What does HackerNews think of patchwork?

There is (was) Patchwork [1].

[1] https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

You're effectively describing Scuttlebutt in a nutshell. Small communities that are formed ad-hoc by peering with each other. "Follow" mean you'll help replicate their content for others who follow them + you. Scuttlebutt is already successful even though it's very small so far. Tags and other things can be used to explore content on the network, as long as you've found an entry-point.

I'm a bit split about spreading the word about Scuttlebutt, I don't want to ruin it since it's already so great. But felt it was very related to what you were writing, so here goes nothing :)

In case you wanna join: https://scuttlebutt.nz/

The client I'm using is https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

You might dig: https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

> it runs on the device and is also focused on the user's data

Only a few of us run servers, most people just run Scuttlebutt on their device so that they can their data as well as their friends' data:

- Windows, macOS, and Linux: https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

- Android: https://gitlab.com/staltz/manyverse/

- iOS: WIP

This technology exists, it just needs to be more widespread. Scuttlebutt[1] is a system for building peer to peer applications. It's main use currently is social networking[2] but someone has already implemented a git store /GitHub alternative on top of it[3]. Nobody controls the network so it can't be censored. If we can get more developers building on top of it we could have a much more decentralized internet.

[1] https://scuttlebutt.nz

[2]https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

[3]https://github.com/noffle/git-ssb-intro

Have you had a look at https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork ? I think it ticks all of the boxes you mentioned!

I've found people's gitter channels (if they have them) to be the best update cycle:

- https://gitter.im/solid/chat (Tim Berners-Lee system)

- https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

- https://gitter.im/amark/gun

- https://gitter.im/datproject/discussions

etc.

The examples you listed gained many users because they were (and are) sharing content that they do not own. Imagine peer to peer sharing of personal photos and videos by the users that own the copyright.

The difference in outcome may be due to less economic incentive. It's easy to share photos on instagram and it's much more difficult to, say, download 20 academic papers without emptying one's bank account. There is a cost to the user to sharing photos with instagram. The cost hasn't been realized by the average user.

https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork/

I'm not a user, but I have been watching it (and its related projects on github). I believe Patchwork[0] is the social network you joined, and it is based on scuttlebutt[1].

It seems like very early times for most people even considering the downsides of centralized 'social media,' and it will take time and hand-holding to demonstrate the alternative possibilities. A great client app that could unify the user experience, but offer power-user features could go a long way. Most people that I know (older) are not overtly interested in participating in any public social network (i.e. Twitter).

I wonder if one could build a more closed, private, white-list-default (triple opt-in!) type of social network on top of SSB with the right client software?

[0] "A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB)." https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

[1] "A database of unforgeable append-only feeds, optimized for efficient replication for peer to peer protocols" https://github.com/ssbc/secure-scuttlebutt

> So what Dapps does anyone here use apart from decentralized exchanges and crypto kitties?

I use patchwork everyday, just like FaceBook or Twitter. Content quality is excellent. https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

That is, if Dapps can be taken to mean distributed apps - instead of just apps on blockchain with consensus.

You're more or less describing https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

Diaspora is actually worse for privacy, because of its distributed nature. Diaspora is about distributed ownership. If you value privacy in a social network, check out https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

Diaspora[0] and Hubzilla[1] exist, but never really caught on for various reasons, possibly nothing more than that they came out too soon.

There is a project to build a Facebook replacement that federates with ActivityPub[2], which would make it to Facebook what Mastodon[3] is to Twitter. However, I don't want to link it because it's in too early a stage to face HN levels of scrutiny.

There is also Patchwork[4], a peer-to-peer social application built on top of the Secure Scuttlebutt Protocol. It doesn't have all the features you'd want yet, but ticks off the boxes some people care about.

[0]: https://diasporafoundation.org/

[1]: https://project.hubzilla.org/page/hubzilla/hubzilla-project

[2]: https://activitypub.rocks/

[3]: https://joinmastodon.org/

[4]: https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

Have a look at Patchwork, which runs over the decentralised Scuttlebot https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

I have been using patchwork[1] as my main social network client for scuttlebutt. In my current experience, the fact that messages are not removable makes me more careful when writing and has led to much better and more meaningful interactions on the network.

Also remember that a message being in the feed doesn't mean it is displayed. Scuttlebutt is quite flexible, there are clients that have support for "chess messages" so their users can play chess, patchwork doesn't support those messages so I don't even see them. There is git-ssb[2] which allows people to host and contribute to code directly inside the feed, not all clients show these messages but they are all there.

New messages could be added for flagging a message id as deleted and clients could honor them and not display that message anymore, they would still be on the feed, much like in version control systems we still have access to deleted files (if no one rewrites history).

I enjoy how permanent things are there because as a side-effect it causes people to care more about the ecosystem and culture as those are permanent stuff you're putting out there. Check out this essay "the future will be technical"[3] about the culture on scuttlebutt, you'll see it is quite different than other social networks, but I agree with you, your experience may vary and what I consider an advantage, others may see as a reason not to use.

[1]: https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork/ [2]: https://github.com/noffle/git-ssb-intro [3]: https://coolguy.website/writing/the-future-will-be-technical...

For this reason, I'd like to see the secure-scuttlebutt protocol catch on.

Right now, the patchwork app[1] is really fun to play with, but still a toy, in my mind.

[1] https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

http://scuttlebot.io/more/protocols/secure-scuttlebutt.html >"Unforgeable" means that only the owner of a feed can update that feed, as enforced by digital signing (see Security properties).

https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork >You have to follow somebody to get messages from them, so you won't get spammed.

Doesn't that make it completely pointless because updates are still centralised? It merely shifted trusting a single provider to trusting each user which is not a scalable solution. The value add is so low you might as well just use IPNS and make people subscribe to IPNS addresses.

Most of those writes don't need to be serialized transactions. Other p2p data structures like CRDTs and torrents are sufficient for posting comments and uploading photos; see the decentralized social network Patchwork[1] (based on scuttlebutt[2]).

The blockchain itself will only be needed for certain types of transactions, for instance those around identity (e.g. name registration), and reputation/spam prevention (forum moderators).

1. https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork 2. https://github.com/dominictarr/scuttlebutt