Three social networks to watch and try in 2023
As we approach the year’s end, let’s look at some new players for 2023. Of course, most of you might be familiar with “Mastodon”, but have you heard about “Post” or “Bluesky”? If not, grab yourself a good cup of coffee!
Before we begin, let’s quickly define the “Fediverse” as some of those networks use it. The one-liner explanation is that it is an ecosystem of federated & interconnected servers supporting the same open standards communication protocols (for example, ActivityPub, SSB, Matrix, etc.). They are mainly used for file hosting, social networks, blogs, and websites. In addition, the shared protocols allow users to interact with each other on compatible platforms. Finally, the Fediverse was also historically the El Dorado of users in quest of data privacy, running away from all the monetized platforms.
Mastodon
- Link: https://mastodon.social
- Creator: Eugen Rochko
- Active users: 230K
You may have heard much about it since Elon Musk took over Twitter. Mastodon is a part of the Fediverse, crowdfunded, and does not contain ads.
Self-hosted social networking services can be run on Mastodon using free and open-source software. The network has microblogging capabilities offered by many independent execution nodes, known as “instances”. Each instance has its rules, code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, options, and moderation policies. In addition, users usually belong to specific instances (or servers), which can interoperate as a federated social network, allowing users on different models to interact (Switzerland, USA, Gamer, etc.). This is intended to enable users to select a node they feel the most comfortable with while accessing a more comprehensive social network.
To summarize, you can post on this decentralized social network and choose your level of privacy control. The main advantage is using a non-profit-oriented decentralized social network instead of legacy offerings.
Post
- Link: https://post.news/
- Creator: Noam Bardin
- Active Beta users: 100k
- Users on the waiting list: +270k
When you know that Noam Bardin is none other than the ex-CEO of Waze, you can only be excited about it. The main objective of “Post” is to become a digital civil space. You should be able to debate, learn, and have fun! Nowadays, some advertising-based networks rely solely on capturing the attention of their users at any cost, ready to do whatever is necessary to grow. Unfortunately, these marketing tactics usually have tangible social consequences, amplifying the extremes and silencing others. “Post” will try to offer a healthier alternative and solve these problems.
Technically, you will be able to share posts of any length, comment, like, re-post, buy articles from premium partners (as it is not a non-profit), tip creators, and discuss.
When I think about this, I mind-map a utopian de-intoxicated hybrid social network made of Facebook, Twitter, and Medium. But, of course, things will not be perfect from day one, so let’s see what the future tells us! If you are interested in the Beta of this project, I highly recommend you read Noam’s post on what will be next and what will not.
Bluesky
- Link: https://blueskyweb.org/
- Creator: Jack Dorsey
- Users on the waiting list: +30k
The long-awaited decentralized media project will launch soon to compete with existing social networks. The project started in 2019 at Twitter. Over the past weeks, Bluesky has received over 30,000 signups. The promise is “to give creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience”. At this point in time, we only know a little about it, apart from the fact that the application Bluesky is intended to support the new fast and efficient decentralized AT protocol. The focus will be on account portability, open algorithms, interoperation, and performance.
To conclude, this intended short 4-min read.
Putting decentralized networks at the front of our daily digital communications might be the best choice we will make in 2023, and it might also be about time to focus on interoperation. The topic I will let you answer is, regardless of the goal and the technology, are social networks only valid if the people we know are on them? Medium Staff
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Dimitri Pletschette 🚀 LinkedIn | Medium | X | Microsoft | Mastodon
