#groups — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #groups, aggregated by home.social.
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#Heart / #Infinite #Love Combination
A #Symbol for the way to #peace...?
#Mastodon as a group of #loving #individuals that #connect #members & #fans of #groups together?
#Talking to #machines all day doesn't work.
We need better humans?
We have enough #Tech / #SmallTech?
A lighter AND deeper #human #relationship towards solving all #wars & arguments?
#Passion together to build back warmth, then #freedom?
(Not sex / romance, true #passion together)
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#heart + #infinity #combination #symbol
We need #passion in order to build all together and attain #freedom / #freedoms.
A light and deep #human #relationship is needed..
#Talking to #machines doesn't work.
We need better humans + have enough #Tech / #SmallTech now.We can be a group of #individuals that also #connects all the loving #members / #fans of #groups.
Interested in solving #wars?
This symbol is the way to #peace...
(not the sex/romance - more passion)
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Книжная серия Corpus
#Corpus
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/626Шедевры фантастики
Fantasy masterpieces
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/624Серия - Polaris.
Путешествия, приключения, фантастика
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/623Книжные серии «МИРЫ...» (1991-1998)
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/622Книжная серия «ЗОЛОТАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА ФАНТАСТИКИ» (1999-2007)
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/621Библиотека англо-американской классической фантастики
Бібліотека англо-американської класичної фантастики
Library of Anglo-American Classic Fiction
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/620Дворцы и Замки Европы (199 выпусков) [2018-2022
Palaces and Castles of Europe (199 issues) [2018-2022
Палаци та Замки Європи (199 випусків) [2018-2022
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/618some new books
новые книги
нові книги
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/616музыкальные журналы. Prog UK
music magazines.
музичні журнали
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/615Личности, группы, биографии
Personalities, groups, biographies
Особи, групи, біографії
#Личности, #группы, #биографии
#Personalities, #groups, #biographies
#Особи, #групи, #біографії
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/613Биохимия, Biochemistry, Біохімія
#Биохимия, #Biochemistry, #Біохімія
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/611литература на японском языке
literature in Japanese
література японською мовою
日本語の文学
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/610русская поп музыка
російська поп музика
Russian pop music
#русская #попмузыка
#російська #попмузика
#Russian #pop music
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/609демократия, демократія, democracy
#демократия, #демократія, #democracy
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/606США,история,культура,Видео
USA America history, culture video
США, історія, культура, відео
#США, #история, #культура, #Видео
#USA #America history, #culture video
#США, #історія, #культура, #відео
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/605art, documental video
Документальное видео, искусство
мистецтво, документальне відео
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/604театр, сцена
theater, stage
#театр, #сцена
#theater, #stage
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/601История Украины
History of Ukraine
Історія України
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/598глодомор, glodomor голодомор
история Украины, History of Ukraine, історія України,
#глодомор, #glodomor #голодомор
#историяУкраины, #History of Ukraine, #історіяУкраїни
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/597Свод законов российской империи
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/596Старинные книги,
Old books, Старовинні книги
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/595сравнительная история,
порівняльна історія, comparative history
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/594дневники, мемуары, воспоминания
diaries, memoirs
щоденники, мемуари, спогади
#дневники, #мемуары, #воспоминания
#diaries, #memoirs
#щоденники, #мемуари, #спогади
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/593_Япония, Японія, Japan
#Япония, #Японія, #Japan
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/591_Франция, France, Франція
#Франция, #France, #Франція
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/590 -
Книжная серия Corpus
#Corpus
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/626Шедевры фантастики
Fantasy masterpieces
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/624Серия - Polaris.
Путешествия, приключения, фантастика
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/623Книжные серии «МИРЫ...» (1991-1998)
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/622Книжная серия «ЗОЛОТАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА ФАНТАСТИКИ» (1999-2007)
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/621Библиотека англо-американской классической фантастики
Бібліотека англо-американської класичної фантастики
Library of Anglo-American Classic Fiction
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/620Дворцы и Замки Европы (199 выпусков) [2018-2022
Palaces and Castles of Europe (199 issues) [2018-2022
Палаци та Замки Європи (199 випусків) [2018-2022
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/618some new books
новые книги
нові книги
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/616музыкальные журналы. Prog UK
music magazines.
музичні журнали
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/615Личности, группы, биографии
Personalities, groups, biographies
Особи, групи, біографії
#Личности, #группы, #биографии
#Personalities, #groups, #biographies
#Особи, #групи, #біографії
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/613Биохимия, Biochemistry, Біохімія
#Биохимия, #Biochemistry, #Біохімія
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/611литература на японском языке
literature in Japanese
література японською мовою
日本語の文学
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/610русская поп музыка
російська поп музика
Russian pop music
#русская #попмузыка
#російська #попмузика
#Russian #pop music
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/609демократия, демократія, democracy
#демократия, #демократія, #democracy
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/606США,история,культура,Видео
USA America history, culture video
США, історія, культура, відео
#США, #история, #культура, #Видео
#USA #America history, #culture video
#США, #історія, #культура, #відео
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/605art, documental video
Документальное видео, искусство
мистецтво, документальне відео
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/604театр, сцена
theater, stage
#театр, #сцена
#theater, #stage
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/601История Украины
History of Ukraine
Історія України
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/598глодомор, glodomor голодомор
история Украины, History of Ukraine, історія України,
#глодомор, #glodomor #голодомор
#историяУкраины, #History of Ukraine, #історіяУкраїни
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/597Свод законов российской империи
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/596Старинные книги,
Old books, Старовинні книги
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/595сравнительная история,
порівняльна історія, comparative history
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/594дневники, мемуары, воспоминания
diaries, memoirs
щоденники, мемуари, спогади
#дневники, #мемуары, #воспоминания
#diaries, #memoirs
#щоденники, #мемуари, #спогади
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/593_Япония, Японія, Japan
#Япония, #Японія, #Japan
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/591_Франция, France, Франція
#Франция, #France, #Франція
t.me/scilib_yura15cbx/590 -
This was "highly recommended" by my instance's owner/admin, @Jerry
It's a good read! I had no idea there were groups on Mastodon. This article also explains how to better reach, and be reached by, others on Mastodon with accounts on outside instances.
#mastodon #fediverse #groups
#guppegroup #GuppeGroupshttps://www.infoworld.com/article/2338712/6-ways-to-find-better-content-on-mastodon.html
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This was "highly recommended" by my instance's owner/admin, @Jerry
It's a good read! I had no idea there were groups on Mastodon. This article also explains how to better reach, and be reached by, others on Mastodon with accounts on outside instances.
#mastodon #fediverse #groups
#guppegroup #GuppeGroupshttps://www.infoworld.com/article/2338712/6-ways-to-find-better-content-on-mastodon.html
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@Mitch Conner @silverpill Exactly this exists on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. With even more options, actually. Hubzilla calls them "privacy groups", (streams) and Forte call them "access lists".
Now it comes: You can not only post to one specific such group/list. You can also post to several ones. Or to any combination of privacy groups/access lists and single contacts.
Better yet: You can even exclude single contacts or the members of certain privacy groups/access lists. You can post to the members of privacy groups Foo and Bar, except if they're also in privacy group Baz, and except for Alice, and in addition, you can post to Bob and Carol.
In addition, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte don't just define who receives the post. They don't simply flag it a DM either. They flag it "restricted" and only grant the recipients permission to read the post, read any comments and interact with anything in the conversation. In practice, this also means that those who have these permissions can not only interact with the original poster, but just as well with each other, because it isn't a DM.
Anything that doesn't understand these permissions, e.g. Mastodon, do understand it as a DM. This limits their possibilities to interact, but it's the safe way.
And yet, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte still have private and/or secret groups with moderation (like Facebook groups) on top of all this. (streams) and Forte even optionally have two levels of non-moderator users.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups #Permissions #PrivacyGroups #AccessLists -
@Mitch Conner @silverpill Exactly this exists on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. With even more options, actually. Hubzilla calls them "privacy groups", (streams) and Forte call them "access lists".
Now it comes: You can not only post to one specific such group/list. You can also post to several ones. Or to any combination of privacy groups/access lists and single contacts.
Better yet: You can even exclude single contacts or the members of certain privacy groups/access lists. You can post to the members of privacy groups Foo and Bar, except if they're also in privacy group Baz, and except for Alice, and in addition, you can post to Bob and Carol.
In addition, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte don't just define who receives the post. They don't simply flag it a DM either. They flag it "restricted" and only grant the recipients permission to read the post, read any comments and interact with anything in the conversation. In practice, this also means that those who have these permissions can not only interact with the original poster, but just as well with each other, because it isn't a DM.
Anything that doesn't understand these permissions, e.g. Mastodon, do understand it as a DM. This limits their possibilities to interact, but it's the safe way.
And yet, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte still have private and/or secret groups with moderation (like Facebook groups) on top of all this. (streams) and Forte even optionally have two levels of non-moderator users.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups #Permissions #PrivacyGroups #AccessLists -
@william ⁂ maggos @silverpill Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte are much closer to Facebook-style social networking than to Twitter-style social media. In fact, they're descendants of Friendica, the first decentralised dedicated Facebook alternative. (Let's set aside that Hubzilla is usually referred to as something like a "social CMS" for a moment.)
They have multiple ways of rendering groups private, all of which go beyond Mastodon's way of making something private by limiting the receiving actors.
For starters, private groups only grant their own members permission to receive any content from the group. Also, private groups only grant their own members permission to see the group stream. Furthermore, private groups only grant their own members permission to see the group channel profile and its contacts. On Hubzilla, these are all separate options.
On top of all this, they can hide groups from directories. That way, these groups can be made known only by hearsay and/or personal contact to interested users. This doesn't necessarily make them private; it makes them secret.
All these options are available for normal, non-group-actor channels as well, by the way.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups -
@william ⁂ maggos @silverpill Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte are much closer to Facebook-style social networking than to Twitter-style social media. In fact, they're descendants of Friendica, the first decentralised dedicated Facebook alternative. (Let's set aside that Hubzilla is usually referred to as something like a "social CMS" for a moment.)
They have multiple ways of rendering groups private, all of which go beyond Mastodon's way of making something private by limiting the receiving actors.
For starters, private groups only grant their own members permission to receive any content from the group. Also, private groups only grant their own members permission to see the group stream. Furthermore, private groups only grant their own members permission to see the group channel profile and its contacts. On Hubzilla, these are all separate options.
On top of all this, they can hide groups from directories. That way, these groups can be made known only by hearsay and/or personal contact to interested users. This doesn't necessarily make them private; it makes them secret.
All these options are available for normal, non-group-actor channels as well, by the way.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups -
@william ⁂ maggos In this regard, Mastodon has only got one major advantage: It has an official app.
Phone users used to see Twitter as a phone app that they loaded from their app store. Mastodon is the only *blogging thing in the Fediverse that they can load from their app store.
This is one reason why just about all Mastodon newbies use the official app and why they're on mastodon.social (it's the default in the official app, and since they don't know what this setting does, they leave it on default).
Mastodon even gets away with an official app that's far from good, much less fully features. All the newbies don't have anything to compare with. If Mastodon is a phone app to them, then the official app's feature set is Mastodon's feature set. If a feature isn't implemented in the official app, then Mastodon doesn't have it. I dare say that well over 80% of all Mastodon users have never in their lives used Mastodon's Web UI.
If someone takes the step and moves from the official Mastodon app to Ivory or Mona or IceCubes or Tusky or Fedilab or something like this, it's almost always the first time in their lives that they use an online service through an app that has a different name than the online service. Many people couldn't even imagine doing that.
This means that if Friendica and Hubzilla want to be more successful, growing beyond Mike's old "if you build it, they'll come" credo and advertising more isn't sufficient. People must be able to load Friendica/Hubzilla onto their phones from their app store. This requires an official app named "Friendica"/"Hubzilla" with a native, up-to-date iOS UI in the Apple App Store and one with a native, up-to-date Android UI in the Google Play Store. The existence of an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store is essential for being considered existent in the first place.
A commonplace attitude on Friendica and even more so on Hubzilla is that both can be installed as a PWA. But seriously, 99.9% of all phone users don't even know that PWAs exist. They don't know what that is. Not to mention that they expect and demand a native mobile UI in the style of their phone OS and not a generic Web UI.
Now, what would this app have to look like?
If the advantages of Friendica and Hubzilla over Mastodon are to be emphasised and underlined, and if this app is to become people's one and only daily driver UI, it will have to be fully featured. Minus the settings for the Web UI (e.g. the theme settings and the PDL editor on Hubzilla), minus stuff that you'll never need if you only ever use the phone app and never the server UI (e.g. Webpages on Hubzilla), but otherwise fully featured. This would also demonstrate just how vastly more powerful Friendica and Hubzilla are than Mastodon.
The obvious downside is that such an app would be a feature monster. Bigger and more feature-laden than any Android e-mail app or OpenStreetMap editor.
There has been some talk about building an official Hubzilla phone app. Some Hubzilla users have proposed an app that only offers the very basics. However, their idea behind this is not to make the app easier for newbies to use, but to make it easier for the developers to build. They're often still stuck in the early 2010s when phone apps for websites were considered gimmicks. They think that people will only use the app when they're out and about, and when they're back home, they'll sit down behind their computers and use the Web interface. Thus, phone apps only need the most basic features implemented.
But 2026 is not 2011. The huge majority of Mastodon users only use Mastodon through a phone app. Even when they're at home. As I've said: If the app doesn't have a feature, the whole product doesn't have the feature, regardless of whether or not the feature is implemented in the server backend and even in the Web frontend.
Besides, even Friendica's basic features that you'll need all the time are a lot. Hubzilla's basic features that you'll need all the time are even more numerous.
Shall people be limited to posting in public when they're on a phone because the phone app doesn't have any permission settings?
Shall people be limited to posting to their contacts when they're on a phone because someone decided that support for groups would make the phone app too complex?
Shall people wait until they're home, and they've got some time to fire up a computer, open a Web browser and log onto the Web interface to accept connection requests because the phone app doesn't have any connection settings? What if they don't have a computer?
Let's face it, social networking itself is a complex thing. And I mean actual social networking. Not misusing glorified SMS as a social network. Real social networking. Facebook-level social networking. Google+-level social networking. MySpace-level social networking.
Thus, a social networking phone app with all features necessary for real social networking has to be complex. This isn't a Friendica/Hubzilla issue. Don't believe that the official Facebook apps are simple.
This is also why so many prefer 𝕏 over Facebook. Facebook is complex. Facebook isn't just register, follow, post. 𝕏 is much more simple. 𝕏 is glorified SMS. 𝕏 is literally just register, follow, tweet. Facebook is rocket science whereas 𝕏 is for dumb-dumbs.
And it's because Mastodon is so lacking that it's for dumb-dumbs by Fediverse standards. In fact, if you don't read those panicky "it's too complicated because you have to know what a server is" posts, if you just load the app and create an account, Mastodon, through the official app, is for dumb-dumbs by all standards.
However, those who actually are on Facebook are willing to put up with something more complex. They need something more complex than glorified SMS for dumb-dumbs. They need the extra features that Facebook has that 𝕏 doesn't, even if these are the very features that deny Facebook the "for dumb-dumbs" attribute.
Send them to Mastodon, and they'll be irritated and even repelled because this feature isn't there, and that feature isn't there, and that feature is cut down beyond recognition, and they can't find any interesting people (not because Mastodon is decentralised, and the interesting people are on other servers, but because Mastodon's directory sucks arse in comparison with Facebook's), and what's with that stupid character limit?
On Friendica and Hubzilla, this feature and that feature have been there for longer than Mastodon itself, that feature is even more powerful than on Facebook proper, interesting people are being shoved into their faces once they've filled out their profile, even more so once they've got some connections, and there is no character limit worth speaking of.
But as long as Friendica and Hubzilla don't have official, fully daily-driveable phone apps named "Friendica" and "Hubzilla" respectively, they simply don't exist.
Granted, there's another obstacle. Many Mastodon users say the Fediverse needs a Facebook alternative. If you tell them about Friendica and its descendants, some will be very thankful because they've genuinely never heard of any of these.
Others will tell you that they know Friendica and maybe even Hubzilla. But they also say that none of these are Facebook alternatives. For when they say, "alternative," what they really mean is, "1:1 clone, just with a different name and decentralised and with ActivityPub and without spying and without the recent enshittification and without the evil CEO, otherwise absolutely identical."
One big aspect of this is that, as they say, the Fediverse needs an alternative to Facebook Groups. Friendica groups are exactly that because they were designed to be exactly that. Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups, Forte groups, all just that. But according to these people, they don't count because they aren't handled in precisely the same way as Facebook groups. Facebook groups aren't separate accounts. And different equals bad.
What really has me shake my head is that those who want a 1:1 Facebook clone continue to use Mastodon as a Facebook alternative. Even though Friendica and its family are vastly closer to Facebook regardless. Even though Mastodon not only doesn't have groups at all, but it doesn't even have any support for external groups. Is shouting into the void with a bunch of hashtags and hoping the right people will hear you really that much better than a Friendica group or a Hubzilla forum or maybe a PieFed community?
By the way: Just how faithful a Twitter clone is Mastodon really, seeing as Misskey and the Forkeys have the odd Twitter feature that Mastodon still lacks, seeing as even Mastodon gradually becomes more complex than 𝕏, much more so than when-it-still-was-good Twitter?
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Misskey #Forkey #Forkeys #PieFed #Privacy #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediverseGroups #FediGroups #App #PhoneApp #iPhoneApp #iOSApp #AndroidApp #SocialNetwork #SocialNetworking #Twitter #𝕏 #Facebook #FacebookGroups -
@william ⁂ maggos In this regard, Mastodon has only got one major advantage: It has an official app.
Phone users used to see Twitter as a phone app that they loaded from their app store. Mastodon is the only *blogging thing in the Fediverse that they can load from their app store.
This is one reason why just about all Mastodon newbies use the official app and why they're on mastodon.social (it's the default in the official app, and since they don't know what this setting does, they leave it on default).
Mastodon even gets away with an official app that's far from good, much less fully features. All the newbies don't have anything to compare with. If Mastodon is a phone app to them, then the official app's feature set is Mastodon's feature set. If a feature isn't implemented in the official app, then Mastodon doesn't have it. I dare say that well over 80% of all Mastodon users have never in their lives used Mastodon's Web UI.
If someone takes the step and moves from the official Mastodon app to Ivory or Mona or IceCubes or Tusky or Fedilab or something like this, it's almost always the first time in their lives that they use an online service through an app that has a different name than the online service. Many people couldn't even imagine doing that.
This means that if Friendica and Hubzilla want to be more successful, growing beyond Mike's old "if you build it, they'll come" credo and advertising more isn't sufficient. People must be able to load Friendica/Hubzilla onto their phones from their app store. This requires an official app named "Friendica"/"Hubzilla" with a native, up-to-date iOS UI in the Apple App Store and one with a native, up-to-date Android UI in the Google Play Store. The existence of an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store is essential for being considered existent in the first place.
A commonplace attitude on Friendica and even more so on Hubzilla is that both can be installed as a PWA. But seriously, 99.9% of all phone users don't even know that PWAs exist. They don't know what that is. Not to mention that they expect and demand a native mobile UI in the style of their phone OS and not a generic Web UI.
Now, what would this app have to look like?
If the advantages of Friendica and Hubzilla over Mastodon are to be emphasised and underlined, and if this app is to become people's one and only daily driver UI, it will have to be fully featured. Minus the settings for the Web UI (e.g. the theme settings and the PDL editor on Hubzilla), minus stuff that you'll never need if you only ever use the phone app and never the server UI (e.g. Webpages on Hubzilla), but otherwise fully featured. This would also demonstrate just how vastly more powerful Friendica and Hubzilla are than Mastodon.
The obvious downside is that such an app would be a feature monster. Bigger and more feature-laden than any Android e-mail app or OpenStreetMap editor.
There has been some talk about building an official Hubzilla phone app. Some Hubzilla users have proposed an app that only offers the very basics. However, their idea behind this is not to make the app easier for newbies to use, but to make it easier for the developers to build. They're often still stuck in the early 2010s when phone apps for websites were considered gimmicks. They think that people will only use the app when they're out and about, and when they're back home, they'll sit down behind their computers and use the Web interface. Thus, phone apps only need the most basic features implemented.
But 2026 is not 2011. The huge majority of Mastodon users only use Mastodon through a phone app. Even when they're at home. As I've said: If the app doesn't have a feature, the whole product doesn't have the feature, regardless of whether or not the feature is implemented in the server backend and even in the Web frontend.
Besides, even Friendica's basic features that you'll need all the time are a lot. Hubzilla's basic features that you'll need all the time are even more numerous.
Shall people be limited to posting in public when they're on a phone because the phone app doesn't have any permission settings?
Shall people be limited to posting to their contacts when they're on a phone because someone decided that support for groups would make the phone app too complex?
Shall people wait until they're home, and they've got some time to fire up a computer, open a Web browser and log onto the Web interface to accept connection requests because the phone app doesn't have any connection settings? What if they don't have a computer?
Let's face it, social networking itself is a complex thing. And I mean actual social networking. Not misusing glorified SMS as a social network. Real social networking. Facebook-level social networking. Google+-level social networking. MySpace-level social networking.
Thus, a social networking phone app with all features necessary for real social networking has to be complex. This isn't a Friendica/Hubzilla issue. Don't believe that the official Facebook apps are simple.
This is also why so many prefer 𝕏 over Facebook. Facebook is complex. Facebook isn't just register, follow, post. 𝕏 is much more simple. 𝕏 is glorified SMS. 𝕏 is literally just register, follow, tweet. Facebook is rocket science whereas 𝕏 is for dumb-dumbs.
And it's because Mastodon is so lacking that it's for dumb-dumbs by Fediverse standards. In fact, if you don't read those panicky "it's too complicated because you have to know what a server is" posts, if you just load the app and create an account, Mastodon, through the official app, is for dumb-dumbs by all standards.
However, those who actually are on Facebook are willing to put up with something more complex. They need something more complex than glorified SMS for dumb-dumbs. They need the extra features that Facebook has that 𝕏 doesn't, even if these are the very features that deny Facebook the "for dumb-dumbs" attribute.
Send them to Mastodon, and they'll be irritated and even repelled because this feature isn't there, and that feature isn't there, and that feature is cut down beyond recognition, and they can't find any interesting people (not because Mastodon is decentralised, and the interesting people are on other servers, but because Mastodon's directory sucks arse in comparison with Facebook's), and what's with that stupid character limit?
On Friendica and Hubzilla, this feature and that feature have been there for longer than Mastodon itself, that feature is even more powerful than on Facebook proper, interesting people are being shoved into their faces once they've filled out their profile, even more so once they've got some connections, and there is no character limit worth speaking of.
But as long as Friendica and Hubzilla don't have official, fully daily-driveable phone apps named "Friendica" and "Hubzilla" respectively, they simply don't exist.
Granted, there's another obstacle. Many Mastodon users say the Fediverse needs a Facebook alternative. If you tell them about Friendica and its descendants, some will be very thankful because they've genuinely never heard of any of these.
Others will tell you that they know Friendica and maybe even Hubzilla. But they also say that none of these are Facebook alternatives. For when they say, "alternative," what they really mean is, "1:1 clone, just with a different name and decentralised and with ActivityPub and without spying and without the recent enshittification and without the evil CEO, otherwise absolutely identical."
One big aspect of this is that, as they say, the Fediverse needs an alternative to Facebook Groups. Friendica groups are exactly that because they were designed to be exactly that. Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups, Forte groups, all just that. But according to these people, they don't count because they aren't handled in precisely the same way as Facebook groups. Facebook groups aren't separate accounts. And different equals bad.
What really has me shake my head is that those who want a 1:1 Facebook clone continue to use Mastodon as a Facebook alternative. Even though Friendica and its family are vastly closer to Facebook regardless. Even though Mastodon not only doesn't have groups at all, but it doesn't even have any support for external groups. Is shouting into the void with a bunch of hashtags and hoping the right people will hear you really that much better than a Friendica group or a Hubzilla forum or maybe a PieFed community?
By the way: Just how faithful a Twitter clone is Mastodon really, seeing as Misskey and the Forkeys have the odd Twitter feature that Mastodon still lacks, seeing as even Mastodon gradually becomes more complex than 𝕏, much more so than when-it-still-was-good Twitter?
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Misskey #Forkey #Forkeys #PieFed #Privacy #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediverseGroups #FediGroups #App #PhoneApp #iPhoneApp #iOSApp #AndroidApp #SocialNetwork #SocialNetworking #Twitter #𝕏 #Facebook #FacebookGroups -
@Truth & Answers Let me be honest: Mastodon isn't the right thing to rely on for this.
There are two common misconceptions on Mastodon about Mastodon. The first one is that Mastodon is the only free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything. Once Mastodon users are over this, they still think Mastodon is the best free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything.
I've seen Mastodon being advertised by users as a Fediverse alternative to literally everything, including Reddit (because, like, you can communicate, right?) and even YouTube (because, like, you can upload videos, right?).
But again, let me be honest: The only thing that Mastodon can hope to be an alternative to is 𝕏. Because it's a Twitter clone. A purist Twitter clone whose developers intentionally reject feature requests because the requested features don't fit into their image of purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging. They want to keep Mastodon a slightly more glorified SMS than 𝕏.
Mastodon isn't even the only microblogging server application in the Fediverse. It isn't even the best at that. 80-90% of Mastodon's users don't and probably will never realise that Mastodon is an intentionally crippled resource hog. Many believe that Mastodon is the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking.
By the way, even the Mastodon developers claim that Mastodon is fully featured. I've had a Mastodon dev try hard to convince me that Mastodon is fully featured although I've told him that I'm on Hubzilla. He essentially tried to tell me that Mastodon has every last feature that Hubzilla has plus even more on top.
In reality, Mastodon isn't the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking. It isn't even a social network. It's social media, just like 𝕏 is social media. It's designed for pumping out content and being followed because it's designed as a Twitter-like microblogging application. And it isn't even the best at microblogging.
Almost everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Mastodon has to be the best. After all, it's the biggest. It's what everyone chose.
No.
Mastodon is the biggest because everyone who wants to leave 𝕏 or Threads or Bluesky is railroaded to Mastodon. It's the biggest because all the newbies are only told about Mastodon. It's the biggest because none of the newbies even learn upon on-boarding that other 𝕏 alternatives exist in the Fediverse, that anything else exists in the Fediverse other than Mastodon. It's the biggest because mainstream media, tech media and even Fediverse activists only ever talk about Mastodon, Mastodon, Mastodon. (Granted, it's also the biggest because it's the only one with an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Even though that app sucks.)
All these Mastodon users who claim that Mastodon is the best choice don't realise that they themselves did, in fact, not choose Mastodon. They didn't know they had a choice. All they were told about was Mastodon. Seriously, if they'd had a choice, they'd probably be on Sharkey now and not on Mastodon.
I've read what people had to say who moved from Friendica to Misskey. Or to now defunct Calckey/Firefish. Or to Sharkey. Or to Akkoma. All these are microblogging server applications in the Fediverse. But none of them are intentionally crippled to stay close to Twitter, at least not to such a degree as Mastodon.
It was nothing short of eye-opening to them. Only by daily-driving something else than Mastodon did they realise what the non-Mastodon Fediverse can be like. And how crippled Mastodon actually is. That Mastodon is far from being the absolute pinnacle in decentralised social media.
They no longer had only 500 characters. They had thousands of characters. They would have had thousands of characters on every server running that software without having to ask around which one has more than 500 characters. It felt like a restraint being removed which they had never considered a restraint, at least not that much of it.
They saw text formatting which they considered technologically absolutely impossible in the Fediverse when they were on Mastodon. In fact, they had considered text formatting entirely impossible while on Mastodon until they had come across the first message from outside with text formatting. Actual text formatting, not Unicode trickery. Now they suddenly saw a lot of the stuff that Mastodon's HTML sanitiser removes. And they themselves could use it!
If they were on one of the *keys, they no longer had a timeline of single-message piecemeal. For the first time ever, they experienced what it's like to have something else than single-message piecemeal. Namely entire conversations right in front of them, right away. Without having to dig for them first.
They had features which they had always wished the Fediverse may introduce. They never knew that the Fediverse does have these features, only Mastodon doesn't. They had features that were completely unimagiable to them in the Fediverse.
There are users who have moved from Mastodon to something "minimalist" and lightweight like snac or GoToSocial, often on self-hosted, single-user, private servers. Even they suddenly had features they didn't have on Mastodon. Mind you, while not missing a single Mastodon feature (except maybe for a built-in Web UI).
And that's just the microblogging side of the Fediverse. None of this is actual social networking. You know, what Facebook does.
First of all, if it's about following and being followed, it's social media. A social network doesn't have followers. In case you don't know, Facebook doesn't have followers. It has "friends". Bidirectional connections. Not 𝕏/Mastodon-like mutuals which are two connections, one in each direction, but one connection that goes both ways.
Besides, there are even more important social networking features missing from the microblogging side of the Fediverse.
Where are the contact suggestions? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on how many contacts you have in common with them? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on what profile information you have in common with them?
Oh, right, the latter is impossible because Mastodon doesn't have profile fields with defined purposes. In fact, where are these? Every good social network has them! But Mastodon only gives you four all-purpose profile fields (just like Mastodon only gives you four of everything, four file attachments, four options in polls...).
Where is the list of unread posts, unread comments and other unnoticed actions? How are you to make sure you really catch everything your friends do? Because you can't do that if all you have is a timeline to scroll through until you no longer see new stuff. If you manage to scroll down that far. And only absolute newbies can do that on Mastodon because they hardly follow anyone.
Where are groups? Seriously, I've lost count of how many times Mastodon users said "the Fediverse" must introduce something like Facebook Groups. The huge majority of Mastodon users is fully convinced that the Fediverse does not have groups in any shape or form because Mastodon doesn't have them.
Where are all these things? In the Fediverse, no less? Where are they?
I'll tell you where they are.
Friendica. Hubzilla. (streams). Forte.
The actual social networking side of the Fediverse (although Hubzilla is more like a social CMS or a "social Swiss army knife" that you can also use as a Facebook-like social networking application). I mean, I've already explained that Friendica was created in 2010 as a Facebook alternative. Not a faithful Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook.
Mike Macgirvin took over from Facebook what social networks really need. And Farmville isn't that, and spying on your users and passing that data on to the NSA and selling it to the highest bidder isn't that, so he didn't take over that. He didn't want to build a clone that also adopts the bad sides just to be as close to the original as possible.
He took over the detailed profiles with profile fields with dedicated purposes. He took over profile privacy settings. In general, he took over a lot of privacy features. He took over advanced user discovery and connection suggestions. He took over bidirectional connections, only without that silly name "friends". He took over groups with moderation, only that a group on Friendica is just another account with a special automated reposter. He took over enclosed threaded conversations with one post at the top and otherwise only comments. He took over a "timeline" of full conversations as the default. He took over the event calendar. And so forth.
Instead, he added useful stuff on top. He gave Friendica all the posting features to make it fully capable of long-form blogging with all bells and whistles. No character limit (except for in the database, but I think that was over 65,000 back in the day already). All HTML text formatting features (only that Friendica only used BBcode back then; now it can optionally also use Markdown). A post/thread title. Summaries. Embedded images and other media with no limit in number. He even added a spoiler tag like in forums that can hide parts of a message.
He took care of privacy beyond what Facebook had to offer. He introduced a permissions system. Friendica got multiple profile per account, only one of which is public, so that you can show different sides of yourself to different connections.
Now, if you want to embed images or other media in your messages, you have to store them somewhere. And not everyone could be expected to set up a little file space somewhere. So he built a file space into Friendica, one that can even be used as a Dropbox alternative, all the way to restricted access to certain directories.
Mike also added a content warning system that automatically generates content warnings on the reader's side, based on a keyword list. If you need something behind content warnings, add the keywords to the list, and you'll have the respective content warnings, but the next user receiving the self-same post or comment does not have these content warnings if they don't need them.
One important part of what makes Friendica Friendica is being able to connect to a whole lot of stuff. For example, Friendica could federate with StatusNet via the OStatus protocol from the get-go; this is also how it immediately federated with Mastodon when the latter was launched. Mastodon generates an RSS feed, something that many users don't know. Friendica not only generates an Atom feed, but it can subscribe to feeds. Friendica can "federate" with e-mail. Over time, more and more connection features were added, including Tumblr, Twitter (!), Facebook (only for a few years before Facebook crippled it) and a WordPress cross-poster.
Lastly, he made it possible for third parties to add extra features by implementing an add-on system.
I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is the best Facebook alternative possible to use Friendica for a year. Not only dip one toe in to the water, but use it as their one and only daily driver for everything they've used Mastodon for. Not scratching the surface and using it like Twitter while ignoring any and all features the Twitter they remember didn't have, but going all in. In fact, I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is perfect and fully-featured to do the same.
And then there's Hubzilla. It came to exist by Mike forking Friendica in 2011, then forking that fork the same year, then rewriting that fork of a fork in 2012, then repurposing, rebranding, repositioning and greatly expanding it in 2015. Long story.
Hubzilla adds even more stuff on top. Most importantly, it introduced nomadic identity (https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity) in 2012.
Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, became the first decentralised social software that uncoupled the identity from the login. This was necessary for nomadic identity, but it also introduced the option to have multiple independent identities, basically what's an account elsewhere, on the same account, the same login. This makes sense, given the many different roles and purposes a Hubzilla channel can have. The big advantage over having multiple separate accounts is that you can switch between the channels on your account without logging out and back in.
Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, got an even more advanced and fine-grained permissions system. Hubzilla has 17 individual permissions on three levels, channel level, contact level, content level. At channel level, each one has seven or eight permission options to choose from, depending on whether or not it makes sense to give a permission to everyone on the Internet.
Mike added optional features to Hubzilla that were previously unseen on social anything, features that you'd rather expect from a CMS and maybe not even from that. Non-federating long-form articles. Planning cards that are based on these articles. Wikis that can be formatted with BBcode or Markdown. Webpages that can be formatted with BBcode, Markdown or HTML, that can include dynamic content from elsewhere on the channel, and that can add extra content to the channel pages.
Hubzilla can even act as groupware. It has a CalDAV calendar server; the event calendar can double as a crude UI for the CalDAV calendars. It has an optional CardDAV addressbook server. Its built-in file storage can be accessed via WebDAV, so you theoretically even have some cloud file space you can mount as a network drive. Rather recently, there was even a way found to tie Collabora Office into Hubzilla.
If you should ever read about Bonfire: Bonfire is Hubzilla ordered from Wish.com. Whatever Bonfire promises to have or to introduce has been available as a rock-solid stable feature on Hubzilla for over a decade. Bonfire only gets away with what it's trying to do because nobody knows Hubzilla.
I think it's safe to say that those who "chose" Mastodon didn't choose it over the rest of the Fediverse because it's better. They "chose" it because they didn't even know they have a choice.
As for your post, the technology for redeveloping socialising is there. And it certainly isn't Mastodon, and it never will be Mastodon. Mastodon can't be that due to its design philosophy, due to it being a Twitter clone, due to its own developers intentionally crippling it.
If you want to move on from 1-way interaction, you have to move on from 1-way connections. Move on from Twitter followers to Facebook friends.
You have to offer better options for the users than shouting into the void, attaching a bunch of hashtags and hoping that some of their followers or someone who is following one of the hashtags happens to be bothered to scroll down their timeline far enough.
You have to make sure that people don't miss content due to basic design and philosophy decisions. You have to make sure that people don't miss content because they simply never know that this content is there in the first place, because they can't scroll down far enough their timelines until they reach that content. You need something else than a timeline of single messages to scroll down with the user not having an idea just how far down that timeline goes. You have to tell the user how much unread content there is, what it is, where it is, and take the user directly to that unread content.
You have to stop presenting content to users as a long list of single posts and more single posts with only tiny details telling them that these posts are, in fact, part of a longer conversation which they don't see. Where they have to click or tap themselves through various UI pages to see that post in its context. Users must see the whole conversation Right. Off. The bat.
You need groups. Not kluged onto something that had no group support whatsoever two seconds earlier, not intentionally crippled, not crippled by the technology they're built upon, not intentionally re-invented to be incompatible with whatever already exists (and this is how Mastodon would do them). But fully functional, on an appropriate base, interoperable, user-moderated, optionally private, optionally hiding from directories.
If you want to go "social", you really have to go social. You have to go Facebook, not Twitter.
Users must find other users based on common interests. Or users living close to them. Or users with lots of contacts in common with them. Not by being on the same local/regional server of the same server about a certain topic. Not by searching for hashtags in the main profile text. But by examining specialised profile fields and the contacts.
Users must have such users suggested to them as new connections. Users must have such users at the top of their directory. This is how Facebook does it. And this is one thing that Facebook has always done right.
Again, Mastodon will never offer any of this. But that doesn't mean that you'll have to compromise and lower your expectations. Because you don't have to. There are server applications in the Fediverse, fully federated with Mastodon, that offer literally all of that. They exist right now. And some of them have existed for longer than Mastodon.
If you need something better than today's Mastodon, stop wishing for a better Mastodon. Instead, use something that's better and more appropriate for the job than Mastodon right now. For it exists right now.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #500Characters #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastodonFediverse #NotOnlyMastodon #FediverseIsNotMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Privacy #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediverseGroups #FediGroups #NomadicIdentity #MastodonCentricity #MastodonNormativity -
@Truth & Answers Let me be honest: Mastodon isn't the right thing to rely on for this.
There are two common misconceptions on Mastodon about Mastodon. The first one is that Mastodon is the only free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything. Once Mastodon users are over this, they still think Mastodon is the best free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything.
I've seen Mastodon being advertised by users as a Fediverse alternative to literally everything, including Reddit (because, like, you can communicate, right?) and even YouTube (because, like, you can upload videos, right?).
But again, let me be honest: The only thing that Mastodon can hope to be an alternative to is 𝕏. Because it's a Twitter clone. A purist Twitter clone whose developers intentionally reject feature requests because the requested features don't fit into their image of purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging. They want to keep Mastodon a slightly more glorified SMS than 𝕏.
Mastodon isn't even the only microblogging server application in the Fediverse. It isn't even the best at that. 80-90% of Mastodon's users don't and probably will never realise that Mastodon is an intentionally crippled resource hog. Many believe that Mastodon is the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking.
By the way, even the Mastodon developers claim that Mastodon is fully featured. I've had a Mastodon dev try hard to convince me that Mastodon is fully featured although I've told him that I'm on Hubzilla. He essentially tried to tell me that Mastodon has every last feature that Hubzilla has plus even more on top.
In reality, Mastodon isn't the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking. It isn't even a social network. It's social media, just like 𝕏 is social media. It's designed for pumping out content and being followed because it's designed as a Twitter-like microblogging application. And it isn't even the best at microblogging.
Almost everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Mastodon has to be the best. After all, it's the biggest. It's what everyone chose.
No.
Mastodon is the biggest because everyone who wants to leave 𝕏 or Threads or Bluesky is railroaded to Mastodon. It's the biggest because all the newbies are only told about Mastodon. It's the biggest because none of the newbies even learn upon on-boarding that other 𝕏 alternatives exist in the Fediverse, that anything else exists in the Fediverse other than Mastodon. It's the biggest because mainstream media, tech media and even Fediverse activists only ever talk about Mastodon, Mastodon, Mastodon. (Granted, it's also the biggest because it's the only one with an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Even though that app sucks.)
All these Mastodon users who claim that Mastodon is the best choice don't realise that they themselves did, in fact, not choose Mastodon. They didn't know they had a choice. All they were told about was Mastodon. Seriously, if they'd had a choice, they'd probably be on Sharkey now and not on Mastodon.
I've read what people had to say who moved from Friendica to Misskey. Or to now defunct Calckey/Firefish. Or to Sharkey. Or to Akkoma. All these are microblogging server applications in the Fediverse. But none of them are intentionally crippled to stay close to Twitter, at least not to such a degree as Mastodon.
It was nothing short of eye-opening to them. Only by daily-driving something else than Mastodon did they realise what the non-Mastodon Fediverse can be like. And how crippled Mastodon actually is. That Mastodon is far from being the absolute pinnacle in decentralised social media.
They no longer had only 500 characters. They had thousands of characters. They would have had thousands of characters on every server running that software without having to ask around which one has more than 500 characters. It felt like a restraint being removed which they had never considered a restraint, at least not that much of it.
They saw text formatting which they considered technologically absolutely impossible in the Fediverse when they were on Mastodon. In fact, they had considered text formatting entirely impossible while on Mastodon until they had come across the first message from outside with text formatting. Actual text formatting, not Unicode trickery. Now they suddenly saw a lot of the stuff that Mastodon's HTML sanitiser removes. And they themselves could use it!
If they were on one of the *keys, they no longer had a timeline of single-message piecemeal. For the first time ever, they experienced what it's like to have something else than single-message piecemeal. Namely entire conversations right in front of them, right away. Without having to dig for them first.
They had features which they had always wished the Fediverse may introduce. They never knew that the Fediverse does have these features, only Mastodon doesn't. They had features that were completely unimagiable to them in the Fediverse.
There are users who have moved from Mastodon to something "minimalist" and lightweight like snac or GoToSocial, often on self-hosted, single-user, private servers. Even they suddenly had features they didn't have on Mastodon. Mind you, while not missing a single Mastodon feature (except maybe for a built-in Web UI).
And that's just the microblogging side of the Fediverse. None of this is actual social networking. You know, what Facebook does.
First of all, if it's about following and being followed, it's social media. A social network doesn't have followers. In case you don't know, Facebook doesn't have followers. It has "friends". Bidirectional connections. Not 𝕏/Mastodon-like mutuals which are two connections, one in each direction, but one connection that goes both ways.
Besides, there are even more important social networking features missing from the microblogging side of the Fediverse.
Where are the contact suggestions? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on how many contacts you have in common with them? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on what profile information you have in common with them?
Oh, right, the latter is impossible because Mastodon doesn't have profile fields with defined purposes. In fact, where are these? Every good social network has them! But Mastodon only gives you four all-purpose profile fields (just like Mastodon only gives you four of everything, four file attachments, four options in polls...).
Where is the list of unread posts, unread comments and other unnoticed actions? How are you to make sure you really catch everything your friends do? Because you can't do that if all you have is a timeline to scroll through until you no longer see new stuff. If you manage to scroll down that far. And only absolute newbies can do that on Mastodon because they hardly follow anyone.
Where are groups? Seriously, I've lost count of how many times Mastodon users said "the Fediverse" must introduce something like Facebook Groups. The huge majority of Mastodon users is fully convinced that the Fediverse does not have groups in any shape or form because Mastodon doesn't have them.
Where are all these things? In the Fediverse, no less? Where are they?
I'll tell you where they are.
Friendica. Hubzilla. (streams). Forte.
The actual social networking side of the Fediverse (although Hubzilla is more like a social CMS or a "social Swiss army knife" that you can also use as a Facebook-like social networking application). I mean, I've already explained that Friendica was created in 2010 as a Facebook alternative. Not a faithful Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook.
Mike Macgirvin took over from Facebook what social networks really need. And Farmville isn't that, and spying on your users and passing that data on to the NSA and selling it to the highest bidder isn't that, so he didn't take over that. He didn't want to build a clone that also adopts the bad sides just to be as close to the original as possible.
He took over the detailed profiles with profile fields with dedicated purposes. He took over profile privacy settings. In general, he took over a lot of privacy features. He took over advanced user discovery and connection suggestions. He took over bidirectional connections, only without that silly name "friends". He took over groups with moderation, only that a group on Friendica is just another account with a special automated reposter. He took over enclosed threaded conversations with one post at the top and otherwise only comments. He took over a "timeline" of full conversations as the default. He took over the event calendar. And so forth.
Instead, he added useful stuff on top. He gave Friendica all the posting features to make it fully capable of long-form blogging with all bells and whistles. No character limit (except for in the database, but I think that was over 65,000 back in the day already). All HTML text formatting features (only that Friendica only used BBcode back then; now it can optionally also use Markdown). A post/thread title. Summaries. Embedded images and other media with no limit in number. He even added a spoiler tag like in forums that can hide parts of a message.
He took care of privacy beyond what Facebook had to offer. He introduced a permissions system. Friendica got multiple profile per account, only one of which is public, so that you can show different sides of yourself to different connections.
Now, if you want to embed images or other media in your messages, you have to store them somewhere. And not everyone could be expected to set up a little file space somewhere. So he built a file space into Friendica, one that can even be used as a Dropbox alternative, all the way to restricted access to certain directories.
Mike also added a content warning system that automatically generates content warnings on the reader's side, based on a keyword list. If you need something behind content warnings, add the keywords to the list, and you'll have the respective content warnings, but the next user receiving the self-same post or comment does not have these content warnings if they don't need them.
One important part of what makes Friendica Friendica is being able to connect to a whole lot of stuff. For example, Friendica could federate with StatusNet via the OStatus protocol from the get-go; this is also how it immediately federated with Mastodon when the latter was launched. Mastodon generates an RSS feed, something that many users don't know. Friendica not only generates an Atom feed, but it can subscribe to feeds. Friendica can "federate" with e-mail. Over time, more and more connection features were added, including Tumblr, Twitter (!), Facebook (only for a few years before Facebook crippled it) and a WordPress cross-poster.
Lastly, he made it possible for third parties to add extra features by implementing an add-on system.
I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is the best Facebook alternative possible to use Friendica for a year. Not only dip one toe in to the water, but use it as their one and only daily driver for everything they've used Mastodon for. Not scratching the surface and using it like Twitter while ignoring any and all features the Twitter they remember didn't have, but going all in. In fact, I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is perfect and fully-featured to do the same.
And then there's Hubzilla. It came to exist by Mike forking Friendica in 2011, then forking that fork the same year, then rewriting that fork of a fork in 2012, then repurposing, rebranding, repositioning and greatly expanding it in 2015. Long story.
Hubzilla adds even more stuff on top. Most importantly, it introduced nomadic identity (https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity) in 2012.
Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, became the first decentralised social software that uncoupled the identity from the login. This was necessary for nomadic identity, but it also introduced the option to have multiple independent identities, basically what's an account elsewhere, on the same account, the same login. This makes sense, given the many different roles and purposes a Hubzilla channel can have. The big advantage over having multiple separate accounts is that you can switch between the channels on your account without logging out and back in.
Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, got an even more advanced and fine-grained permissions system. Hubzilla has 17 individual permissions on three levels, channel level, contact level, content level. At channel level, each one has seven or eight permission options to choose from, depending on whether or not it makes sense to give a permission to everyone on the Internet.
Mike added optional features to Hubzilla that were previously unseen on social anything, features that you'd rather expect from a CMS and maybe not even from that. Non-federating long-form articles. Planning cards that are based on these articles. Wikis that can be formatted with BBcode or Markdown. Webpages that can be formatted with BBcode, Markdown or HTML, that can include dynamic content from elsewhere on the channel, and that can add extra content to the channel pages.
Hubzilla can even act as groupware. It has a CalDAV calendar server; the event calendar can double as a crude UI for the CalDAV calendars. It has an optional CardDAV addressbook server. Its built-in file storage can be accessed via WebDAV, so you theoretically even have some cloud file space you can mount as a network drive. Rather recently, there was even a way found to tie Collabora Office into Hubzilla.
If you should ever read about Bonfire: Bonfire is Hubzilla ordered from Wish.com. Whatever Bonfire promises to have or to introduce has been available as a rock-solid stable feature on Hubzilla for over a decade. Bonfire only gets away with what it's trying to do because nobody knows Hubzilla.
I think it's safe to say that those who "chose" Mastodon didn't choose it over the rest of the Fediverse because it's better. They "chose" it because they didn't even know they have a choice.
As for your post, the technology for redeveloping socialising is there. And it certainly isn't Mastodon, and it never will be Mastodon. Mastodon can't be that due to its design philosophy, due to it being a Twitter clone, due to its own developers intentionally crippling it.
If you want to move on from 1-way interaction, you have to move on from 1-way connections. Move on from Twitter followers to Facebook friends.
You have to offer better options for the users than shouting into the void, attaching a bunch of hashtags and hoping that some of their followers or someone who is following one of the hashtags happens to be bothered to scroll down their timeline far enough.
You have to make sure that people don't miss content due to basic design and philosophy decisions. You have to make sure that people don't miss content because they simply never know that this content is there in the first place, because they can't scroll down far enough their timelines until they reach that content. You need something else than a timeline of single messages to scroll down with the user not having an idea just how far down that timeline goes. You have to tell the user how much unread content there is, what it is, where it is, and take the user directly to that unread content.
You have to stop presenting content to users as a long list of single posts and more single posts with only tiny details telling them that these posts are, in fact, part of a longer conversation which they don't see. Where they have to click or tap themselves through various UI pages to see that post in its context. Users must see the whole conversation Right. Off. The bat.
You need groups. Not kluged onto something that had no group support whatsoever two seconds earlier, not intentionally crippled, not crippled by the technology they're built upon, not intentionally re-invented to be incompatible with whatever already exists (and this is how Mastodon would do them). But fully functional, on an appropriate base, interoperable, user-moderated, optionally private, optionally hiding from directories.
If you want to go "social", you really have to go social. You have to go Facebook, not Twitter.
Users must find other users based on common interests. Or users living close to them. Or users with lots of contacts in common with them. Not by being on the same local/regional server of the same server about a certain topic. Not by searching for hashtags in the main profile text. But by examining specialised profile fields and the contacts.
Users must have such users suggested to them as new connections. Users must have such users at the top of their directory. This is how Facebook does it. And this is one thing that Facebook has always done right.
Again, Mastodon will never offer any of this. But that doesn't mean that you'll have to compromise and lower your expectations. Because you don't have to. There are server applications in the Fediverse, fully federated with Mastodon, that offer literally all of that. They exist right now. And some of them have existed for longer than Mastodon.
If you need something better than today's Mastodon, stop wishing for a better Mastodon. Instead, use something that's better and more appropriate for the job than Mastodon right now. For it exists right now.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #500Characters #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastodonFediverse #NotOnlyMastodon #FediverseIsNotMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Privacy #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediverseGroups #FediGroups #NomadicIdentity #MastodonCentricity #MastodonNormativity -
One of this day I saw a "Screw" image, talking about #Politics and #Logic. Assuming that is #true [ Politics are like a "Screw", for the Right You Tight it, for the Left is to Loosen ], which creates that #balance that everything in life Ask, to create #Harmony or maybe can be Musicality, or maybe is just a #melody that exist within persons, where what contradicts is the expansion of what we expect to be. #Political #Groups should #Learn to #Work #Together !!!
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2026 Open tee times, pairings: Complete schedule, groups for Round 4 on Sunday https://www.rawchili.com/5050424/ #BritishOpen2026 #BrysonDechambeauTeeTime #field #golf #groupings #groups #open #Open2026 #OpenChampionship2026 #pairings #RoryMcilroy #RoryMcIlroyTeeTime #Round4 #ScottieSchefflerTeeTime #sunday #TeeTimes
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WHEN THE INTERNET
STOPPED BEING HOME 💎One of the best uses I have found for AI is avoiding fifteen-minute YouTube videos containing ninety seconds of useful information and thirteen minutes of a man clearing his throat in public.
I give AI the video transcript.
It gives me the important points.
No dramatic build-up.
No repeated warnings.
No “please smash the subscribe button.”
No creator taking one perfectly decent idea and stretching it until it needs medical attention.
This suits me because I saw the problem with online performance and time-wasting a long time ago.
For me, it began with Facebook.
In the beginning, Facebook felt like a place where people simply turned up and spoke to one another.
It was great.
Real groups formed, people found one another, and there was no constant feeling that a machine was standing behind everyone controlling the conversation.
Then the algorithms turned up.
Some things were buried.
Other things were pushed into your face while wearing a fluorescent hat.
People began adjusting themselves for reach, often unconsciously.
More outrage.
More exposure.
More certainty.
More performance.
The conversation was no longer simply between friends.
There was always a machine in the room deciding who would be seen, who would vanish, and which emotional breakdown had the best engagement potential.
That was when Facebook stopped feeling like a home to me.
YouTube quickly went the same way.
A person may begin with something real to say, genuine talent, knowledge or curiosity.
Then the platform teaches them to stretch, tease, repeat, brand and perform.
Eventually, the pay-me persona slips in and takes over.
The talent may still be there.
But now you have to tunnel through the sponsorship, the thumbnail face, the fake urgency and the sacred algorithm before you reach it.
I would rather hear the truth in two minutes than watch someone marinate in the stretched-out version for twenty.
So now I outsource the slop.
I keep the useful bits.
And I keep my morning.
#YouTube #Facebook #conversation #outsource #tunnel #platform #talent #groups #outrage #fasting #acim #acourseinmiracles #eckharttolle #buddhism #breathwork #connection #healing #pridemonth #Awakening #Meditation #Mindfulness #Spirituality #intermittentfasting #nonduality #reality #life #quantum #kitchen #cooking #AI
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WHEN THE INTERNET
STOPPED BEING HOME 💎One of the best uses I have found for AI is avoiding fifteen-minute YouTube videos containing ninety seconds of useful information and thirteen minutes of a man clearing his throat in public.
I give AI the video transcript.
It gives me the important points.
No dramatic build-up.
No repeated warnings.
No “please smash the subscribe button.”
No creator taking one perfectly decent idea and stretching it until it needs medical attention.
This suits me because I saw the problem with online performance and time-wasting a long time ago.
For me, it began with Facebook.
In the beginning, Facebook felt like a place where people simply turned up and spoke to one another.
It was great.
Real groups formed, people found one another, and there was no constant feeling that a machine was standing behind everyone controlling the conversation.
Then the algorithms turned up.
Some things were buried.
Other things were pushed into your face while wearing a fluorescent hat.
People began adjusting themselves for reach, often unconsciously.
More outrage.
More exposure.
More certainty.
More performance.
The conversation was no longer simply between friends.
There was always a machine in the room deciding who would be seen, who would vanish, and which emotional breakdown had the best engagement potential.
That was when Facebook stopped feeling like a home to me.
YouTube quickly went the same way.
A person may begin with something real to say, genuine talent, knowledge or curiosity.
Then the platform teaches them to stretch, tease, repeat, brand and perform.
Eventually, the pay-me persona slips in and takes over.
The talent may still be there.
But now you have to tunnel through the sponsorship, the thumbnail face, the fake urgency and the sacred algorithm before you reach it.
I would rather hear the truth in two minutes than watch someone marinate in the stretched-out version for twenty.
So now I outsource the slop.
I keep the useful bits.
And I keep my morning.
#YouTube #Facebook #conversation #outsource #tunnel #platform #talent #groups #outrage #fasting #acim #acourseinmiracles #eckharttolle #buddhism #breathwork #connection #healing #pridemonth #Awakening #Meditation #Mindfulness #Spirituality #intermittentfasting #nonduality #reality #life #quantum #kitchen #cooking #AI
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Loneliness, Friends, Solitude and Society
Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness– Dag Hammarsköld “Being alone is considered a terrible fate for Balinese people, who want to live in harmony. They believe, "Brooms with many bristles sweep more effectively than a single bristle.” And there is a salient truth in these words. We are, by anthropological evidence, stronger, more successful together, than when we are separate and apart. Who hasn't called on the support of a friend […]https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2026/07/19/loneliness-friends-solitude-and-society/
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Loneliness, Friends, Solitude and Society
Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness– Dag Hammarsköld “Being alone is considered a terrible fate for Balinese people, who want to live in harmony. They believe, "Brooms with many bristles sweep more effectively than a single bristle.” And there is a salient truth in these words. We are, by anthropological evidence, stronger, more successful together, than when we are separate and apart. Who hasn't called on the support of a friend […]https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2026/07/19/loneliness-friends-solitude-and-society/
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2026 Open tee times, pairings: Complete schedule, groups for Round 3 on Saturday https://www.rawchili.com/5049735/ #BritishOpen2026 #field #golf #groupings #groups #open #Open2026 #OpenChampionship2026 #pairings #RoryMcilroy #RoryMcIlroyTeeTime #Round3 #Saturday #ScottieSchefflerTeeTime #TeeTimes
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2026 Open tee times, pairings: Schedule and groups for Round 2 on Friday https://www.rawchili.com/5048789/ #BritishOpen2026 #field #Friday #golf #groupings #groups #open #Open2026 #OpenChampionship2026 #pairings #RoryMcilroy #RoryMcIlroyTeeTime #Round2 #ScottieSchefflerTeeTime #TeeTimes
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@Patrick Leavy You don't even have to build it. It already exists in the Fediverse. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Hubzilla, (streams) and forte offer you not only full nomadic identity, but also groups. Optionally private groups. That can optionally hide from Fediverse account/channel directories. Optionally with any number of moderators from anywhere on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte.
They have the most advanced permissions systems in the whole Fediverse.
They support enclosed threaded one-post-many-comments conversations with thread titles like on Facebook, like on Tumblr, like on any blog out there, like in any forum out there.
The character limit on Hubzilla is over 16 million; on (streams) and Forte, it's over 24 million. The number of options in polls is practically unlimited, as is the number of images that can be embedded in messages. And with "embedded," I mean like in a blog post or on a website with text above and below the images.
At the same time, they're part of the Fediverse. Hubzilla is based on Zot6/an older version of Nomad; ActivityPub can be activated. (streams) is based on Nomad; ActivityPub is optional, but activated by default. Forte is based on ActivityPub. Any Fediverse software that recognises groups recognises their groups as such.
Here is an article with a number of tables in which I've compared the features of Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte:
https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392.
CC: @silverpill
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #FacebookGroups #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups -
@Patrick Leavy You don't even have to build it. It already exists in the Fediverse. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Hubzilla, (streams) and forte offer you not only full nomadic identity, but also groups. Optionally private groups. That can optionally hide from Fediverse account/channel directories. Optionally with any number of moderators from anywhere on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte.
They have the most advanced permissions systems in the whole Fediverse.
They support enclosed threaded one-post-many-comments conversations with thread titles like on Facebook, like on Tumblr, like on any blog out there, like in any forum out there.
The character limit on Hubzilla is over 16 million; on (streams) and Forte, it's over 24 million. The number of options in polls is practically unlimited, as is the number of images that can be embedded in messages. And with "embedded," I mean like in a blog post or on a website with text above and below the images.
At the same time, they're part of the Fediverse. Hubzilla is based on Zot6/an older version of Nomad; ActivityPub can be activated. (streams) is based on Nomad; ActivityPub is optional, but activated by default. Forte is based on ActivityPub. Any Fediverse software that recognises groups recognises their groups as such.
Here is an article with a number of tables in which I've compared the features of Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte:
https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392.
CC: @silverpill
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #FacebookGroups #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups -
Scripture study enriches faith through regular reading and reflection.
Journaling insights and sharing in groups deepens understanding
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Scripture study enriches faith through regular reading and reflection.
Journaling insights and sharing in groups deepens understanding
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Environmental Groups Call Space Data Centers 'Reckless' and Demand FCC Halt Licenses
https://1ban.news/environmental-groups-challenge-space-based-data-centers-fcc-review/
#1ban #environmental #groups #challenge #space #astronomy -
Environmental Groups Call Space Data Centers 'Reckless' and Demand FCC Halt Licenses
https://1ban.news/environmental-groups-challenge-space-based-data-centers-fcc-review/
#1ban #environmental #groups #challenge #space #astronomy -
"The deeper move is to refuse the property right at the root. The #socialgraph was never LinkedIn’s to own. #Identity was never Google’s to issue. These are not facts that belong to vendors. They are facts that belong to the people, the relationships, and the #groups they describe.
The architectural form of that refusal is a #protocolsubstrate. Hold the commons as commons, in #openprotocols, so the enclosure is impossible in the first place. Build the substrate so the fence cannot be built." -
"The deeper move is to refuse the property right at the root. The #socialgraph was never LinkedIn’s to own. #Identity was never Google’s to issue. These are not facts that belong to vendors. They are facts that belong to the people, the relationships, and the #groups they describe.
The architectural form of that refusal is a #protocolsubstrate. Hold the commons as commons, in #openprotocols, so the enclosure is impossible in the first place. Build the substrate so the fence cannot be built." -
" #Groups need #sovereignty over their data not just as a principle but as a practical necessity. If the group owns its own data, AI becomes a tool for the community—organizing, synthesizing, surfacing what matters. If someone else owns it, AI becomes a tool used on the community.
And none of these #platforms can talk to each other. The community garden can’t share an event with the neighborhood association even though half the members overlap and they’re 3 blocks apart."
https://identitywoman.net/free-our-groups-from-platforms-to-protocols/ -
" #Groups need #sovereignty over their data not just as a principle but as a practical necessity. If the group owns its own data, AI becomes a tool for the community—organizing, synthesizing, surfacing what matters. If someone else owns it, AI becomes a tool used on the community.
And none of these #platforms can talk to each other. The community garden can’t share an event with the neighborhood association even though half the members overlap and they’re 3 blocks apart."
https://identitywoman.net/free-our-groups-from-platforms-to-protocols/ -
Emirates NBA Cup 2026 groups announced https://www.rawchili.com/nba/775008/ #2026EmiratesNBACup #Basketball #Bucks #groups #Milwaukee #MilwaukeeBucks #MilwaukeeBucks #NBA
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@amyfallon
It isn’t easy for groups to migrate off the #TechBros #ShitSocialMedia platforms and those #Nepos know it and designed it that way. Those #F*&#ers also impose their own personal #FascistDreams on the platform because they can.For a lot of reasons, it would be great if there were clever minds to apply it to the creation of a #Groups #MigrationTool to help with migration of Group accounts to the #Fedi. Maybe there are some? #FediHelp #FediTechHelp
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@amyfallon
It isn’t easy for groups to migrate off the #TechBros #ShitSocialMedia platforms and those #Nepos know it and designed it that way. Those #F*&#ers also impose their own personal #FascistDreams on the platform because they can.For a lot of reasons, it would be great if there were clever minds to apply it to the creation of a #Groups #MigrationTool to help with migration of Group accounts to the #Fedi. Maybe there are some? #FediHelp #FediTechHelp
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On no longer being a trainee group analyst
For the last year I’ve had this sentence on my about page:
He’s currently training as a group analyst and he’s specifically interested in questions of reliance, dependence and addiction in relation to everyday use of social platforms and LLMs, particularly amongst young men.
I recently removed it because I’ve realised I can’t feasibly continue. I’m just about to complete the Foundation Course which is the first year of IGA training. It’s been a remarkable experience which has left me seeing the world and my life through a new lens. I’ve always seen groups as basically quite threatening, in the sense that I neither understood nor felt comfortable with group dynamics. Over the last year I’ve now been inducted in how profoundly healing groups can be, as well as how the same characteristics I found threatening are the foundation for the capacity for healing. The group exceeds its members, it holds its members, it reflects its members. There’s a quality of ‘groupiness’ which I now have a quite fine grained vocabulary for pointing to in my experience of groups. It’s left me with intellectual resources and practical strategies for negotiating my own relationship with groups.
The problem is that the diploma is significantly more onerous, let alone the qualifying course. These are essentially year two and three of becoming a group analyst. I’ve realised that realistically I don’t have time or energy to continue, prompted by starting a new leadership role in August which is going to further squeeze what I can do. I rarely work on weekends now (apart from reading and writing which honestly don’t feel like work) and I’d like that to continue. The priority is going to be protecting work on my books for the next three years which means that I’ve got to let go of my ambition to be a group analyst.
I tried really hard to displace this decision. I thought about joining a work reflection group for a year or even going into group analysis myself. I realised that I was kicking the can down the road because I didn’t want to make the choice that I was stopping this. But realistically the current time pressures continue for at least the next three years so I had to make the decision. It’s a category of decision making I’ve often really struggled with in the sense that it involves opportunity costs. It’s not “do I want to do this training?” but rather “do I want to use the time and energy on this training more than on writing and enjoying life outside work?”. It goes deeper than this though to questions of identity I thought it was worth reflecting on.
I realise there was an intellectual identity in describing myself as “currently training as a group analyst”. I’d already encountered a bit of psychoanalysis as a social theorist who reads relatively widely. But over the last three years I’ve worked voraciously through Bruce Fink, Irving Yalom, Christopher Bollas, Mari Ruti, Alenka Zupančič and a whole range of others. Increasingly these are my go-to reference points in a way I wouldn’t have expected even just a couple of years ago. Describing myself as ‘training’ confers a sense of respectability on what otherwise feels slightly uneasily autodidactic to me. I have no formal training and yet I’m now (co)writing a book about psychoanalysis. It also expresses a commitment to practice. One of the things I’m convinced of is that social and literary theory often mangles psychoanalytical theory by losing the clinical register. It’s necessary to see these ideas in terms of the interventions they respond to and structure in order to adequately grasp them. Indeed I’d suggest that psychoanalytical theory which is detached from that clinical register is only loosely speaking psychoanalytical. I liked the identity of ‘currently training’ because it affirmed this outlook while also legitimating it.
I realise that I also quite sincerely wanted to help people. The “questions of reliance, dependence and addiction in relation to everyday use of social platforms and LLMs, particularly amongst young men” was about moving through my own experience of these challenges and wanting to help other people with theirs. I think there’s a huge vacuum here which is going to get worse in the coming years and I wanted to make some contribution to addressing it. But again… time and energy. In my new role I’m going to be able to scratch the itch to be helpful, albeit in a very different register. Crucially I guess it enables me to do it in a way which leverages my most developed capabilities in the context of my actual career, as opposed to learning new capabilities for a new and parallel career. It’s definitely the right decision but it’s one that certainly feels like a loss which I’m marking with this post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UHEIqbbr1o&t=1s
#addiction #groupAnalysis #groups #masculinity #Training -
From the samples I've taken, about 0.85% of accounts on the Fediverse are Group actors. #activitypub #groups
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2026 U.S. Open tee times, pairings: Round 2 groupings, complete field on Friday https://www.rawchili.com/5025389/ #field #Friday #golf #groupings #groups #pairings #RoryMcilroy #RoryMcIlroyTeeTime #Round2 #ScottieSchefflerTeeTime #TeeTimes #UsOpen2026
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Chapter Chats!
Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.comSince they were very little, my daughters and I’ve enjoyed “Chatter Chats” – these are really just chats about any and everything; time to focus on each other, and “catch up.” Conversations with them are the most precious memories I have. In fact, I love meaningful conversations. Conversations have the potential to inspire, to challenge, to teach, to entertain, to ultimately connect us with someone else.
I’ve spent the last week rereading River’s Rowan multiple times. It’s a complicated story. Reading it made me wish I could talk about it with others, and that made me think of the book club for “Ash” that’s starting next week. Thinking about that in person book club made me think of the virtual book club I’m a part of at our local library. That made me think, what if there was a book club for the Storytimers – the readers of the blog?
And so.. Chapter Chats was born: a virtual book club where we can read the same story a
Currently:
August 3, 2026 – August 6, 2026 – Voting on which two books to pick between.
New reading starts September 4, 2026When you sign up for Chapter Chats, you will get a free copy of the current selection so that you can read along with us.
Submit a form. #bookClub #bookReview #books #club #conversation #fiction #group #groups #reading #stories #women #yaNovels
