So what's Fedi's favourite federated facebook freplacement?
I had a vague recollection of Diaspora* looking interesting, but looking further I see they still haven't figured out migrating accounts and at this point that's a Hard Requirement tbqh
also does anyone know a good synonym for "replacement" beginning with F
(yes I know the software I'm posting from doesn't allow account migrations either, but just because I made a mistake once doesn't mean I wanna make it again. Okay twice, because I started on .social and still have four years of posts there. Okay yeah I was on stux's server too, so I made the mistake three times alright, well fool me four times shame on me and you and website boy and the whole of time and space and human evolution leading up to that moment
Friendica shows promise but it's written for people who care about software and protocols and honestly, like, nobody does. I'm not gonna be able to get my mum signed up for this.
I mean srsly check out the crap on the homepage:
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Decentralization
Decentralized architecture with no central authority or ownership.
Relationships can be made across any compatible system, creating a network of Internet scale made up of smaller sites.
Seamless wall-to-wall posts and remote comments, even across different network nodes.
Privacy
Access lists for every item.
Private conversation groups — on these pages all communications are restricted to group members.
One-to-one private messaging on supported protocols.
Optionally "expire" old content after a certain period of time.
Download your personal data. It all belongs to you.
Interoperability
Built-in support for ActivityPub (e.g. Funkwhale, Hubzilla, Mastodon, Pleroma, Pixelfed), OStatus (e.g. StatusNet, GNU social, Quitter) and diaspora* protocols.
Support for email contacts and communications (two-way) via IMAP4rev1/ESMTP.
Import arbitrary websites and blogs into your social stream via RSS/Atom feeds.
Support for other services via plugins.
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That's noise. That's all just noise. Like, it means something to me? It sounds great to me! It means something to probably the majority of the people who are on fedi! But outside of our nerd bubble, to seriously 999 out of 1,000 people, that's all just computer gibberish for weirdos who probably run linux.
Yaknow, if someone's Windows installation gets all screwed up to the point where only a complete reformat and reinstall makes sense, you know what they do?
They go and buy a new computer.
I know this because once upon a time I was the guy that sold them one.
I am begging the nerds to understand that if windows gets irreparably fouled up and the person using it* can't afford a new computer, they will continue using the current one in its fouled-up state, having a Bad Time, and I know this because once upon a time I was the guy who came round to unfoul it.
Please for the love of god write software for use by the actual real people who really exist in the world, not some idealised fantasy where everyone put all their skill points into Computer.
* (if you use the word "user" to refer to people, imagine me hitting you with a rolled-up newspaper)
Like seriously I need y'all to understand that most social circles do not include someone who can take out a broken hard drive and put in a new one and put windows on it.
When the hard drive dies, the whole-ass computer goes in the bin, end of story.
For goodness' sake keep that in mind when you're designing your software, and the website that tells people why they should use your software
If you're a competent software maker or interface designer you should constantly be thinking "Oh wait, no, that only makes sense to me because I'm an irredeemable weirdo, normal people without a monitor tan won't be able to make head nor tail of this"
🦊 Oh, but all MY social circles include the guy who can change out a broken hard drive!
🦝 THAT'S YOU. YOU'RE THE GUY
🦝 *leaning close enough to see the veins in my eyes* WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO NOT BE THE GUY ANYMORE
Once again thinking about this as folk bounce off fedi and flock to A Social Media Site Run By A DIFFERENT American Billionaire
Hey, you know how when you gotta do something that's so jank it'll only run on windows, you set up a new windows box, what's the first thing you do?
You go into the settings in the file explorer and swear at it and go "Where the hell have they hidden it this time" until you find the option that shows the whole filenames, right? So you don't end up double-clicking on cutekitten.jpg.exe, right? So you can see what the hell's going on in the computer that you bought and that lives in your house? How the hell else are you supposed to use it, right?
Most people don't do that. Hardly anyone does that. You are an outlier for doing that. You are a tiny minority. If someone downloads a zip with file.html and file.css and file.jpg then they only see file, file and file. Most people never change any settings. Most people don't even know that there ARE settings. The joke about the writer who sighs and says "Sometimes I'm sad that I make art.txt not art.jpg," nobody gets that joke, except weirdo computer people like us.
I cannot express strenuously enough how different most peoples' experience of technology is, to how people talk about it on fedi, which is full of the one person in a hundred who fiddle with the settings. But which also seems to have lots of people who are trying earnestly to make Software That Will Change The World.
If you want your software to be liberating, if you want it to be an agent of positive change, then it has to be usable and understandable by a majority of people. Being frustrated at Clueless Users won't change anything, won't help anything, won't do anybody any good. I promise you, these people are just as frustrated at you as you are at them, and you're outnumbered a hundred to one.
Meet people where they are FFS.
I'm frustrated because people want to leave facebook. Millions of people, right now, want to get off facebook, they're ready to move, they're crying out for somewhere to move to, they're ready to take their friends with them, and we've missed the damn moment again. The same computer people who want everyone to get off facebook are banging on about nodes and software licenses and decentralization as though anyone understands what any of that means, or cares.
Like, if we want to actually make a fart in the wind's worth of difference then making a space that's only usable by the other computer people isn't gonna cut it.
People are literally asking each other "Where can we go now that this place is obviously under enemy control, we have to get out of here," these moments don't come around that often, and friendica's all “The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout ‘Save us!’… and I’ll look down and whisper ‘Nodes’.”
@ifixcoinops look i want to get right in the middle of this thread on a topic i care a lot about but it’s difficult to engage with the whole mastodon is crumbling vibes and the intensity of the hate beams directed at all those fucking asshole developers who made it so damn hard to use the software they didn’t get paid to make to post my bad takes on the internet for free
but like also you’re not wrong and i love the passion so carry on cooking :chefemojie:
@friskywhiskers I post the shit takes so y'all don't have to ;)