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Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

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Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#71

Post by eadmund »

josephwegner wrote: post #65

I appreciate all of these distributed social networks (Mastodon, Peepeth, Diaspora, etc.) getting some buzz right now. I think distributed hosting of social networks is an important step forward. However, they're all lacking one major thing that needs to happen in order for a true Facebook Exodus to take place - distributed discovery and consumption. Facebook has a HUGE network effect, and simply put there is no way…

> I can start a Mastodon node, but I would be shouting into a void - there's no one there to see my content, and no incentive for someone to move over.

That's what POSSE[0] is for: you Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. So you'd publish on Mastodon & (hopefully automatically) also publish a syndicated feed on Facebook.

[0]: https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#72

Post by willsaar »

bevan wrote: post #3

Hi all, Peepeth creator here. Would appreciate your thoughts. https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87k9iz/presenting... https://www.producthunt.com/posts/peepeth

The need to bulk post, and fees in general, are likely to hinder mainstream adoption.

Can multiple users share a bulk post? Curious if it would be possible to set up a site that reduces latency by grouping post actions from multiple users, possibly even letting them post for free by displaying ads in the front-end.

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#73

Post by kodablah »

josephwegner wrote: post #65

I appreciate all of these distributed social networks (Mastodon, Peepeth, Diaspora, etc.) getting some buzz right now. I think distributed hosting of social networks is an important step forward. However, they're all lacking one major thing that needs to happen in order for a true Facebook Exodus to take place - distributed discovery and consumption. Facebook has a HUGE network effect, and simply put there is no way…

There is an opportunity here as this has parallels to the early internet. Think of your Mastodon node as your website, how would people discover you? Someone needs to build a scanner/crawler/indexer for the allowed-to-be-discoverable parts of these non-domain+HTTP services. A Google for the decentralized web will be built by someone and there can be a first mover advantage here. Sadly, to do it right requires money and time, so beware the motives of the ones that pop up. Regardless, I don't necessarily think it's the job of these services to provide that centralized index (it's against their core anyways). If anything, they just need to provide crawlable, opt-in hooks for the bots to hit.

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#74

Post by KirinDave »

briansbum wrote: post #59
KirinDave wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively: Mastodon lets you run your own node on your own hardware, have it exist as an equal peer, and if you want to delete your own data you have that option. It's weird to me how the no-retractions thing is a benefit. Seems like a feature deficit. I can't imagine using twitter without the delete function, if only just to delete botched tweets.

It looks like you're able to do a similar thing with their batching method to make using it cheaper. Re-read your peep before it gets pushed to the chain and you'll be able to delete them there.

That's fair, but I think the criticism still stands. Why is it good that you can't delete things?

I can think of lots of situations where that's not a good thing. I can't really think of any situations where it's a good thing.

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#75

Post by virgilp »

rkangel wrote: post #70
virgilp wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right but it's not really a counterpoint, it's just supporting/ alternate angle on my original point: for something like Peepeth to be mass-market-popular, it needs the underlying technology (cryptocurrencies) to be mass-market-popular, not just popular-in-some-niche (however large that niche is). So this service seems to be betting its future on the fact that some analogue of "whatsapp" will appear, that will…

The point I was trying to make with the WhatsApp examples is that the work to make it easier could be part of Peepeth. I don't think WhatsApp is leveraging much existing work to do what it does, they've just come up with a good flow that fits their model. Yes, the challenge for Peepeth is probably greater than that faced by WhatsApp, but not impossible. The implicit assumption being made in the parent is that the cur…

Right. And I guess what I'm saying is that if Peepeth can solve the crypto UX problem, I'm already sold - but I've seen nothing in their page that suggests this is even on their radar. They seem to take ETH for granted - which is kinda' like Whatsapp saying that "you need to install bcrypt, create a public-private keypair, configure your identity wallet to keep the private key, and then you're all set to start using Whatsapp!". You can see how that is not a very attractive proposal - for most users, encryption is completely transparent in whatsapp, they don't even know it exists.

Peepeth could do something like Whatsapp, say "it costs you 1USD/month to use Peepeth, but for the first year we'll waive the fees" and transparently purchase ETH on your behalf behind the scenes. But they don't do that. They put all the crypto burden squarely on your shoulders, with no hint that they'd consider making it all seamless/ transparent for the regular user.

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#76

Post by WorldMaker »

josephwegner wrote: post #65

I appreciate all of these distributed social networks (Mastodon, Peepeth, Diaspora, etc.) getting some buzz right now. I think distributed hosting of social networks is an important step forward. However, they're all lacking one major thing that needs to happen in order for a true Facebook Exodus to take place - distributed discovery and consumption. Facebook has a HUGE network effect, and simply put there is no way…

I understand that concern. There are some compromise solutions already available, at least specifically for Mastodon, and certainly space to communally explore further solutions.

A Mastodon feed has built in ATOM (RSS) support so you could encourage someone to subscribe to you in Feedly if you wished and they were already a happy RSS user.

You can use tools like IFTTT or Zapier to cross-post from Mastodon to Facebook (or Twitter or whatever else).

There's a Mastodon to Twitter bridge [1] where Twitter users can volunteer a primary Mastodon account (on any instance) for people to follow and in turn see all of the people on Twitter they follow that have posted a Mastodon address to follow them on Mastodon. A similar bridge should be easy to set up for Facebook as well, I just don't think it has been done yet.

In a way that bridge is the closest to a public directory of Mastodon users, and there's certainly room for other sorts of public directories (Mastodon "yellow pages"/"Yahoo listings") or Mastodon-tuned search engines. (Of course, existing search engines often already return Mastodon results; Mastodon feeds are already web pages.)

[1] https://bridge.joinmastodon.org/

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#77

Post by marssaxman »

whalesalad wrote: post #18

I’d seriously reconsider the name. I understand it’s a combo of peep+eth but combining them is really not gonna resonate with anyone.

Yes, it's not a name I'm going to be comfortable pronouncing in discussion, so I'm not likely to discuss it with anyone.

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#78

Post by daviswbaer »

stevekemp wrote: post #58
virgilp wrote: post #49

For me, the biggest roadblock is actually owning ETH. You may thing that's trivial, but I'm not so sure. Apparently 10m people in the world own SOME form of crypto[1] - so, there's your upper bound on number of users. For a mass-market product, 10m is really not that much .... you don't just need "traction", you need traction that is so significant that it pushes up the entire crypto market! I'm skeptical, but who kn…

Agreed. Not just that but the overview suggests: * I have to be using Firefox. * And I have to install a firefox extension. * And I have to have ETH.

MetaMask is not Firefox

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#79

Post by jelpern »

bevan wrote: post #25
berberous wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) The word "microblogging" threw me off -- for some reason, I hear "blogging", and don't realize it's meant to be a twitter clone. 2) Maybe it's just me, but the full page image of the woman on your landing page makes me want to close out rather than engage and find out what the product is. I'd rather see top peeps immediately, with a partial landing banner for new users. 3) I think the most critical task for a prod…

Thanks! 1) Yeah, it's a weird word. Other suggestions appreciated. 2) Good feedback. 3) Branding is a top priority. This front-end is meant to polarize for a certain type of user. That becomes more clear during on-ramp and usage. Copy/messaging needs work. Suggestions appreciated. 4) Thank you. Best way is to DM me on Twitter at @bevanbarton with the email address you signed up with and I'll approve you ASAP.

Technically "microblogging" is the generic term for Twitter's service, as I'm sure you know, but given how quickly they dominated the space it's a bit obscure (like saying "ice pop" for a Popsicle). I'm curious about the polarizing. I've never seen the word used that way before; does it refer to screening certain types out, or to attracting only certain types in? Is the idea to avoid the misogynist and alt right types who have ruined Twitter for a lot of people?

Re: Peepeth: Unstoppable Microblogging

#80

Post by random3 »

virgilp wrote: post #75
rkangel wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point I was trying to make with the WhatsApp examples is that the work to make it easier could be part of Peepeth. I don't think WhatsApp is leveraging much existing work to do what it does, they've just come up with a good flow that fits their model. Yes, the challenge for Peepeth is probably greater than that faced by WhatsApp, but not impossible. The implicit assumption being made in the parent is that the cur…

Right. And I guess what I'm saying is that if Peepeth can solve the crypto UX problem, I'm already sold - but I've seen nothing in their page that suggests this is even on their radar. They seem to take ETH for granted - which is kinda' like Whatsapp saying that "you need to install bcrypt, create a public-private keypair, configure your identity wallet to keep the private key, and then you're all set to start using…

I think having a way to overcome the usability problem is a good idea.

Keep in mind that Peepeth is a self-funded effort by one person (Bevan). I'm sure he'd be more than glad to solve the usability problem, but purchasing ETH on your behalf can't be done without funding or a source of revenue.

However you can donate see https://peepeth.com/support

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