Ask HN: What are open source, decentralized, social replacement applications?

[olivierduval]

Hello,

Following the last trends, I'm starting to be more independant from the "big players". I already got some VPS and domain name, and use docker to host an email server (because... well... docker is far easier to deploy... and even to migrate to another server).

I'm using whatsapp... but it looks like I may have to leave it soon. And I got no FB nor twitter (but I miss it).

So I'm looking for social alternatives, open source, decentralized, self-hosted replacements.

Until now, I found:

- Matrix/Riot to replace whatsapp/IRC - Mastodon to replace twitter - Diaspora (?) to replace FB

What do you think of these? Pros/Cons? Are the products "simple enough" and "strong enough" to ask to my non-geek friends to move on my server?

Or is there better, with more users, more stable alternatives ?

Thanks a lot for your advice and help! :-)

[altairiumblue]

The network effects of everyone being on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram are huge. You can't expect your contacts to move to your network of choice - even if they set up an account, their behaviour and the content they post will be very different. Most likely you will end up connected to a handful of inactive accounts.

What I personally do - use signal/text/email (I wouldn't bother with hosting my own email server) for 1-to-1 communication; no accounts on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat - they're just not worth the time and attention. Neither are Mastodon or Diaspora. I have an up-to-date LinkedIn account that I don't really use - again, worth having an account but the feed is a giant waste of time.

[morningmoon]

Email/sms for messaging, a blog for posting stuff that supports microformats and rss. A social feed reader for subscribing to other feeds/blogs.