Azorius 0.1

[somat]

I always considered reddit as a "forum as a service". Give up a little freedom and we will take care of your forum for you.

And as such I have to admit I was initially baffled where federation(activity pub) enters into the equation. as forums don't really need federation.

But was stuck in the mental model of the web forum, I think what is going on is that this is more like usenet, the ur forum, which is pretty cool.

[tootie]

I don't understand at all what problem ActivityPub actually solves. To my mind it's a similar spirit as Blockchain which is equally as impressive as it is useless. There are tens of thousands of people smart enough to clone the basic functions of Twitter or Reddit but features don't make the platform. Unless you are a master at digital marketing and can solve moderation and monetization better than everyone else, you're not going to code a better platform.

[IAmGraydon]

It's amazing how far off the mark so many talented coders are when it comes to understanding the masses, how they think and what they want.

Guys...it's not that hard to do. Stop thinking so hard. Stop thinking you know a better way. CLONE REDDIT, just without the idiot running the place. It was working great until he screwed everything up.

[atoav]

Reddit the place was great, but it was because of the contributers and despite the system.

The network effect is hell of a drug. Most contributers are/were there, because it seemed like the most relevant place to put their information, and that was because of the other people on the platform, not because the system was particularily sophisticated or well designed.

Now the reddit design has the advantage that people already know it, but on the other hand if you change communities anyways why not try a new thing?

[cxr]

This goes for most "clones" that I see. What's baffling how many people set out to recreate something and then completely drop the ball on this part.

Worried that you'll lack a way to differentiate yourself from all the other clones? Well, don't be, because it's the same situation as with Android—every handset vendor seemed to think they couldn't possibly just take this free gift and ship it stock as-it-comes, since their competitors would come around eat their lunch! In reality, nobody else was doing that, so being unadulterated was a differentiator. This didn't seem to stop anyone, though, who all went on and poured enormous resources into the pursuit of an elusive value-add that in reality was more like value-addn't.

So, I agree: JUST CLONE THE THING.

(Still not convinced? Fine, try this instead: start working on a stealth clone right now, and then in 6 to 18 months when you've reached your goal and the real thing changes which makes everyone hate it, well then hey, look at you! You've got exactly what everyone wants. Alternatively, if you chance upon something that gets shuttered, go ahead and help yourself to the abandoned trademark, too. Trademark law is not like copyright law, after all; it doesn't last forever—only so long as there's someone willing to enforce it.)

[ebiester]

I think what everyone is getting wrong is that the key pain point to solve is moderation. Solve moderation first.

[the-printer]

This and Honk are great because they dare to be different visually and functionally. Ted’s casual criticisms of ActivityPub and the federated software that uses the standard are also informative. I think that his experience as an OpenBSD developer gives his work a different edge and appeal compared to others.

[davidcollantes]

Would love to see it without having to install it. Is there a public running instance somewhere?

[skulk]

Found one here: https://az1.azorius.net/

[UnixSchizoid]

If there is more interest I would be willing to host a public instance, but it doesn’t seem like this is getting the attention to make it worth setting it up.

[konart]

I knew this was from the author of honk...

[pierat]

WOTC C&D in 3....2.....1....

[valbaca]

Cue the Pinkertons

[zimpenfish]

Something to note: GotoSocial currently rejects the Announces (this is GtS's fault) and Akkoma accepts but then later deletes them (this is probably Akkoma's fault). Investigations are continuing...

[Morthor]

Curious about the name. Being from the Azores myself.

[appleflaxen]

It's explicitly discussed at the end of the post:

  > According to the MTG fandom, “the Azorius Senate mediates and regulates the activities of all of the other guilds and of the plane despite their numerous decrees being ignored. The Azorius Senate are characterized as being aloof, bureaucratic, excessively formalistic, and fastidious, spending hours upon hours with legal documents and ensuring action, if any should occur, stringently adheres to protocol.” However, this is irrelevant, since azorius is unrelated to MTG.

[ar-nelson]

My guess is it's a Magic: The Gathering reference.

[appleflaxen]

Consider r/redditseppuku