2mo ago

My Dream Fediverse Platform

I've been on the Fediverse for nearly 15 years now. I've seen platforms grow, change, and evolve, and I've taken inspiration from projects that have a lot of really good ideas.

This is a conceptual pitch / brain droppings on Postmodern, the Fediverse platform I hope to eventually build.

LibreByte @lemmy.ml

librebyte @lemmy.ml

2mo ago

My Dream Fediverse Platform (Sean Tilley)

deadsuperhero.com /my-dream-fediverse-platform/

Fediverse @lemmy.world

Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

2mo ago

My Dream Fediverse Platform

deadsuperhero.com /my-dream-fediverse-platform/

6 comments

I also think there's some really valuable ideas in [...] Nostr [...]
I think that too but when I brought that up to fedivers folks they always yell at me : IT'S A CRYPTOBRO PLATEFORM ! or THE FOUNDER IS RIGHT WING !
I really do think that digital identites on p2p network thanks to asymetrical cryptography is a better design that accounts tied to a central server. I am glad that I am not alone and will follow your project closely (I will try to at least). Interesting read thank you !
- One thing I really like about the author's fedi coverage, he doesn't kowtow to rank stupidity and avoid mentioning alternatives because of hivemind disapproval.
  From a publisher (user) perspective, Nostr's censorship resistance by design blows the doors off of what ActivityPub can claim in that regard. And I say that as someone who's been pretty much all-in on ActivityPub fedi since its inception (almost a decade, wow)
  
  I totaly agree with you, I am somwheat new to the fediverse, I discovered it somewhere between 2018 and 2020 and discovered nostr a few years later, I didn't got it at first but today I understand how interesting it is to build social network or plateformes, even though that Nostr can do far more than social media.
  Because the admin don't have to manage the authentification process of its users.
  Because users don't rely on a central server to keep their social graphs or interact with them.
  Because owning some private keys makes you owning your digital identities.
  Of course the UX isn't as great as the fediverse or not close to centralized opaque surveillance plateforme but it has rapidly improved and I had much joy discovering the bridge builded by soapbox and really want their Ditto servers project to become a thing.
  I really think that we should teach kids asymetrical cryptography at school because if we want to build a digital society we need strong encryption, true authentifications and data integrity checks. But I'm a dumb utopist...
Bold vision, especially like the point
… tethering user accounts to Fediverse instances is an antipattern.
Although I'm sceptical of a net new solution, when we might instead take our suggestions to an existing one. I'm not a fedi/AP nerd myself, so I don't even know if this makes sense, but could we not just build this functionality into WordPress as a suite of plugins?
I also don't have much xp with wp, lol.
I love the fediverse.
But same as big platform issues and entshification ultimately comes from a small number of people owning the sites. Many fediverse issues comes from a architecture of a bigger but still small number of instance owners.
Fediverse is a BIG step forward. But it's true, instances are fragile, and a lot of pressure is put on instance owners and final users still have a limited amount of control. Though they still have the choice of becoming an instance owner, which is a plus.
I have only be in the fediverse one year or so. But I have already seen several instances fall and a lot of "instance wars". I don't think this is long term sustainable if we keep growing.
I have been thinking about it lately, and remember one of the most resilient protocols I have found. eDonkey protocol, unmaintained but still alive because users want to use it.
I think the "ultimate" internet/social network protocol could/should be something similar. Which mean truly p2p. Probably some kind of p2p storage and control. People depending more on themselves instead of instance owners.
There was a project about this (plebbit) but I looked at how was it's state after a post here and they have fallen intro cryptoscams :( so that's not going to make it. But I hope someone pick the torch of that idea.
No code has been written as of yet, but I am learning to program, from the bottom up, backend to frontend.
I mean... This isn't inspiring great confidence. Fediverse platforms are by no means simple and neither are all the features you mention. I think you have good ideas, but as a professional software engineer with a masters in computer science who is also working on a fediverse platform... It's not easy and learning everything from the bottom might be a big bite.

6 comments