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Comment by _audakel | Hacker News Reader

Not that I like GNU social (get all my news from twitter) but why the down votes? It is a legitimate idea and project, and he gives examples of similar undertakings.

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Also pointing out existing alternatives which can work without some single big for profit company behind is a very valid counter argument to a claim that Twitter has to be saved.

Have you ever tried it? It's not very good.

Like, yes, it's workable and usable. It's okay. But the user experience is absolutely awful, especially on mobile.

Maybe if HN started its own GNU Social server and started using it, we'd see some interesting stuff happen.

> Like, yes, it's workable and usable. It's okay. But the user experience is absolutely awful

Sure it needs a bit more love on the UI side but it's not that bad. The Twitter Website is btw. not that great, too.

> especially on mobile.

I use Twidere [1] for both Twitter and GS, works well.

[1] https://github.com/mariotaku/twidere

As another angle, the name 'GNU Social' has all the catchiness and sparkle of a corporate quarterly accounts report. I can't see non-techies getting excited by it.

As a fan of decentralized, distributed, and federated messaging protocols (such as but not limited to gnu social), I do agree that the name is not ideal for non-techies...But i guess it could be worse...bad examples off the top of my head:

  * Gnu Comrade-gram   
  
  * Gnu IMeer (like rocketeer, but also not coincidentally sounds like "I am here")  
  
  * Gnu FreeMess (as in "free messaging"...no not free in beer, but free as in liberty, because it allows for...doh, nevermind!)  
  
  * Gnu LibPost  
  
  * Gnu SocMe (short for social media)

I'm sure there could be even worse names with more time. :-)

I'm working on something like that:

http://hackertribe.io

(have not launched yet)

It will be something like a mix of twitter and reddit, but open source, decentralized, and GNU Social compatible.

I currently use gnu social for social posts (only for private family instance for now as a personal beta). And also use matrix.org for IM/chat (also for private family beta). I'm very happy with both. But if you can get your platform to continue to speak "gnu social" AND speak "matrix.org" for chat, I think you would hit a really sweet spot for numerous HN-centric demographics...at least for HN-type users...then make software dead easy to install, and civilian users will follow.

I signed up for your newsletter...no pressure, but I (and many others!) really hope you succeed! :-)

Just subscribed to your newsletter. Impress me.

AndStatus [http://andstatus.org] is pretty lightweight, and is both a twitter and gnu social mobile client, rolled into one. While my usage is for my own, private (very small scale/family) gnu social server, so far its pretty good.

PHP. No.

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