Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

[fundmecfsresearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

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[bedsharkpal@lemmy.ca]

Agreed. But we need a solution against bots just as much. There's no way the majority of comments in the near future won't just be LLMs.

[deceptichum@quokk.au]

Closed instances with vetted members, there’s no other way.

[ceenote@lemmy.world]

Too high of a barrier to entry is doomed to fail.

[tyler@programming.dev]

Programming.dev does this and is the tenth largest instance.

[9point6@lemmy.world]

Techy people are a lot more likely to jump through a couple of hoops for something better, compared to your average Joe who isn't even aware of the problem

[shortrounddev@lemmy.world]

I'm thinking of starting a friendica node for my city. I feel that a big problem with federated apps is that the audience isn't local enough; it's usually mostly tech-oriented people and doesn't have enough local services.

[irelephant@lemm.ee]

That is a great idea, but friendica may be too clunky for most people. Diaspora is good but doesn't use activitypub.

[dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

I started using Twitter in 2009. It was just techy people back then. Things are allowed to take time and grow organically.

[informapirata@lemmy.world]

I agree.

Of course, today Friendica is the most suitable software for managing local communities, thanks to the support of Activitypub groups and event calendars, in addition to the possibility of managing accounts shared between multiple users.

However, it must be recognized that it is a cumbersome and counterintuitive interface. If you want to create a project of this kind based on Friends, you must plan for continuous support from the administrators.

At the moment I would not exclude Friendica, but I would also evaluate other solutions:

Lemmy

It is not a social network and users cannot follow other users but can only follow communities. However, it is probably the easiest software in the Fediverse and is made specifically for creating communities.

Mbin

The interface is still dramatically confusing, but users can also follow other users. If it were possible to modify the interface and make it more pleasant, it could be a great option.

[towelie@lemmy.world]

We need digital identities, like, yesterday.

[bedsharkpal@lemmy.ca]

Yeah I'm not seeing any way around that sadly. At least for places where you want/need to know the content is from an actual person.

[towelie@lemmy.world]

Precisely, and it can stay pseudo-anonymous. A trusted third party (Governments? Banks? A YMCA gym membership?) issuing a hashed certificate or token is all that's needed. You don't need to know my name, age, gender: but if you could confirm that I DO have those attributes, and X, Y, and Z parties confirmed it, then it's likely I'm a human.