[arkh]

Here is the problem I have with most advertised decentralized social networks. Their only added value is being decentralized. Decentralized twitter / facebook / instagram. What do you gain from using those decentralized things? Nothing aside from being a hipster. And you lose your current social connections. Even worse, decentralized solutions existed before and are still available: blog software, bulletin boards, IRC, even mails.

So if you want people to create their own hubs they should get something for their effort. I don't have a solution there but something as stupid as being able to watch some show with 6 or 8 participants all over the world could be a start. Even the old Google Wave (I think it was), the mix of chat, code, wiki which was too slow for a webapp at the time should be reconsidered. Maybe with native clients.

[tyywebb]

You gain control over the platform you're using. That's illustrated in the first paragraph of the Wired article.

People are getting pretty sick of getting pushed around by these mega corporations whether it's when they're telling you what software you're allowed to have on your cell phone or what you're allowed to write on a social media site. I think the next decade is going to be defined by an explosion in decentralized technologies.

[zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC]

What do you gain from a democracy over a monarchy or a dictatorship? The only added value is being decentralized.

Yes, the "only" added value of decentralized power structures is their decentralization. And the absense of all the terrible effects that centralized power structures tend to have in the long term.

[always_good]

I'll have to pop your analogy bubble and ask the question again: How are you going to convince people that the decentralization of a platform they use to get laid and keep up with friends/family is going to have a meaningful impact on their lives? And how are you going to do it to the point where you can cause an exodus large enough to cause any real change?

You're going to have to do better than draw some analogies to monarchies on Hacker News. And things like "but they sell your data!" has had no impact beyond desensitizing everyone with Chicken Little'ism.

[zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC]

I don't know, nor did I claim to know? Though in the end it will have to boil down to "because no dictatorship", just probably packaged in a way people understand what that means. Potentially we'll have to live through it before people do understand, though, just as we have with monarchies and dictatorships.

[ionised]

The fact that it is decentralised is the main benefit I am interested in.