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Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

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Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#261

Post by fwn »

seattle_spring wrote: post #205
anateus wrote: post #195

The way I've described scuttlebutt to folks is that it's "what if Facebook felt like Usenet in the 90s".

...Until the voat/the_donald/conspiracy/incels crowd ruins it within a few weeks of it gaining any momentum.

That is just a problem of offering good filters.

Every bubble other than the own is unpleasant. Social networks need to reproduce the filters we create in real life (social, territorial, etc.) to represent human interaction.

Facebook is sometimes famously called out for creating those filters. ... although I often struggle to unfollow unpleasant (stupid/hateful/hivemind/low effort) content fast enough.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#262

Post by gregknicholson »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #104
staltz wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working the mobile app for Android. Groundwork for iOS is underway: https://twitter.com/andrestaltz/status/981622147864039424

They're not native apps?

Staltz is working on a mobile app for Android. Other people can make other apps too.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#263

Post by john61 »

tschellenbach wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating to see distributed social networks from a tech perspective. From what I've seen so far they exacerbate the problems that Facebook has been seeing so much backlash against. 1. The whole Cambridge Analytica issue was caused by APIs that are too open. For distributed systems there are more ways to exploit the APIs and gather data on users. 2. There is a clear issue with Facebook's accountability…

You are assuming the network holds personalized data. While this is true for facebook (because this is their business model) it is not necessarily true for a non commercial social network.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#265

Post by mr_sturd »

ibdf wrote: post #120

2018 will be the year of "alternative to facebook" apps that are in no way an alternative to facebook. To be an alternative to facebook, it should at least do 50% of what facebook does, and it should be accessible to all. Anything that takes more than 3 steps to get it running it's going to keep people out. And if you keep people out, you don't have a social network, at least not anything like facebook where your gra…

One can always hope. But, we all know where "this is the year of..." gets us in the software industry.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#266

Post by ianopolous »

smsm42 wrote: post #193
notheguyouthink wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole Cambridge Analytica issue was caused by APIs that are too open. For distributed systems there are more ways to exploit the APIs and gather data on users. Huh? Scuttlebutt is fully encrypted.. doesn't that make the API vastly more locked down than Facebook/etc? > There is a clear issue with Facebook's accountability in these areas. Distributed systems are typically open source, they run on multiple servers…

> Scuttlebutt is fully encrypted.. doesn't that make the API vastly more locked down than Facebook/etc? Encryption has nothing to do with it. The whole issue with CA was that they (just as many apps before them) were using Facebook social graph data that was available for them to access via the API. Encryption on any layer has nothing to do with it - if you have access to the API, you get the data. In distributed sys…

You very definitely don't need to expose the social graph to the api. We are doing exactly that in Peergos [1][2]. Your social graph is only stored in encrypted form in your own storage space (in IPFS). The source of a follow request can't be deduced by anyone except the recipient.

If you start integrating Tor/i2p hidden services, even global passive network adversaries will struggle to figure out the social graph from network monitoring.

[1] https://github.com/peergos/peergos

[2] https://peergos.github.io/book

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#267

Post by icebraining »

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #136
agmcleod wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah i think i may have misunderstood how the system is made. It is purely peer to peer. So any issues could be if the software has a security vulnerability, but I'm not sure how that ties in with things like "as-use" open source licensing. This post explained the network fairly well I found: https://staltz.com/an-off-grid-social-network.html As far as GDPR goes, you're right because you're specifically choosing people…

Are you claiming that GDPR holds individuals liable to delete info they might have about another person on request?

Only if they are using that data in a professional or commercial activity.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#268

Post by black_puppydog »

spacehome wrote: post #200
black_puppydog wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I hope (and I think I'm not alone here) that on a network like scuttlebutt, there will be much less "noise" than on facebook. My timeline on facebook (whenever I check it, like weekly) is a mishmash of... * ads (if using a browser that doesn't get rid of them) * "you missed someone's birthday who you didn't even remember you were "friends" with * look at this really popular post in your social vicinity, E…

> cat/dog/food pictures I know you must be high school or college aged, because you didn't mention baby photos. Watch out. That's going to take over your feed in a couple years.

you guessed wrong. but those I could live with ;)

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#269

Post by boomlinde »

staltz wrote: post #92
shp0ngle wrote: post #22

Facebook, but in javascript and giant Electron app with hundreds of dependencies, probably including stuff like is-number and is-odd

There is work underway to implement the protocol in Go, Rust, C and a bit of Haskell. Some of those are usable, but partially complete. There is no reason for the protocol to be restricted to JS and Electron.

Well, the lack of a specification is a major hurdle. IMO, some of the glaring issues of the protocol could have been caught early if there had been an attempt to formalize the protocol.

That said, hindsight is 20/20, and I don't doubt there'll be some work to write a specification once the idea stabilizes somewhat, but since the current version of the protocol has been adopted by users, I think updates to it will be challenging.

Re: Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook

#270

Post by vlehto »

yosefk wrote: post #245
4bpp wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your post hints at a general schizophrenia in the latest, culture-war-fueled push against Facebook. On the one hand, the public debate is still significantly dominated by the old guard of anti-Facebook activists, whose objectives can be summarised as "Facebook's power over its users must be reduced". On the other, the renewed interest in doing /something/ about Facebook in the wake of Cambridge Analytica and…

I think grandparent's point was that the first cause you mention - reducing FB's power over users - does nothing for the users if this power instead goes to other 3rd parties, and perhaps even grows. GP points out that in a distributed social network, 3rd parties can still mine your data, you still have trouble permanently erasing information, and in fact these problems grow instead of shrink. From a user's POV, what…

I'm in the "facebook should have less power" - camp and I'm not worried about those 3rd parties if they are not unified. The amount of 3rd parties does not matter at all.

I'm not afraid that I do something stupid and people find out. I'm afraid that I don't do anything stupid, but facebook makes it look like I did. They have authority a distributed system could never have.

Also I'm not worried about someone who sells pruning shears could mine my data and find out that I like pruning shears. I'm worried that facebook only shows me adds of shitty pruning shears of certain companies. Who happen to be drinking buddies with facebook executives.

You can say that these are delusional things to worry about. But how do you draw the line when concentration of power is OK and when it's not?

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