I'd like to see all my friends post updates and photos to blogs where I can subscribe via rss. This would be the best social network for me.
So... Instagram?
wow, I didn't know it you could subscribe with rss - I'll definitely look.
An off-grid social network
61–70 of 383 posts
Re: An off-grid social network
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why this was donvoted. From a bird's eye view, the whole system looks remarkably similar to Usenet, especially in the old times of UUCP, back when systems were mostly offline and had relatively short timespans to exchange information (via dial-up connection or similar). What's different now is that we have pleny of disk space, and more than enough computing power to perform proper cryptography.
Indeed, that's what I find exciting about the idea. I'm not keen on the implementation, which is built on npm & JavaScript, nor the protocol, which is built on JSON, but those might be worth it if we can restore some of the glory which was mid-90s Usenet, with security, privacy and accountability.
Especially since the implementation details are not set in stone. Once the lower-level protocols start to stabilize, more efficient implementations will probably emerge.
Re: An off-grid social network
#63Why do all "social networks" have to be a feed of news? Couldn't anyone think of anything better than a system in which people are only encouraged to talk about themselves and try to get other people's approval? In which having more "friends" is always better, because you have more potential for self-agrandissement in your narcissistic posts?
The did, it was called Usenet and it was glorious.
Re: An off-grid social network
#64Why do all "social networks" have to be a feed of news? Couldn't anyone think of anything better than a system in which people are only encouraged to talk about themselves and try to get other people's approval? In which having more "friends" is always better, because you have more potential for self-agrandissement in your narcissistic posts?
This is what blogging was like, no? Pingbacks created a conversation among posts.
Re: An off-grid social network
#65How does such a social network tackle abuse?
You don't follow them.
Re: An off-grid social network
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will be a must once mobile is launched, which I'm working on.
Is it also possible to use multiple devices without leaking from which device each message was posted?
Well, yes and no. The log will show a different id (public key) which authored the message. But the device itself (iPhone or Google Nexus or whatever) doesn't need to be mentioned.
Re: An off-grid social network
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or you shut your PC down when you leave the house and then want to access your network from your phone.
How about this: you buy a physical device at Wal-Mart for $29.99, plug it in, hook it up to your wifi and leave it plugged into an outlet. It's got Mastodon or GNU Social on it and could look like this, but branded: http://thegadgetflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SmartPlu...
And then my internet connection goes down. Power goes out. I run over my data cap for the month. Comcast shuts me down for running a home server. My home network gets DDoS'd. I miss a patch day and I get hacked.
None of these things are a concern on traditional social networks. They have to be solved before the world has any chance of moving to a decentralized network.
Re: An off-grid social network
#68I am not much of a social networking type of person, but I have wondered how nice it would be to network with a community like HN. For example, I see a nice comment chain going on in some news article, but as the article dies so does all the conversation within it.
Maybe it's just me but if I see an article is x+ hours old (15+ for example), I don't bother commenting.
What type of social networking would HN use for non personal(not for family and immediate friends) communication? (I've tried hnchat.com, it's mostly inactive imho)
Re: An off-grid social network
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not being able to switch nodes pushes you to try and host your own instead. That's what I've done. IMO we should instead be looking at packaging a self-hosted version into a native Windows and Mac app. Run it in the background and everything's done.
And then your laptop gets stolen and everything's gone.
If I understand scuttlebut correctly, your stuff is broadcasted to whoever it might concern and the pubs. If you still have your private key, you should still be able to access whatever is in the ether, right ? You somehow become the recipient of your own messages. Only the thief will also have access to your private key, so the account can be considered compromised.
Re: An off-grid social network
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you can register an account on any node[0], and communicate with anyone else on the entire network. That's the strength of federated protocols. [0] https://instances.mastodon.xyz/
My point was not what I could do but rather what I will do to try out some random new social network. Having now read that migrating identities is currently impractical I am even more certainly not going to take a chance on some other random server or even my own! How well has federation worked out in practice (for other federated, social network related protocols) so far? As far as I know, federation has only worked…
> As far as I know, federation has only worked for ancient stuff that has nothing to do with social networks, like email and DNS. Basically, it is a part of core functionality and thus can't be co-opted by commercial interests (though GMail has made quite an inroad!).
Email only works _because_ of big players like GMail. Running your own server spam free and away from black lists is an endless task.
DNS is going a similar way with more and more ISPs resorting to hijacking DNS lookups for all sorts of nefarious reasons. This protocol seriously need a broadly embraced signature system to validate origin.