Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#1

Post by camillomiller » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 11:44 AM UTC

I was playing with the idea of a Facebook profile cemetery. It would be a tool to structure your profile data after you download it from Facebook, in order to self-host it on a space you own. The idea would be to keep alive your profile history, but on your own website, for friends and family to still browse it, or just as a way to claim and still show data that's fundamentally yours to show around.

Before I try to figure out a way to do that and start building something, do you know any tool useful for this purpose?

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#2

Post by happppy » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:22 PM UTC

I think it would become public and anyone would be able to see who you are, what you do. How are you gonna check if someone visiting is your family member?

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#3

Post by BerislavLopac » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:24 PM UTC

happppy wrote: post #2

I think it would become public and anyone would be able to see who you are, what you do. How are you gonna check if someone visiting is your family member?

One-off passwords?

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#4

Post by badsavage » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:25 PM UTC

Thanks for this idea! Will implement it next year into my website generator

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#5

Post by jstanley » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:28 PM UTC

happppy wrote: post #2

I think it would become public and anyone would be able to see who you are, what you do. How are you gonna check if someone visiting is your family member?

Make them authenticate with their Facebook account.

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#6

Post by anyzen » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:28 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #3

happppy wrote: post #2

I think it would become public and anyone would be able to see who you are, what you do. How are you gonna check if someone visiting is your family member?

One-off passwords?

Or invitation links (with auth tokens).

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#7

Post by amelius » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:30 PM UTC

Wouldn't it be better to import the data into an open social network like Mastodon?

What would be great is a tool that continuously does this (i.e. a one-way sync). This could help people convert away from FB.

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#8

Post by Jaruzel » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:30 PM UTC

The zipfile you download from Facebook is already in the correct format. All you need to do it spin up a web server (apache nginx etc.) and unzip the files into the webroot.

For security, just add the usual webserver/*nix security.

EDIT: Just unzipped an old download from my (pre-purged) profile into an empty web folder, and it all works, mostly. FB specific icons are missing, and your private messages are all in a subfolder called 'messages' which has no security, and all the threads are folded into a long chronological list. So I guess the format would need tweaking a bit.

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#9

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:30 PM UTC

When you ask Facebook for your archive it's already pure HTML. All you need to do is to censor it somewhat (if appropriate, e.g. remove private messages) and host it somewhere with access control.

Re: Ask HN: Tool for self-hosting your own Facebook profile after downloading it?

#10

Post by anyzen » Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 12:31 PM UTC

No, but I am curious too - that would be a nice idea to kick-start a distributed social network imho.