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Always Own Your Platform (2019)

alwaysownyourplatform.com

181–190 of 190 posts

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#181
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The command line is half the problem. The solution should not require command line chops. Should just be a GUI.

One of the simplest combination of solutions that I know in this space is to use Publii CMS to compose your blog and push it to GitHub Pages, which automagically makes your SSL enabled site live. Of course something as trivial as adding your custom domain leads you down a rabbit hole of nameservers, CDN etc. There is probably a simpler path here I'm missing. But the bigger problem is the non-tech world simply doesn't…

I never heard of it, but having taken a look it just seems like a GUI variant of Hugo. Which is nice and all, but nowhere near what I'm talking about.

Generating static sites is popular specifically because the root problem is not solved: hosting and maintaining a website is often a nightmare.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the damage is severe, I don't think it's permanent. Mastodon is far from a powerhouse, but is chugging along happily with a slowly growing user base. Matrix arrived just in time to help prevent Slack and Discord from becoming the defacto real-time communication systems for open source projects. Even SA is starting to heal now that it's out from under lowtax and his bullshit.

One thing I'd be curious to know is how large the current open platforms are compared to those of 20+ years ago. The internet as a whole is so much bigger that it's hard to maintain a sense of scale. For example, how many people are using Matrix now, compared to IRC 20 years ago? IRC had 10M users in 2003 [1], Matrix has 28M 'global visible accounts', but who knows what that means. Maybe it's ok for these platforms t…

53m global visible accounts as of March, mate. https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/1505009553884205063?...

It means exactly what it says. We don't know how many people in European governments, militaries, healthcare etc use it, but we know that they use it, though that information is not possible to discover publicly. We can see how many public accounts there are.

Usenet is predominantly piracy at this point.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Element (on Matrix) may be superficially a clone of slack or discord, but it already does some things significantly better: * End-to-end encryption * Spaces as freeform hierarchies of rooms * Widgets, to embed arbitrary webapps into your chatrooms * Open standard API However, the point is more that Matrix can do way more than this given it’s a protocol: Element Call is already a better UX for conferencing than Hangou…

As much as I love FOSS, Element isn’t even close to Discord. Discord has one click streaming, easy to understand voice rooms, etc. You don’t have to sort out hosting, and the overall UI experience is sharper and feels more polished. Visually Element is nice, but it has some clunk to it.

Discord isn't even close to Element. Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure. Matrix however will offer peer-to-peer lite servers running on-device that'll even work offline via BLE. Try using Discord during an invasion or natural disaster.

This idea that Discord is accessible globally is such an America-centric naïvete.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#184
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mastodon pitch is it’s «ad-free, community-run and features a chronological feed (no algorithms)». I used to open with the fact that it's federated, but it's a much harder concept to sell initially. People do appreciate it later on though, when they find out they can follow and interact with a bunch of other social networks and communities.

My biggest problem with Mastodon is it’s psychotic user base.

Source?

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because you could argue that slack and discord replaced IRC. I wonder if we will have cycles or if commercial hosted solutions will always win this arms race.

unless you happen to own freenode/libera.chat, you don't own your own platform on IRC either. same for mastodon, unless you happen to own the mastodon instance you're on, you don't own it. And the old web had plenty of platforms too, tripod and geocities were platforms as well. You could take it a step further still and say that unless you have a server that's sitting in your own basement, you don't own your own plat…

Anybody can and could start an IRC server. I ran one. I ran a BBS too. Now run a Matrix server.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#186
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mastodon pitch is it’s «ad-free, community-run and features a chronological feed (no algorithms)». I used to open with the fact that it's federated, but it's a much harder concept to sell initially. People do appreciate it later on though, when they find out they can follow and interact with a bunch of other social networks and communities.

My biggest problem with Mastodon is it’s psychotic user base.

This is entirely dependent on the instance/server you join. I can't guarantee that you'll find a pre-existing community that fits your interests, but you can start your own independent server an carve out a niche to your liking. That is not possible on any other commercial and centralized social media platforms.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I love FOSS, Element isn’t even close to Discord. Discord has one click streaming, easy to understand voice rooms, etc. You don’t have to sort out hosting, and the overall UI experience is sharper and feels more polished. Visually Element is nice, but it has some clunk to it.

Discord isn't even close to Element. Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure. Matrix however will offer peer-to-peer lite servers running on-device that'll even work offline via BLE. Try using Discord during an invasion or natural disaster. This idea that Discord is accessible globally is such an America-centric naïvete.

>Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure.

Normal users fundamentally do not give a shit.

OP is contrasting Element as a client, and it is subpar in comparison to Discord's UI/UX. No protocol differences can paper over this.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord isn't even close to Element. Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure. Matrix however will offer peer-to-peer lite servers running on-device that'll even work offline via BLE. Try using Discord during an invasion or natural disaster. This idea that Discord is accessible globally is such an America-centric naïvete.

>Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure. Normal users fundamentally do not give a shit. OP is contrasting Element as a client, and it is subpar in comparison to Discord's UI/UX. No protocol differences can paper over this.

Different strokes for different folks.

FWIW, you can bridge Discord to Matrix.

It is more valuable to me to have a single universal messaging app across all my devices than it is to corksniff over UX across a couple dozen apps.

Furthermore, I'm autistic, the UI of Discord is atrocious. Completely overwhelming.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Discord provides no privacy and a single point of failure. Normal users fundamentally do not give a shit. OP is contrasting Element as a client, and it is subpar in comparison to Discord's UI/UX. No protocol differences can paper over this.

Different strokes for different folks. FWIW, you can bridge Discord to Matrix. It is more valuable to me to have a single universal messaging app across all my devices than it is to corksniff over UX across a couple dozen apps. Furthermore, I'm autistic, the UI of Discord is atrocious. Completely overwhelming.

None of these points even remotely refute my comment.

Re: Always Own Your Platform (2019)

#190
post #4

Haven[1] is your own platform for publishing privately when you're not trying to "build an audience" [1]: https://havenweb.org

Interesting. How's that differ from PostHaven [1]? [1]: https://posthaven.com

Haven is about _private_ blogging as a social media alternative. Post privately, share with your friends/family, even expose your blog with authenticated RSS. The crypto world has co-opted the term "Decentralized", but in a non-crypto sense, Haven is what decentralized social media could look like. Happy to chat more (and apologies for not catching your question sooner). Feel free to message me on the haven contact page: https://havenweb.org/contact.html
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