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How to run a small social network site for your friends

runyourown.social

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Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#91

Post by ceejayoz »

deanc wrote: post #23
bcherny wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Facebook Groups? eg. a quick search found a Ham radio group in SD: https://www.facebook.com/groups/856599821517281 . More Ham radio groups in San Diego (you can do a similar search for retro computing): https://www.facebook.com/search/groups?q=ham%20radio&filters... Meetup also has some retro computing groups, though I don't see one in San Diego (why not start one?): https://www.meetup.com/topics/retro…

I'm not going to be the commenter that goes on and on about the negative impact Facebook is having across the world, as this is disruptive to genuine arguments. To give a clear counterpoint to the idea of using Facebook groups - forums had anonymity. You could be a different version of yourself - for better or worse. It's not possible to do that on Facebook without accountability.

> It's not possible to do that on Facebook without accountability.

Sure it is. Our local town Facebook groups have a wide variety of clear sockpuppet accounts. Facebook's detection and processes for this are laughably bad; quite a few people have reported the "Count von Brokenhymen" style ones to no avail.

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#92

Post by MayeulC »

pjc50 wrote: post #89
brnt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it isn't surprising that when interaction is designed to be disposable and replaceable, i.e. matchmaking, no real community can form.

This is rather bad news as an implication for Tinder.

Well, that's only true when you consider matchmaking for short interactions, which surely prevents community bonding. Longer interactions do not prevent bonding.

As for Tinder... I'm pretty sure you can find the equivalent of "dedicated servers" where to form a community, but I don't think that's what most people would want.

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#93

Post by Glide »

dustymcp wrote: post #58
brnt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it isn't surprising that when interaction is designed to be disposable and replaceable, i.e. matchmaking, no real community can form.

This is what killed wow classic when dungeon signup was introduced

Successful, pleasant dungeon run? Added to friends.

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#94

Post by the_other »

fiatjaf wrote: post #62
Jaruzel wrote: post #47

What I really want to see is a guide on: 'How to convince all your friends to jump ship and join you on a platform you built, and abandon their friends in the process.' /s

Every now and then I see this kind of post here. "Friends", they say. "Run software for your friends", they tell. I always wonder who are these people who have so many friends and who are these friends who are willing to try experimental social networks with no one else in them.

I"m the one that wants to try experimental social tools, in my circles.

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#95

Post by the_other »

grishka wrote: post #56
eevilspock wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One-to-many messages can be encrypted with end-to-end encryption by encrypting a copy for each recipient using their public key. Apple essentially does this with iMessage, both for sending a message to each of your devices as well as to each recipient in a group chat.

The problem with that is that you now have to have a "client" to decrypt and display those posts. And it has to manage keys. And you have to shift some of that burden onto the user because otherwise the key could be accessible to the server. People do somewhat expect this stuff for messaging, but it'll get really messy really fast for posts and photos and similar long-lived content. It'll get even messier when you co…

Can't all that be modelled with keys/signing? Can you elaborate more on the risks around automated key management?

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#96

Post by danaris »

hemloc_io wrote: post #13

I have what I think is a unique perspective on this. Private small self run social media already exists. It's personal Minecraft servers. When I was younger I ran a Minecraft server out of my toaster of a PC. Friends hopped on, made their own little houses, built stuff and talked. Friends would pass in and out and in order to get in you had to be invited! I'd say max there were 10-20 people on there somewhat consiste…

With no sarcasm or irony whatsoever, this is a fantastic way to stay connected with people—if you can be online at the same time as them regularly and they all actually want to play Minecraft.

The advantages you get with a more traditional-style private social media site are accessibility and asynchrony.

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#99

Post by usrusr »

rtpg wrote: post #45
Nerada wrote: post #14

I miss how every hobby had a forum running on phpBB, SimpleMachines, Invision, etc. HN is great, but it's very point in time. If I find an interesting topic posted over a day ago, it's never getting new replies. It's a snapshot of the thoughts on that topic for that single day, nothing more.

Yeah honestly forums counteract soooo much of the weird incentives that lead to a lot of yelling (yes there is still yelling in forums) I’ve been in two “tiny forums” in the past and honestly I prefer that to the idea of a Twitter clone. Let’s people put in more effort, have real topics (like about events) and isn’t just streams.

I'm on a number of "large niche" forums (think posts-per-minute not minutes-per-post) and yeah, lots of yelling. But I'm also on a large Facebook group aiming at the same audience (actually a spin-off of the most ancient of those forums), and it's a night and day difference. On the Facebook group everybody with even the tiniest trace of control is self-censoring themselves into total silence, leaving only the chattiest voices outdoing each other with irrelevant posts. The forums are terrible in their own way, but still so much better.

But it's very noticeable how the forum audience is aging, even compared to Facebook which is already the retiree home amongst corporate social media. I can't imagine how lopsided interaction must be on the "influencer platform" generation of social media must be..

Re: How to run a small social network site for your friends

#100

Post by MisterTea »

drorco wrote: post #37
hemloc_io wrote: post #13

I have what I think is a unique perspective on this. Private small self run social media already exists. It's personal Minecraft servers. When I was younger I ran a Minecraft server out of my toaster of a PC. Friends hopped on, made their own little houses, built stuff and talked. Friends would pass in and out and in order to get in you had to be invited! I'd say max there were 10-20 people on there somewhat consiste…

This has been like that with many multiplayer games to some extent before the age of matchmaking. Someone sets up a dedicated server with certain mods/game configuration, and that would be yours and other randoms favorite server. Over time, you'd actually become a community. I've gone back to play Unreal Tournament 2004 this past year in such dedicated servers, and it made me realize how badly matchmaking ruined the…

> I've gone back to play Unreal Tournament 2004 this past year in such dedicated servers, and it made me realize how badly matchmaking ruined the sense of community in MP games.

I used to enjoy playing TF2 until 2013/14 or so. I settled into the No Heroes servers and after a while you get to know people. You pop on, see familiar names, say hello and you'd have a good time. It was like a small town which had a lot of other people passing through keeping things lively yet familiar.

Recently I tried to play TF2 again just for kicks. The community is dead. I played for maybe 30 min before exiting uninstalling and never looking back. Good job valve.

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