Salta al contenuto principale


A lot of people are resistant to any kind of business uses for the #Fediverse , but consider this:

- While most of us here are rightfully scornful of #Capitalism , the notion of a "market economy" is not going to go away. There are innumerable small to midsized businesses in the world who _aren't_ like the Capitalists we know and loathe - they haven't established any monopolies, they haven't managed regulatory capture, and they are oppressed by Big Tech just as much as ordinary people are.

- For many such businesses, maybe even the majority, a #Facebook Business Page is more important than a website, and thus many such small businesses _only_ have a Facebook Business Page, since it is far easier to set up than hosting your own website on your own domain, it is easier for your customers to find you there (because #GoogleSucks ), and it is easier for you to interact with your customers as well.

I think it would be very worthwhile if the Fediverse would develop an alternative to Facebook Business Pages for such businesses.

A good example for an industry that could benefit from such "Fediverse Business Pages" would be the #TTRPG industry. While some gamers might whine that "RPG books cost too much these days!", the reality is that this is an industry that has razor-thin margins, and only the very biggest TTRPG companies have employees that number more than in the single digits. Every business decision they have to make must involve the question:

"Is this worth the effort?"

Well, if there _was_ a Fediverse Business Page system that was either easy to self-host, or easy to join on larger instances, and which had a similar design to Facebook Business Pages, then there wouldn't be much effort involved in adding the same material to the former if they already maintained the latter. And as #Meta declines, the Fediverse could gradually take its place.

What would such a Fediverse Business Page require? It would need an ActivityPub-enabled feed, of course. It would need a configurable link list that would point towards their product pages or sales platforms, as well as space for all the usual business information. And it would require a robust scheduling system with a calendar view (I used the one provided by Meta for a time, and I think it is possible to do better).

Did I miss any important features?

Oh, and the same system would work well for non-business organizations as well - whether clubs, NGOs, or even political parties!

Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale
Jürgen Hubert

@BOOKHOUSE

No doubt people will come up with all sorts of extensions. But let's keep it simple to start with.

in reply to Jürgen Hubert

i need something like this. i've been thinking of it as a 'dashboard' but since i ultimately hope to sell my art, maybe storefront is a better framing
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

Seems like the most important feature would be some mechanism by which one could trust that the page actually is from the named business.
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

Hmmm, I had no idea such a feature existed but a quick search shows me that it is based on "the fact that people can be identified by their official websites", which sort of brings us back to the point in the original post "many such small businesses *only* have a Facebook Business Page"
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

also, Fediverse compatible does also mean Threads compatible, so they’d still be able to access their customer base who only uses Meta platforms… but since I’m on neither, can a user of Facebook follow a Threads user and see them in their Facebook feed/search for a Threads user?

Or can Threads accounts only be followed and searched for on Threads?

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to Mark Wyner Won’t Comply

@markwyner

Good question. I am not much of a software developer - in fact, my coding is so bad that I probably shouldn't be allowed to touch any code that other people have to work with.

But as a bid manager in an IT company, I have worked with requirement documents often enough, so maybe that's something I could contribute.

in reply to Jürgen Hubert

:success:

You and @deadsuperhero are definitely on the right path. I rail against billionaires & capitalism, but there has to be a way to setup something outside of them to fight them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, #Capitalism is not buying shit from your friends. Especially when your friends are being shutout from the main market
We need an alternative. A decentralized, federated, open source alternative.

#FOSS

in reply to Jürgen Hubert

+1 for clubs. The only reason I ever visit Facebook is to keep in touch with community organizations.

A federated Craigslist?

in reply to Jürgen Hubert

i think most of the things you mention can already be archived.
WordPress supports #activitypub and scheduled posting. Self hosting is a thing here, that way you can bundle the tools that you need to set up shop.

Someone could start a dedicated marketplace instance to distinguish business accounts.

Imo a free (!) market place could be a great addition to the #fediverse

in reply to Moonshine Brigade

@moonshinebrigade I don't know where #Flohmarkt are at. They're focusing on classified ads, so I don't expect that there are any payment options available yet.
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

This is a great idea. I'm completely cut off from local businesses and events since I deleted Facebook and I'd love an alternative.
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

Isn’t #Bonfire designed to do this very thing? It had it’s 1.0 release I beleive bonfirenetworks.org/apps/
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to Jürgen Hubert

Yes I was thinking someone could take one of their apps and extensions and easily make a thing that you described bonfirenetworks.org/apps/
in reply to Robert Kingett

@WeirdWriter
Yes, Bonfire deserves a close look before starting something new.

AND i love this idea.

If it's not primarily self hosted, easy portability of both content and followers will be crucial to this project's success. These businesses can't afford to lose their hard work.

(Source: I've been actively building sites and designing digital marketing plans for small and medium sized businesses for 15 years.)

in reply to Alison Wilder

@alisynthesis @WeirdWriter i would also suggest that Emissary could be a good starting point for this, but yes I think Bonfire might be interesting here. Incidentally I think the notion of some kind of “business pages” is totally valid! /cc @benpate
in reply to Andy Piper

Hey Andy, thanks for the mention!

I might add a map of physical locations, and a map-based search for businesses.

@juergen_hubert - would you be interested in making a drawing or two of what this might look like? I'd be happy to make a prototype.

I have my hands full with.. stuff.. at the moment, so I'm not able to do much design work. But once we know what we're doing, the actual coding might only take an afternoon or two.

@andypiper @alisynthesis @WeirdWriter

in reply to Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@benpate @andypiper @alisynthesis @WeirdWriter

I'm also in the year-end rally at my day job, but I do have a two-week Christmas vacation coming up. I'll see if I can whip up something then!

reshared this