Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network • Hacker News Board

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#101

Post by nix0n » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:09 PM UTC

zeveb wrote: post #78

Sounds interesting, but I don't think PHP & MySQL are a good stack. While it's possible to write secure software in PHP (I'd probably trust the Paragon IE) guys to do it), it's not very likely. As for MySQL — as far as I'm concerned there is essentially no reason to choose it over PostgreSQL, and a project which does so is thus instantly suspect. If they've made an error that grave, what other errors have they made?…

> If you can run WordPress, you can run Friendica.

The LAMP stack, for all its problems (you're not wrong) is the bog standard and is easy to rent.

If you'd rather use Rails, check out Diaspora: the two systems federate together, anyway.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#102

Post by prophesi » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

These decentralized social networks could benefit from that statically-linked web app post [0]. Sure, it's pretty simply to get a LAMP stack up and running to host a Friendica node. But a simple executable would lower the barrier even further!

I think ease-of-use/access, along with a well thought out federation protocol, will be critical for these networks to replace Facebook/Twitter/etc. As it is now, I can only get my techie friends to try these out.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16765020

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#103

Post by kitotik » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

pmlnr wrote: post #63

MarceColl wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the emphasis should be on the protocols traction is important and most people see the platform. It can also show some deficiencies of the protocols which is always good. I think most of these platforms do understand the need for true federation. For example Mastodon can now talk and interact with PeerTube through ActivityPub, GNU Social and Mastodon can completely interoperate too.

I'm deeply aware how important UX and the actual interfaces are; however, there are still some underdeveloped building blocks, which are not getting enough attention. It is true that user interfaces are just as important, but half-baked solutions might do more harm, than good, resulting in disappointment in those who'd be willing to try them out.

Leading with UX could be a good (the best?) way to both aid adoption by the normal folks AND let a sane set of requirements emerge that steers the solutions to the most desired set of problems.

As much as most people on HN would like to have these protocols specified ‘correctly’, this feels like a situation where the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#104

Post by pmlnr » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:22 PM UTC

kitotik wrote: post #103

pmlnr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm deeply aware how important UX and the actual interfaces are; however, there are still some underdeveloped building blocks, which are not getting enough attention. It is true that user interfaces are just as important, but half-baked solutions might do more harm, than good, resulting in disappointment in those who'd be willing to try them out.

Leading with UX could be a good (the best?) way to both aid adoption by the normal folks AND let a sane set of requirements emerge that steers the solutions to the most desired set of problems. As much as most people on HN would like to have these protocols specified ‘correctly’, this feels like a situation where the perfect is the enemy of the good.

No need for perfect at all, see webmentions: it has a lot of room to grow (private mentions, vouch, etc), but in essence, the core is simple to adopt.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#105

Post by beders » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:24 PM UTC

Another site that is doing their marketing all wrong.

My Dad couldn't give a rat's ass if the network was 'Decentralized' or that 'Relationships can be made across any compatible system'

All he wants is see pictures of his grand daughters and post funny gifs to his friends.

With a signup that is so simple even my err Dad could do it!

With a process to move away from Facebook to the new platform (and keep all his stuff) that is so simple my Dad could do it.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#106

Post by pmlnr » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:24 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #100

pmlnr wrote: post #55

This is yet another platform solution. The problem with platform solutions is that they still present one and only one choice of software. Decentralized systems can only take off if they are built around standardized protocols - this is why email works. The choice of smtp servers to run, email clients to choose from, that's what's making it resilient. Ideas like ActivityPub, webmentions, microsub, micropub, while not…

That's what Movim does, by building on XMPP and its extensions. It's still pretty rough though, and administering a node (something that regular users are NOT required to do, but I thought it would be cool) requires some knowledge of XMPP/ejabberd (which I lack, as I discovered). Ideally I'd be happy with something like that, where a single geek can provide a secure and federated social hub to his circle of friends/f…

I tried to run movim many years ago, but failed; rough was mere raw around 2012. I still very much like the idea of movim, but it needs a lot of work.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#107

Post by equalunique » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:36 PM UTC

Double_a_92 wrote: post #90

d3ckard wrote: post #33

I don't know about others, but I don't care if my social media platform is centralized or not. I use FB mainly as news feed(I don't even get that many friends' posts), but I can easily migrate that. What I need is nothing more that somehow fancy address book. FB gives me a way to contact people I don't keep strong relationships with, it lets me organize an event with those people relatively pain-free and it allows me…

> I use FB mainly as news feed How did you manage to do that? My feed it full of crap like: Silly memes in local languages, Weird shared videos of something cute or funny, Ads, Game invites, Photos from people I don't really know... I basically only have facebook to kinda keep the contact data of old school friends. I don't even talk to them. (And for dating. Contacting people unsolicitedly but still in a friendly an…

If you join FB groups related to things that you care about, then there is a good chance you will see more news related to the things you care about too.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#108

Post by mercer » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

space_fountain wrote: post #98

mercer wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I'll add that my main issue with Patchwork is that from what I can tell it's pretty much impossible to develop for it without using Node.js. I really think that for this to take off, it needs to focus on 'developer happiness' right now. There's a solid client, a relatively vibrant and activist community, but too little in the way of (relatively) inexperienced devs like myself to build apps on top of. this is…

What language would you feel more comfortable contributing in? For good or bad Node seems quite popular especially with newer programmers so I can at least somewhat understand the decision.

I'd say an implementation in all popular languages would be important. I hear decent work has been done with Rust, and I'd love to see something for Elixir. But as I understand it part of the problem is lack of spec/documentation. If we had that, perhaps it'd be easier for a variety of implementations? php, ruby, python, etc.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#109

Post by granitosaurus » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

beders wrote: post #105

Another site that is doing their marketing all wrong. My Dad couldn't give a rat's ass if the network was 'Decentralized' or that 'Relationships can be made across any compatible system' All he wants is see pictures of his grand daughters and post funny gifs to his friends. With a signup that is so simple even my err Dad could do it! With a process to move away from Facebook to the new platform (and keep all his stuf…

Why on earth would you think that target priority would be middle-age dads for any product?

First you target at enthusiasts then you can expand do nice hip groups or teens/students.

Re: Friendica – A Decentralized Social Network

#110

Post by codyswann » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:40 PM UTC

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #43

codyswann wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A lot" of people also think the world is flat. Let's be specific here. I would say 90% or more of Facebook users couldn't care less if their data is sold to advertisers. I'm one of those people. Tell me why I should care. The same thing happens with loyalty cards at Walgreens. It's the people on Facebook that make Facebook trash, not Facebook itself. As for your "legistators" (sic), that is the faux outrage I'm talk…

> Tell me why I should care. I don't care if you care. That's your decision. > The same thing happens with loyalty cards at Walgreens. It's not the same thing at all. With loyalty cards I get the OPTION of being rewarded for allowing a company to track me. So I weigh getting rewarded (positive) against sharing my data (negative), and I make a decision. With Facebook there is no option, they track everyone regardless.…

Tell me why anyone should care.

You have the option of using Facebook or not. If you don't have a Facebook account, they don't have your data.

If you don't have a Walgreens loyalty card, they don't have your data.

People are faux outraged. They're not really outraged at all.

Check this comment in two months and tell me how "outraged" people are at Facebook for selling their data.

It would depend on what kind of "democracy" you're referring to. In a representative democracy where all elected officials are worried about is getting re-elected, then yes, that's exactly how democracy works.