
Diaspora version 0.7.0.0 released - chtfn
https://blog.diasporafoundation.org/44-diaspora-version-0-7-0-0-released
======
jancsika
Someone should run a Diaspora pod with the following model:

1\. They market it like crazy in the hopes of getting something like a few
million users

2\. They publicly state that they will mine all metadata for the purpose of
generating an "inference report".

3\. Every other week they release an "inference report" that reveals a new,
dangerous way the seemingly innocuous metadata can be used. Some examples
would include a) accurately gleaning more private data from the metadata,
and-- if enough people join-- b) using that data to subtly influence the
behavior of the participants.

Outside researchers are given access to the process in order to audit it.
Anything revealed in the inference report would be assumed to already be
happening on larger commercial networks.

Users would remain as long as they believe the value of the inference reports
outweigh the risk to them of using the network.

Edit: formatting

~~~
Animats
_1\. They market it like crazy in the hopes of getting something like a few
million users._

That's the problem. Nobody uses Disapora*.

I got an account a few years ago, but abandoned it after discovering there was
nobody on there worth talking to.

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tw1010
I like these guys' perseverance. But part of me can't stop the feeling of
sadness that they've spent a better part of a decade working on it, perhaps
the best years of their lives. I know perseverance and failure is seen as good
things in certain circles, but I don't think I've ever read a biography where
the author spent ten years on something that ultimately went nowhere and then
went on to do things of enough noteworthiness to merit said biography.

~~~
michaelchisari
I spent 8 years working on Appleseed (also a federated social network, 2003 to
approx. 2011) and it was worth every minute, even though it never went
anywhere. Working on a problem that nobody has been able to solve gives you
really good insight into software engineering that you can't get when you're
implementing other people's solutions, no matter how complex those solutions
are.

Even though I failed, I benefited quite a bit by taking on something so
ambitious, and whether Diaspora succeeds or fails, the people working on it
will most like be able to say the same.

~~~
mattl
Hey Michael, good to see you around :)

~~~
michaelchisari
Oh, hey Matt! Good to see you, too!

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mejin
While I completely support the goal of diaspora, I don't think that I can use
it. one of the main benefits of Facebook is that I can look up someone's
information / posts without them being informed. Imo that is what made
Facebook so big in the first place.

~~~
sp332
This is my biggest pet peeve about Facebook. I'd pay money for better
analytics about my posts.

~~~
freehunter
I would love to see the same stats on my personal posts as I do on my page's
post. How many people have seen it, the breakdown of their demographics, etc.
The problem is, seeing those stats on a page (and a page that I pay FB to
advertise for me) is really disheartening: the numbers are incredibly low even
though I pay FB to show it to people. I'm sure the numbers are similarly low
on my personal page as to how many of my 100+ friends actually saw my post
come across their feed.

~~~
sp332
For me it's the sense of ownership that's missing. If I hosted it myself and
just looked at data in the server logs - not even fancy javascript analytics -
I'd get more information. Not having access reminds me that Facebook is using
me to collect data on all my friends.

~~~
freehunter
I think that's going a little far... HN/Reddit doesn't give me server logs
either. Very few web properties do. Very very few.

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dewey
Is there a bigger community actually using Diaspora? Maybe I'm outside of that
bubble that's why I'm wondering.

~~~
dredmorbius
I'm only peripherally attached (I've got a ... long-dormant Diaspora account),
but there are a number of semi-inter-related open-social projects, which talk
to various extents. "The Fediverse" includes a few of those, and I _think_ it
has bridges/gateways to Diaspora.

Frendica is another, _I think_ , related protocol.

The problem generally is that the communities are small, diversified, hosting
is a hurdle for virtually anyone, and individual instances can be finicky.

(On Mastodon -- a different technology entirely, but similar in concept -- I
have two accounts on different instances, and since April have found that one
or the other has been down, unavailable, or technically unusable for up to
weeks at a time.)

Should some nucleating group decide that they were going all-in on Diasapora
(or a compatible tech), that might make a difference. Meantime, everything
seems stuck in slow-start mode.

~~~
gardnr
Cool. I just signed up on Mastadon. Have you tried patchwork yet?

The slow-start mode seems to be default mode for all new social media
platforms while FB is dominating the space. I could see a service business
rolling Diaspora out on-site to organizations. I think poaching users is fair
game and should be perfected across all the platforms. Basically, sharing on
FB links that are hosted on a Diaspora instance. So the act of sharing on FB
increases exposure for the instance.

~~~
dredmorbius
I haven't.

[https://mammouth.cafe/@dredmorbius](https://mammouth.cafe/@dredmorbius)

[https://mastodon.cloud/@dredmorbius](https://mastodon.cloud/@dredmorbius)

First is primary, though I hop back and forth a fair bit.

------
adnam
I think it would be really interesting to build something like dispora as a
suite of dockerised micro-services which would allow you to add and extend
functionality based on a new social-networkong protocol in a language-agnostic
way. It would also be very easy to incorporate email and xmpp which are
already federated protocols.

~~~
Brakenshire
Docker should help in general with making services like this more accessible.
I can imagine someone like Fastmail using docker to allow a one click process
to set up a Diaspora or Mastodon node. That should take the hassle out of it,
and if you could just watch a 3 min video to explain the concept/metaphors,
and set it up in 30 seconds, it expands the possible audience from system
admins and software engineers, up to anyone technically inclined.

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dgudkov
I don't know if these guys have funding or not, but they deserve it. There is
too much centralization nowadays. Too many eggs in the same basket.

~~~
amelius
Yes, too much centralization going on.

But ... isn't Diaspora trying to solve a too big problem? Ideally, shouldn't
the decentralization-space be filled by smaller services? For example, in my
perfect world, instant messaging and newsfeeds would be two separate projects.
That way, not only is the information decentralized, but also the development
of the decentralized web becomes more decentralized (in a way).

~~~
flaburgan
What people like nowadays is integration. They don't want to have multiple
accounts on multiple services they each have to trust. They want one sign-in
and everything available. That's why google is so good to trap you.

------
dreamfactored
I think Github could create a good nucleating community for federated
networking. They could host a giant pod of Github users (could be the next
venue following slashdot>kuro5hin>reddit>hn), and they could also create 1
click tooling for Github users to create pod for their own project
communities.

Would be a good kickstarter for generating sufficient network effect value to
use in the first place, evolving the platform software through real world tire
kicking, and getting it out to the wider world. And being github, as well as a
sufficiently technical userbase, there's already a business model around
freemium hosting which could be applied.

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blubb-fish
diaspora is flawed by design. it will only ever be used by techies b/c either
you take care of your own server or you have to trust somebody with your data.

what is needed is a facebook e.V. with a strict data safety policy.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_association_(Germ...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_association_\(Germany\))

it would cost transparently what is needed to sustain the service.

~~~
infinity0
Your comment contradicts itself. A facebook e.V. with a strict data safety
policy would be nothing more than another organisation running something
similar to diaspora.

~~~
freehunter
I don't think it's necessarily a contradiction. You either have to run your
own server, or you have to trust someone else at which point you might as well
just use Facebook. The entire point of Disaspora is that you don't have to
trust anyone. Once you have some random, unknown person hosting it for you,
you're just using Facebook but with fewer people.

~~~
wolco
You need some server that these private pods can push to or pull from.

Or you have software that manages your local disaspora server or in the cloud
or darknet.

------
xvilka
MediaGoblin and OpenBazaar also fit their Fediverse.

------
flaburgan
I'm so happy to see this release, especially with the codebase cleaning. The
diaspora* protocol is now rock-solid (see
[https://blog.diasporafoundation.org/43-our-federation-
protoc...](https://blog.diasporafoundation.org/43-our-federation-protocol-
just-got-bigger-and-better) ) that means the federated social web is now free
and can extend!

------
mike-cardwell
Does event management exist yet? I.e, can my friends and I create events and
invite people to them like you can on Facebook?

Also, ISTR from last time I played with it, there was no ability to create
photo albums/collections. Does that exist now?

Without those two things I couldn't even begin to consider getting people to
start using it.

~~~
chtfn
Groundwork has been done, so it is definitely planned:
[https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora_federation/pull/44](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora_federation/pull/44)
Hopefully, this gets a bit more attention now that the big cleanup work of the
codebase has been done.

------
im3w1l
If I and my friends are on the same pod, and I get banned from it, can I still
talk to them?

~~~
flaburgan
What do you mean by "get banned"? If you mean you violate the term of use and
the podmin closed your account, you can create one on another pod and re-add
your friends for sure.

~~~
im3w1l
I'm just not clear about the federation works I guess. If a power hungry mod
(or maybe a good guy coming under very intense pressure from someone else)
were to hate me, could he block me from sending messages to my friends by
refusing federation somehow?

I dont want to be on a platform that can hold my friend hostage, is why I'm
asking.

EDIT: If hub federation is needed for asynch messages, and unblockable (by hub
owner) p2p used for chat when both users are online, then I guess that would
be acceptable.

