[HacktionLab] Facebook exodus & where are people going

[Ben Green]

Hi all,

this post reads "Facebook exodus", but then the responses are all  
about either micro blogging or personal messaging platforms. I now  
have to have Signal, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, IRC client, SMS,  
Whatsapp and so on all installed on my phone/computer so that I can  
communicate with groups who have a particular preference. Frankly I  
don't need any more this thread has now given me another 8 platforms  
to look at isn't really helpful.

Those services, micro blogging and personal messaging, are not the  
reason Facebook has become ubiquitous. It's the extended suite of  
services. For me, the event calendaring is the most useful part of  
facebook. I can contact groups who I know have signed up as being  
interested in an event, and see the events I've signed up for in  
calendar form. Other people might have different needs.

We aren't going to stop Facebook with more and more and more micro  
blog/personal messenger platforms. I don't need more ways of people  
contacting me and I don't need more pictures of peoples meals. There  
needs to be an effort to find the useful and societaly enriching parts  
of Facebook and to have our own empowering services which take the  
best parts of the proprietary platforms and give them choice, security  
and privacy.


2p,
Cheers,
Ben


Quoting ekes <ekes at aktivix.org>:

> On 26/03/18 11:30, Paula Graham wrote:
>> Nearest thing to whatsapp would be telegram but purists get sniffy  
>> about encryption protocols and it doesn't encrypt by default.
>
> Think the common alternative is Signal - lots of people offer me their
> Signal number these days.
>
> My preference, as it doesn't need a telephone number, will work on all
> devices without jumping through hoops, and is generally more flexible
> regarding encrypted/not encrypted/groups/chats/bridging to other
> networks etc. is riot/matrix:
>
> https://chat.disroot.org/ is my suggested instance (although I actually
> use https://chat.weho.st - they all federate)
> https://about.riot.im/ for apps to download.
>
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