I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Dispora* yet: https://diasporafoundation.org/ I looked into it a while ago and it was a little cumbersome to set up, but I really like the idea.
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We should replace Facebook with personal websites
91–100 of 318 posts
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#92Not to get off-topic but this was one of my knocks against WordPress' new Gutenberg. Sure, it's a cool idea and ideally in time great technology, etc. But "big and fancy" layouts are mainly a __not__ mobile first ideal. Gutenberg 10 years ago? Genius. Today? In a mostly small screen world? A sledgehammer when a hammer would do in most cases. (I'm generalizing. The minutia isn't important really.)
When WP started, (self) publishing was the key. We've since evolved to where content is important but network / connections matter more. I know #duh :) With all it's market share and community WordPress was in a unique position to leverage that girth and add the magic of "network" to the content.
Imagine something like (e.g.) Disqus but as the default - as Gutenberg is - on every WP website. The general idea might not be new (i.e., Disqus has social-esque features) but the mass network would be. Perhaps adding in a RSS consumption feature for the sources I follow (and might want to share)?
That is where we are now, with a lot of small screens. God bless Gutenberg but sometimes it feels like the promise of a new & improved fax machine - too little too late.
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#93>most of what people like about Facebook—namely the urge to post about their lives online. Where does the author get that idea? The majority of Facebook's 2 billion users do not post to their profile feed. Instead, the FB account is mostly used as a way to passively receive content. Some of the content is from family and friends, and some is from media outlets (NYTimes, etc). Recommending "personal websites" is talki…
This x1000
We would need some sort of aggregator. Currently, you could call Facebook an aggregator of personal websites. Of course all of the personal websites are also hosted there, but it technically is an aggregator of those webpages. Let's not forget most of the people that I am friends with on Facebook would never be able to create their own personal website without a lot of help which is what makes something like Facebook so convenient and popular.
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#94Okay, I pay almost nothing for my domain. Provide me with the tools to create a cheap, mobile friendly, HTTPS website and I'm in.
Free/$10 template (something like Jekyll) + GitHub Pages for hosting + Cloudflare for HTTPS
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#95Okay, I pay almost nothing for my domain. Provide me with the tools to create a cheap, mobile friendly, HTTPS website and I'm in.
1) Install VSCode
2) Create a new HTML file
3) Hit ! and press tab
4) Type in some well thought out content :)
5) Sign up for Netlify and drag&drop your file.
6) Set up that domain
On the serious side, look up static site generators. Netlify covers all the complexity for you.
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
When i try to think of what my ideal social media would look like, it always ends up sounding similar to an RSS feed, with the ability to lookup and requiring the other user's approval to get the actual content, you could use different clients, some could give you recommendations for events,etc based on your subscriptions if you so choose, or just run your own locally. life would be so simple
The magic usually missing from RSS is really good recommendation/discovery. I've got a list of feeds I follow, and that's all I'll ever get.
The nefarious problem with FB is the illusion of recommendation/discovery. They're not trying to find new and interesting things for you the way say, the cultural aspects of HN performs this feat; they're trying to define your profile and then serve up more of the same to increase engagement or capture your entire sphere of awareness so they can manipulate and shape your perception.'
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
The magic usually missing from RSS is really good recommendation/discovery. I've got a list of feeds I follow, and that's all I'll ever get.
Recommendations + Discovery = Filter Bubble. These mis-features are exactly what we should be moving away from!
No discovery = isolation bubble
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
When i try to think of what my ideal social media would look like, it always ends up sounding similar to an RSS feed, with the ability to lookup and requiring the other user's approval to get the actual content, you could use different clients, some could give you recommendations for events,etc based on your subscriptions if you so choose, or just run your own locally. life would be so simple
The magic usually missing from RSS is really good recommendation/discovery. I've got a list of feeds I follow, and that's all I'll ever get.
RaaS? Recommendations as a Service? Disaggregated.
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#99>most of what people like about Facebook—namely the urge to post about their lives online. Where does the author get that idea? The majority of Facebook's 2 billion users do not post to their profile feed. Instead, the FB account is mostly used as a way to passively receive content. Some of the content is from family and friends, and some is from media outlets (NYTimes, etc). Recommending "personal websites" is talki…
This x1000 We would need some sort of aggregator. Currently, you could call Facebook an aggregator of personal websites. Of course all of the personal websites are also hosted there, but it technically is an aggregator of those webpages. Let's not forget most of the people that I am friends with on Facebook would never be able to create their own personal website without a lot of help which is what makes something li…
> We would need some sort of aggregator.
It could be a protocol, independent of the browser. But the browser could support it inline, so you could just click a button to follow a content stream. It shouldn't be complex, it should be simple. Really simple. Syndication.
Re: We should replace Facebook with personal websites
#100Most people bloviating online don't have anything interesting to say. This is as applicable to FB as it is to any contributor-posted crap on Forbes.com.
You'll have a hard time convincing these "content creators" to move off FB as they know they won't be able to attract the same audience anywhere nearly as easily.
Finally, a personal website doesn't solve the fundamental issue: people crave attention. That's why FB doesn't report likes in real time, it spaces them out so you can log back in re-check like some kind of lab rat. People crave drama too, which is why news sites use clickbait titles on their FB posts. What better way to boost "engagement" than post a headline you know will start a fight in the comments?
The flip side of that coin is that people seem to actually want a steady stream of low-quality content, and FB has more than enough behavioural psychologists and UX people on their team to ensure that keeps happening.