And that's why I'm now thinking Friendica is never going to be a Facebook replacement.

Most social media users just want to use social media. They have no interest in running their own server. Especially Americans. As I've explained before, controlling data privacy is not a priority for most Americans. We've already had pretty much ALL of our personal data breached a 100 times already. People readily exchange their personal data for access to free services. Because most of those services can already BUY all our data from brokers. The genie is already out of the bottle.

And the average social media user doesn't have the technical skills to run a server. They don't know the first thing about it. But even for those of us who DO what is the incentive to run our own server? If our personal data is already in the wild it's not to control that. Why should I incur the expense and legal risks of running my own server?

You see, in the United States most ISPs will NOT let residential subscribers self-host anything. You don't get a static IP and their gateway blocks the ports. You have to upgrade to more expensive "business" service to get that capability. The other option is to run it on a webhosting service. But social media platforms require too many resources for shared hosting, so again you'd be looking at much more expensive dedicated hosting plans.

I don't know how it works elsewhere in the world, but most shared hosting I've dealt with here bandwidth throttles and limits the number of processes and limits storage space and database size, and you can get flagged or banned for repeatedly or consistently using too many resources on shared hosting. From what I've heard discussed, the more active users you have on Friendica the resources required seem to grow rapidly, because the core functionality can only scale vertically.

If you're going to run a public server and let other people post stuff you also need "safe harbor" protection against any copyright infringement lawsuits if one of your users starts posting anything an alleged rights holder demands you take down. Which means you need to be able to process DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown requests. Meaning you need to have a dedicated AGENT they can contact to handle that. And to insulate yourself from becoming a party to any copyright infringement lawsuit you need to register that person as an agent with the US Copyright Office. So there's a legal hurdle I'm betting many people self-hosting public fedi platforms in the United States don't even know about.

But you could still be named as a party in a libel or defamation suit for not taking down a post. You could literally lose everything in a lawsuit for anything, or burn through all your money fighting even a frivolous lawsuit, UNLESS you insulate your personal assets from anything related to the website. To do that you'd be wise to set up a Limited Liability Company (LLC) which would be the target of any lawsuits - not you personally.

If you planned to take donations to pay for hosting the server it would also be a good idea to set up that company as a 501(c)(3) non-profit so people's donations are tax deductible and your company doesn't get taxed as a for-profit venture.

(And the United States is so litigious I feel the need to add the disclaimer that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice).

Those are some pretty steep hurdles to properly run a social media server. Most people are not going to want to do it. I don't want to do it! That's why I signed up on the Friendica.World server.

And that server has had a lot of problems with performance and stability because it has thousands of active users on it, and Friendica - it is now pretty clear - was never designed for that. It was, as you say, aimed at users who want to run their own private server and provide a home for themselves, family, and friends. Which means it will probably never be the Facebook alternative people are looking for. Feature-wise yes, but functionally, no.

@Matthias Yes, I've read that interview with Mike and the reason I believed Friendica was intentionally trying to a Facebook replacement was this quote:

"I discovered that in 2010 there was no decentralized solution on the ‘free web’ to replace Facebook — in even the most basic sense."
- Mike MacGarvin

But it would seem that goal to "replace Facebook" was quickly abandoned in favor of being something else: a personal social hub to connect to everything else.

You may be correct that the Fediverse, at least for the most part, may actually be a project for people outside the United States. I can understand why non-Americans wouldn't want to use Big Tech corporate platforms headquartered here considering we have zero national data privacy laws and the billionaires who own those platforms have proven to be fascistic, allowing their algorithms to push a never-ending tide of hate speech and conspiracy theories into people's feeds.

And it seems no matter how much Americans say they hate these platforms too, trying to get them to actually leave them is like pulling teeth. Anywhere you suggest they go it had better be simple. One website to sign up on. But then you run into the "Catch-22" of all social media platforms: nobody will sign up unless everyone they know is already there. And even when Big Tech tries to force people there it doesn't mean people will actually use the platform. How many of those automatically created Threads accounts are active? Google automatically created Google+ accounts for everyone. The place was a ghost town and they shut it down.

Like I said, I don't think data privacy or control of data is much of a selling point to Americans. I mean, I've received multiple notices already this year my data was breached again...last year. And these are only the ones companies are admitting to and only because ONE state has a law requiring them to disclose breaches if they affected anyone in that state. We have no clue how many time our personal data has actually been stolen. But they don't even need to steal it. Data brokers harvest, aggregate, and sell that data all the time. We have nothing to say about it. At this point I think everyone in this country just assumes there's nothing left to protect and we have no control over it. So that aspect of the Fediverse is effectively meaningless to most Americans. Maybe except for the paranoid ones, who probably *think* they're protecting and controlling their data, but it's too late. Newborn babies are having their identities stolen.

Getting away from algorithm-driven rage-baiting, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and fashy billionaires are probably the real main drivers for Americans seeking escape from Big Tech platforms. I'm not even sure the Fedi platforms having "no advertising" is a selling point. My observation is most Americans seem to HATE being hit up for donations for anything, and we're inundated with ads - even on services we PAY for - so most people will put up with ads to get something for free. Most people here are not going to pay for social media, either as subscriptions or via donations.

But damn that "network effect" locking people into those walled gardens is hard to overcome no matter how toxic or annoying the platform is.

I also don't think Friendica's ability to be a "hub" connected to a plethora of other platforms and protocols is necessarily a selling point if people don't actually know anyone ON those other platforms.

Friendica is pretty close to matching Facebook feature-for-feature. It has granular scoping for posts to a list of specific contacts, privacy settings for photos, Events, and you can set up Groups and Pages. It's surprising how other Fedi platforms don't offer these things. I think a large-capacity Friendica server that only federated with other Friendica and ActivityPub instances, or at most also Threads and Bluesky, could potentially work as a viable Facebook alternative - IF it was stable, fast enough, and familiar enough.

Though I also think Friendica may be a little too complicated for the average social media user. I live and breathe tech and parts of it confuse me, I can't imagine some of my friends and relatives trying to use it. They probably never made it past signing up when I sent them the link.

Das Bild zeigt eine Steuerbescheinigung für das Geschäftsjahr 2023-2024. Die Bescheinigung ist für eine leistende Körperschaft, Personenvereinigung, Vermögensmasse oder ein Personenunternehmen sowie für einen Spezial-Investmentfonds. Es handelt sich um eine Einzelsteuerbescheinigung.

Die Bescheinigung informiert darüber, dass eine Dividende in Höhe von 60,00 € auf Basis des dividendenberechtigten Guthabens am 01.10.2023 (1.500,00 €) ausgezahlt wurde. Die Kapitalerträge im Sinne des § 43 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 1 EstG betragen 60,00 €. Davon beträgt die Summe Kapitalertragsteuer in Höhe von 25 % (oder wegen einbehaltenner Kirchensteuer entsprechend geminderter Kapitalertragsteuerbetrag) 14,67 €. Der Solidaritätszuschlag beträgt 0,81 €, und die Kirchensteuer zur Kapitalertragsteuer beträgt 1,32 € (Kirchensteuererhebende Religionsgemeinschaft: Erzbistum Köln). Der Auszahlungsbetrag beträgt insgesamt 43,20 €.

Die Höhe des in Anspruch genommenen Sparer-Pauschbetrages (Zeile 16 oder 17 Anlage KAP) beträgt 0,00 €.

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Russians aren't very good at peace negotiations, are they?

They're too used to making menacing threats instead, just like their dictator Putin.

Putin never wanted peace.

The image is a table with a dark background and white text, titled "What's Not Regulated or Poorly Regulated:". The table has three columns: "F-Gas," "Common Use," and "Current Status." The first column lists different types of F-Gas, including NF₃, C₂F₆, SF₆, CHF₃, CF₄, and PFAS-related gases. The second column describes their common uses, such as etch/cleaning gas, etching, chamber clean/insulation, etch gas, etching, insulator, and resist/etching surfactants. The third column details their current status, such as reported under GHGRP; not limited, reported only if large emitter, loosely tracked; no usage limit, rarely reported; no specific rule, high GWP, barely regulated, and not tracked under TSCA unless new. The table uses a red square to highlight the title.
―
The image shows a screenshot of a chat interface with the title "ChatGPT" at the top left corner. The user has asked, "what are the US f-gas rules," and the response is displayed below the question. The response highlights that the U.S. rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) are fragmented, incomplete, and often narrowly targeted, especially compared to the EU. It mentions that there is a clear overview of what exists, what's missing, and where pressure points are.

The response is divided into two main sections. The first section is titled "US Current U.S. F-Gas Regulations" and lists the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) - Subpart I. It states that this program applies to semiconductor manufacturers emitting over 25,000 metric tons CO2e/year and requires reporting of F-gas use and emissions, process types, and abatement systems. It also notes that the program covers approximately 85% of U.S. fab capacity.

The second section, labeled "BUT," is partially visible and suggests that there are limitations or additional considerations not fully detailed in the visible text. The background of the interface is dark, with text in white and blue, and the overall design is clean and modern.

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Das Bild zeigt eine Szene mit einem dramatischen Himmel, der von dunklen, bedrohlichen Wolken überzogen ist, die auf anstehenden Sturm hindeuten. Im Vordergrund sind grüne Blätter eines Baumes sichtbar, die in den Himmel ragen. Die Blätter sind frisch und leuchtend, was auf eine gesunde Vegetation hinweist. Im Hintergrund sind weitere Bäume mit dichtem Laub zu sehen, die in verschiedenen Grüntönen erscheinen, was auf eine Vielfalt an Pflanzenarten hinweist. Zwei Straßenlaternen mit klassischem Design sind sichtbar, die in der Mitte des Bildes stehen und auf eine gepflegte Umgebung hinweisen. Der Himmel ist stark kontrastierend mit den dunklen Wolken, die eine bedrohliche Atmosphäre schaffen. Die Szene vermittelt ein Gefühl von Natur und Stille, trotz der anstehenden Wetterveränderung.

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