Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#41

Post by newscracker » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:15 AM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #17

pcunite wrote: post #13

I don't want my stuff in the "cloud", I want it shared from my lawn. My own personal space to where people can access my stuff, that I share, and we can converse over whatever that is ... my own GDPR rules.

Have you seen Beaker [0]? It doesn't require you to setup a complex web server and configure a bunch of stuff, you just run the browser and it'll start sharing your website. It's a move back to a truly decentralized web. [0] https://beakerbrowser.com/

I actually tried this a while ago, and found that the audience also had to use Beaker to access the content. That's a huge barrier if current browsers don't support this.

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#42

Post by fabianhjr » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

indigodaddy wrote: post #32

eadmund wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This scale is far greater than the average size of any Facebook users group of friends. Yes, but only an individual Facebook user . The problem is that my friends' friends' friends' friends' friends' friends encompass the entire human race: at some point, as I invite people who invite people who invite people, the underlying technology has to be able to support all mankind. Indeed, I suspect that this — not some mo…

Could a viable Facebook competitor be built on a distributed/p2p type network, perhaps something like ipfs and/or mesh networking?

Yes, scuttlebutt even works great over mesh networks and intermittent internet.

http://scuttlebutt.nz/

https://ssbc.github.io/scuttlebutt-protocol-guide/

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#43

Post by kodablah » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:41 AM UTC

Geee wrote: post #36

jgh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really sure how blockchain is related to a potential "next" communication technology. Why not AR? Why not lasers n shit?

It's possible to create distributed but capitalistic systems with blockchain. Without blockchain most distributed / P2P systems fail because they rely on volunteers to run the system.

I don't think that's why they fail. Lack of adoption primarily due to difficulty of use is mostly why they fail. Lots of us are willing to donate our resources, but that won't affect the success or failure of the platform.

People need to be working on simple to use platforms, everything else is secondary (including scaling and featureset). Max effort needs to be towards onboarding, wizards, easy walkthroughs, etc. It's a goal in a project I'm doing and I urge others to prioritize similarly.

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#44

Post by BadassFractal » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:43 AM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #40

toomuchtodo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of Mastodon? https://joinmastodon.org/

Isn't Mastodon more of a Twitter replacement than a replacement for Facebook (which has time line, groups, pages, etc.)? I'm curious to know what's closer to what Facebook provides and is decentralized.

Diaspora?

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#45

Post by marknadal » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

indigodaddy wrote: post #32

eadmund wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This scale is far greater than the average size of any Facebook users group of friends. Yes, but only an individual Facebook user . The problem is that my friends' friends' friends' friends' friends' friends encompass the entire human race: at some point, as I invite people who invite people who invite people, the underlying technology has to be able to support all mankind. Indeed, I suspect that this — not some mo…

Could a viable Facebook competitor be built on a distributed/p2p type network, perhaps something like ipfs and/or mesh networking?

Yupe, and you can start building your own in as short as 4min and 40 lines of code - https://scrimba.com/c/c2gBgt4 (interactive coding tutorial, meant to go along with this article - https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-build-a-p2p-twitter-wi... )!

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#46

Post by vinniejames » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:52 AM UTC

We did replace it, almost 10 years ago. It was called Diaspora[1], no one cared about privacy then. No one really cares about privacy now, at least not enough to do anything about it.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network)

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#47

Post by esfandia » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

zzzeek wrote: post #25

ams6110 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, email then? It's decentralized, federated, and only sends data to the people you address it to (gmail excepted, I guess, at least in the free tier). It's what has always worked for me.

it should be email. but you need to build a fabulous UX on top of it that is as simple and instant gratification as Facebook, and you need to do it essentially for free, or with a grant or something, because it will never make a dime.

Why doesn't this exist already? Sounds very feasible. Your "friends" are people in a given mailing-list, and even a minute action such as "like" could also just be an email sent to that mailing-list, with some proper tagging in the subject header, so that the email client knows not to display the email but rather act on it as an event handler.

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#48

Post by jacinabox » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:02 AM UTC

A quick research job has revealed that most of the interesting features of facebook, in particular "liking" posts and friend suggestion, are patented by facebook. It would be difficult therefore for a new entrant to copy its features.

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#49

Post by panarky » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:02 AM UTC

sidcool wrote: post #39

I tried explaining my 20 year old cousin about FB. Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB". She checks in on FB everywhere she goes. Posts her pics all the time. I could not instill any sense of concern for privacy. What I could conclude is that the appeal of social is too great to have any caution. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think FB is going anywhere. People will keep using it inspite…

> It's like a smoking addiction

It's awesome to watch massive shifts in values and priorities.

Smoking used to be seen as cool, sexy, even healthy. Now it's widely seen as unhealthy and disgusting.

Same thing with high-fructose carbonated beverages.

I remember people using terms like "retarded" and "gyp" without hesitation. Today even people who hate political correctness don't talk like that in public.

It wasn't long ago that men abusing women in the workplace was routine and unremarkable. Now it's outrageous and shameful.

Things change, slowly at first, and then all at once. People are waking up and it will never be the same for Facebook.

Re: Don’t Fix Facebook, Replace It

#50

Post by Slansitartop » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:09 AM UTC

jacinabox wrote: post #48

A quick research job has revealed that most of the interesting features of facebook, in particular "liking" posts and friend suggestion, are patented by facebook. It would be difficult therefore for a new entrant to copy its features.

> A quick research job has revealed that most of the interesting features of facebook, in particular "liking" posts ... are patented by facebook.

I find find this hard to believe. Don't competing networks have similar functionality (e.g. "hearting")? What exactly about "liking" has Facebook patented?

I'm much more ready to believe "liking" is trademarked, though I'm still skeptical of it, given that it's an everyday word used with its everyday meaning.