Update on my search for an alternative long-text #fediverse software:
Misskey
I stopped using my #Misskey account first, mainly because #Calckey was the better option between the two which are otherwise rather similar. Misskey also offers only rudimentary account transfer functionality, i.e. import / export data but no account transfer.
From my point of view, at least some account transfer functionality is absolutely essential in the spirit of the Fediverse and I don’t want to be locked into a particular instance, even if it is a reliable one, as I may want to switch to self-hosting at some point.
If you like Misskey, I can recommend misskey.de, maintained by #libranet.de grand master @alfred.
Calckey
Calckey is interesting and quirky, and it has implemented suitable account transfer functionality. The team even work on cross-platform post/toot import which is great. In a somewhat strange move this was deployed into production today, largely untested and broke the calckey.social experience for quite a few users.
The developers are generally very enthusiastic, committed and present in the community which is a great thing.
One other issue, at least in my considerations, was the emoji and #mfm (Misskey Flavoured Markdown) overload - it’s just a little too much if you’re beyond 40, it’s blinking and jumping and rotating and 90ies animated gif-ing everywhere. This functionionality is really being used extensively and whilst you can switch it off in your settings, so the interface will be much quieter, it feels like you shouldn’t, as it is a major part of the Calckey community DNA and people actually want this…
I also noted that the software is a bit beta, updated often, and the deploy method into production seems very progressive (post import function, looking at you…). So if you need a stable, reliable and distraction-free environment for (semi-)professional use or long-form debate, Calckey is probably not the first choice.
I did like the #antennas function, however, which was more usable for me than following single hashtags on #Mastodon or save searches on #Friendica. It is possible to save thematic antennas with multiple keywords and read those as a separate consolidated antenna feed which is convenient and a good way to discover content and users.
I may keep my account for a while to follow the Calckey journey and for the days where I feel like I need more rotating emojis, but won’t use it extensively.
I am on the flagship instance calckey.social and I want to shout out to @atomicpoet who is ever present and the greatest advocate for Calckey.
Friendica
So after testing extensively over the long weekend, I like Friendica the most, although its plethora of functions can be bit of a usability challenge, but it is very powerful and usable for my specific purposes.
I keep discovering functionality which makes this platform the best for my use case. And don’t get me even started on the thread view - this is by far the best, most readable and well rendered implementation of threads I have seen across the #Fediverse applications I have tested, ideal for long-form debate.
There’s also a mobile app in development, shout-out to @hankg to put me on the TestFlight. This looks very promising and will be key to bring more users to Friendica - and also keep them there, using it with a well-designed, simplified interface. So far, and for me, the web browser on a PC or a tablet seems to be the best option if you want the full Friendica experience.
So, I will stay on here for long-form writing, groups, debates and keep my #Mastodon account in parallel. I may consider self hosting Friendica and #Pixelfed at some point in the future but this remains to be decided.
With my Friendica account, I am on venera.social, a reliable server run by @alfred as well.
Feel free to connect on Friendica or Mastodon, if you wish.
Thanks for reading!
PS: Please note - no character limit and basic markdown formatting, that’s what I am here for. 😀
#Calckey's on boarding process for new users is the best I've seen. They help you find people to follow so you don't have the empty feed issue. #Mastodon could learn from it.
@alfred@atomicpoet@hankg@fediversereport Just for completeness - I have now deleted my #calckey.social account for a variety of reasons. My main accounts will be on Mastodon (micro), Friendica (macro) and Pixelfed (photos).
@lps I would like to self-host, but while I have run websites and Drupal and WordPress installations, I feel hosting Mastodon is a completely different ballpark of complexity and effort and I am not sure whether I have the patience and skill….
@LPS @choyer (friendica) Tell that to a world that isn't even used to using computers anymore, at least not privately.
Back when the Fediverse was still called Federated Social Web, it had Linux geeks all over the place. Not exactly few self-hosted literally. They actually ran their private instances, mostly Friendica or Hubzilla, on headless Linux servers running inside their homes which they had installed themselves. Small barebone nettops and eventually the Raspberry Pi made this even more feasible.
Now look around today's Fediverse. The iPhone rules supreme. And I guess hardly anyone even knows what managed hosting is. If you tell them, and you also have to tell them that, yes, this requires the use of a Web browser, they'll nope out.
@choyer@alfred Super review, thank you! I am wondering why you chose Venera over Libranet? I’m debating between the two, same admin, but somewhat different capabilities.
@alfred@breitensteinart I actually intended to join libranet.de but the onboarding screen asked me whether I’d consider veneer.social, which I did as the name feels more international and less techie. Only reason really. I didn’t know there were different capabilities, which are those?
@breitensteinart@choyer The difference is not that important. Libranet has a couple of additional add-ons. But they're not really important.
The only notable difference is that Libranet has OStatus protocol support while Venera doesn't. OStatus is used by GnuSocial as is kind of the predecessor of ArctivityPub.
@alfred@breitensteinart I actually intended to join libranet.de but the onboarding screen asked me whether I’d consider veneer.social, which I did as the name feels more international and less techie. Only reason really. I didn’t know there were different capabilities, which are those?
@alfred@atomicpoet@hankg@fediversereport Update on account migration: I created a new permanent account and tried to migrate on #Calckey but setting an account alias for my old account didn’t work and resulted in an error message. So take my enthusiasm for account migration on Calckey with a grain of salt for the time being.
Great that Friendica is your favourite. I came here mostly because it does both ActivityPub and Diaspora, which is the main killer feature for me, but it's great to know it compares well to alternatives on other issues as well.
My biggest problem with Friendica is that it feels rather sluggish (though that could just be my server), and that it's debeloped in PHP, which doesn't appeal to me.
@choyer I don't know PHP well enough to say it, but that was certainly my hypothesis too.
Personally if I'd make something like this, I'd give it a modern SPA framework for the front-end to prevent full page reloads. I'm hearing good things about Svelte. Then the backend just has to do a single query at a time, which can hopefully be blazingly fast.
I totally agree with your opinion (especially with *key software - I'm 50+) Even mastodon account, I preferred to use alternative software like https://pinafore.social for my main usage. I hope to have more *key client coming up more in a near future.
@ArtBear @Chris Trottier And on Hubzilla in particular, you can even write long-form articles in addition to not really having a character limit on posts.
@choyer@alfred@atomicpoet@hankg@fediversenews@fediversereport Thanks for the summary. Just a couple hours into using #Calckey. So much about it is wonderful, but agree that the emojis are too much. Also edit is a "must have", but they say it is imminent. So lots of exciting alternatives. The future looks bright 😎!
Add comment