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Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

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Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#71

Post by pokstad »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #65
pokstad wrote: post #62

Forget Twitter alternatives. How about a social network that mirrors real world social interactions? Only adding people you actually know. Keeping conversations private. Encryption to prevent censorship. What is the social media equivalent of signal?

This is already how people use social media like Instagram and features like Stories only viewable to your list of special friends. It’s pretty old hat by now. I use Facebook and Stories every day (Stories seem lame but are too useful for, say, meeting women, to dismiss) but if you went to my profile you’d think I haven’t used Facebook in seven years. In case you don’t know, the Stories system replicated on every soc…

That’s not encrypted and free from censorship.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#72

Post by Meekro »

Any company that can censor will eventually be pressured by governments (or its own employees) to do so. Therefore, I see Signal as a model for how everything should operate in the future: your "account" in the company's database is just an encrypted blob that they can't read.

Is there no way to make a Twitter-like broadcast messaging app work on top of a Signal backbone? It'd take a smarter programmer than me to figure out the details, but it's got to be possible, right?

I mean, right now we have several well-accepted cryptocurrencies that I can use to send an uncensorable, untraceable payment anywhere in the world for about $5 in fees. It's a bit clunky, but it basically works. Why can't I post an uncensorable tweet for $5, too?

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#73

Post by cydactyl »

I am the admin of both a Mastodon Instance(https://zee.li), and a Peertube Instance(https://tube.zee.li), both of which are ActivityPub based federated instances.

While individual nodes are not decentralized the federated network as a whole is. It is ultimately up to you to choose a well-federated, fast, and reliable instance that meets your criteria for information freedom and user protections. You can find an uncurated list here(https://instances.social/list) or a curated list of instances committed to "active moderation against racism, sexism and transphobia." here(https://joinmastodon.org/communities).

My instance while valuing user protection, errs on the side of information freedom as a valuable principle to protect as a whole. Both Mastodon and Peertube include pretty effective and comprehensive moderation tools to ensure you never see what you do not want to see, but that decision is not made for you on my instances.

The content policy below applies to both instances- Moderation will be minimal and limited to abusive or illegal content, ultimately we want to foster an inclusive environment without draconian, biased, puritan, or emotional moderation. Moderation is taken care of by server host & volunteers. NSFW content is allowed but must be blurred by default. Gore/Porn/Nudity = NSFW. Any content that abides by Illinois, New York City, New York State, and U.S. Law is allowed.

Server Specs: i7-9700k 512GB NVMe SSD 64GB DDR4 1Gbps

Backend Infrastructure- Hosted in NYC, Wasabi S3 storage backend, with BunnyCDN as CDN provider for both instances.

Who we are- This instance is ran voluntarily. I have been a server administrator for going on 10 years now starting with a passion for gaming private servers and evolving into running a business that offers web/service hosting for various clients & personal projects. These instances will not disappear overnight given my track record with various volunteer services(Tor Non-Exit Relay, Free VPN for my Mumble, Mumble, Various websites for musician/artist friends, that I have and still host).

Why we created this instance- Freedom of speech & information is paramount in a free society. While not legally obligated, centralized platforms have increasingly infringed on societal and moral obligations to appease advertisers & coddle the fragile.

How long we plan to maintain this instance- Indefinitely

How we will pay for this instance- Donations, Personal Funds.

More instances are in the works and I plan on hosting more instances for the community and web at large that follow the same principles, Gitlab, Pixelfed(ActivityPub), and Funkwhale(ActivityPub) instances immediately come to mind.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#74

Post by jcranmer »

neilpanchal wrote: post #66
scarmig wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That prompted me to imagine what a parody of a GNU-style Twitter would look like, and yes, the connection works from the opposite direction.

Tilable interface, requires days to set it up, tweet with i "Hello World!" t, native vim keymap support, and hard to quit.

> tweet with i "Hello World!" t, native vim keymap support

vim is not GNU, emacs is.

That means it would actually be Hello World! , and the documentation would have a lengthy section on what the "Meta" key is and why not just call it "Alt".

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#75

Post by InInteraction »

pokstad wrote: post #62

Forget Twitter alternatives. How about a social network that mirrors real world social interactions? Only adding people you actually know. Keeping conversations private. Encryption to prevent censorship. What is the social media equivalent of signal?

You can create Signal group chat (up to 150 members) https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007319331-Gr...

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#76

Post by cydactyl »

ignoranceprior wrote: post #2

Mastodon, GNU Social, and the Fediverse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_social https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse The two software systems are compatible (both comply with the OStatus standard) so you can interact with content on servers that use the system. Diaspora also exists, but it's arguably more like Facebook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(soc…

I host a Mastodon instance and have posted below if anyone would like to learn/discuss more about both my instance, and Mastodon as a whole, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25697231

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#77

Post by FreeTrade »

Meekro wrote: post #72

Any company that can censor will eventually be pressured by governments (or its own employees) to do so. Therefore, I see Signal as a model for how everything should operate in the future: your "account" in the company's database is just an encrypted blob that they can't read. Is there no way to make a Twitter-like broadcast messaging app work on top of a Signal backbone? It'd take a smarter programmer than me to fig…

You can, http://member.cash

It is on BCH, so cost is more like a fraction of a cent, but same idea.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#78

Post by cesarvarela »

dredmorbius wrote: post #19

There are federated networks which don't allow for centralised access restrictions as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, et al, are evidencing today. But projects such as Mastodon put control in the hands of site or node administrators, and at least on Mastodon, there's an exceedingly healthy culture of blocking sites which themselves advocate oppressive practices. So those looking for an uncensored microphone may be somewha…

Don’t you think the tears might be yours someday? Will you always be on the “right” side? Will the people with the power to censor you always be “good”?

I think censorship is a game where everybody loses eventually.

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#79

Post by [deleted] »

jcranmer wrote: post #74
neilpanchal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tilable interface, requires days to set it up, tweet with i "Hello World!" t, native vim keymap support, and hard to quit.

> tweet with i "Hello World!" t, native vim keymap support vim is not GNU, emacs is. That means it would actually be Hello World! , and the documentation would have a lengthy section on what the "Meta" key is and why not just call it "Alt".

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are decentralized Twitter alternatives?

#80

Post by krallja »

systemvoltage wrote: post #40

Part of the genius of Twitter is the name and its brand. Twitter, tweet, tweeting, tweeted, etc. Even if Twitter had no goodwill, it's an excellent name for such a service. None of the options presented here have that. "Hey dude, did you see that mastodon post?" "I'll add you on GNU Social" "Fediverse is getting popular, wanna fediverse?" "Nmd'ed you!" "Totally Aaether that!" "Breaking News: The Prime Minister of Aus…

Mastodon posts are toots
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