[smc-discuss] Facebook and Google spy on you

[Pirate Praveen]

Teenagers like Jamie who understands Freedoms and privacy are an
inspiration. He can articulate it well too. He is just 14 but he is
ardent promoter of diaspora, privacy and Free Software. Follow him if
you are on diaspora.

https://poddery.com/posts/1456406

Making a Good Start on Diaspora

This post is especially for people who are #newhere. I'm writing it
because it seems like a lot of people create accounts, send out a nice
Hi I'm new post (hopefully “Public” and not “All Aspects”), and then
quietly disappear because it seems like there's nobody home because
there's very little in their Stream (like a “news feed”) that interests
them. #Diaspora gets off to a slow start, and it's probably easy to
mistake the leanness of your Stream for “nobody's home.”

I hope to explain why it seems so quiet in here at first, why that is a
good thing, and then suggest some ways to get off to a good start and
bring you lots of great stuff to read, share, and talk about with new
friends.
Hello? Is Anybody Hommmmmme?

You're new and ready to explore, but your Stream is almost empty and
some of the posts on the subjects you #tagged in your #profile are
months or years old! Your first thought: “Oh my, there's nobody else
around that shares my interests!”

If you came here from #Facebook or some other social network that is
#centralized, it's probably easy to think so, because the information
from every account on those other networks is stored on one big giant
central hub, so everyone has access to everyone else, instantly. While
that probably makes connecting with friends and people with shared
interests really fast, it also offers no privacy and publishes whatever
you say to everyone in the whole universe. I'm not going to repeat all
the reasons why Diaspora is better than Facebook. You already know that,
and that's why you're here! But if you were accustomed to a centralized
network, this #federated network might feel disappointing at first.
Diaspora is not centralized, so we don't have instant access to every
other person and group on Diaspora. Whatever shows up at first in our
Stream is only what is stored on your #pod. Newer pods have to “become
aware” of content on other pods, and #tags are not federated except in
your profile.
How Your Profile Matters

By adding tags to your #profile, other pods “become aware” of your
interest in them, and then include that stuff in what it shares with
your pod. Right now you can only use five tags in your profile. But
after some of that content arrives you can follow those tags and then
put new tags in your profile to bring in even more stuff. The only
problem with that, is that changing your profile just to bring more
content to your pod changes what people see when they look at your
profile. I like my profile the way it is, and I don't necessarily want
to make every subject that interests me made public. When you look me
up, I may not want everyone to know that I'm interested in
#flying-elephants. Maybe that's not something I want directly in my
profile. So how do I bring flying elephant stuff to my Stream since
putting #flying-elephants in the Search field brings up nothing? I've
discovered that it's better to add Aspects than to just follow tags.
Follow people instead of topics. You can even create a “group” of sorts
just for people who share one particular interest, by making a new
Aspect category. For example if there's something I want to share only
with other #teenagers, I have a category called “teenz” and have put my
teenaged aspects in that category, and I can direct a post only to “teenz.”
Follow People, not Tags

Some #podmins have created “dummy accounts” on their pods that exist
only to bring content to their pods. And users who write a lot about
“general topics” have offered their Diaspora addresses publicly on the
diaspora forum so people can “follow” them and find their stuff in their
Stream. There are folks who you can add if you want more content about
#privacy, and I offer mine to help us #teens and #tweens find one
another. For example, before I added Aspects, a search of #comics in the
Search field turned up nothing. But a week or so after following some
people my age, that same search brought in a whole page full of posts
about comics! That's the secret!
A Slow Start is Better

Because we don't get “targeted advertising” from people who pay Mister
Zuckerburg for the right to intrude upon our news feed, we Diaspora
users have to search for content that interests us instead of having
some money-motivated jerk buy his way into our news feed, or “suggest”
stuff that we might be interested in. It's actually better that way,
even though it takes a bit longer. Think of it this way: You choose
everything you see, on your own instead of having it handed to you by
people who are either in it for advertizing money or people who “collect
friends” like trophies instead of friends. We're all about #freedom
here. Freedom carries responsibility with it. When I take responsibility
for my own content, I am truly free. And like anything really worth
having, it takes a little time and effort on my part. But it's better
than giving up my freedom by handing over my content choices to a bunch
of strangers. Enjoy the freedom! Welcome to Diaspora!


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