Non-Silicon Valley Social Networking with Free Software
I gave a talk about social networking using free software, on 13 June 2019 at the New York Amateur Computer Club. This page contains my notes from the talk, and may eventually be re-developed into a fuller article.
The video recording of this talk is on YouTube.
The short URL for this page is: go.glump.net/free-social
Resources
https://stallman.org/facebook.html - Reasons not to be used by Facebook by Richard M. Stallman, Free Software Foundation
Mastodon, Pleroma, GNU Social
Mastodon, Pleroma, and GNU Social use the “ActivityPub” standard.
https://joinmastodon.org/ - Mastodon
https://instances.social/ - Mastodon instances
https://noagendasocial.com/ - I use this PARTICULAR Mastodon instance, affiliated with the No Agenda Show news analysis podcast. You WILL sometimes encounter objectionable ideas and images here. There are many other Mastodon instances you can try – see the list above. If you would like to join this Mastodon instance, please contact me for an invitation. The sysadmin requires that every new user be invited by someone.
https://pleroma.social/ - Pleroma
http://distsn.org/pleroma-instances.html - Pleroma instances
https://gnu.io/social/ - GNU Social
https://gnu.io/social/try/ - list of GNU Social instances
https://alternativeto.net/software/mastodon/ - AlternativeTo has more social networking systems you can try.
IRC
https://netsplit.de/ - list of channels, networks
Most large networks you find listed on Netsplit will have a zero-install web client available, so you don't need to set anything up. Do a web search for the network's HOME page, and then for a link to “chat now in your browser” or something like that.
https://www.ircwiki.org/Getting_started - Basic Getting Started in IRC cheat sheet
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/IRC/ - An older IRC new user guide
https://freenode.net/kb/answer/registration - How to REGISTER a “nick” (username) on IRC. This guide is for the Freenode IRC network, but the process is likely the same on any other network you try.
https://quassel-irc.org/ - Quassel IRC client for your desktop or phone
https://hexchat.github.io/ - HexChat IRC client for your desktop
https://alternativeto.net/software/hexchat/ - AlternativeTo has more IRC clients you can choose from.
Discussion
To comment on this page, please copy and paste the following into an email and send it to me. Useful and informative comments will be published within a day or two.