The TikTok users are not conscious humans to think like "oh, this app is bad for me, let me find a clean alternative". Nice try, but missed the target by a mile.
Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
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Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#202Aw man can we not flip the script and maybe build less of these things? It’s saturated and not really helping society but rather creating more addiction machines.
They’re addiction machines because of how they’re built.
See: custom Facebook apps that only show the part of the service you ask for - not force-feeding you whatever they want.
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#203How is it decentralized? Decentralized as in bitcoin?
Decentralized as in not needing a central server. I don't know about Loops specifically, but generally [Fediverse][0] projects tend to: - Not rely on a central server. - Allow you to set up your own server. - Connect to a web of other servers through the Activity Pub protocol. - Allow you to modify policies on your server (including restricting which other servers information is shared with.) Many are also open sourc…
Just a side note, reading through some of the other comments, it sounds like Loops specifically isn't currently open source and the intent is to open source it at some later date.
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#204Who actually wants this? Kids obsesses with TikTok don't care about federated/open source bits. People who do are not on TikTok or interested in this type of brainrot in the first place.
What am I missing?
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Discord is communication with fellow humans. Tiktok is one-way consumption mostly. Discord is mostly text. Tiktok is mostly speech-free momentary videos, adjusting to the minute hints in your reaction. There's no comparison.
Discord is designed to gamify communication. It has 'features' like likes, reacts, gifs, roles, badges, etc. Many communities add bots that enable profile leveling, quests, challenges. These things are designed to reward and drive engagement, and lights up the reward centers of the brain. Between an IRC user and a Discord user, the Discord user's going to be much more addicted.
Clearly discord has more of a vested interest in boosting engagement - especially now that they are showing people "quests". What a quirky and fun way to say "ads"!
But at the same time I don't necessarily buy the idea that all of their reactions/roles/badges/etc are exclusively malevolent engagement-driven design decisions meant to hook people. I do think that some of them are legitimate improvements to chat communication, and as a result many of those features have proliferated across other messaging platforms. Hell, most of them didn't even originate at discord at all but were cribbed from their competitors.
To be clear, I 1000% agree with you that IRC is less addicting. Even just by simple merit of not having multi-device push notifications. Those pull me back into the app. But push notifications across devices are also just objectively useful. I name that one in particular because it's one of the biggest and most notable features that prevents me from returning to IRC, where I happily did most of my chat until the mid 2010s. I'm actively shopping for a discord alternative as a regular user who is fed up with discord's march toward enshittification, and matrix looks like it gives me most of that convenience without the worst parts of discord.
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#206The reality is that the addictive algorithm of commercial social media platforms is the product . These alternative platforms are like nicotine free cigarettes. They might garner small communities, which is totally cool and valid, but they will never slay the giants.
As is the incessant stream. If there is a pause at all in the next video loading the addicted user can break free. One of the issues with federated anything is that there will be good servers and bad servers. Good servers get hammered, and if you're popular you might end up perversely paying for people to watch your videos having to fund your server to maintain its performance. This happened with mastadon, matrix and…
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Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#207Who actually wants this? Kids obsesses with TikTok don't care about federated/open source bits. People who do are not on TikTok or interested in this type of brainrot in the first place. What am I missing?
Maybe it could be what prescribed Methadone is to Heroin addicts.
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#208Who actually wants this? Kids obsesses with TikTok don't care about federated/open source bits. People who do are not on TikTok or interested in this type of brainrot in the first place. What am I missing?
Yeah I can make a dropbox clone in a one-liner bash command too
Outright dismissal like this should be judged as harshly as the comment itself.
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
As is the incessant stream. If there is a pause at all in the next video loading the addicted user can break free. One of the issues with federated anything is that there will be good servers and bad servers. Good servers get hammered, and if you're popular you might end up perversely paying for people to watch your videos having to fund your server to maintain its performance. This happened with mastadon, matrix and…
Birth rates took a dip with broadband, smartphones, and TikTok. Dopamine and attention sinks are pulling society in directions counter to evolutionary programming. Our runtime algorithms optimize for different things. No value judgment, but it's interesting. I haven't had kids (yet?), and I feel the internet (and the career that revolves around it) is the biggest reason why.
Citation needed
Re: Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
#210Who actually wants this? Kids obsesses with TikTok don't care about federated/open source bits. People who do are not on TikTok or interested in this type of brainrot in the first place. What am I missing?
Maybe it could be what prescribed Methadone is to Heroin addicts.
Watching all these open source, federated versions of social media platforms is like if you found out your favourite drug was actually manufactured by some really bad people and made people around the world suffer. So you make an open source version of the drug. Similar formula, just this time the people can own it.
Sure you cut out the bad people, but is the situation improved now?