thoughts about Facebook and @Mainebot 's article https://medium.com/tootsuite/replacing-the-pillars-of-the-internet-235836580a0e
I don't think Facebook is like the others. And the reason, stupidly and maddeningly, are Real Names.
Before FB, if my aunt wanted to message your uncle, she'd have to get his handle (number, e-mail...) somehow.
Now she types in a name and gets the right person, just like that.
Facebook solves discoverability, at least for existing IRL social networks. I'm not sure a distributed thing can do that.
So could we maybe replicate the thing with realnames somehow? Sure we could! Put in a searchable "real name" field, federated social circle tracker, get people's contact lists and securely and privately match them, display friend suggestions, etc. etc.
*Would* we do that?
Hahahahahahaha no. No way in hell. Not in a million years, not ever. Because we don't *want* these features.
I'm not sure _anyone_ wants them, actually. But they are what makes the whole thing work.
I agree. Real names have made it different. It's the new phone book. @Mainebot 's article https://medium.com/tootsuite/replacing-the-pillars-of-the-internet-235836580a0e is excellent (I'm going to check out matrix). I feel trapped on fb. Groups are good but friending most co-workers isn't. For me the entrapment is related to fomo. Step away from the screen and fb gets less important. Getting outside, reading books over articles, etc. Easier said than done.
@generica Your FB experience is very different from mine O_o
I consider groups to be among the worse known ways to communicate, their main advantage being the FB integration. What do you think is good about them?
(also it helped me immensely to realize that most of my timeline is stuff i actively don't care about. but yeah, i feel the skinner box. what if the next post is interesting?)
Very interesting. I don't actually like the groups that much but they've replaced a lot of blogs so i am on them for genealogy and language stuff, mostly article sharing. Most importantly, fb is needed for playing scrabble. I have unfollowed all but about 20 people so my timeline is only ads and I don't visit it often.
@matejcik @Mainebot There's nothing stopping people from using their official or assigned-at-birth (I refuse to call them "real") names on decentralized social media. I use mine on Mastodon, and I could use mine on Diaspora if I wanted.
Try typing "Matthew Graybosch" into Mastodon's search field, and you'll see my accounts on various instances.
I think the real "issue" is that there is nothing FORCING people to use their official/assigned-at-birth names on decentralized networks.
@starbreaker @Mainebot yeah, should've used "legal name" for the searchable field.
Anyway, no, that's not actually *the* issue. The issue is that your coworker's boyfriend whom you've met IRL can't find you on Mastodon, because there's a million instances and very little guarantee that this particular "Matthew" is actually the right "Matthew". Whereas on FB he can.
It's not just the names. It's all the creepiness that goes with it.
Whether or not you want to be discoverable with your real name is a participatory concern, not a problem with a platform.
Diaspora isn't feature-complete to even compare on paper to facebook; it works more like mastodon, or twitter.
Being discoverable should be something you can opt others into, not assume at a base level. A medium of contact should exist, that individuals control as a locus of contact disbursement.
you want my email? Ping a request to my public card
I mean. Can we implement a thing that looks like FB and has all the right features? Sure! Everyone currently on Mastodon will love it and flock to it.
And everyone else, that is most of the real-life people out there, will stay on FB. And we'll stay too because otherwise we won't see their photos and won't get invited to their events. Because everyone else is there, and because you don't know That Guy From Work's handle so you can't actually send him the invite on not!FB.