
Diaspora* social network federation protocol - supermdguy
https://diaspora.github.io/diaspora_federation/index.html
======
ocdtrekkie
I feel like ActivityPub has won here. (Used by GNU Social, Mastodon, Plemora,
PeerTube, etc.) I think even Diaspora plans to add support for it eventually.

~~~
joe_the_user
The thing is, as far as I can tell, GNU Social and company seem to be Twitter
clones and Diaspora is Facebook clone.

Whatever one thinks of Facebook, the two interfaces aren't equivalent and just
having one won't give you the other. Especially, "Micro-blogging" doesn't give
structured, moderated discussion of any kind.

And well, I personally think in the social network world, a large portion of
Twitter is a pox on humanity, not by its control by particular entities but by
the interface effectively working to elicit and amplify _shallow_ , reactive,
emotional responses.

The Facebook interface has its problem too but it's structure is more
ambiguous, you can get "deeper" discussion are restrict who's talking and
moderate well. And you moderate feed as well as groups, on Facebook itself.

Personally again, what I'd like to see is Twitter dying and Facebook being
cloned by a better peer-to-peer. But in any case, just cloning Twitter
wouldn't give you a Facebook competitor.

~~~
paroneayea
Hi. Co-editor of ActivityPub here. Nothing about ActivityPub's design is
Twitter-esque specific. In fact it largely comes from pump.io's design which
is much more Facebook-like than Twitter's design. We also built ActivityPub
_so that Diaspora could use it_. That's the whole reason collections are
addressable, in order to be able to handle the design of Diaspora's aspects.

~~~
ummonk
I'm curious about your thoughts on
[https://github.com/denschub/schubio/blob/master/_posts/2018-...](https://github.com/denschub/schubio/blob/master/_posts/2018-02-01-activitypub-
one-protocol-to-rule-them-all.md#the-x-follows-y-contact-model) and
[https://github.com/denschub/schubio/blob/master/_posts/2018-...](https://github.com/denschub/schubio/blob/master/_posts/2018-02-01-activitypub-
one-protocol-to-rule-them-all.md#replies-and-interactions) specifically. As
someone who is new to both the Diaspora* and ActivityPub protocols, the
Diaspora* patterns of publishing messages seem to be much easier for me to
reason about particularly for semi-private FB-esque social networks (as
opposed to mostly public social networks akin to Twitter or Youtube comments).
My reactions echo what is mentioned in those links, but maybe I'm just
thinking about it wrong.

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supermdguy
I added this link, instead of the main diaspora* page, because I've been
looking into open social network _protocols_, instead of just distributed
social network systems. An open protocol would enable much more competition in
the social network space, since users would still be able to communicate with
their friends when trying out a new social networking app.

~~~
sleavey
An open protocol sounds like the only sustainable solution that protects
privacy. Are there any other popular, open protocols in the wild?

~~~
jgroszko
These open protocols seem pretty cool, but I'm curious what sort of
improvements for privacy people expect them to offer? Federating with other
servers just means you're trusting each server operator with your
(semi?)-public data. Additionally most people don't have the technical know-
how to run their own servers, so users will most likely concentrate on a few
large servers anyway, defeating the decentralized advantages...

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
federation allows different servers. Some might be more private than others,
and federation allows people to choose the flavor they want.

Remember it is not just public posts which you should be concerned about...but
it is your interaction with the sever as well, as well as your semi-private
communication.

~~~
dkersten
Do you really have meaningful control though? If I trust server A and my
friend trusts server B and I publish posts for my friend to see, now I just
also trust server B, right?

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olivermarks
Sites like [https://steemit.com](https://steemit.com)
[http://minds.com](http://minds.com) appear to be gaining some traction with
actual users. I felt Diaspora had failed to take off and lost its opportunity,
although now that FB has lost its halo in suburbia there might be new
opportunities for change in people's habits...

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nik736
Someone on steemit pirated my content and there is no way to reach them to
take it down. Now someone is earning money with an article that took me 3 days
to write.

~~~
Lngv
That's the point of Steemit. There's no such thing as piracy. It was never
your content. Try to make money through labour instead of licensing.

~~~
nik736
If I write an article, release it on MY blog on MY website. How is it not my
content?

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greenail
Sounds interesting... But the overview doesn't say anything about what
problems it solves or how... I think it should give some clue as to why one
would read more unless you are only targeting people with this prior
knowledge.

~~~
subway
The linked page is just a technical document outlining the protocol. More
general info on Diaspora can be found on the foundation's page:
[https://diasporafoundation.org/](https://diasporafoundation.org/)

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arrowgunz
I was curious, is Diaspora* used anywhere or by anyone?

~~~
inanutshellus
FWIW, I've implemented it for a small enterprise, and for a local/private
community. Neither are the overwhelming froth of activity you see on
Facebook/Twitter (as you'd expect), but they're doing well!

~~~
newsat13
What has been your experience with installing it? Is it stable?

~~~
inanutshellus
Quite stable, in my experience. The main "problem" is that local communities
are _necessarily_ less active than the entire world. Facebook/Twitter actively
work to make sure your feed is chock full of amazing things every time you log
in. Your local community Diaspora* feels quiet even if the people you _want_
to interact with are reasonably active.

Setting expectations is key.

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mike-cardwell
What can you do with Diaspora? It looks like you can post text and images,
share it with people, and they can comment on it and like it.

What else? I mean, they've been building it for nearly 8 years now, so
presumably there's a tonne more you can do with it?

I don't know if it's just hidden, but is there really still no events
functionality?

~~~
jimbosis
As far as I know, Diaspora still does not have events functionality.

Two other federated, free, and open social networking platforms that do have
events functionality are Friendica and Hubzilla.

[https://friendi.ca/](https://friendi.ca/)

[https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-
project](https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project)

I have not looked too much into Hubzilla, but I set up a test Friendica
account and was very impressed! My first thought was, "this is so much better
than Diaspora. How did Diaspora get all the news coverage?"

They were both developed by Mike Macgirvin, a former Facebook employee who
left in early 2010 because he was "...was increasingly concerned about the
directions they were taking related to personal privacy." That quote is from a
very interesting interview with him about federated social networking at:

[https://medium.com/we-distribute/got-zot-mike-
macgirvin-4528...](https://medium.com/we-distribute/got-zot-mike-
macgirvin-45287601ff19)

I discovered all this through the "Fediverse.party" website:

[https://fediverse.party/](https://fediverse.party/)

HN Discussion about Fediverse.party:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16667050](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16667050)

Edit: formatting, typos, clarity

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acover
Is it feasible to interoperate with Facebook? Use a disporia client and still
see Facebook friends in your feed and messenger?

~~~
msoucy
Diaspora can optionally pull some information from Facebook, but nowhere to
that extent. It might allow you to connect with FB friends who also use
Diaspora, though, so if that's the cast it'd help people migrate.

