If you haven't been paying attention to the social media sphere lately (and I wouldn't blame you), Reddit is currently blacked out in protest due to their CEO being up to the usual CEO bullshit of unrepentingly screwing their community as hard as they can. Currently, hundreds of thousands of users are flocking to Reddit alternatives like beehaw.org and kbin.social.
Much like the recent Twitter debacle, this has renewed my interest in re-positioning StP as an open source social media website, ideally working with ActivityPub and the Fediverse. I don't really have any interest in being the next Reddit, but there are reddit-like features in open source alternatives like Lemmy and KBin that I think would be useful and actually create less work for myself (a big plus IMO).
In the tests I've done over the past few days....
Some of the benefits would include:
Some drawbacks (off the top of my head) include:
On a side note, I'm still seriously considering Flarum, because it's essentially a message board software with a lot of the modern features we are used to, and we can import our past discussions into it. It is NOT part of ActivityPub or the Fediverse, but they are very interested in adding support for those systems at some point in the future.
TL;DR -- The Reddit blackout has opened my eyes to some possible alternatives to StP. The biggest advantage would be giving users the ability to create their own communities. The biggest drawback would be not being able to interact with our previous message board discussions (which date back to 2006).
Please vote on the poll and post any comments you might have. I know I haven't covered everything about these software alternatives, so please post any questions you have below and I'll do my best to answer them as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your time and input!
Much like the recent Twitter debacle, this has renewed my interest in re-positioning StP as an open source social media website, ideally working with ActivityPub and the Fediverse. I don't really have any interest in being the next Reddit, but there are reddit-like features in open source alternatives like Lemmy and KBin that I think would be useful and actually create less work for myself (a big plus IMO).
In the tests I've done over the past few days....
Some of the benefits would include:
- Anyone can create a community about whatever they want (i.e. squattheplanet.com/c/train-hopping or squattheplanet.com/c/gaming) as long as it doesn't violate our website rules.
- Even if you have an account on squattheplanet.com, you can follow other communities on other lemmy/kbin sites (also mastodon accounts) by putting their url into the search and clicking 'subscribe'
- similarly, you could follow StP communities in other sites or apps that follow the ActivityPub protocol (i.e. Mastodon, Lemmy, Kbin, almost all other fediverse apps)
- an overall very lightweight browsing experience (i.e. mostly text, not a ton of graphics, will load faster in mobile browsers).
- Unlike systems like discord, discussions are archived and able to be indexed by search engines, so discussions can be found on google/duckduckgo/other search sites
- the software is free to use and being developed 'open source' so anyone can look at the code and add features or make bug fixes
- If we end up ditching Discord for Matrix (an open source live chat alternative to discord) at some point in the future, Matrix supports ActivityPub, so folks will be able to get StP content in the Matrix client.
- Lemmy has a decent mobile app called Jerboa for Lemmy. I think the layout could be nicer, but it's very new and in active development.
Some drawbacks (off the top of my head) include:
- reddit/lemmy/kbin are mostly link aggregators that support discussion about those links, but that hasn't stopped people from using it as a forum as well, so not a huge drawback
- emphasis is laid onto the discussions or links/photos/content, so user profiles are minimal. If you like having a big fancy profile, you won't have that in reddit-like apps
- the biggest drawback would have to be that there's no import function for any of those pieces of software. This means I can't import our current discussions to the new software, we would be starting from scratch. That said, I would definitely create a website archive (something like old.squattheplanet.com) so that information doesn't get lost.
- reddit/lemmy/kbin lack advanced features. One example would be our 'reactions' system (i.e. likes/dislikes/poo rating). there's just an upvote/downvote system (downvotes can be turned off entirely if we want to do that).
- while admins will be able to make changes in any community, ideally that community should be moderated by the person that created it (or assign mod duties to others)
- these systems are not as 'pretty' as the current site or the other software alternative I'm looking at, Flarum.
- The developers of lemmy are definitely tankies and their main site Lemmy.ml and Lemmygrad.ml smack down content that isn't pro-communist or criticizes that ideology. Most leftist-leaning lemmy/kbin servers block those sites from interacting with their lemmy/kbin communities. I am not aware of the Kbin software developers having any political allegiances.
- While Lemmy has a mobile app, KBin does not. I've read that the developers are working on one but it's not ready for use yet.
On a side note, I'm still seriously considering Flarum, because it's essentially a message board software with a lot of the modern features we are used to, and we can import our past discussions into it. It is NOT part of ActivityPub or the Fediverse, but they are very interested in adding support for those systems at some point in the future.
TL;DR -- The Reddit blackout has opened my eyes to some possible alternatives to StP. The biggest advantage would be giving users the ability to create their own communities. The biggest drawback would be not being able to interact with our previous message board discussions (which date back to 2006).
Please vote on the poll and post any comments you might have. I know I haven't covered everything about these software alternatives, so please post any questions you have below and I'll do my best to answer them as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your time and input!