogle abuse for anyone - when…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#272

Post by lalalander »

I am of the opinion that Facebook and Google will continue to be relevant simply because of the perceived value in working for these companies. There was a recent top news on HN about a programmer who self-learned and applied to Google. The line "Feeling more confident, he set his sights high. He began to wonder if he might be able to work at Google" made me realise that as long as people look up to Google as a pinnacle of software engineering (or if pinnacle is too much of a hyperbole, at least I admit that Google has high software engineering standards), there will always be an influx of good engineering talent to these companies. I feel that one way to combat their grip on the Internet would be to change the mindsets of these programmers, and to change the narrative that all good engineers should work at Google et all. Without a constant stream of programmers willing to work for these companies, the quality of their offerings should decrease, hopefully to a point where the average Joe would start to look for alternatives.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#273

Post by 5_minutes »

lalalander wrote: post #272

I am of the opinion that Facebook and Google will continue to be relevant simply because of the perceived value in working for these companies. There was a recent top news on HN about a programmer who self-learned and applied to Google. The line "Feeling more confident, he set his sights high. He began to wonder if he might be able to work at Google" made me realise that as long as people look up to Google as a pinna…

More simple would be: as long as the wage and perks are awesome, google will attract talent

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#274

Post by tajen »

hxn wrote: post #29

Would it help if more people would have a personal website? Or would that just put the power into the hands of whoever runs the DNS system

I strongly believe it would be good. A few friends already run their DNS, so DNS censorship is limited too. Not even mentioning .onion routing.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#275

Post by VvR-Ox »

Thank you for starting this interesting debate.

I have a slice of hope still that we (the whole community, dev's just like users who need to use services) can "make the world a better place".

The proble I currently see is that: 1. We are too few ATM 2. Facebook, Google, Apple,... already nested into the minds of many people, even the one's who claim to "think different" 3. There has to be something: - big - useful - attractive - free of costs

to use instead of their sh*tty services and you somehow need to convince "Jenna to take here FB profile and also their friends with her to the new place in town".

The same goes for other services like WhatsApp, searching with G., buying on A. etc.

How will we be strong enough (against companies with billions of $$ and the brightest minds in tech cause they wanna earn 120k/yr) to put something up that can not only withstand them but convince all the zombies?

How will you get those zombies moving? The most of the ppl. not even reads news anymore and if they do they just believe what they see & hear. There is no discussion, if someone is pissed she/he is right. There is no science for someone who doesn't even know the value of a scientific method. We are royally screwed and there has to be A BIG UNITING OF ALL ACTIVISTS under one flag.

If we go on like this with every hackin' Joe trying to construct his own facebook clone then we will just die like the rest.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#277

Post by Freak_NL »

pyre wrote: post #184
ben174 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still host your domain on google apps which is simple and painless. The key is that you can take your domain with you and move it wherever you want later on, if you choose to.

Exactly this. I'm lucky though in that I signed up when it was Google Apps for Domains (and free). I've been using it for years without paying (having been grandfathered in). If I ever decide that I don't want to be on Google anymore, I can take my domain and move to (e.g.) FastMail without having to go through the pain of shifting everything over. I don't have to: * spam everyone I know to use a new email address. *…

Same here. Having my own domain at least decreases the risk of ever losing access to my email address. A lot of developers seem to do this.

It's a shame that this is not something the average person can do easily. Email addresses are by design linked to specific domains.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#278

Post by NotUsingLinux »

Most comments here are quite pessimistic.

Matrix.org is a start.

On a much much broader scale the Web 3.0 will be build on Blockchains, the so called Fat protocols will surpass the Web 2.0 or eventually merge.

https://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Ethereum will build up a considerable part of the ecosystem, with Dapps like status.im

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Je7yErjEVt4

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#279

Post by themacguffinman »

Spivak wrote: post #214
monk_e_boy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me and my students -- we always use a google login. With 35 students all using 4 or 5 online services each with a login.... There is no way we can keep control of all those separate login details. There needs to be a central control over login. Sure, login details are pretty old skool bonkers. I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion, but in the real world where I have to hand a class of 35 students over to another…

Either everyone is crazy or I am -- does a site that's used by less than 100 users really need to outsource their auth? If you're part of a school don't you have student accounts in some central place like LDAP/AD/IdM?

Yes, because outsourcing auth is less about scale and more about security and convenience.

LDAP/AD/IdM doesn't necessarily work with third party services.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#280

Post by teekert »

I play with IPFS, use Linux, use Mastodon, use Nextcloud in my basement with davdroid. I use FB only in the browser I don't use in (both on mobile and laptop I reserve Chrome for these things). I avoid where possible Whatsapp and use Signal. I have a mailserver with a local (Dutch) company with my own domain. I publish anything on my self hosted Drupal instances. Is it more time consuming and more difficult? Yes! But also more fun. I like the term slow computing: https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/slow-comp...
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