Diaspora*

[Poisonium]

So you lot being such an educated bunch of people, you're surely familiar with the quite grave privacy issues Facebook has.

One attempt to provide a similar experience, but with considerably improved privacy, is the open source Diaspora* project.

It's an open framework for hosting a social network, meaning anyone can host a server and have their own and multiple other 'seeds' (as they call them). (in layman's terms: quite like any phone number can contact any other phone number, these aren't restricted to one vendor)
Since the official server requires an invitation, and I'm not adventurous enough to host my own server (the process is still somewhat complicated), I just joined some hobbyist's server. list here

Anyway, if any of you use the alpha, add me as a contact!

Oh, and by the way: Since this is Alpha software full of security holes, you really shouldn't share anything you don't want the rest of the internet to see on it.
_________________
I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Lepton*]

Seems like an interesting project, but it seems a bit like IRC in the days of ICQ/AIM/MSN. The average person simply wants something that works, without worrying about the details, and that means an 'umbrella' rather than a p2p solution.

The privacy concerns, to be honest, seem like outdated luddite-ism to the current generation of kids, and I can largely sympathize. The corporations have already sold out our privacy: I get half a dozen spam text messages daily, and never mind the virtually-daily data breaches from inept security practices. Even without a facebook account, people can find out most of the particulars of my life, so what harm is going to befall me if I upload some pictures of myself and my friends, or if I write the names of my favorite bands?

That was a bit of an off-topic rant. I'll definitely check out Diaspora*, though.

[Poisonium]

Well, the main issue with centralized social networking sites like Facebook is that everything is stored in one place. That's more convenient for advertisers and other spies than even Google's omnipresent tracking.

There will be nothing preventing megacorporations from making their own servers powered by Diaspora, so if anyone wants to be spied on, that's still a possibility. But it will still be a lot more decentralized (a good thing for the web).

And by the way, I really like the 'aspects' feature (basically, you can choose exactly who of your friends can see what - no more showing embarrassing party photos to work colleagues).
_________________
I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Ctorj]

[Sentran]

[Poisonium]

[Jack_Ian]

The trouble with Facebook is that any security feature is up for sale.
If they can make money on it then it's not safe.

[Antrax]

The trouble with Facebook is that people don't realize the way to not have things about you known is to not share them. My FB profile is completely open - whatever I don't advertise to the world (like my email address or my phone number) isn't in there, for any degree of user-closeness. The data is just not anywhere on the FB servers. Everything else, from my name to my embarrassing party pictures, can be viewed by people who didn't bother signing up.
Anything other usage is relying on security through obscurity, in a way. If the day comes and a potential employer says something like "well, I would've given you the job but your FB profile says you're a capitalist so screw you", I'll thank FB for saving me from working for an idiot.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!