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Hey #Fediverse! :)

I am wondering, why so few people use #Friendica. I personally started out on #Mastodon, but soon already moved on to Friendica, as it simply gives a huge extra load of features: compatible with all Fediverse #protocols (even #Diaspora), excellent feed reader functionality (in combination with #Nitter, #Bibliogram and #Invidious I get a feed from all my important #Twitter, #Instagram and #Youtube contacts directly in my Friendica timeline, without having an account on any of those commercial platforms), native Twitter bridge support (which I personally don't use), longer posts, a lot of extra #socialNetworking functionality like #forums, #events, #friendship, etc.

I do admit, that Friendica's #UI is much less modern and dynamic than Mastodon's, but this is the only downside I've found so far, and I'm also surprised, that no new UI has appeared within the last years, which would mitigate that.

I'd appreciate your views on that, and would be happy to hear other reasons for the fact that according to https://the-federation.info/, Mastodon currently has 440,713 monthly active users, while Friendica only has 1,770... :)
Als Antwort auf clayogra

I think, Friendica's statistics aren't... precise. They do not count profiles that chose to mark themselves "private" in the settings. So when you look at public Friendica stats, mentally multiply it by 1.5 - 2. Can you follow Bibliogram or Instagram users from Friendica? 😲 I would love to find a way to follow a couple of friends on Instagram, but I've never thought of using Friendica for that!
Als Antwort auf lostinlight

Yes, Bibliogram offers an RSS/Aton feed for every Instagram profile, Nitter offers a feed for every Twitter profile. In Friendica, you can simply follow any RSS/Atom feed (just paste the URL into the "Connect" filed on your contacts page). Therefore, I simply followed all interesting Twitter/Instagram contacts here on Friendica :) Veeery nice :))

lostinlight hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf clayogra

Thanks for the idea! I found one more reason to use Friendica more often. 😺
Als Antwort auf clayogra

Hi and welcome to #Friendica !

If you're interested by the reasons, I can give you a few:
  • Mastodon started in 2016. By that time, Friendica was already 6 years old and the original creator had already left the project 4 years before to work on RedMatrix/Hubzilla.
  • Mastodon does one thing (micro-blogging) and does it well, Friendica does many things but often very confusingly. The real shining point is the wide protocol support, but this is a niche feature not many users really need.
  • Mastodon benefitted from wide mainstream media coverage from at least 2017, although the tone has been mixed. Initially praised as the "new hot thing" by The Verge, it's also been criticized, often unfairly, but even bad publicity is publicity. In comparison, Friendica is virtually unknown and we are currently making no efforts to change this.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Hypolite Petovan
Me neither, we have enough bug reports/feature requests as it is and I believe there would be some delay between an influx of users and an influx of developers to tackle the extra requests.
Als Antwort auf clayogra

@clayogra @Hypolite Petovan I have had a Mastodon account for a few years now and a Diaspora account about the same amount of time. I met a lot of interesting folks on Diaspora but loathed the interface to the point that I really became disinterested in logging in and hated that there was no API available in order to use a mobile app. On Mastodon, I liked the polish and feel of the project and several apps were available to use, however the bulk of the folks there were either software developers whose content was exclusive to their field or were people that I shared no common interests or life experiences with.

Enter #Friendica

It allows me to enjoy relationships from both Diaspora and Mastodon instances/pods in one place.

It allows for use of an API to use with multiple mobile apps, though I have only found one that suits me and honestly, the Frio theme has me using the web interface and actually enjoying it, while allowing me complete access to all the bells and whistles.

It is written in PHP so I can install it and run it on a shared host server, which with a few exceptions (H/T to @Hypolite Petovan for his help in my PHP education and sanity preservation), has been easy to setup and use and allows me to not only be in charge of my own data, but set my own rules and federate at the same time.

Finally, I like that it is virtually unknown. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I like the "community" of folks running #Friendica and the fact that it does what it does best: Being the Swiss Army knife of the #Fediverse without pomp and circumstance...silently and quietly being the best. Let Mastodon and Diaspora grab all the headlines, good and bad. I, myself, am content with what I have. I am so pleased that I expect to shut down both my Mastodon and Diaspora accounts in the very near future and be on #Friendica exclusively.
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Als Antwort auf clayogra

I like friendica, but faced the strange timeline and didn't like it. I think it's positionned to be a facebook-like, where I was looking for a twitter-like.
Als Antwort auf Moté

It's perfectly okay, and the best of all, we can still interact with each other!
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Hypolite Petovan
I'd say it's easier to install than Mastodon without Docker because there are less moving parts. It's a PHP application with a cronjob, and that's it. Works out of the box with a regular Apache installation through the provided .htaccess file, and we provide nginx configuration samples.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Moté
I remember the possibility to use an externak cron service ?
Als Antwort auf clayogra

Thank you so much everyone for the very interesting and informative comments!! :) I learned a lot!! :))
Als Antwort auf Hypolite Petovan

"Why do you use Mastodon (resp Friendica), instead of Friendica (resp Hubzilla) when the latest cover all features and much more ?"
Als Antwort auf nolan

For the same reason, if you don't care about the extra features. This was pretty much my own journey when I installed both Hubzilla and Friendica and ended up sticking with Friendica.
Als Antwort auf clayogra

@clayogra and @PrivacyMatters 🔒: As I understand your comments you are able to use mastodon via friendica. How did you do this? I would also be able to read and write on my mastodon account via Friendica.
Als Antwort auf Torsten

@Torsten I'm sorry, you can't use your Mastodon account from Friendica. But you don't have to, you can follow the same accounts from Friendica that you are following from Mastodon, and the other way around, Mastodon accounts can follow your Friendica account the same way they do your Mastodon account.
Als Antwort auf PrivacyMatters 🔒

Hubzilla has niche features Friendica hasn't, but using both Mastodon and Friendica is indeed a mystery to me, as Friendica features nicely cover Mastodon's. If you don't need Friendica's extra features, then Mastodon is fine but having both at the same time?
Als Antwort auf clayogra

Hey, there! İ didn’t know about the existence of Friendica until now. Do you mean that by creating an account on a Friendica instance, İ would be able to follow the accounts İ currently follow on Mastodon & Twitter in the same way? This seems pretty neat, but İ somehow can’t find confirmation elsewhere.
Als Antwort auf clayogra

@clayogra It's not userfriendly, especially not for non-techies. The compatibility with all Fediverse protocols also is a myth, I have subscribed to people on other networks and cannot see their posts, let alone talk to them. Friendica needs still some years to mature to be a usable alternative to Facebook.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

xanathon
@🔴 Matthias/E @clayogra Becaus a lot of people I know are looking for an alternative to Facebook and try friendica. And if they are simple users they go away fast. It's not about if friendica wants to be an alternative to facebook, but if it needs to be and if it wants to embrace people that really and desperately look for alternatives or if they want to scare them away. At the moment it's the latter, from quite some experiences. I admit that the community is better and friendlier than Hubzilla.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

xanathon
@🔴 Matthias/E @clayogra It would be really helpful if the user settings had tooltips or labels that explain in simple words what they do. The same goes for the top left menu points (I use Frio).

Groups are almost incomprehensible as they work at the moment, it's a completely different approach to ux and ui than earlier iterations of social networks, be it forums or Facebook. It would be good if there were a groups tab that lists groups, you then enter a group, see all group posts and automatically post into said group. That would be good UX. If this is already so, I did not find out how to do it. ;)

If someone has multiple user identities (private and a page for example) it should be easier to change the user context. In Frio you have to fo to the dropdown menu, then accounts and then switch the account. Since most people would have only two or three accounts this could be integrated into the dropdown menu or get it's own menu if the user so desires.

I could go on, but only 3 were allwoed ... ;)