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I quite liked facebook. I don't have the urge to constantly check it, nor post much on it, but it was useful for events, casually keeping up with life events of

I quite liked facebook. I don't have the urge to constantly check it, nor post much on it, but it was useful for events, casually keeping up with life events of acquaintances, and keeping a rolodex of semi-friends (e.g. people I met on holiday and would like to run into again). I deleted it because the company seems thoroughly evil and doesn't respect my privacy. But if anyone comes up with a privacy-respecting alternative I'd be more than happy to become on of their first adopters.

have_faith 8y ago
> if anyone comes up with a privacy-respecting alternative I'm working on something at the moment. More experiment than anything else for the time being but the purpose of it is to have a minimal "social network" for keeping in touch with people, and that's about it. Very little in the way of notifications and most facebook-like features. Just a way to keep in touch and keep contact details for people you care about. Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project?
- Brigadirk 8y ago
  You can monetise it the same way as facebook. I'd be more than happy for my data to be sold and analysed, as long as they were used according to strict ethical guidelines. Perhaps worth giving DuckDuckGo a look, at how they're making money.
- justwalt 8y ago
  You could try indiscriminately selling users data.
- kuuspa 8y ago
  I think there are ways to monetize. Duck duck go manages to do it, so why not? A company like this was never supposed to be the most valuable company in the world.
- naravara 8y ago
  >Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project? Sponsored ads and content is probably the only way, other than donations, to keep the service free. You can do ads without tracking, as long as you're transparent about what is or isn't an ad. The other option is to segment the market with "premium tier" features that only finicky people care about. For example, everyone gets a standard page layout but you can pay to unlock custom style-sheets. Or you can pay extra to display higher resolution photos. Or you only hold onto posts and content for 3 years unless people pay for archival storage (at which point you're basically just running a backup service). Alternatively, lots of community groups use facebook as a community forum. You can have moderators or forum administrators pay a hosting fee and that maintains the rest of the site.
- kodablah 8y ago
  > Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project? I've been doing something similar. If your network is decentralized, I've been thinking monetization can be in the form of easy VM reselling for the service. Find a provider w/ affiliate $, integrate it into setup. They are the owners of the AWS (or whatever) account and everything's transparent, but you make it easy to install/upgrade. Or could hide the host details and be the "server manager" for them, i.e. managed hosting. If you are centralized, there are several other ways. You can do a simple one like "completely free to use for companies < $1m revenue/year, $100/month otherwise" (wild number guesses, would need research). Other options can get a bit more sketchy, ala freemium/addons, e.g. pay to style your page, etc.
astazangasta 8y ago
Here you go: https://joinmastodon.org/ https://joinmastodon.org/
- Brigadirk 8y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.
- amelius 8y ago
  Do they support "events" yet?
  - prophesi 8y ago
    You could give Hubzilla a shot. Though you have to opt-in to join the ActivityPub federation. And I'm sure the Events only works with users from other Hubzilla instances. https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project
SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
I keep it around solely because my parents / grandparents use it and it's a means for me to stay in their lives from far away. My social circles have totally dropped it.
- pastor_elm 8y ago
  for what? Instagram? That's much worse imo.
  - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
    WhatsApp threads for arranging get togethers.
naravara 8y ago
Only accessing Facebook via mbasic.facebook.com works for me. I only really ever check it because I have local community forums that only post information on events there. Most of my friends have departed for Instagram at this point. Which is probably why Facebook is trying to Facebookify Instagram and WhatsApp. Once they do I'm sure people will start to flee to knock-off services instead.
RankingMember 8y ago
The problem with the alternatives is they don't have the budget and installed user base Facebook has. Sure, you'll get techie people to jump on board at first (remember Google+?), but all the family members who don't know a Twitter from an Amazon will stick with Facebook because the constant negative Facebook press isn't enough to get them to leave and no longer see pictures of their baby grandson. I'm not sure what the solution to this is.
- mediocrejoker 8y ago
  I think the solution is for a photo sharing site to win over the tech crowd with well-thought-out, fine-grained privacy controls and a sustainable business model and then to make it dead easy for non-tech people to share their photos with other non-tech people. ie. I create a single account and my friends each create a single account and I create groups out of those friends, and then I share my photos with a group, and my friends can see and perhaps comment on the photos that have been shared with them. How much would it cost per user per month to make this sustainably ad-free?
  - nicknisi 8y ago
    Sounds like you’re describing Google+ and their Circles feature.
  - black-tea 8y ago
    > well-thought-out, fine-grained privacy controls The problem with Facebook isn't that some people can see some things you don't want them to. "Privacy controls" are just a distraction from the real problem which is that Facebook can see everything.
    - johnmaguire2013 8y ago
      It is possible that there are multiple problems with Facebook.
  - tubbs 8y ago
    Just my 2 cents - but I would be ok with light, non-invasive advertising, like that by which DuckDuckGo operates: https://fourweekmba.com/duckduckgo-business-model/ https://fourweekmba.com/duckduckgo-business-model/
marviel 8y ago
I've been observing https://www.minds.com/ https://www.minds.com/ , which appears to be an interesting open-source competitor in the space. It's based on blockchain, which makes me nervous, but it does allow you to purchase a version of the product which removes all promotion from the product entirely.
- lanevorockz 8y ago
  why would blockchain be an issue? The idea is that you get trusted metrics instead of a black box that you can never see inside.
  - guipsp 8y ago
    Not the OP, but I tend to associate anything cryptocurrency/blockchain related with snake oil.
    - marviel 8y ago
      Pretty much this plus the fact that I've not (yet) reviewed enough of the available literature on ETH, which this site is based on

have_faith 8y ago

> if anyone comes up with a privacy-respecting alternative I'm working on something at the moment. More experiment than anything else for the time being but the purpose of it is to have a minimal "social network" for keeping in touch with people, and that's about it. Very little in the way of notifications and most facebook-like features. Just a way to keep in touch and keep contact details for people you care about. Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project?

Brigadirk 8y ago
You can monetise it the same way as facebook. I'd be more than happy for my data to be sold and analysed, as long as they were used according to strict ethical guidelines. Perhaps worth giving DuckDuckGo a look, at how they're making money.
justwalt 8y ago
You could try indiscriminately selling users data.
kuuspa 8y ago
I think there are ways to monetize. Duck duck go manages to do it, so why not? A company like this was never supposed to be the most valuable company in the world.
naravara 8y ago
>Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project? Sponsored ads and content is probably the only way, other than donations, to keep the service free. You can do ads without tracking, as long as you're transparent about what is or isn't an ad. The other option is to segment the market with "premium tier" features that only finicky people care about. For example, everyone gets a standard page layout but you can pay to unlock custom style-sheets. Or you can pay extra to display higher resolution photos. Or you only hold onto posts and content for 3 years unless people pay for archival storage (at which point you're basically just running a backup service). Alternatively, lots of community groups use facebook as a community forum. You can have moderators or forum administrators pay a hosting fee and that maintains the rest of the site.
kodablah 8y ago
> Question for anyone who would be interested in such a thing: How would you suggest monetising or funding such a project? I've been doing something similar. If your network is decentralized, I've been thinking monetization can be in the form of easy VM reselling for the service. Find a provider w/ affiliate $, integrate it into setup. They are the owners of the AWS (or whatever) account and everything's transparent, but you make it easy to install/upgrade. Or could hide the host details and be the "server manager" for them, i.e. managed hosting. If you are centralized, there are several other ways. You can do a simple one like "completely free to use for companies < $1m revenue/year, $100/month otherwise" (wild number guesses, would need research). Other options can get a bit more sketchy, ala freemium/addons, e.g. pay to style your page, etc.

astazangasta 8y ago

Here you go: https://joinmastodon.org/ https://joinmastodon.org/

Brigadirk 8y ago
Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.
amelius 8y ago
Do they support "events" yet?
- prophesi 8y ago
  You could give Hubzilla a shot. Though you have to opt-in to join the ActivityPub federation. And I'm sure the Events only works with users from other Hubzilla instances. https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago

I keep it around solely because my parents / grandparents use it and it's a means for me to stay in their lives from far away. My social circles have totally dropped it.

pastor_elm 8y ago
for what? Instagram? That's much worse imo.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  WhatsApp threads for arranging get togethers.

naravara 8y ago

Only accessing Facebook via mbasic.facebook.com works for me. I only really ever check it because I have local community forums that only post information on events there. Most of my friends have departed for Instagram at this point. Which is probably why Facebook is trying to Facebookify Instagram and WhatsApp. Once they do I'm sure people will start to flee to knock-off services instead.

RankingMember 8y ago

The problem with the alternatives is they don't have the budget and installed user base Facebook has. Sure, you'll get techie people to jump on board at first (remember Google+?), but all the family members who don't know a Twitter from an Amazon will stick with Facebook because the constant negative Facebook press isn't enough to get them to leave and no longer see pictures of their baby grandson. I'm not sure what the solution to this is.

mediocrejoker 8y ago
I think the solution is for a photo sharing site to win over the tech crowd with well-thought-out, fine-grained privacy controls and a sustainable business model and then to make it dead easy for non-tech people to share their photos with other non-tech people. ie. I create a single account and my friends each create a single account and I create groups out of those friends, and then I share my photos with a group, and my friends can see and perhaps comment on the photos that have been shared with them. How much would it cost per user per month to make this sustainably ad-free?
- nicknisi 8y ago
  Sounds like you’re describing Google+ and their Circles feature.
- black-tea 8y ago
  > well-thought-out, fine-grained privacy controls The problem with Facebook isn't that some people can see some things you don't want them to. "Privacy controls" are just a distraction from the real problem which is that Facebook can see everything.
  - johnmaguire2013 8y ago
    It is possible that there are multiple problems with Facebook.
- tubbs 8y ago
  Just my 2 cents - but I would be ok with light, non-invasive advertising, like that by which DuckDuckGo operates: https://fourweekmba.com/duckduckgo-business-model/ https://fourweekmba.com/duckduckgo-business-model/

marviel 8y ago

I've been observing https://www.minds.com/ https://www.minds.com/ , which appears to be an interesting open-source competitor in the space. It's based on blockchain, which makes me nervous, but it does allow you to purchase a version of the product which removes all promotion from the product entirely.

lanevorockz 8y ago
why would blockchain be an issue? The idea is that you get trusted metrics instead of a black box that you can never see inside.
- guipsp 8y ago
  Not the OP, but I tend to associate anything cryptocurrency/blockchain related with snake oil.
  - marviel 8y ago
    Pretty much this plus the fact that I've not (yet) reviewed enough of the available literature on ETH, which this site is based on