JupiterRowland

Ironically, Google+ was an all-out diaspora* ripoff. And Google got away with it because they brazenly stole from something that nobody even knew existed.

Remember Google's new UI style? The black bar at the top? Stolen from diaspora* for Google+.

Also, everyone claims that Google+ invented the concept of "circles". Actually, Google just ripped off diaspora*'s aspects. (And Friendica had them several months before diaspora* even. So Friendica had them first. Not diaspora*. And Google even less.)

Won't happen.

Around December 29th, multiple big diaspora* pods shut down. According to one source, diaspora* lost over half of its users within three days. On January 25th, diasp.org, one of the biggest pods, will meet its end.

Also, if anything, Friendica (plus Hubzilla plus Socialhome) will suck the rest of life out of diaspora*. diaspora* users will move there from their own dying pods to stay in contact both with their friends who still hold out on diaspora* and with their friends who have moved on to something that uses ActivityPub. And the former will become fewer and fewer as more and more pods shut down.

This is even fairly easy for (streams) which is a fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork?) of a fork of Friendica by Friendica's own creator, eleven years after Friendica. And I wouldn't even feel bad about it.

That's because (streams) has only got two public, open-registration instances. If you're in North America, it's Rumbly. If you're in Europe, it's Nomád (with a German veteran admin who also runs two Hubzilla hubs, who is savvy enough to single-handedly re-write Hubzilla's entire help system from scratch in both German and English, and who plans to do the same for (streams)).

And it's because (streams) intentionally keeps itself away from instance-listing websites like Fediverse Observer and FediDB, so being railroaded to any one specific instance is just about the only chance you have to get into (streams).

Granted, it has a learning curve that's even steeper than Friendica's. It doesn't have a UI/UX that looks like $10M of VC. And there's no way whatsoever to use (streams) with any kind of dedicated, native mobile Fediverse app, especially not its own official iPhone app named "Streams" that looks like $20M of VC.

Lemmy users = Redditors = geeks.

OP is talking about people for whom the Internet is Facebook, Google, YouTube and Amazon, and who have always only ever used phones and never in their lives laid their hands upon an actual computer.

People who had their Gmail account registered and configured by whoever sold them their phone (or one of their past phones).

Anything that goes beyond "load an app with the same name as the thing you want to use from the App Store, user name, password, go" is too complex for them.

If you don't mind a learning curve and having to use the Web interface (because there's no native mobile app): (streams). From Friendica's creator.

If (streams) sounds good, but you need a shit-ton of extra features on top (and be it diaspora* connectivity), and you don't mind an even steeper learning curve: Hubzilla. Also made by the guy who made Friendica.

If you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must have a dedicated native app on your phone, you're on Android, and you can live without features such as nomadic identity, multiple channels per account and advanced, fine-grained permission control: Friendica.

If you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must have a dedicated native app on your phone, but you're on iOS: Wait for Relatica to have a stable release, then Friendica. (Caveats see above.)

Forget diaspora*. It's fading out. Shortly before New Year's Eve, a bunch of big diaspora* pods shut down, and at least according to one stats site, diaspora* lost more than haf its users.

And Pleroma is a Twitter replacement that, just like Mastodon, started out as an alternative UI for GNU social.

Imagine being able to post only to Alice, Bob and Carol and nobody else ever laying their eyes on the post. Not in the Fediverse, not outside the Fediverse.

Imagine only Alice, Bob and Carol being able to reply to your posts, but all three being able to see and reply to each other's replies.

Imagine being able to define groups of connections with which you can do the above.

Sounds like utopian science-fiction. Is reality.

Hubzilla (official website), a Friendica fork by Friendica's own creator, offers literally what I've described above. It has since 2012, almost four years longer than Mastodon has been around.

If you want something more lightweight with not quite such a steep learning curve, there's also (streams) (code repository from 2021 from the same creator, the result of a whole series of forks. Similar advanced and fine-grained permissions system, but somewhat easier to use.

Why does the fediverse not have a privacy control to limit who can see and interact with your posts?

It does. The Fediverse is more than Mastodon and Lemmy.

Especially Hubzilla and (streams) with their advanced permissions systems provide what you're looking for and more. Only downsides are the learning curves ((streams)' learning curve is not exactly shall, Hubzilla's is steeper), UIs that don't look like they were made in 2024 from venture capital and a total lack of native mobile apps (you can install both as PWAs, though).

Common misconception by Fediverse newbies: "Fediverse" is an umbrella term for a bunch of decentralised walled gardens. Like, Lemmy only connects to Lemmy, Mastodon only connects to Mastodon, Pixelfed only connects to Pixelfed etc. And if you're on Mastodon, and your Facebook friends join Friendica, you need a Friendica account to get back in touch with them.

In reality, just about everything is interconnected with everything. No matter what it is.

You can use your Mastodon account to follow people on Pixelfed, on Friendica, on Misskey, whatever.

That said, having a separate Lemmy account makes sense because Lemmy/the Threadiverse is somewhat special in operation. Also, it's all about conversations and groups, and Mastodon doesn't understand neither. And starting a thread on Lemmy from Mastodon is not as straight-forward as starting a thread on Mastodon from Mastodon.

OP wants something that looks like the Twitter app, that feels like the Twitter app, that handles like the Twitter app. But with Mastodon underneath.

Essentially the "literally Twitter without Musk" which millions of Twitter refugees have expected Mastodon to be since 2022.

Probably also hard-coded to mastodon.social to hide Mastodon's decentrality from the dumb-dumbs.

The closest you'd get would be with Hubzilla or (streams). Or Forte if it wasn't experimental with no public instances yet. They even have file spaces with WebDAV on which you can upload files and then define who is permitted to see/access these files or the folders they're in.

However:

What you want isn't their default M.O. You'll have to get used to and think yourself into something with a learning curve that's even steeper than Friendica's. You'll have to learn and understand the permissions system, including giving nobody permission to see your connections. Ideally, all your connections would have to be smart enough to know how to to hide being connected to you from the public and to actually do so.

Encryption is optional and "uninstalled" by default for everyone, and it isn't even available on all server instances (it's up to the admin to activate that add-on, and then the user has to activate it, too). Also, it uses passphrases and not automatically generated key pairs.

Finally, if you insist in using it with a mobile app, you're completely out of luck. It's browser or PWA for all of them.

Knud Puppetsen, is that you on the picture?

Knickerbockers