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Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

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Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#71

Post by amelius »

fake-name wrote: post #12

If you're thinking about building a distributed social network, you HAVE to have answers to the question: How do you moderate it? (Or how do the users moderate what they consume, if you will) Basically, think of the most annoying person you can imagine, give them infinite free time, and a uncontrollable urge to do EVERYTHING they can think of to make your life miserable on said social network (doxxing, abusive messag…

> Moderation and control have to be designed into the network from the outset.

Perhaps even in a way that allow multiple regimes. For example, one user/group/admin could prefer one style of moderation, while another would prefer another style.

I think a new social network should leave as much "open" as possible, so that not just the software is federated but the ideas on which it is based are also federated in a sense.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#73

Post by Alex3917 »

ekianjo wrote: post #19
Alex3917 wrote: post #6

Why not just pay a few bucks a month for a social network, and get all the benefits of centralization without the evils of ad-supported corporations? Most of us here use and trust GitHub, and imho that's what we need more of. While I'm a huge supporter of blockchain projects and their allies, in the case of social networks I don't see how this is going to turn out any differently than FOAF.

how would you trust a centralized network NOT to use your data even if they make you pay for the service?

That’s what the ToS and privacy policy are for.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#74

Post by zzzcpan »

amelius wrote: post #72

Why aren't governments issuing grants to universities to research the development of a new social network?

Isn't social network a purely commercial idea born to manipulate people, get them obsessed over it and exploit them? I mean it's not an actual problem to solve that can be worth any research.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#75

Post by ekianjo »

Alex3917 wrote: post #73
ekianjo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how would you trust a centralized network NOT to use your data even if they make you pay for the service?

That’s what the ToS and privacy policy are for.

Contracts are all well and good, but if there is no such thing as actual oversight to ensure they are implemented as intended, it's very hard to give a proof of good faith.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#76

Post by syllable_studio »

I just started dabbling with IPFS. It has inspired me to revisit a project prototype that I abandoned for a year.

A year ago, I started making this prototype: https://www.dearnation.org/ "Dear Nation is a living archive of the letters we write to our nation's leaders." I've been torn about pursuing this concept. I think I'm particularly scared of how messy it is to moderate and foster democracy online. I'm hoping that by working with tools like IPFS it will inspire me to give more free time to ideas like this.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#77

Post by jsilence »

zzzcpan wrote: post #74
amelius wrote: post #72

Why aren't governments issuing grants to universities to research the development of a new social network?

Isn't social network a purely commercial idea born to manipulate people, get them obsessed over it and exploit them? I mean it's not an actual problem to solve that can be worth any research.

no sure whether you're cynical

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#78

Post by alexandercrohde »

jancsika wrote: post #69
alexandercrohde wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I think there are two types of social network users 1. People who want to consensually maintain two-way contact with people they talk to in normal life. 2. People who want to anonymously get life details of classmates they have a crush on, ex's, etc Building a network to support #1 while maintaining true anonymity and privacy is much more doable. Not being in group #2, I don't worry about it.

Being in group #1 is great. Denying that there is profound value in digital communication between two consenting adults who have never met in normal life is a Luddite position.

Nobody is saying that, you're making a straw-man argument.

People are just saying that they have no interest in being part of a network that tracks their videos, location, actual name, phone number, text messages, behavior across the whole internet, email address, and builds a psychological profile on them in exchange to look up college buddies (and therefore have deleted their accounts).

Many of us want a network that errs to the side of too private, and it's okay if not everybody is on that network. Many of us would rather have no network as compared to one that's too public.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#79

Post by Eric_WVGG »

RSSify wrote: post #34
jancsika wrote: post #17

How do I find Waldo? On Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Google, Github, GnuCentral, etc., I type in Waldo's name and instantly discover Waldo's profile. On Facebook it even shows me Waldo's profile before I consider discovering him. Also, how does the system make it likely that when I search for Waldo I get Waldo and not his evil twin Odlaw? Also, how do you incentivize adoption so that the community doesn't en…

How do you find people's email addresses?

Badly. Most non-techies I talk to would rather “find you on Facebook.”

This was largely behind the relative failure of RSS, in my opinion, even more than the Google Reader debacle. Various friends and family still ask me how I keep informed, I show them Reeder for iPad and they immediately want to get on board; then I explain how you go around to the news sources you like and gather feeds or use a bookmarklet and their eyes glaze over.

I hope this brainstorming on a distributed/federated social network goes somewhere, but if the creators don’t even bother considering why Facebook worked in the first place, their efforts are doomed.

Re: Blueprint of a distributed social network on IPFS, and its problems

#80

Post by eitland »

jancsika wrote: post #67
RSSify wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find people's email addresses?

I'm confused-- I thought all these HN posts about federation and distribution were appearing because Facebook looked like it could be crumbling. Facebook got its start for one reason and one reason only-- you could use it to find Waldo. Are you saying that global discoverability is not a valuable feature of a usable social network?

> Facebook got its start for one reason and one reason only-- you could use it to find Waldo.

I though vanity was the main driver for Facebook adoption?

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