Hello folks

I don’t think I’m the only one here who thinks the fediverse is a great technology that connects people all over the world via a robust decentralised network. This network encompasses the widest range of interest groups and the most diverse ways of interacting with each other. Whether forum, video or image platform, whether books or music network, everything is part of one big whole.

Despite this diversity of possibilities, I personally still miss some services that I would like to share with you.

  1. dating apps - A decentralised, open source dating platform on which you can join instances according to interest groups or sexual preferences.
  2. git hosting - A platform where you can host your git repos and collaborate on software projects across instances. (Forgejo is already working on it)
  3. networking and personal profilation platform - A LinkedIn-like platform with instances by industry, interest or region where you can network, present yourself or exchange know-how.
  4. crowdfunding and membership platform - A mixture of Patreon and Kickstarter where you can share your own content according to different support levels and crowdfund projects.
  5. event, group organisation and community participation - A platform on which you can join groups like on Meetup and organise meetings but also internal group interactions like on slack or launch and support civic initiatives like on Decidim.

What do you think of this? What services do you still miss on the Fediverse?

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    341·
    9 months ago

    The only one here I think might not be appropriate (at least in the way that other fediverse platforms are structured) is dating apps. There’s a much greater need for moderation, privacy, and safety when it comes to dating apps.

    We do need something different, especially because all the big dating apps are controlled by a single company (and the rest form the rest of the oligopoly), but the Fediverse may not be the right way to do it. Open Source but centralized might be the way to go

    • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      101·
      9 months ago

      I am convinced that decentralisation and publicity and secure private chats are not mutually exclusive if you use the appropriate protocols: On the one hand you can have ActivityPub, which is suitable for communication and discoverability between instances, and on the other hand you could use a secure messaging protocol such as Matrix, which could then be used for private chats.

      I mean in the end you want to be discovered by other people so you need to provide some info about you. The good thing is that you decide what personal information you want to share with everyone and what details you only want to talk about with certain people.

      For your information: We already have a centralized, open source dating app. It’s called Alovoa.

      • wiki_me@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        For your information: We already have a centralized, open source dating app. It’s called Alovoa.

        The dev is also open to activitypub support

        Problems with problematic users can be solved by explicit whitelisting, or having credit card verification.

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.meEnglish
      51·
      9 months ago

      Especially the safety aspect. The big platforms have extensive moderation tools to keep the creepers out. And most dating apps are still widely unappealing to women because most men on them are creepy as fuck. That’s also why you can’t send pictures or even links on Tinder: guys just won’t stop sending dick pics as if that’s appealing.

      I can’t imagine if you can basically make a fully anonymous profile on an instance like exploding-heads and hexbear how fucking awful the experience would be, especially for women and minorities. And who do you trust to moderate your personal conversations going toxic, especially if the report propagates to the original also toxic enabling instance?

      Or the sheer amount of spam, OnlyFans baits and escort services that would dominate such a platform.

  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.eeEnglish
    12·
    9 months ago

    Decentralized dating apps is a good way to make women feel incredibly unsafe. Not only is the fedi a more techy nerd crowd, it also has massive moderation issues. It’s one bad thing to spam an instance with CP. It’s even worse when you can make a fake profile to stalk someone with zero accountability and potentially put them in physical danger, while also being unbannable. I’m sure a rapist/stalker/murderer would totally be stopped by defederating their instance, right? They’d just spam multiple accounts for their target.

    Moderation is extremely important here, and so is attracting a crowd which makes or breaks it, which the fedi is 100% not going to ever do. How would the fedi and developers respond if there was even a single rape/murder as a result of their platform and weak moderation? The whole thing would probably collapse.

    Meet up groups are similar but not as targeted. That wouldn’t be a bad idea though, since I guess someone leaving up a poster in town or something is kind of a form of that.

    • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      31·
      9 months ago

      These are all valid points which I partially forgot about and I’d love to write a follow up post reagrding this exact issue.

      I think that most of your concerns are addressable on a technical level. Others will rely on the instance’s community to guarantee an even safer experience. This will also benefit these instances as they can advertise with this trust level they recieve from the users.

  • ram@bookwormstory.socialEnglish
    11·
    9 months ago

    I want:

    • Federated anime lists software - BookWyrm could be repurposed for this
    • Torrent trackers - private trackers might be able to work by having each user have a ratio depending on their instance, tracker instances opting in to being viewable by other instances as a whole and/or users individually
    • Booru-style image boards
    • a Neopets clone

    For my final wish, I want a Tiktok clone. I don’t really know if this could work while maintaining any level of user privacy, as what makes Tiktok work so well is the sheer amount of personal user data they keep, from watch times to likes to reposts to shares to even knowing what videos you leave the platform on. I think a fediverse-style Tiktok clone would only be accepted if it only relied on likes and reposts for personal algorithms.

    Edit: Oh, and good federated wiki software.

    • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      Ah yeah a federated wiki with instances for various topics. One focused on tech others on video games, … Like a decentralized Fandom.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        YES.

        Fandom used to be good before it dropped community HTML/CSS customization… Now each wiki looks the same and not really good. The functionality has also been nerfed.

        Look how they massacred my boy! (Luckily, they switched to self-hosting)

        • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Yeah I see your point. What I meant is more the idea of different communities having their own wiki which could be hosted on topic or regional specific instances.

    • iso@lemy.lolEnglish
      12·
      9 months ago

      Yep, I hate LinkedIn for their stupid ads and “premium” features.

      • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        9 months ago

        Those are bothersome, plus it’s less about collaborating and networking more and far more a channel for sales people to find you and try to sell you stuff. “Hey, let’s connect and be friends, wanna see my SaaS?”

    • neutron@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      I wonder if such a platform will gain acceptance beyond “nerdy techies” like us. There could be a working platform with apps and all, but if the suits find it “not professional enough”…

  • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    10·
    9 months ago

    What I think is also missing is Disqus alternative too comment on websites with Fediverse accounts. Wordpress has an ActivityPub plugin, but it would be great to have something like this on static sites or other CMS software too.

    • Alex@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      You can integrate Mastodon comments into your website with a little bit of JavaScript.

  • hperrin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    9 months ago

    Some of these are available as mailing lists. I know it’s not the same thing, but it’s close.

    I’m really excited for federated git hosting though. It would be cool to run my own instance and accept pull requests/issues from anyone on whatever instance.

  • HamSwagwich@showeq.comEnglish
    61·
    9 months ago

    I think a lot of you are confusing Federation with decentralization. They are not the same thing.

    • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Federation is a part of decentralization. Instead of one server you have multiple user run ones. It is not distribution though as there is no P2P component.

      • PropaGandalf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        Exactly: I’d say federation and distribution are both a form of decentralization. Whereas distributed networks rely on P2P communication federated systems still have some centralized components but overall share no single point if failure.

        • HamSwagwich@showeq.comEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Federated systems all have a single point it failure, the server. If a server instance disappears a significant portion of your data does as well, especially if it wasn’t federated. User accounts are a good example of this in Lemmy.

          Just because a system is federated does not mean it’s decentralized, whereas a decentralized system has no risk of loss of data if a single system goes down. Federation is not that.