738
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development.

The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The latter saw increased signups and use after the company formerly known as Twitter sold to Elon Musk in October 2022 and during the X exodus that followed the U.S. presidential election.

In the months and years following that sale, open source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky (which uses the newer AT Protocol), have continued to grow their user bases, as people sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires like Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

MBFC
Archive

Edit: Link to the kickstarter

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 45 points 6 days ago

Stuff like this is a major, major component of dealing with nazis.

And even after they're dealt with, it's a better way of doing things, anyway. If it's a company, you're not on their social media platform, as much as you can possibly manage.

Which is a lot.

[-] oozy7@lemmy.world 63 points 6 days ago

WhatsApp? Just use signal already!

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Centralized. Not good. Conversations is on fdroid and is decentralized, federated, open source and uses a mature and battle tested protocol (XMPP). If I wanted something new, I would prefer Matrix over Signal.

[-] Deway@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

People act like we need an alternative to Whatsapp but XMPP/Jabber exists and is much older.

[-] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 8 points 5 days ago
[-] Deway@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Pidgin is a client, not a specific protocol.

[-] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago

I know, I just remember I used to use it with jabber xmpp but I think after everyone got gtalk and then everyone got cellphones everyone moved away from those types of clients

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] astro_ray@piefed.social 8 points 5 days ago

Why are there so many downvotes? Dude said the truth. Signal, like whatsapp, is a single point of failure. It can be enshittified just like whatsapp.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] littleomid@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

What about Simplex over Matrix?

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Sure, it looks great. But it doesn't have the popularity of Matrix, which is already less popular than XMPP which has enjoyed decent adoption since it's inception.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] spaduf@slrpnk.net 9 points 5 days ago

It's not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid 3 points 5 days ago
[-] NudeNewt@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago

Care to elaborate? Genuinely i interested as to why that is

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Signal is just like WhatsApp. Same features. So yeah, that’s incorrect.

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid 2 points 4 days ago
[-] NudeNewt@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago

ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Allllrighty then

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 5 points 6 days ago

Not on FDroid. Not open source

[-] ExFed@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago

Not open source

There are lots of good reasons to be upset with how Signal produces builds. And maybe Signal has no good reason why they keep opaque dependencies. But by every common definition of the term, Signal is open source. Being on FDroid is not the definition of open source.

Please don't gatekeep. There are better ways to criticize Signal. This is not one of them.

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 3 points 5 days ago

If your releases include closed source blobs, then your software is closed source.

load more comments (14 replies)
[-] archchan@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 days ago

But it is open source. And there's a fork of Signal available on F-Droid called Molly.

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 8 points 6 days ago

It is not open source. That's why its not allowed on fdroid. It has parts that are open source, like most apps. But the app itself is closed source and a risk

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Winterfrost@lemm.ee 39 points 6 days ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Emperor@feddit.uk 12 points 5 days ago

Let's hope this helps dansup get past the recent unpleasantness and he can delegate more. His output is amazing but burnout is a concern.

[-] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 30 points 6 days ago

which uses the newer AT Protocol

This "newer" seems to be doing a lot of work.

[-] moseschrute@lemmy.world 29 points 6 days ago

Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.

[-] loopy@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

I’m guessing using Kickstarter has the benefit of adding hype as a new thing. I’ve always been curious about Open Collective and Liberapay. Have you tried it? Was it a smooth process?

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 6 days ago

Never heard of Sup for some reason, gotta check it out.

[-] n2burns@lemmy.ca 23 points 6 days ago

Sup hasn't been released yet, so that's probably why you haven't heard of it. Dan says beta testing launches early 2025.

[-] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago

Is it really just one guy writing three different platforms?

[-] underscores@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 6 days ago

There's hundreds of other contributers, but he started them all and did the bulk of the work. The plan is to have more regular developers if they get enough donations.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 9 points 6 days ago
  • PixelFed
  • SUP
  • Loops
  • fedidb
  • pubkit

Five.

[-] spaduf@slrpnk.net 4 points 5 days ago

Loops and sup started as upgrades to pixelfed and then got spun off.

[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 7 points 6 days ago

I'm really excited for it. I might actually be able to get my family off Whatsapp because of fuckerberg, but I can't get them to move twice. I'm debating pushing signal now, or waiting it out for sup

[-] something_random_tho@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The challenge with messengers like Matrix and WhatsApp (and I assume sup, correct me if I'm wrong) is that they don't encrypt the metadata like Signal's sealed sender. Knowing exactly who you talk to and how frequently is a very juicy target for the government ... And the government right now is orange Hitler and his ragtag team of muppets, so I trust that they'll abuse whatever power and knowledge they have to the utmost.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] spaduf@slrpnk.net 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It started out as a major upgrade to Pixelfed's dm system and got spun off into it's own thing, same as Loops.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 7 points 6 days ago

Basically a tool to add encrypted messaging to the fediverse, using the Signal protocol.

[-] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Man, Dansup is tearing it up like an absolute beast. Donate to his fund.

[-] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 16 points 6 days ago

Has anyone here tried Loops? Does it have an algorithm and if so what's it like? Any good?

[-] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It has a "For You" tab but it's not doing anything yet. Or... I don't know what it's doing, to be honest.

Dansup said that he's adding an algorithm soon.

https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113849380427277273

[-] bishbosh@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago

I got it on my android phone. Currently just a chronological stream off all posts. A lot is just resposts of tiktoks or other cribbed content. When it's not taken from tiktok, I feel like it's pretty mild random video of pets or landscapes.

[-] spaduf@slrpnk.net 15 points 6 days ago

Folks if you still have legacy social, agitation over there is doing rounds right now. Unfortunately, there's significantly fewer of us working to get people onboarded than thee last migration. If you still have those accounts, please consider plugging fedi.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
738 points (100.0% liked)

Fediverse

29438 readers
965 users here now

A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to !moderators@lemmy.world!

Rules

Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration), Search Lemmy

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS