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Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

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Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#101

Post by staltz »

codingdave wrote: post #3

It isn't an alternative to Facebook unless my grandma can use it, and she couldn't set this up for herself. The idea that centralized storage is the problem masks the actual concern. There is nothing inherently wrong with centrally stored data. There is a problem is when it is locked down by a 3rd party, and/or you don't control how it is used.

Actually with a few tweaks, this technology would be much simpler to use than Facebook, for a person like your grandma, simply because it removes that annoying registration process. You just open the installed app, and that's it.

It's odd that we got used to the idea that "(1) registration, (2) strong password creation, (3) username selection (in case of conflicts), (4) email verification link, (5) login" is somehow a good user experience.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#102

Post by skinnymuch »

sergiotapia wrote: post #55
JetSpiegel wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic words from a HN user with over 10k karma.

This isn't a social network. Do you see me posting picture of my bathroom/kids/furniture/food?

I thought that sort of thing was rare on Twitter now. Twitter seems to usually be about topical things, news, and that ilk, no? It’s a social network.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#103

Post by EGreg »

erkose wrote: post #34
tschellenbach wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating to see distributed social networks from a tech perspective. From what I've seen so far they exacerbate the problems that Facebook has been seeing so much backlash against. 1. The whole Cambridge Analytica issue was caused by APIs that are too open. For distributed systems there are more ways to exploit the APIs and gather data on users. 2. There is a clear issue with Facebook's accountability…

We fail to consider policy when thinking about centralized/federated services. Centralized services provide strong, regular policy adherence across the network, whereas federated services provide weak, irregular policy adherence across the network. Centralized services can effectively silence a bad actor. They may also silence a good actor, but generally only under external pressure from government. Federated service…

Why should “a service” silence anyone?

How about letting people make their own decision who they want to talk to, without a third party saying “I forbid it”.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#104

Post by s73v3r_ »

staltz wrote: post #90
ilovecomputers wrote: post #18

All these decentralized alternatives don't have iPhone apps. It's app store policy that is blocking devs, ain't it?

I'm working the mobile app for Android. Groundwork for iOS is underway: https://twitter.com/andrestaltz/status/981622147864039424

They're not native apps?

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#105

Post by wolco »

Promarged wrote: post #24

I wanted to take a look at how it works but the on-boarding process is not really welcoming. Getting started [0] redirects to this weird site [1] served over plain HTTP, installer is also not signed :( [0]: https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/getting-started.html [1]: http://dinosaur.is/patchwork-downloader/

Have we reached the point where plain http seeks not welcoming. If the site above doesn't require you to login why do you think you need https? Is the only reason to hide your visit to that site from your isp?

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#106

Post by s73v3r_ »

madamelic wrote: post #54
EGreg wrote: post #10

If I may, a decentralized alternative to facebook would be community-based, allow people to do group chats, discover and post events, see attendees, meet each other, add each other to contacts, maybe even drive each other to the events, date, book group reservations at local businesses etc. Like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI Yes that’s my project. Would love to get feedback. (The things I mentioned…

Here's my advice: You've missed the point and likely didn't do validation before building this (if you have). I don't want 1,000 features from launch. Facebook didn't start out doing everything they do today, neither should you. Copying another service won't win you users because maybe users don't like that feature or how it works. I want something that solves a problem without unnecessary doohickeys glued on to it.…

Facebook may not have started doing everything they're doing now, but they do have it now. Any new competitor is not going to be judged based on what Facebook was 10 years ago; they're going to be judged against it now.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#107

Post by projektir »

codingdave wrote: post #3

It isn't an alternative to Facebook unless my grandma can use it, and she couldn't set this up for herself. The idea that centralized storage is the problem masks the actual concern. There is nothing inherently wrong with centrally stored data. There is a problem is when it is locked down by a 3rd party, and/or you don't control how it is used.

> It isn't an alternative to Facebook unless my grandma can use it, and she couldn't set this up for herself.

I wonder if Facebook is perhaps just not worth it.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#108

Post by arithma »

tschellenbach wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating to see distributed social networks from a tech perspective. From what I've seen so far they exacerbate the problems that Facebook has been seeing so much backlash against. 1. The whole Cambridge Analytica issue was caused by APIs that are too open. For distributed systems there are more ways to exploit the APIs and gather data on users. 2. There is a clear issue with Facebook's accountability…

Not saying that scuttlebutt is useless, but within the parent's perspective, almost everything applies as well on HTTP and HTTPS. But no one seems to care? I mean, google caches your website on their machines and so on, be it personal or not. I guess once things become ubiquitous enough, they start to become invisible. Whois service, I heard recently, was being scrutinized over personal data in the context of GDPR, so it's not ALL invisible.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#109

Post by projektir »

exolymph wrote: post #61
sergiotapia wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a social network. Do you see me posting picture of my bathroom/kids/furniture/food?

Forums are typically considered social networks, although I suppose the definition is debatable. Whether users discuss their daily lives is not the standard, though. On Twitter everyone just kvetches about the news, and it's still a social network.

I haven't started hearing the term "social network" until myspace showed up. While forums may be that by some technical definition, in practice, there seems to be a core difference.

For one, forum communities tend to be focused on a relatively small group of people in that forum.

Twitter, Facebook, etc., tend to be fully global with the idea that anyone can access anyone else. Presence of media, I think, also matters a lot. On many forums media exists, but is not visible to unregistered users. There's an aspect of "you join or you're an outsider, and if we don't like you we can make you stop joining".

I don't know if I can straight up define it but there seems to be some fundamental difference between Facebook and your random hardware forum.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#110

Post by wolco »

haolez wrote: post #17

I think that the main obstacle of descentralized social networks is collaborative censoring. I don’t want to see posts in my timeline about ISIS propaganda or child pornography, for example. Are there any solutions around which allows users to block (most of) this kind of content?

But you control who your friends are and can remove people posting content you deem unacceptable.
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