Has anyone who loathes or fears Facebook tried an alternative?

[IDemo]

I was never inclined to take the plunge into Facebook, even before the revelations about privacy privations and after repeated proddings from family members. But I understand that for many people, the utility of it in keeping tabs on your social network overrides any concerns about who may be looking over your shoulder.

For those who may want some of the benefits but without the creepy Big Brother aspects, doesn't the idea of exploring one or two alternatives have at least some merit? The biggest stumbling block I can see is overcoming the crowd mentality: not "everyone" is using likeme.com therefore I certainly won't either! How can anyone Like me if I'm not using the socially agreed-upon springboard of Likeability?

One open source alternative that seems to be gaining at least some notice is Friendica.

From their website:

Why Friendica? Because somebody has to stand up for the people of the Internet. This is why we exist. Friendica is our alternative to those "creepy" social networks that don't really care about your privacy, and only seem to care how they can profit from taking it away. They seem to be constantly making it harder for your social communications to actually reach your friends and families, and easier for unwanted people to sell you stuff.

If these things concern you, perhaps it's time to join other freedom loving and privacy respecting people on the free social web.

The Friendica Project is a world-wide consortium of software developers creating decentralised social platforms and technology for the coming post-Facebook world. We aren't as flashy and well known as some of the other projects working on a decentralised/federated social web, but we've been quietly working behind the scenes to provide the most reliable, full-featured, and extensible alternative to the monolithic providers.

MySpace was all the rage not so long ago until ZuckerCo stormed to the forefront. Perhaps it's time for another change?

[jberryhill]

1. Yes. The alternative I use is "not using it"

Here's the deal. Nobody is going to give you a free platform on the internet to keep in touch with friends, share pictures, etc. without getting something in return.

It's not as if someone says, "We'll provide a free service to millions of people, and make it up in volume."

The appeal of internet advertising is that it can be more efficient than spending millions of dollars to run a television commercial for, say, tampons, to an audience that is roughly half men.

[IDemo]

2. It sounds as if they want people to operate their own node, or site

rather than running the whole affair from a single huge server farm. That is likely to greatly reduce their revenue requirements.

How to run a public or community site

Running a Friendica site for yourself and five to ten other people is very easy. But maintaining a much larger server requires some expertise. You need to ensure that your resources are used wisely.

We have compiled a new how-to containing all the information you need to be successful with your public site (one that promotes Friendica by allowing anyone to sign on) or your community site (a server for your club, church, sports team etc). If you follow the advice given, you should be able to maintain such a server without major headaches.

[jberryhill]

3. "If you follow the advice given, you should be able to maintain such a server"

Ummm... yeah... anything that is not "click here to do stuff" isn't going to get significant traction.

People call Facebook support to report their monitor isn't working.

[IDemo]

4. OK, we've heard your objections

1) You wouldn't use it, and 2) Other people aren't up to it.

This isn't the only alternative available, but it's one I chose to highlight.

Next?

[jberryhill]

5. Objections?

I don't have any "objections" to anything anyone wants to do on the internet.

DU is my primary time-waster. I couldn't imagine taking on another one.

[frazzled]

6. There really is no alternative at the moment

Because the medium is "social," you have to take into account what other people are using. And everybody uses Facebook (for unknown reasons).

So, for instance ... I have a Google+ account, which is like Facebook, but I haven't even looked at it in months. Why? Because no one uses it. (Except I think maybe my nephew, who invited me to join a year ago or so. I should go look.) There's nothing really to see.

If nobody uses it, it's not much good at social networking.

[IDemo]

7. Well, it's sort of a chicken/egg equation

Much like electric or hydrogen vehicles. There doesn't exist a charging station or hydrogen refilling station in every neighborhood, so the early adopters are taking the pioneering steps unless and until the benefits become apparent to the masses. I tend to think that enough have become disgusted with Zuckerberg's apparent delight in biweekly privacy outrages to back away from FB and recruit others in doing so.