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Show HN: Lambda – The first-ever open-source privacy based social media app

14 points by Ezpie 2y ago

Hi HN community! NOTE: This is a repost due to missing of links I’m excited to introduce Lambda, a project I've been working on. Lambda is the world's first open-source social media app designed to prioritize your privacy and well-being. It's still in its early stages, but I'm eager to share it with you and get your feedback. What is Lambda? Lambda is an open-source social media app that addresses privacy concerns and reduces social media addiction. Here's what makes Lambda unique: - Privacy First: Lambda does not collect personal information beyond your email address for account creation. Your data is yours alone. - Organic Feed: No AI-generated feeds or targeted advertisements. You only see posts from users you follow. - Open Source: Built-in public, with community feedback and contributions highly encouraged. What's Next? Currently, Lambda is a basic version with text-only posts. Here are some things I’m working on: - Adding support for images and videos - Reducing latency - Enhancing the overall user experience You can check out Lambda and create an account here[https://lambda-official.vercel.app https://lambda-official.vercel.app]. Feel free to explore, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions here[https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/categories/feedback https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/catego...] GitHub Repository If you're interested in contributing or just curious about the code, you can find the repository here[https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official]. A star on GitHub would be... private... I am not a comedian. Feedback I’m around to discuss and answer any questions you might have, you can always jump over to GitHub discussion[https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/categories/feedback https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/catego...] and drop feedback there. Your feedback is extremely valuable, and I'm looking forward to improving Lambda with the help of the HN community. Thanks for taking the time to check out Lambda! Best regards, EzpieCo(not my real name)

BadBadJellyBean 2y ago
What is the difference to hosting a mastodon/misskey/etc... instance without federation?
- BadBadJellyBean 2y ago
  Another thing: have you considered how your content moderation works? ActivityPub based software makes it work mostly through their distributed nature and established commercial social media has armies of moderators and ML tools. And not having content moderation is not really an option. People will post things that are illigal to even store on the server.
  - Ezpie 2y ago
    Lambda is still under development, the current version is more all for public feedback and testing if it can make a MVP. I would be seeing into all of that content moderation thing. Just that it will take time... or well a lot to be more precise, mainly because I am the only one working on it. Which is hard... really hard, especially if you use Typescript with Nextjs, or maybe again I just have skill issues.
luciusdomitius 2y ago
How is it different to Nostr? And how is it more private when Nostr doesn't require even an e-mail - only a public key?
- Ezpie 2y ago
  That's quite a question. Lambda might take your email mainly for notification(this feature is still underway). As for privacy, I can guarantee you that lambda does not generate feeds like traditional social media apps do. Lambda just takes a list of users whom you are following and shows their latest posts. This way it does not tend to use any AI model to generate a feed for you that depends majorly on click-through rate.
jamesholden 2y ago
When I visit the link, I see nothing about the network or anything. It's just a login page, and then a signup option. It's not clear what I'm signing up for, or what data is needed and what service is provided. Making me reluctant to sign up for something where this is not even a demonstration or example of what access provides..
- Ezpie 2y ago
  I didn't really focus much designing the login and signup page much. But if you would like you can always give me a feedback in the github discussion[https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/categories/feedback https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/catego...]
wegfawefgawefg 2y ago
You should change the name. This term is severely hash collided already.
- Ezpie 2y ago
  Thanks for informing I will see into it. Which is a hard thing to do, naming stuff is that one thing devs can't do well... mostly me or just skill issue again
pyabo 2y ago
Definitely privacy centric tech is becoming an industry. I am very interesting in distopic world avoidance. How do you plan to monetize or fund the project?
- Ezpie 2y ago
  For now I don't really tend to focus on that. But I have a bad habit of thinking 5, 10 years in advance. I have planned to add a biding feature in which advertisers will bid, and the highest biders, which would be top 20 biders or maybe more, will need to focus on that part, there ads would be displayed on the site, and of course for good measures, it would be 80% content and 20% ads, like this it's a win-win situation, where advertisers and users both are winning, except me and my company because advertisers will probably find an exploit to this idea. But that's for another month, not this month.
Rikudou 2y ago
That sounds like a nice exercise for yourself, but I don't really see it competing with other privacy-focused or open source social media (which there are already many, you might want to drop the clickbaity "first-ever" bit from the title). As already mentioned, you can provision a Mastodon server and either disable federation or even have it enabled and you instantly can see posts/comments from other servers as well.
- Ezpie 2y ago
  I didn't know there already existed any. I will remove that first-ever part. Thanks for informing me.

14 points by Ezpie 2y ago

BadBadJellyBean 2y ago

What is the difference to hosting a mastodon/misskey/etc... instance without federation?

BadBadJellyBean 2y ago
Another thing: have you considered how your content moderation works? ActivityPub based software makes it work mostly through their distributed nature and established commercial social media has armies of moderators and ML tools. And not having content moderation is not really an option. People will post things that are illigal to even store on the server.
- Ezpie 2y ago
  Lambda is still under development, the current version is more all for public feedback and testing if it can make a MVP. I would be seeing into all of that content moderation thing. Just that it will take time... or well a lot to be more precise, mainly because I am the only one working on it. Which is hard... really hard, especially if you use Typescript with Nextjs, or maybe again I just have skill issues.

luciusdomitius 2y ago

How is it different to Nostr? And how is it more private when Nostr doesn't require even an e-mail - only a public key?

Ezpie 2y ago
That's quite a question. Lambda might take your email mainly for notification(this feature is still underway). As for privacy, I can guarantee you that lambda does not generate feeds like traditional social media apps do. Lambda just takes a list of users whom you are following and shows their latest posts. This way it does not tend to use any AI model to generate a feed for you that depends majorly on click-through rate.

jamesholden 2y ago

When I visit the link, I see nothing about the network or anything. It's just a login page, and then a signup option. It's not clear what I'm signing up for, or what data is needed and what service is provided. Making me reluctant to sign up for something where this is not even a demonstration or example of what access provides..

Ezpie 2y ago
I didn't really focus much designing the login and signup page much. But if you would like you can always give me a feedback in the github discussion[https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/categories/feedback https://github.com/ezpie1/lambda-official/discussions/catego...]

wegfawefgawefg 2y ago

You should change the name. This term is severely hash collided already.

Ezpie 2y ago
Thanks for informing I will see into it. Which is a hard thing to do, naming stuff is that one thing devs can't do well... mostly me or just skill issue again

pyabo 2y ago

Definitely privacy centric tech is becoming an industry. I am very interesting in distopic world avoidance. How do you plan to monetize or fund the project?

Ezpie 2y ago
For now I don't really tend to focus on that. But I have a bad habit of thinking 5, 10 years in advance. I have planned to add a biding feature in which advertisers will bid, and the highest biders, which would be top 20 biders or maybe more, will need to focus on that part, there ads would be displayed on the site, and of course for good measures, it would be 80% content and 20% ads, like this it's a win-win situation, where advertisers and users both are winning, except me and my company because advertisers will probably find an exploit to this idea. But that's for another month, not this month.

Rikudou 2y ago

That sounds like a nice exercise for yourself, but I don't really see it competing with other privacy-focused or open source social media (which there are already many, you might want to drop the clickbaity "first-ever" bit from the title). As already mentioned, you can provision a Mastodon server and either disable federation or even have it enabled and you instantly can see posts/comments from other servers as well.

Ezpie 2y ago
I didn't know there already existed any. I will remove that first-ever part. Thanks for informing me.