fediverse | Robin's Rants and Raves

Why the Fediverse will Never Succeed

Posted on July 20, 2024July 20, 2024 by Robin

The idea is a very good one: Federated instead of Centralized, free and open-source software, anyone can run their own instance and federate with all (or some) of the others. Like the old dial-in BBSes of yesteryear before the Internet took off, it’s just a bunch of networked home servers. Sharing among peers, not some big, corporate, centralized proprietary platform. This should have taken off and virtually replaced the big sites like Fakebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

(a) is Centralized, (b) is “decentralized, and (c) is distributed (like the Fediverse)

This is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) stuff that gives people control of their own content instead of making it the property of the service provider. It doesn’t market user information to advertisers and turn it’s users into a commodity to be bought and sold. Examples of platforms like this are diaspora*, friendica, hubzilla, mastodon, pleuroma, funkwhale, writefreely, and more.

This should have exploded all over the place and practically driven the big corporate social media sites out of the market!

But it didn’t, it hasn’t, and it won’t.

Here is why:

As the administrator of my own instance, I might choose to block other instances for whatever reason. I wouldn’t want my users to have access to pornography, for example, or far-left (or far-right) political crap, pro-hate stuff, Nazi stuff, etc. So I might choose to block “diaspora.hitler-was-right.com” (a fictional example) from my own diaspora instance. Hey, it’s my server, I’ll do what I want with it. You want that Nazi shit? Find a Nazi instance and knock yourself out. My server, my rules.

A huge majority of Fediverse servers are run by “left-leaning” administrators, and it has become standard operating procedure for them to block entire instances if even one user expresses an opinion, a data set, a meme, whatever that offends the administrator. The result has become that most Fediverse instances are hostile to my political leanings and religion.

That is why Mastodon – the most successful of the Fediverse platforms – has been forked a half-dozen times or more into Gab, TruthSocial, and others. No longer P2P and no longer federated (distributed), these platforms leave the Fediverse and go it alone. And with considerable success.

On a diaspora* support form I asked about an installation script, in which I might change the Terms of Service to forbid porn, anarchy, violence, pro-LGBTQIAP content, etc. The reply:

If you’re going to run a right-wing instance, let us know the URL so we can all block you.

That’s the attitude.

And that’s why the Fediverse cannot succeed.

Why Haven’t Friendica and Diaspora Been Forked like Mastodon has?

Posted on June 30, 2024June 30, 2024 by Robin

We have seen Mastodon software forked or adapted for use on platforms like Parler and Truth Social. Their software is based on the free and open-source Mastodon software. Everyone seems to be okay with it. Even Zuckerberg’s Meta (Facebook, Instagram) uses it in their newest venture, Threads. So Zuck has made intrusions into the Fediverse by adapting some Fediverse software.

Having recently been kicked off a Friendica server for daring to express my conservative views, I wonder why some other great Fediverse software (Diaspora, Friendica, Hubzilla, etc) hasn’t been copied, adapted, or forked in the same way that Mastodon software was.

If I was a coder who could do it, I would adapt Diaspora software so that it wasn’t necessary to federate with any other servers, and run it on a huge central megaserver like Fakebook does. Probably with ads and the ability to opt out of ads with a paid membership. You can already do that with Friendica, as there isn’t any requirement to federate with other Friendica instances. You can run your own private, invitation-only social media instance without the requirement to federate with stupid Friendica nodes like the one that kicked me to the curb for my politically incorrect posts.

Fediverse Trend?

Posted on June 16, 2024 by Robin

A Fediverse user on Mastodon (gyptasy) asked an interesting question:

The Great Fediverse Exodus: What’s Really Happening?
Yes, you read that right. While the overall numbers might suggest growth, a deeper look reveals a worrying trend: the monthly active users on the Fediverse have plummeted to half of what they once were. Even the big profiles are feeling the pinch with dwindling interactions. Could it be that the Fediverse honeymoon is over?

Meanwhile, Twitter/X is seeing a resurgence. More and more users are flocking back, reigniting the platform with a surge of interactions. Is this the beginning of the end for the Fediverse, or just a bump in the road?

Let’s hear your thoughts!

I suggest three things that may help explain what this “tweeter” thinks may be a trend:

Perhaps people don’t participate as they once did, checking in a couple of times a day as we did when this was all new and exciting to us. One of the things that makes “the Fediverse” wonderful for me is that you build your own experience. Diaspora doesn’t suggest “people you may know” and “stuff you might like.” I found friendships and stuff I like without the algorithms and spyware on the commercial sites. I love my diaspora!

Here’s what I think may be happening. The different platforms all offer a very different experience. I have tried a few others and found that they are either

full of features I would rarely or never care to use, just making the interface a jumble of confusion, or

built to serve only particular interests or communities. They become echo chambers for whatever group of people so it’s FRACTURED like crazy.

Friendica and especially Hubzilla are examples of the first point. Feature-rich, which is wonderful for many users, but bewildering for those of us who are just looking to read and comment and post like we did on Fakebook or Google Groups before we made our way here. Simplicity is the reason I abandoned my Friendica and Hubzilla accounts and just stick with diaspora*. I didn’t leave the Fediverse, I simply experimented with other platforms, didn’t like them, and abandoned my accounts there (after trying to delete them) to settle on the one platform I really like.

Another reason: Not many of the younger generation even own a desktop or laptop computer anymore, which most of these platforms are made for. We’re all on phones or iPads these days. While mobile apps are available for all of the Fediverse platforms, most don’t offer all the cool features available to desktop users. This kinda makes all the cool gadgets and gizmos irrelevant to mobile users. Most of the mobile apps are just “wraps” for whatever browser a mobile user has on his or her phone anyway, and mobile browsers don’t have all the cool gadgets and gizmos you find on a computer with a full web browser.

Are people “leaving” the Fediverse and running back to the big proprietary platforms? I don’t see it that way at all. But to a long-time desktop user like “Gyptazy,” it must appear so.

Social Media

Posted on May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 by Robin

When we decided to get back into doing Living History again after all these years, it seems like almost every organization from the huge regional ones to the company-level units no longer bother with their own web sites or even email listservs anymore – they’re all on Facebook!

Why host on Facebook?

No expense and trouble with having their own domain name (dot com, dot org, dot whatever).
No need for running your own server
No big fuss over page designs and links
A place to host files, pictures, videos, stories, news, and events.

But at what cost?

Ads. Lots and lots of ads.
Loss of rights to your own content.
Loss of privacy for you and your visitors.
Getting inexplicably restricted for whatever “community standards” Facebook chooses.

Why lock yourself, your organization, and your site visitors into a single vendor who insists that all your visitors create an account on their platform to access it or contribute to it? Why ask your “customers,” members, and contributors to give up their privacy and intellectual property rights in order to participate? That’s not only unethical, it’s downright stupid. You give up so much and depend for everything on someone else’ terms of service! Remember how Amazon destroyed so many businesses who depended on their servers when Amazon decided those companies weren’t “woke” enough? It wasn’t that long ago, y’know.

Obviously hosting your own domain on your own server is the best solution as far as retaining your rights and respecting your users’ and contributors’ privacy and dignity. A small number of the reenacting groups I found do this, at least partially. But most just rely on Facebook in the same way Parler relied on Amazon. Not very smart.

There are perfectly sane and sensible alternatives to Facebook for cry’n out loud!

How about any one of the platforms offered in the Fediverse? These are all free (as in beer), but also free (as in freedom!) Rights respected, privacy preserved, open-source software-driven, maintained by volunteers who may solicit donations to defray their expenses. Anyone can host their own, the software is free if you want to run your own instance of one or more of the federated – or distributed – networks: Mastodon (microblogging, like Twitter), for example, or Friendica (very busy social network with a steep learning curve), or the simple, intuitive Diaspora network – the oldest and probably still the largest of the macro-blogging social networks (like facebook, only easier).

Centralized networks like MeWe do what Facebook and some others do, but again – you’re locked into a single vendor and hosted on a single megaserver and you don’t retain control of your own data.

In my next post, I’ll describe the one federated network that is in my opinion the easiest to learn and to use. Here’s a hint: diaspora*

Diaspora Update: What I’ve Learned So Far

Posted on February 14, 2021February 14, 2021 by Robin

Why do we call it “the Fediverse?” A brief explanation can be found here. My favorite platform of the ones listed there is Diaspora because of it’s short learning curve and simple, intuitive interface. In my opinion it’s the most ideal replacement for Farcebook with similar features, except for groups, but I’ll show you how I have created groups of my own on Diaspora.

Diaspora Takes Time to Become What You want it to Be.
That’s because you “build your own” experience here. Unlike Farcebook, Diaspora will not suggest “people you may know” or “stuff you might like.” _You_ tell _it_ what you want to see and who you want to share with. If you are new to Diaspora, and especially if you don’t know anyone on Diaspora or elsewhere in the Fediverse, you can follow #hashtags about subjects that interest you, and looking there, you’ll probably find some people you want to share with. You may also find people you’d rather ignore. Both adding new people and ignoring trolls are easy to do with just a couple of clicks. I think it’s better to follow people more than hashtags.

Your friends, old and new, will help you.
For example, I might private message one of my friends to tip him or her off about a spammer, a bot, or a troll and advise my friend to use the Ignore feature to prevent them from commenting on your posts. Or I might suggest an awesome person to share with whose posts I think my friend will enjoy. Most importantly, since it takes time, give it time! You’re building it custom made, just for you.

Create your own Groups on Diaspora!
Some people do it simply by using hashtags. I do it using Aspects. From your personal page (reach it by clicking on your own picture if you’re viewing your Stream), look at your Aspects. You have a few to start with by default: Family, Friends, Work, and Acquaintances. But underneath that list you’ll find “+ Add an Aspect.” Give it whatever name you want. Dance Partners, Church friends, Trek Fans, Starwars fans, Alien Life Forms, whatever you like, as many as you like! You can put people you’re sharing with into one or more of those categories, then read and post to just that particular Aspect. That’s how I made my own groups. It works for me because I took the time to make it work.

Most of all, have fun! Make it your own, and celebrate your liberation from “Big Media!”
Some material for this post, and the idea of having a greeting like this, was shamelessly stolen from @{robbie1@diasp.org}

Diaspora: A Digital Ghetto

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Robin

For over three years I have encouraged people to dump Facebook and move to Diaspora. I still say dump Facebook, along with Google, because they’re just evil, and their users become the commodity they sell.

But on the subject of Diaspora or any of those half-dozen or more “decentralized, free-and-open-source, federated” platforms, it looks like politics and “political correctness has infected them as well. There are instances that block other instances (or “pods” on Diaspora), change the definition of free speech, etc. The result is a hodgepodge of completely different federated (not centralized) platforms, some of which communicate with others and some of which can’t. Different interfaces, features, protocols, user bases, filters or the lack of any. I chose to stick with one, the oldest, best known, and most used as a Facebook replacement: Diaspora (Mastodon for Twitter).

But it’s still a digital ghetto, still full of fragmentation and the same arguments. And users who come from the Big Platforms join only to find the squabbling and juvenile conduct offensive at worst and a waste of their time at best. Following hashtags you like only shows a half-dozen other users, maybe, most of which have given up and left.

I think I can do better just posting to forums that are dedicated to the stuff that interests me. I think Forums could replace social networks altogether and the world would be a better place.

Mastodon, the Fediverse’s most used platform, is a Twitter alternative, but last time I was on it, offered no settings or ability for a user to delete his or her account! You would think that kinda matters, huh? The best you can do is abandon a Mastodon account. That’s just stupid design. It may have been fixed later, especially since Gab (using modified Mastodon software) has made a big splash.

Pluspora, a Diaspora pod that was created for users of the now-defunct Google Plus platform, is perhaps the best proof of the general rule that while Diaspora is a great idea, the users generally SUCK. If it’s not cat pictures and political memes, it’s political shills from the Left attacking everything to the right of Karl Marx. Many Diaspora users left or were kicked off other platforms for antisemitic rants, hate speech, advancing stupid extreme conspiracy theories and fringe cult stuff. But Pluspora simply removes users the administrators disagree with. Another popular pod, Diasp.org, appears to be implementing a similar policy, albeit not as openly. And, it’s no longer free to use. Financial support is mandatory now, according to it’s most recent Terms of Service page. Diasp.org is now a paid service. That’s okay with me, since it takes a lot of money to buy and maintain such a popular instance. But the censorship I just can’t abide.

Hubzilla turned out to be a complete and utter non-functioning waste of time for me, with a confusing interface with lots of stuff to click on that led nowhere and did nothing. After weeks of effort at it, I gave up on that platform altogether.

Friendica seemed pretty good, but not as intuitive as Diaspora by a long shot.

UPDATE: The centralized “alternatives” suck too. I stand by my suggestion that forums should replace so-called “social media.” But a DE-CENTRALIZED or PEER-TO-PEER network of independent servers is far preferable to any centralized platform. So, after MeWe proved to be a huge disappointment for me, I revisited Diaspora and learned quite a bit more. I’ll post a big ol’ honking update on what I have learned later.