[HN Gopher] Scuttlebutt social network: a decentralised platform
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Scuttlebutt social network: a decentralised platform
Author : p4bl0
Score : 91 points
Date : 2024-02-23 19:14 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (scuttlebutt.nz)
(TXT) w3m dump (scuttlebutt.nz)
| _Marak_ wrote:
| Secure Scuttlebutt Consortium on Github: https://github.com/ssbc
|
| ssb/ssbc is a fun and cool project built on solid code by smart
| people.
| hobofan wrote:
| Is it actually in a usable state right now?
|
| The last 3 times I tried to use it the ~5 projects you had to
| run/put together to get any higher-level usable application
| were always in some way incompatible with each other, as they
| always seem to be in a constant mode of refactoring. Figuring
| out a set of compatible versions looked like more like a dark
| ritual than anything else.
| _Marak_ wrote:
| I'm not sure. The last time I tried using it, I had a similar
| experience.
|
| Nobody was ever able to coalesce a coherent UX/UI around ssb,
| the core contributors at the time weren't interested in
| scaling the network without outside funding.
|
| I was working on implementing lighting fast discovery for ssb
| using a distributed BitTorrent-like tracker. Getting onto the
| ssb network took way too long. Still, there were not many
| users on the network, and nobody seemed interested in
| growing.
| cutler wrote:
| Rethink the name. Seriously.
| therealfiona wrote:
| I LOVE the name. What's the problem?
| grugagag wrote:
| I love it too but I could see it hurting some adoption,
| unless it goes the other way. Scuttlebut is intriguing and a
| sticky name...
| riquisimo wrote:
| Man, I disagree.
| ang_cire wrote:
| Why? If someone will not use an app because it has a silly
| sounding name, or because they're so immature that "butt" is
| objectionable to them, I'm happy not to have them bring that
| attitude into a social space I'm part of.
| nine_k wrote:
| That's fine, but incompatible with popularity.
|
| All people are rather different. No matter who you are, the
| art of popularity is the art of attracting people who are
| unlike you. Just because most people are unlike you, and
| unlike each other. Yes, this assumes removing some nice
| edginess, and appearing slightly generic.
| rrix2 wrote:
| Yeah it should be something serious like The Face Book or
| Twitter or Tumblr or Orkut or X or something!!
| ssgodderidge wrote:
| > "The name, Scuttlebutt, came from sea-slang for gossip.
| Basically, like a watercooler on a ship, where sailors and
| pirates go have a yarn." [0]
|
| Personally, I respect the effort to stand out in the sea (get
| it?) of social platforms.
|
| [0] https://scuttlebutt.nz/about/
| nanomonkey wrote:
| Kinda too late, it's a 10 year old project. Besides,
| scuttlebutt is the name of the water barrel on a ship, and is
| synonymous with gossip. As a gossip protocol originally written
| by someone who lives on a ship, I think it's pretty fitting.
| nine_k wrote:
| This matters little. The majority of potential users live on
| land and take water from a tap. The subtlety if the naming is
| lost for them. But the schoolchild-level silliness of it
| persists and repels.
| blisstonia wrote:
| It's a fair comment. The name isn't great.
|
| Fortunately scuttlebutt is the protocol, which I guess is fine.
| beardedwizard wrote:
| It's ok, the project never took off. Big barrier to entry,
| clunky to use, being superseded by better decentralized
| approaches.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| Scuttlebutt in america is a very common word used to describe
| gossip.
|
| I love the parallelism between 'scuttlebutt' and 'water cooler
| talk' .. they both describe gossip and they are both named for
| people standing around a source of drinking water telling
| stories.
| thx wrote:
| i just want a HN social network :33
| pizzafeelsright wrote:
| what's it worth to you on an annual basis?
| shp0ngle wrote:
| I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven't seen
| anyone actually using it? Why?
|
| edit: hm, the recommended application on the website itself is
| ... from 2021, and the github of the app itself is archived now.
| And there is "bleeding edge" one ... from 2019.
|
| OK I can see that there might be problems
| earthwalker99 wrote:
| > _I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven
| 't seen anyone actually using it? Why?_
|
| It's called Scuttlebutt, meaning it can never be remotely
| popular enough to function as a worthwhile social network.
| todd3834 wrote:
| I don't think this should be downvoted. It's a valid point
| and potential lesson for anyone thinking about reviving or
| doing something similar.
|
| While this might not be the only issue I wouldn't doubt that
| the name might prevent a larger audience.
| losvedir wrote:
| Why? I think it's a fine name, better than most, because
| it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does /
| what it's for. You're not just saying that because the word
| happens to end in "butt" are you? Or am I missing
| something?
| filoleg wrote:
| > I think it's a fine name, better than most, because
| it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does
| / what it's for
|
| Just because the name says exactly what the product does
| and what it's for, that doesn't automatically mean it is
| good. In fact, imo it is bad in a lot of cases.
|
| Do you think Instagram would have gotten as popular if it
| was named FlexGallery, or if Nextdoor was named
| SpreadRumorsActVaguelyRacistForum, or if Twitter/X was
| named PopularityContestShortMessagesAndBadNewsSourceSpace
| WithSomePorn?
|
| I personally would say "no" to all of those, and it isn't
| just because the names get unnecessarily long and ugly.
| McDonalds would never rename itself to Cheap Passable
| Fast Food Restaurant.
| nine_k wrote:
| A name that makes many of your friends smile ironically
| is not a name that would induce a network effect, except
| maybe in marginal communities ("bitards").
|
| A name must not be even remotely silly, else it will be
| laughed out of the (already crowded) room.
| jrm4 wrote:
| "Normal English Word" feels like a stretch. At least in
| the US, pretty obscure and kind of archaic sounding?
| ziddoap wrote:
| > _it 's a normal English word_
|
| I mean, it's _an_ English word, for sure. I have never
| once in my many years heard someone say it excepting
| maybe a handful of times when someone was purposefully
| trying to be quirky.
| jrm4 wrote:
| Upvoting because I'm also the guy who _understands_ that,
| similarly, GIMP will never be big as it should be.
| ziddoap wrote:
| I have gotten some very strange looks from friends and
| coworkers when I have mentioned GIMP in passing.
| rglullis wrote:
| Rumor has it, Microsoft balked away from a billion dollar
| acquisition of this source control and project management
| tool because they didn't want to be associated with a
| collaboration portal for gits.
| echelon wrote:
| If you're good enough that your name doesn't hold you back,
| good for you.
|
| As it stands, I turn my nose at stuff like Cockroach DB.
| rglullis wrote:
| I get not liking a name, but to pass judgement on the
| quality of a product/project based on its name alone
| seems like a complete midwit thing to do.
| evbogue wrote:
| Oh Scuttlebot. Such a great idea, and for a time it actually
| worked. I haven't been actively developing with the codebase
| for years, but I believe the current status of the project is
| that there were too many code rewrites that simply broke things
| that previously worked at one point or another.
|
| I tell people sometimes that I'd put together a team to do a
| retro Scuttlebot revival with a Patchwork-style app and of
| course git-ssb! If you're interested in this kind of project
| email or call me. Contacts are in my bio.
|
| I'm mostly looking for devs who want to dive into an old
| Node.js codebase, who want to recapture the magic of the
| original protocol, and then upgrade all of the modules to
| modern standards. Maybe Deno or Bun even.
| Hamuko wrote:
| Why? Well, for one thing, it's an append-only log, which I
| would argue is a terrible choice for a social network.
| woah wrote:
| Social networks are strongly dependent on network effects. For
| a time SSB was actually used by some of my friends, but it
| required a desktop app, had a confusing onboarding process,
| IIRC had some rough edges around syncing content, and was just
| not smooth enough to compete against highly funded centralized
| companies in the cuthroat social networking space.
| nightpool wrote:
| Scuttlebutt had the Bitcoin like problem of requiring everybody
| to have a local copy of the entire database, with a confusing /
| glitchy "syncing" process to download the latest posts. I tried
| to use it for a few days on my Android, but it never showed any
| new posts and the syncing process took like 30 seconds every
| time I opened the app.
| Solvency wrote:
| Everyone here is focused on the tech and I'm here wondering how
| I'm supposed to convince my friends and family to join me on
| something called Scuttlebutt.
| oli-g wrote:
| Someone at last, thank you!!
| kouru225 wrote:
| Have you heard the scuttlebutt?
| https://youtu.be/N4ovRhX8XIM?feature=shared
| cha42 wrote:
| So who build an hackernews room for fun ?
| thebeardisred wrote:
| FYI, one of the original Twitter devs (Rabble <3 ) is one of the
| creators.
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _Secure Scuttlebutt_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480864 - Jan 2023 (82
| comments)
|
| _Ask HN: Anyone got experience using Scuttlebutt? Thoughts?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29974051 - Jan 2022 (4
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebutt Protocol Guide_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672518 - Dec 2021 (35
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebutt: Decentralised, off-grid, mesh network and self-
| hosted social media_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612591 - Sept 2021 (3
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebutt - A decentralized secure gossip platform_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713830 - Jan 2021 (164
| comments)
|
| _What Is Scuttlebutt?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22915460 - April 2020 (40
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and
| messaging system_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22909984
| - April 2020 (116 comments)
|
| _Planetary: a VC backed social network built on Scuttlebutt, out
| of stealth_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123238 - Jan
| 2020 (5 comments)
|
| _SSB Rooms: a new server type for Scuttlebutt_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20828356 - Aug 2019 (32
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16877603 - April 2018 (342
| comments)
|
| _Patchwork - Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on
| Secure Scuttlebutt_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273096 - Jan 2018 (64
| comments)
|
| _Scuttlebutt - A decentralised secure gossip platform_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890911 - Dec 2017 (5
| comments)
|
| _Extending Scuttlebutt with Annah_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15502924 - Oct 2017 (1
| comment)
|
| _Scuttlebot peer-to-peer log store_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14409187 - May 2017 (10
| comments)
|
| _An off-grid social network_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14050049 - April 2017 (366
| comments)
| linuxandrew wrote:
| https://www.manyver.se/ is one of the leading implementations of
| Scuttlebutt. They're currently working on a protocol replacement
| called PPPPP which addresses some of the shortcomings they
| identified, the leading one being storage requirements and
| growth.
| pcloadletter_ wrote:
| At this point my decentralized social network is RSS. Just the
| right level of interactivity for me!
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(page generated 2024-02-23 23:00 UTC)