This is a continuation of various posts I’ve made recently, but I thought it would be better to pull the threads together in one place, and somewhere that’s about my personal ‘journey’ rather than as what might look to be weather related posts elsewhere on the forum.
I’ll start by saying that I know that ‘social networking/media’ is a personal thing. I know some people dislike it and don’t have accounts, or merely use it to keep in contact with a small number of family and friends. I’m not trying to force you to like it, so this thread isn’t for you so you can stop reading here! This thread is for those who do use it and are looking for alternatives.
Like many people, I’m trying to limit my use of and exposure to ‘social’ sites owned by the oligarchs/billionaires. They’re becoming increasingly toxic and full of propaganda. They did what various people told us they’d do - suck us into their platform with promises of free treats and then when we’re hooked they start to use the platform to spread their own messages. Enough of that, if you know what I’m talking about then you know what I mean.
I’ve been looking for alternatives to the various platforms and here’s where I’ve reached. Some of the links will take you to my account on the platform so you at least have a starting point. If you’re a user of the platform feel free to follow me.
Micro-blogging
Bluesky is a good modern micro-blogging platform. It’s got many of the features you’d want and is growing fast - currently at 28 million users. Compared to other older micro-blogging platforms it’s actually got a lot of people who are friendly and willing to engage in decent ‘post style’ conversations. It’s got an API and a number of weather users are already publishing weather posts using it, e.g. Bluesky weather report and Bluesky WxSim forecast.
Bluesky also offers the option to create your own Personal Data Server (PDS) so that you own your own content. I’ve created my own PDS but at the moment it’s purely for my own test accounts. It’s not currently possible to migrate accounts off one PDS to another one, so I don’t really want to put my main account onto my own PDS just yet. A PDS isn’t difficult to create, but you can easily use Bluesky using the ‘official’ servers.
Mastodon I’ve had a Mastodon account for a while, but I don’t really use it very much. When I first signed up there weren’t many users and therefore little content. I then started to use Bluesky and got hooked there. However, I’m keeping a watching eye on Mastodon.
Social Media/Networking/Blogging/CMS
Joomla I’ve had a variety of WordPress sites over the years for personal blogging, family connections and even for Weather-Watch. Unfortunately the Wordpress ‘top man’ seems to want to implode the platform so I’ve been looking for alternatives. My current favourite is Joomla, which I’ve also used a couple of times over the years. Joomla is powerful but that also makes it fairly complex to set up and use. I can’t give an example link right now because I’m currently migrating one of my WordPress sites into Joomla and it’s not quite ready to go live.
Trust Cafe was my first attempt to find a Facebook alternative. It’s got potential although having used it for a while I find the way it works a little confusing, e.g. there are multiple ways to see slightly different sets of posts. There are people posting content, but it’s generally quite low bandwidth so (I think) needs a spark to get it growing.
Diaspora* has been around for over 10 years but growth doesn’t seem to have taken off in a big way yet. I started to look at it because I was finding Trust Cafe a little confusing. The Diaspora* way of working is far more familiar and so simpler to use. The platform also allows you to create your own pod, i.e. you have your own Diaspora* server. Unlike Bluesky there is a method available to migrate accounts to a different pod. If you’d like to try Diaspora* then you’re welcome to create an account on my pod - Pod Invitation.
Miscellanous
This is a placeholder to record other potentially useful platforms. For example, I’ve just discovered Friendica which (apparently) takes advantage of the federation offered by Mastodon and Diaspora* so that you can post once in Friendica and it cross posts to the other platforms. I’m not sure how it copes with differences, e.g. Diaspora* allows long posts (100kb I think) and Mastodon is limited to a micro-blogging text of just 500 bytes. Something new to explore though.
Summary
I might be spreading myself thinly across multiple platforms, but unless/until there are clear front-runner alternatives I think that’s the only way. It’s also possible that over time federation might help to interlink platforms in a way that allow you to use one but get the benefits of multiple platforms, but federation is only just starting to work so it’s not a guaranteed solution yet.
If you’re experimenting with these, or other, platforms please comment below to let us know how you’re getting on.