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Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

socknet.net

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21–30 of 54 posts

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#21

Post by drobilla »

chrischen2 wrote: post #14

I think all this decentralized social networking is unnecessary. All we really need is an easy way to switch social networks. Something like a list of UUIDs as your friends list which can be imported into your social network of choice, and exported when you want to leave. Even email is centralized. The only problem would be getting the current industry leader, facebook, to willing adopt such a thing. They probably wo…

"Even email is centralized"?

I can start my own email server (or use one of millions of others) and send/receive to/from users on any other server... clearly decentralized (where is the center?)

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#22

Post by mindcrime »

jacquesm wrote: post #8
TrevorBramble wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange... There's the same page with the limit changed from the default of 7 days (May 19) to 30 (April 26). And of course Google's been caching stuff there for awhile: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:socknet.net I know the Socknet guy via some trusted former coworkers and I've watched this project for a year or two. He's earnest and hasn't looked for any atte…

Two years ? That's precisely what I was getting at. He's definitely looking for attention here, otherwise why post an open letter ? If he wasn't looking for attention he could have easily mailed the diaspora people, by making this an open letter he is trying to get a slice of the media attention. Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't interpret it in any other way, even if he's serious. To me he's not just serious,…

> The sourceforge project was registered on the 15th of may, this is not a project that has been in

> mainstream development for two years. It may have been in development for two years but not with the

> kind of push behind it that you need for a successful launch of a web application.

Not sure what it matters how long it's been in development. If he's worked X years and gotten N amount of work done, he's still N amount of work ahead of where he'd be if he just started today, or the same day as the Diaspora guys. If that work amounts to anything, it could be a considerable advantage, if he does get some attention and gets some other people onboard. If not, he's still no worse off than if he hadn't done anything and decided to launch a new decentralized social network project today.

> It looks like someone's pet project that did not gain much traction that they're trying to breathe

> new life in.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I started a project with similar goals a while back ( https://openqabal.dev.java.net ) but got distracted and didn't get very far with it. Now I've changed the focus of my project to something different and am restarting development, but it's kinda moved away from the Diaspora / decentralized social network thing.

That said, I do think that everybody working on a decentralized social network (or any social network, really) should get together (virtually anyway) and collaborate on the underlying protocols and techniques for federation. No reason one shouldn't be able to run a Diaspora server and exchange data with a site running a $WHATEVER server (allowing for privacy restrictions, etc., which kinda kick-started this whole discussion).

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#23

Post by jacquesm »

mindcrime wrote: post #22
jacquesm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two years ? That's precisely what I was getting at. He's definitely looking for attention here, otherwise why post an open letter ? If he wasn't looking for attention he could have easily mailed the diaspora people, by making this an open letter he is trying to get a slice of the media attention. Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't interpret it in any other way, even if he's serious. To me he's not just serious,…

> The sourceforge project was registered on the 15th of may, this is not a project that has been in > mainstream development for two years. It may have been in development for two years but not with the > kind of push behind it that you need for a successful launch of a web application. Not sure what it matters how long it's been in development. If he's worked X years and gotten N amount of work done, he's still N am…

Fully agreed, no need in duplicating the effort. But an open letter is a pretty bad way to go about that, it screams 'you can't ignore me, I'm addressing you' because you are afraid that you will not be answered.

Open letters are good for joe public to reach the town mayor or Ty Coon when all other avenues of trying to reach them have been exhausted.

They're not exactly the best avenue to contact the people that run a competing open source project about a possible collaboration.

I think it matters how long they've been at it because that is how they describe other projects, as having 'too little steam' behind them. I can't really tell the difference between those other projects with too little steam behind them and this one.

Also he words it as though the Diaspora guys should get 'behind' his project, whereas the best way to ensure that there would be collaboration would be to leave it up to them to 'get behind' his code or to integrate bits & pieces as they see fit.

All this is completely ignoring the merits of what's been produced, I have no idea how good it is, for all I know it could be stellar.

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#24

Post by rsobers »

Is there a rule that says that if you're going to work on a distributed social network you have to be bad at naming things? socknet, really?

Also, do we really need a solution that is distributed or would a dropdown box on Facebook that says "Visible to:" and lets you select a group (e.g., Friends, Family, Everyone) do?

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#25

Post by JaretManuel »

TrevorBramble wrote: post #7
jacquesm wrote: post #6

> I looked over the web and I found the same thing that I'm sure you found: several projects without much steam behind them. Maybe they found socknet too ? That wiki was filled on may the 19th, well after the diaspora stuff hit the media, or it hasn't been updated in ages before then. http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange... That money the diaspora guys raised has one definitely negative side e…

http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange... There's the same page with the limit changed from the default of 7 days (May 19) to 30 (April 26). And of course Google's been caching stuff there for awhile: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:socknet.net I know the Socknet guy via some trusted former coworkers and I've watched this project for a year or two. He's earnest and hasn't looked for any atte…

Diaspora "Dudes": Keep truckin, don't hate the players or the game, as you caught some luck, and there is no shame in that, nor is there any room for complainers.

Cheeky got them buzz. There is plenty of eye balls on them now to deliver I agree. Good luck to all!

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#26

Post by stcredzero »

axiom wrote: post #18
DrSprout wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Jesus, if you account for the fact that they promised 1 year hosted service, and 1 year phone support for anyone who donated more than $350, these guys are already underwater. By "hosting" they mean 1 year of a Diaspora account on their server. So essentially that's 30/month for unlimited photo and text uploads to a walled garden site. I'm pretty sure they're fine.

I really hope so. I guess there's no SLA so they're not obligated to provide any particular level of service. Anyway, I believe the phone support is a much more serious liability.

Why couldn't phone support be crowd-sourced as volunteers in 100's of "party-line" style chats?

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#27

Post by dschobel »

chrischen2 wrote: post #20
CoryMathews wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is centralized yes but its also somewhat open. You can send an email to any provider and receive from any provider. You cannot send a message from say facebook to twitter and get a response back.

Email is also pretty featureless. An open standard will always innovate slower than a proprietary site.

Email is also pretty featureless.

  *Google Wave enters, stage left.*

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#28

Post by chrischen2 »

drobilla wrote: post #21
chrischen2 wrote: post #14

I think all this decentralized social networking is unnecessary. All we really need is an easy way to switch social networks. Something like a list of UUIDs as your friends list which can be imported into your social network of choice, and exported when you want to leave. Even email is centralized. The only problem would be getting the current industry leader, facebook, to willing adopt such a thing. They probably wo…

"Even email is centralized"? I can start my own email server (or use one of millions of others) and send/receive to/from users on any other server... clearly decentralized (where is the center?)

I meant in practice. You could, but do you? Does anyone? What happens when your computer shuts down for the night?

Email is centralized in that individuals usually register with a provider, rather than use their own machines. I think social networking can adopt a similar model so all we really need is an easy way to pick up our social data and go to a new provider. I mean who I consider to be my friends is my data, so why not have a systematic definition of it that can be carried with me to every site, instead of recreating those connections using whatever interface is on each of the social sites I use.

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#29

Post by thasmin »

rsobers wrote: post #24

Is there a rule that says that if you're going to work on a distributed social network you have to be bad at naming things? socknet, really? Also, do we really need a solution that is distributed or would a dropdown box on Facebook that says "Visible to:" and lets you select a group (e.g., Friends, Family, Everyone) do?

A dropdown box on Facebook would do, but nobody can put it there so some people decided to go with Plan B.

Re: Open Letter to the Diaspora Dudes

#30

Post by chrischen2 »

dschobel wrote: post #27
chrischen2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is also pretty featureless. An open standard will always innovate slower than a proprietary site.

Email is also pretty featureless. *Google Wave enters, stage left.*

Wave's stuff isn't part of the standard right? So if I were using some other mail service/client I could only use the intersection of both services. Please correct me if I am wrong, I haven't had much exposure to wave (except a brief stint in the private beta where I realized nobody is using it, and therefore it was useless).
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