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What a terrible article 🤦
Like there is literally a social network build in Europe with millions of users (Mastodon and friends), and the article doesn’t even mention it and rather shills for a marginally more popular (mainly in the US and Brazil) one that is made in the US and isn’t very decentralized either.
That is fail on so many levels…
No wonder, just look who the author is:
Sebastian Vogelsang is Developer of Flashes, a photo- and video-sharing app built on the AT Protocol.
AT is the blue sky protocol.
For a while I have this idea of basicly giving people free webpages, like some providers are doing but without a private company running things. Like everyone living in the EU has the right to claim a small Wordpress Blog (or something like it, I know Wordpress is shit for some reason) where they can freely express themself. This part with some sort of feed from the pages you subscribe to would be realy cool I think :)
Back in the late 1990s internet providers gave you an email address and some web space to host your own page.
Sounds interesting!
Yes please, setting up your own web page is a nightmare these days that at least seems insanely daunting.
cool story, bro - but WITH WHAT?
I mean, look at the current state of tech we’ve got in Europe. Look at the Fediverse, which is nice, but about as complex for an average Joe as a fusion reactor. That’s ALSO the reason why Bluesky took off and skyrocketed, but Mastodon - despite being there before - is still WAAAAY behind.
Lemmy the same - the user experience and App situation is ABYSMAL. Hell, I’m glad I don’t have to fill out a form and FAX it to the server operators to get anything through.
Reason is: Though the FOSS community is great, there’s no single design philosophy behind it. Everybody is free to do whatever they please, everything looks a bit different, works a bit different. That’s nice for the fans of individual services and programs, but NIGHTMARE FUEL for said average Joe.
And yes, this average Joe is around 80% of the userbase. Plus - and I bet you already did that whilst reading what I wrote - this average Joe is ridiculed by the communities and developers (like all those Gentoo nerds like to joke about everyone who struggles at writing their own drivers for being losers and shouldn’t be allowed to operate anything digital for instance). THAT is, by the way, THE reason why Linux NEVER took off, never WILL take off for the end users (despite Microsoft providing THE golden opportunity to switch with their dick move on Win10. But well - average Joe prefers to throw bucks into the bin over switching to Linux. Should make you think why…)
Social Media made in Europe won’t work, because we lack those able AND willing to build something modern, “sexy” and easy to use. We’ve got too many people doubting, too many people holding others back, and others who just want to go through with THEIR idea of something, omitting EVERYTHING around them. And because we ignore the userbase.
Look at the Fediverse, which is nice, but about as complex for an average Joe as a fusion reactor.
I know that this is repeated over and over, but I really do not see it. Go to join-mastodon.org. Pick a server, it really doesn’t matter that much for starters. Start tooting. You’ll notice that usernames work like mailadresses, so you can have jon@server1.com and jon@server2.com, but you know how that works from your Mailadress.
Go join-lemmy.org. Pick a server, maybe the one local to you? Start posting. You’ll notice that there might be several communities with similar names, but you know that from Reddit where there are also similar communities or from your local town where there might also be two soccer clubs or so.
Go to Instagram.com. Register. Get instantly blocked for suspicious activity unless you provide more data. WTF are “reels”? WTF is “Threads”? Those words do not mean anything! What is a “story”? Wasn’t there something that you could post pictures?
The fediverse might have its complexities, but lets be honest: If you can read, you can manage. And if you can’t read, you shouldn’t be on a text-based social media like Mastodon or Lemmy.
Fuck the “average Joe”… i was there when the internet as a whole turned to shit because it was flooded with “average Joes”, hell… i even visited the smoldering ruins of the Usenet after the dreadful hordes of “average Joes” have finished plundering it. The Fediverse doesn’t need to grow too large, let it stay a bit under the radar… its better this way.
I think the same, but OP wants a Facebook for Europe, so quite different IMO. Also, yes, let them all pile up there and leave us alone 😇
FOSS can have a single design philosophy. It just needs enough funding and structure. Just look at the Eclipse Foundation (Java).
If we would have a Fediverse Foundation (perhaps with EU backing) that distributes funds to different Fediverse related organisations and has a board for standardisation we could have a very different outcome.
Sadly the F in foss doesn’t stand for Funding
The German Sovereign Tech Fund begs to differ.
I honestly believe the Fediverse is a good place, exactly because it’s slightly less accessible than mainstream stuff. It keeps the absolute scum of the earth out. The internet turned to shit once everyone all of a sudden could access it. It was a fun place to be when you actually had to know your way around a computer. Now the internet essentially is an app on the fucking phone and even the dumbest mouth breather can access it.
Ok? Then where is it? Give me a Facebook that isn’t shit. I want to connect to a small group of friends, share photos and stories and not be “profiled”.
People i haven’t met should not be able to see anything I post, even if we share friends. I’d make it so you’d have to connect with NFC or something before they could see your stuff.
This influencer crap would not exist there. Nor should it anywhere, but that’s just my opinion.
Have you tried mastodon? Pleroma? Misskey? Akkoma? None of them have pointlessly complicated nonsense like “NFC” or whatever but all of them let you share things with a small group of friends and have control over who can see whatever you post. There are people using fedi like that. You may find it difficult to find them, for obvious reasons. But if you and your friends want to start doing it there’s nothing stopping you.
https://movim.eu/ works well for that and can also be used as a WhatsApp replacement (xmpp based). Obviously also made in the EU.
People i haven’t met should not be able to see anything I post, even if we share friends. I’d make it so you’d have to connect with NFC or something before they could see your stuff.
Sounds like you want an E2E encrypted group chat rather than social media.
What you mean by “connect with NFC”? Like meet in person to connect?
Not bluesky please
Improve the fedi, a lot
Here’s an unpopular opinion: This won’t happen because the policymakers don’t want it to happen. It’s fundamentally opposed to what they want. And I’m not spinning some conspiracy tale here. Listen…
The debate involves many ambiguous terms that people like him interpret one way but which actually mean something entirely different. The correct understanding is ultimately the legal definition. That’s the one that determines if armed people (ie the police) will come and take away your computer.
the AT Protocol allows users to own their data
To a copyright person, this would mean functioning DRM. It means complete control over what happens to their content, regardless of where and how it is stored. They have the law on their side and the policymakers. Mind that the media is part of the copyright industry and they have outsize influence over public opinion. As far as they are concerned, the problem with Big Tech is that they are not paid enough for their rights.
Many people on Lemmy feel the same way about GDPR. Unfortunately, Lemmy’s hive mind is dominated by misconception about GDPR. But it is true that it is far-reaching and would be well served by the same perfect DRM of which copyright people dream.
The ideal European internet is one that has DRM built-in from the bottom so that everyone can exercise their legal rights under copyright law, the GDPR, the data act, and possibly others.
A freewheeling federated network is legally problematic. Even insofar that it is legal, it is fundamentally opposed to what policymakers and much of the public want. Free speech is an American value and emphatically not European.
If you don’t believe me, you can look at tax-funded projects like Gaia-X and then imagine what the social media equivalent looks like.
Can it? They haven’t yet.
