Hi Fediverse, I’ve recently been interested in the ActivityPub protocol as well as the programming language Elixir. To better learn both technologies and simultaneously get a product out of it I’ve thought about making (yet another) federated social network.
The main ideas that would set it apart from other federated networks are the following.
It should be easy to use for people who are not tech savy. It should appeal to local communities, like a sports club, as a platform to organize and .
It should be a platform where communities can organise, share discussions and create events. I know many people who use Facebook primarily for this kind of functionality. I hope this could be a gateway for smaller local communities to move over to something more free and open.
Users should be able to categorize their feeds into nested lists, like traditional RSS readers. The idea is that you could subscribe to your favorite PeerTube creators in one feed, and the blogs you follow in another, even with subcategories. You might also make a feed for Lemmy communities you want to follow.
I would love to hear what thoughts you have on this.
What do you think? Do you think the fediverse is the right technology for this? Am I focusing on the right audience? Do you have comments on the attached mockup design?
I would appreciate if you shared this post across the fediverse, such that not just Lemmy users could be a part of the discussion.
For people who are interested in my project Photoview don’t worry, I love to work on that and I will continue to do so.
Hey viktorstrate, My current operating principle is that a community is foundational to the success of a software project. Building community is therefore the first thing to focus on when starting something like this. To that end, I’m looking in your post for points around which a community could rally.
1/Easy-to use-is good, yes but it’s kind of a given for all software. Some prioritize more than others but nobody wants their stuff to be hard to use.
2/Organize, share discussions are similarly common however an event focus is more unique. Mobilizon is working on this as well but I haven’t seen that yet as a strong core problem around which the rest can be built. I think it’s better added as a feature or plugin to an existing and strong software project.
3/Lists exist in Mastodon but not nested lists. I suppose once you have more than a handful of lists, you’ll want more structure and so I think that might be a good feature, but again better added to Mastodon or a fork than something to build from scratch.
In terms of greenfield projects, I would think a TikTok-clone would be interesting. That’s heavily dependent on a mobile app with strong camera, creative and video editing editing features but it would be nice to have somewhere in the fediverse to point that fastest growing segment of social.
Getting back to community, how do you feel about the strength of the photoview community and how do you think you might improve on what was done there in this new effort?
Hi @weex@lemmy.ml, I think you’re right that a community is very important, and thinking about what kind of community will use it from the beginning is important, such that one doesn’t build a platform for a community/segment that doesn’t exist.
1/Easy-to use-is good, yes but it’s kind of a given for all software.
You are right, but when I say that I mean that it should appeal to an average user. For example, I see many federated platforms that have a thousands settings and customization options and try to do many things at once, that certainly works for some people but as a new user you can quickly be overwhelmed.
I think Pixelfed is doing a great job in this regards, the UI is familiar and simple.
2/Organize
You might be right in that it doesn’t feel like there’s a huge demand for this, but maybe that’s because the right medium doesn’t exist yet?
I feel like the problem with Mobilizon it only does events, no groups or posts etc. I don’t see that big of a need for that, especially not federated.
But maybe I sould focus on the core federation experience first, like nested lists, great integration with Mastodon, Pixelfed and Lemmy. Then move the focus from there, I also might understand the problems and needs better at that point.
3/Lists exist in Mastodon but not nested lists.
Yes, I really like Mastodon lists, but I feel that they are too simple that I would actually use them that much. For example to add a user to a list, you first have to follow them, then go to the list page, click edit lists and search for the user to add them.
Also there are no way to have someone show only in a list and not in your main feed, like on Facebook you can be friends with someone, but hide them from your timeline. I think this would be an especially needed feature for the fediverse, because in many cases if you don’t follow someone from another instance, their posts won’t synchronize to your instance.
In terms of greenfield projects, I would think a TikTok-clone would be interesting.
I’ve heard this proposal before, but going back to thinking about communities, I don’t think see a community for this. The people who are interested in fast pased, AI autosuggested videos, are not the people who are interested in a federated network. I simply see no benefit for federation here.
Instead I think federations shines for large discussions, where people comming from different places and communities can be a part of the same discussions. On a side note, I would also like to see more blogs and websites integrate with ActivityPub but not allow user registration, such that you don’t need to have an account on every single small website, just to leave a single comment.
Getting back to community, how do you feel about the strength of the photoview community and how do you think you might improve on what was done there in this new effort?
This is a good question. I love the Photoview community, we have a Discord server with 250+ users and a lot of constructive discussions on Github. I have also worked with EmbassyOS to integrate it into their platform.
I think it was much easier to build the community around Photoview, since there’s already a passionate community around self-hosting and Photoview directly targets people who want to host it themself. But the community around a social network shouldn’t mainly be the instance maintainers, but instead the users, and I don’t have a clear idea of how to target and grow that kind of community yet.
I feel like the Photoview community hasn’t been growing by adding new features, but rather by things like helping people with installation, writing documentation or by fostering discussions on Github.
A community dedicated to fediverse news and discussion.
Fediverse is a portmanteau of “federation” and “universe”. It is a common, informal name for a federation of social network servers whose main purpose is microblogging, the sharing of short, public messages.
Hey viktorstrate, My current operating principle is that a community is foundational to the success of a software project. Building community is therefore the first thing to focus on when starting something like this. To that end, I’m looking in your post for points around which a community could rally.
1/Easy-to use-is good, yes but it’s kind of a given for all software. Some prioritize more than others but nobody wants their stuff to be hard to use.
2/Organize, share discussions are similarly common however an event focus is more unique. Mobilizon is working on this as well but I haven’t seen that yet as a strong core problem around which the rest can be built. I think it’s better added as a feature or plugin to an existing and strong software project.
3/Lists exist in Mastodon but not nested lists. I suppose once you have more than a handful of lists, you’ll want more structure and so I think that might be a good feature, but again better added to Mastodon or a fork than something to build from scratch.
In terms of greenfield projects, I would think a TikTok-clone would be interesting. That’s heavily dependent on a mobile app with strong camera, creative and video editing editing features but it would be nice to have somewhere in the fediverse to point that fastest growing segment of social.
Getting back to community, how do you feel about the strength of the photoview community and how do you think you might improve on what was done there in this new effort?
Hi @weex@lemmy.ml, I think you’re right that a community is very important, and thinking about what kind of community will use it from the beginning is important, such that one doesn’t build a platform for a community/segment that doesn’t exist.
You are right, but when I say that I mean that it should appeal to an average user. For example, I see many federated platforms that have a thousands settings and customization options and try to do many things at once, that certainly works for some people but as a new user you can quickly be overwhelmed.
I think Pixelfed is doing a great job in this regards, the UI is familiar and simple.
You might be right in that it doesn’t feel like there’s a huge demand for this, but maybe that’s because the right medium doesn’t exist yet?
I feel like the problem with Mobilizon it only does events, no groups or posts etc. I don’t see that big of a need for that, especially not federated.
But maybe I sould focus on the core federation experience first, like nested lists, great integration with Mastodon, Pixelfed and Lemmy. Then move the focus from there, I also might understand the problems and needs better at that point.
Yes, I really like Mastodon lists, but I feel that they are too simple that I would actually use them that much. For example to add a user to a list, you first have to follow them, then go to the list page, click edit lists and search for the user to add them.
Also there are no way to have someone show only in a list and not in your main feed, like on Facebook you can be friends with someone, but hide them from your timeline. I think this would be an especially needed feature for the fediverse, because in many cases if you don’t follow someone from another instance, their posts won’t synchronize to your instance.
I’ve heard this proposal before, but going back to thinking about communities, I don’t think see a community for this. The people who are interested in fast pased, AI autosuggested videos, are not the people who are interested in a federated network. I simply see no benefit for federation here.
Instead I think federations shines for large discussions, where people comming from different places and communities can be a part of the same discussions. On a side note, I would also like to see more blogs and websites integrate with ActivityPub but not allow user registration, such that you don’t need to have an account on every single small website, just to leave a single comment.
This is a good question. I love the Photoview community, we have a Discord server with 250+ users and a lot of constructive discussions on Github. I have also worked with EmbassyOS to integrate it into their platform.
I think it was much easier to build the community around Photoview, since there’s already a passionate community around self-hosting and Photoview directly targets people who want to host it themself. But the community around a social network shouldn’t mainly be the instance maintainers, but instead the users, and I don’t have a clear idea of how to target and grow that kind of community yet.
I feel like the Photoview community hasn’t been growing by adding new features, but rather by things like helping people with installation, writing documentation or by fostering discussions on Github.