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Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

blog.diasporafoundation.org

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Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#31

Post by Brakenshire »

adnam wrote: post #9

I think it would be really interesting to build something like dispora as a suite of dockerised micro-services which would allow you to add and extend functionality based on a new social-networkong protocol in a language-agnostic way. It would also be very easy to incorporate email and xmpp which are already federated protocols.

Docker should help in general with making services like this more accessible. I can imagine someone like Fastmail using docker to allow a one click process to set up a Diaspora or Mastodon node. That should take the hassle out of it, and if you could just watch a 3 min video to explain the concept/metaphors, and set it up in 30 seconds, it expands the possible audience from system admins and software engineers, up to anyone technically inclined.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#32

Post by michaelchisari »

tw1010 wrote: post #13

I like these guys' perseverance. But part of me can't stop the feeling of sadness that they've spent a better part of a decade working on it, perhaps the best years of their lives. I know perseverance and failure is seen as good things in certain circles, but I don't think I've ever read a biography where the author spent ten years on something that ultimately went nowhere and then went on to do things of enough note…

I spent 8 years working on Appleseed (also a federated social network, 2003 to approx. 2011) and it was worth every minute, even though it never went anywhere. Working on a problem that nobody has been able to solve gives you really good insight into software engineering that you can't get when you're implementing other people's solutions, no matter how complex those solutions are.

Even though I failed, I benefited quite a bit by taking on something so ambitious, and whether Diaspora succeeds or fails, the people working on it will most like be able to say the same.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#33

Post by spodek »

tw1010 wrote: post #13

I like these guys' perseverance. But part of me can't stop the feeling of sadness that they've spent a better part of a decade working on it, perhaps the best years of their lives. I know perseverance and failure is seen as good things in certain circles, but I don't think I've ever read a biography where the author spent ten years on something that ultimately went nowhere and then went on to do things of enough note…

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail before becoming president and father of a nation.

While "only" 4 years, Muhammad Ali sacrificed what would have been the prime of his boxing career as a conscientious objector. He was famous as a great athlete before, but transcended it after.

Alexander Calder was an engineer for about ten years before becoming one of the great artists of the 20th century.

Many other examples.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#34

Post by Turing_Machine »

tw1010 wrote: post #13

I like these guys' perseverance. But part of me can't stop the feeling of sadness that they've spent a better part of a decade working on it, perhaps the best years of their lives. I know perseverance and failure is seen as good things in certain circles, but I don't think I've ever read a biography where the author spent ten years on something that ultimately went nowhere and then went on to do things of enough note…

"Ten Year Overnight Success" is almost a cliche in the music world, and of course most musicians (even very talented ones) never hit it big at all.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#35

Post by dreamfactor »

I think Github could create a good nucleating community for federated networking. They could host a giant pod of Github users (could be the next venue following slashdot>kuro5hin>reddit>hn), and they could also create 1 click tooling for Github users to create pod for their own project communities.

Would be a good kickstarter for generating sufficient network effect value to use in the first place, evolving the platform software through real world tire kicking, and getting it out to the wider world.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#36

Post by dreamfactored »

I think Github could create a good nucleating community for federated networking. They could host a giant pod of Github users (could be the next venue following slashdot>kuro5hin>reddit>hn), and they could also create 1 click tooling for Github users to create pod for their own project communities.

Would be a good kickstarter for generating sufficient network effect value to use in the first place, evolving the platform software through real world tire kicking, and getting it out to the wider world. And being github, as well as a sufficiently technical userbase, there's already a business model around freemium hosting which could be applied.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#37

Post by freehunter »

sp332 wrote: post #17
mejin wrote: post #6

While I completely support the goal of diaspora, I don't think that I can use it. one of the main benefits of Facebook is that I can look up someone's information / posts without them being informed. Imo that is what made Facebook so big in the first place.

This is my biggest pet peeve about Facebook. I'd pay money for better analytics about my posts.

I would love to see the same stats on my personal posts as I do on my page's post. How many people have seen it, the breakdown of their demographics, etc. The problem is, seeing those stats on a page (and a page that I pay FB to advertise for me) is really disheartening: the numbers are incredibly low even though I pay FB to show it to people. I'm sure the numbers are similarly low on my personal page as to how many of my 100+ friends actually saw my post come across their feed.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#38

Post by freehunter »

infinity0 wrote: post #29
blubb-fish wrote: post #24

diaspora is flawed by design. it will only ever be used by techies b/c either you take care of your own server or you have to trust somebody with your data. what is needed is a facebook e.V. with a strict data safety policy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_association_(Germ... it would cost transparently what is needed to sustain the service.

Your comment contradicts itself. A facebook e.V. with a strict data safety policy would be nothing more than another organisation running something similar to diaspora.

I don't think it's necessarily a contradiction. You either have to run your own server, or you have to trust someone else at which point you might as well just use Facebook. The entire point of Disaspora is that you don't have to trust anyone. Once you have some random, unknown person hosting it for you, you're just using Facebook but with fewer people.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#39

Post by wolco »

freehunter wrote: post #38
infinity0 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment contradicts itself. A facebook e.V. with a strict data safety policy would be nothing more than another organisation running something similar to diaspora.

I don't think it's necessarily a contradiction. You either have to run your own server, or you have to trust someone else at which point you might as well just use Facebook. The entire point of Disaspora is that you don't have to trust anyone. Once you have some random, unknown person hosting it for you, you're just using Facebook but with fewer people.

You need some server that these private pods can push to or pull from.

Or you have software that manages your local disaspora server or in the cloud or darknet.

Re: Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released

#40

Post by bandrami »

dredmorbius wrote: post #7
dewey wrote: post #2

Is there a bigger community actually using Diaspora? Maybe I'm outside of that bubble that's why I'm wondering.

Wikipedia gives 677,000 as the size of the Diaspora community https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network) citing The Federation: https://the-federation.info That's ... on the order of Usenet ~1990 or so, per personal conversations with Gene Spafford a few years back. Where "OTO" could be 500k - 5m users. Much of Usenet was far smaller. Microsoft did some studies on Usenet nodes and behavioural patterns…

I may have those too; I was at a company that bid to host microsoft.public around that time and their views on Usenet were very enlightening. I'll see if I can dig them up.

(Funniest part of the requirements spec: it had to "appear to be" hosted on a Windows server...)

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