Mastodon is wonderful and the concept of #federated #socialmedia is great, but realistically the average person isn’t going to adopt the current form, it’s just too technical to set up, and they are used to polished #frontend experiences.
I have ideas for solving those problems, but I need passionate folks to #help.
Anyone out there crazy enough to work with me on this? Anyone already working on it who’d be willing to hear my ideas?
@rysiek 😂 Fair point, but character limits! I’ll respond to my previous post with details
- There should be a simple way to #deploy a #private #personalserver, a way that even my mom could do from her smartphone.
- Users should have access to logs that show each an every connection to their server, what #data was requested, and what was transmitted.
- Hosting costs could be either paid by user, or covered by a partnership with companies invested in ETHICAL ADVERTISING. Ads are OPT-IN
- The front end must be polished and smooth, inspiring trust among the average social media user.
@wilm I was with you until advertising. There has to be a better way, even if we haven't found it yet. Realistically, how it currently is, isn't much different from email providers. Unsure if that's a good though though.
I hear ya! I despise advertising, and would love to find an alternative. As it stands, I don’t see one that would work at scale.
The point I’m making about advertising is that someone has to foot the bill, and it’s unfair to restrict access to people who can afford to pay for social media. I’d gladly foot the bill for everyone if I could, but that’s just not possible.
@wilm true, true... I am unsure what could be a better solution, I was just voicing my discontent 
@wilm oh not at all 🙂
@wilm @rotawerx I'm concerned with the "at scale" comment. I understand the point is to bring people to a better place than the big data companies without shelling out money, otherwise #mastodon is a country club for those that can afford it. However, tech has an obsession with MORE. The great thing about Masto is that it mirrors our lives, smaller communities connected into larger provinces and countries. Like-minded people can start their own & share costs.
@wilm have a look at: FreedomBox, Urbit, Yunohost.
Probably a few more.
@wilm about frontends, have you checked out pinafore? alternatively, have you checked out pleroma's fromtend?
@wilm
I highly agree with your first point..I found the idea of instances abit confusing to start with.
I hate to sound like I am echoing Zucks, but some adverts can be useful in finding products that you would not have otherwise known. If they are used, then yes to an opt-in option and ethical advertising.
@wilm
(Sorry for late response)
1) It might be me that's stuck in a dogmatic view, but I think that we need to either do federated servers or peer2peer. If we're going with federated servers, I agree that it should be easy to set one up, but doing it from a phone seems excessive - and it sounds like you're actually asking for hosting services (like masto.host and maastodon.net).
@wilm
2) sounds like a good ideal, but it would require some very well designed filters and presentation to get anything usable from a log of "all data leaving and entering the server".
I've been running this personal server for over a year, and while I only have ~400 followers that all my posts are delivered to, my server is connected to over 1200 other servers. Just listing those servers is information overload to me.
@wilm
3) how to pay for hosting is a completely orthogonal problem to how it should be designed. I'll admit that I'm very opposed to advertising and would very much prefer communally run servers. 100 people paying $1-$3 a year could easily pay for a server supporting 1000 people.
But to each their own, diversity in financing is a good thing :)
@wilm
4) I fully agree with you there! And I think Mastodon's success compared to the rest of the fediverse is partly because the interface is more polished. But I also agree that it can be improved upon.
One thing that central network have over decentral ones is that the former can have simple signup directly in an app without hassle.
To have a similar feature in a decentral network, it would require doing fancy footwork to choose a server before signing up.
@zatnosk @wilm
how about some sort of mastoroulette, where the service picks up an instance for you:
0) Non-thematic instances opt-in in the roulette (or there could be themed groups and the new person could pick one theme).
1) A new user spins the roulette.
2) They are immediately forwarded to the registration of a random instance.
@wilm @zatnosk
This could be streamlined still: Whenever the roulette page is loaded, it has already picked one instance by random. It has a big REGISTER button that takes you right away to a random instance.
Optionally the user could make a new randomization with thematic choices.
But anyway, the opt-in of instances willing to do this is important.
@wilm I'm slowly working on my own vision of decentral social networks, and I'd love to hear your ideas and thought on how we can improve upon Mastodon!
Did you see my follow-up post, I laid out a few of my ideas there! Let’s get in touch, I’d love to hear about what you’re working on!
@wilm I saw it now, will reply to it later today :)
(I have a baby that require my attention right now)
@wilm hey! I do UX design for a living, I'd love to help on the "polished interfaces" part :)
@wilm for Mastodon specifically, https://masto.host/ is an effort that comes to mind aimed at making the creation and maintenance of an instance accessible. Also I heard they are using a coop model, but worth verifying with the creator. Also I heart this idea/initiative. :)
@wilm I agree. This is great for helping another but clients won't come on here and have a profile. They are more secretive.
@wilm Are you familiar with #scuttlebutt? Seems like that's where we're all heading.
I'd love to hear your crazy ideas.
@wilm perhaps share your ideas? It would be easier for people to say if they're interested then...