Reply to post: Re: Sell your soul and then complain about how it is used?

Re: Sell your soul and then complain about how it is used?

There is an OpenSores (I work in it, can call it as I wish) Social Media thing called Diaspora...I ran the first release on a vanity domain for a bit. I liked it (even thought it's Ruby) and many of you, here, would too...maaaaaking it `eff-all worthless for The Unwashed.

* Mission https://diasporafoundation.org/

* Code https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora

* A Convenient Article Why It Doesn't Work http://tinyurl.com/oc64sfy (Slate)

There's some great technical stuff there. There's great words like Freedom and Decentralized right there called out. (*Sigh*, yes it's in Ruby, I said that already.) Users don't give two shits about any of that (and I point TO FaceBook as irefutable proof). What they want is to talk to GrandMa, and their ex-squeeze from University (who happens to have moved to, say, McMurdo Base some decade ago...what?) and there they are! It was said above that feet will follow feet. Changing some two Billion people's mind and getting them to jump to a new ship turns out to be a right pain in the ass.

Apropos to both Corporate Giants and Alternative Social Media, dunno about you cats but I had very high hopes for Google+ as did Every Single Technical friend and colleague. And we got there for the party, arrived early Booze and Snacks, came through the door And! *Crickets*. Some silly technical tripe hurt (what do you mean I can't *write* to the API?...that seems like something I might very much like to do) but mostly G+ suffered from one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth. And this is what I heard:

"Yes, you tell me that G+ is technically superior and that there are less ads and such, I hear you. But Everyone™ (I care about) is already on FaceBook so why should I move? Google is *also* an evil corporation so I don't see any change there. There's some borked shit here, it's not quite done baking is it? I don't want to maintain two separate Social Site things, it seems messy and close to Too Much input. And how am I going to migrate my profile, do I have to type all that shit in again?" <- My own Female Parental Unit

Yes, my Mother justified staying on FaceBook with five *Perfectly Valid* points that I can't argue against. (Ok, I *can* ... but the arguments are weak.)

Personally I still like USENET and IRC. I've got my own XMPP server and that covers chat. I use Twitter because I can play it as Output Only, and it forces me to be succinct...and I damned well know that my every blather is public, it was part of The Deal. (Also I can write to the API).

I have both FB and LinkedIn accounts that are almost completely empty. FB I *scrubbed* years back (and yes, they caught my damned scraper bot and tossed my login out, it was quite brilliant really...bastards) when they did their first massive Permissions SNAFU. I "Like" nothing. It makes a *Fantastic White Pages. Equally, LI is great for finding some really great people I've worked with in the past so Yellow Pages I guess? (I will now completely Skip my LinkedIn/Micrsoft Rant, you're welcome.)

FaceBook has the momentum, and polish, that Users want. It's shiny, it's "Fun", Eeeeeeveryoooone that's Anyone is already there, and it has Endless Mindless Distraction™.

Circling back around to the point (I get there), we in OpenSource are fantastically good at building technically neat things but not all that great at the Bright Shiny that gets users all hot and bothered. Diaspora is pretty neat (even though it's Ruby) but it's Not FaceBook, and that's the first thing users are going to notice.

So, Open Source Social Media, we got one. Already. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it.

P.S. - I haven't looked at Diaspora in a while, might pop up a Pod for kicks. If I do, I'll let you nuts know. This crowd might not *use* it, but derive great entertainment from tearing it apart while bitching the whole time, and I'd derive great entertainment from that. See? Social Media.