‘Open Source And Ethical’ TikTok, WhatsApp And Instagram Alternatives Could Transform Social Media

[email protected]

They literally were not given any out (and were unwilling to take the one they had, or forgot they had it). People were complaining that SMS isn't secure even in Signal (when SMS by design can't be), which buils undue mistrust on the project, and Google is the one who controls all the keys to RCS so implementing that was not an option either.

The part where Signal dropped the ball hard is that they could just as well perfectly revived their old, perfectly functional SMS app with a new name and add it to the project,and thus be able to claim they still support SMS. Since SMS is pretty much a build-and-done for thing, it would barely if ever need any maintenance or updates.

[email protected]

Yeah, ads also wouldn’t be an issue if the user was given control about how their data is used to decide on what ads to show them. Users could have an option to opt in to more targeted ads but be able to choose what aspects of their data are taken into account, if at all. Maybe all data sharing is turned off by default, but a user could opt in to ads that interest them like interior decoration, or furniture, or workout equipment, etc… while still being able to ban ads they don’t want to see, like political ads.

[email protected]

If the user was going to message someone off platform they’d still be sending them an unencrypted message anyways if they have to switch apps to SMS.

It sounds like they don't want to take responsibility for that user choice or be connected to anything that happens because of that choice.

It would still be an insecure choice, even with obvious UX distinctions. It would only be a matter of time before headlines muddy the waters with "intercepted Signal messages reveal..." or "Judge rules in favor of subpeona for unencrypted Signal messages..."

[email protected]

Heads up @[email protected] the creator of these apps refuses to open source the projects stating:

Not until it's stable

Anyone who's followed any project of any kind knows that this is just a formal way of saying they just won't do it.

Not only is it not truly OSS, but he's a bit of dick. Like weirdly so. Banning people for reverse engineering the API, creating a poll on whether or not ads should be introduced (only to 180 on the matter claiming the poll was a joke but also emphasizing that the poll was in favor of ads)

On the plus side he dislikes Trump, so there's that I guess.

In any case I highly recommend people read this comment and the sources linked:

Stock photo for the Fediverse by Elena Rossini - lemm.ee

Source [https://mastodon.social/@_elena/113900211541640872] CC BY-ND Elena Rossini [https://mastodon.social/@_elena] — Update: The image is now available on unsplash.com [https://unsplash.com/photos/9Xf-jxvfpW8]

(lemm.ee)

[email protected]

Someone should create a mastodon instance called "Masta Dom"

Something something about race play domination kink

enkers

That's such a poor excuse. If they really really thought it was a problem, they could obscure-gate the feature. Make it so you have to long press on the 3rd word of the ToS or something ridiculous, and share that info online.

This is a fairly common practice for potentially dangerous android features, for example.

Usually the vanguard of adoption for platforms like these are fairly technical users. When you start cutting the feature set that brought them to your platform, it starts the death knell for your platform. They'll go elsewhere to find a platform that respects them more.

SushiRain

Takes time. Spread the message. I joined Instagram in 2017 by pure FOMO. Let's create FOMO for the Fediverse by speaking about it over and over.

[email protected]

The alternatives already exist and they are build on Nostr and it has different apps/clients to interact with that protocol. For example Olas is a Instagram-like and tik-tok-like app, and there are also many twitter-like or mastodon-like apps such as Amethyst or Damus

[email protected]

In practice Matrix isn’t decentralized in the slightest. Almost every account is on Matrix.org or a server they host. The whole protocol is a data/metadata syncing machine that isn’t good for privacy & is prohibitively expensive to run anything beyond a single-instance since all history of all users in all rooms necessarily needs to be synced onto the server. Many medium-sized servers have shutdown on storage costs & system resource requirements (especially RAM)—which forced its users often to flock back to Matrix.org. This is wild since it is mostly text chat.

Luckily there are actually decentralized chat alternatives with low system requirements to encourage self-hosting, but man is Matrix so overhyped & misunderstood.

[email protected]

Crypto chat! Crypto pics! Crypto vids! Nostr! Crypto!

[email protected]

Metapixl gang, unite!

JaggedRobotPubes

So get them on there.

"Hey dummies, this here is the place that isn't trying to fuck us, let's move it over."

For me the way bigger issue is clunkiness. The fediverse needs a massive push for UI, usability, intuitiveness. Not having that will turn people away, but part of what will get it to happen is more people showing up and saying "stop making this otherwise objective improvement so janky that I second guess coming here in the first place." Maybe a few will be inspired to help, if they have the skills.

To everybody working on the fediverse in any capacity: thank you. You are building a digital Noah's Ark for the future.

ZeroOne

I hope you're mean Crypto as in Cryptography

[email protected]

Agreed.

However these ads need to be curated as well. This is the other thing that makes ads unbearable, is that a lot of them are just blatant scams.

I have learnt about proton and tuxedo from ads as well, which i use both.

enkers

Luckily there are actually decentralized chat alternatives with low system requirements to encourage self-hosting, but man is Matrix so overhyped & misunderstood.

Thank you for the illuminating post. Could you name a few alternatives that better align with the ethos of the fediverse?

[email protected]

I agree to an extent, I'm tired of reddit spamming me with ads for Database management systems while I'm on vacation

[email protected]

I wish I could get everyone to use it but many of my friends are having trouble with notifications not working reliably for Signal. Or sometimes messages are simply not sent immediately, even if both sides are online. This is not helping to get people over. Also no one but me really cares about all the reasons why I would like to get rid of Whatsapp, especially if they would have a lesser experience.

[email protected]

My experience is that nobody cares about privacy, moral issues or anything that might be an issue in the future. They only care about convenience, distraction and whatever their peer group is doing. So the "attention" this is getting is never going to reach the spineless mass audience.

Matt

Sup

Signal is better as a centralized alternative and Matrix is better as a decentralized alternative. We don't need another messenger.

[email protected]

I think the weirdest thing I ever saw him do was discuss meeting with Meta when they were working on Threads, get called out for it so he made a post somehow distancing himself from it and saying something along the lines of, "C'mon, guys; I'd never cozy up to Meta," and then, when Threads started federating, posted a screenshot of being able to see a post from a Threads account from PixelFed and gushing about how incredible this was.

Dude is suspect, for real; glad to see I'm not the only one getting that.