I support the cause in general but: Signal is not federated at all. It may seem like a decent alternative to WhatsApp but is it really? It still falls under the same US jurisdiction. Let's say the US gov starts agressively prosecuting dissidents and certain minorities (they already do): can and should we still use signal in this case? I don't think so. Sadly i can't name a much better alternative. Maybe matrix. But it has other issues.

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Signal is open source. They absolutely do always comply with US warrants. They have never provided any information to US law enforcement, because they can't access it. They literally have no way of accessing the information contained inside the texts. The most they could provide is metadata, but they currently aren't collecting that. I also think if they started, it would not work well for their user base. You can see all their requests for information, and the responses they gave, here: https://signal.org/bigbrother/

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[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 59 points 3 days ago (4 children)

How is signal considered part of the fediverse?

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

It's not federated, but it is an open source secure texting alternative.

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[–] const_void@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago (4 children)

PeerTube appears to be completely devoid of content

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 1 points 1 day ago

Take a look at the 2 pinned posts in this community: https://lemmy.wtf/c/peertube

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[–] Brutticus@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

has anyone tried Friendica? is it devoid of people?

[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

That’s ironic

[–] nyamlae@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The UI is fucking awful and way too complex, so it's difficult to get anything done. I've tried two different instances and found them both to be unusable.

It's a shame because Friendica is way more powerful than most Fediverse platforms -- they leverage way more of ActivityHub's potential, such as a system for calendars + events. But the UI needs to get sorted out before it's ready for mass adoption.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Why didn't I hear about this until the day of?

[–] DicJacobus@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago (7 children)

instead of switching ive mostly just been ditching entirely. I need less time interacting with internet people.

literally the only thing on this list im still using is facebook messenger, for my work colleagues. and youtube. everything else ive migrated (reddit-lemmy), or abandoned and torched

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[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago

This is such a beautiful guide!

[–] Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 167 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (26 children)

Signal isn't federated ^[1][2][3.1]^; it's decentralized ^[1][2][3.2]^. Though, for all practical purposes, I would generally argue that it's centralized.

References

Signal-Server. signalapp. Github. Published: 2025-01-31T15:34:14.000Z. Accessed: 2025-02-01T09:24Z. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server.
- This is the source code for the server that Signal uses.
"Signal (software)". Wikipedia. Published: 2025-01-06T09:34Z. Accessed: 2025-02-1T09:30Z. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software).
- ¶"Architecture". ¶"Servers".
  
  Signal relies on centralized servers that are maintained by Signal Messenger. In addition to routing Signal's messages, the servers also facilitate the discovery of contacts who are also registered Signal users and the automatic exchange of users' public keys. […]
"Reflections: The ecosystem is moving". moxie0. Signal Blog. Published: 2016-05-10. Accessed: 2025-02-01T09:40Z. https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/.
1. ¶5. to ¶"Stuck in time". ¶3-6
  
  One of the controversial things we did with Signal early on was to build it as an unfederated service. Nothing about any of the protocols we’ve developed requires centralization; it’s entirely possible to build a federated Signal Protocol-based messenger, but I no longer believe that it is possible to build a competitive federated messenger at all. […] [interoperable protocols] [have] taken us pretty far, but it’s undeniable that once you federate your protocol, it becomes very difficult to make changes. And right now, at the application level, things that stand still don’t fare very well in a world where the ecosystem is moving. […] Early on, I thought we’d federate Signal once its velocity had subsided. Now I realize that things will probably never slow down, and if anything the velocity of the entire landscape seems to be steadily increasing.
2. ¶"Stuck in time". "Federation and control". ¶6.
  
  An open source infrastructure for a centralized network now provides almost the same level of control as federated protocols, without giving up the ability to adapt. If a centralized provider with an open source infrastructure ever makes horrible changes, those that disagree have the software they need to run their own alternative instead. It may not be as beautiful as federation, but at this point it seems that it will have to do.

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 87 points 4 days ago (12 children)

Yeah. I love Signal but it doesn't belong in that list. Dansup (creator of loops and pixelfed) is apparently working on "Sup" that will be a decentralized alternative to whatsapp.

[–] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 60 points 3 days ago (3 children)

To me this person sounds like they have too many big projects at once. I wish them success tho

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[–] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 114 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

For the avid readers out there, bookwyrm is a fantastic alternative to goodreads.

https://joinbookwyrm.com/

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[–] Undaunted@discuss.tchncs.de 94 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, the switch from YouTube to PeerTube has not worked for me so far. I can't find a decent instance (not full of right-wing/conspiracy content) with interesting stuff that also allows me to make an account.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 55 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes finding the right instance on peertube is a nightmare — and also the general lack of quality content, or subtitling, which makes it as good as useless for deaf people like me.

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[–] Matombo@feddit.org 99 points 3 days ago (22 children)

Signal is not Fediverse! Element/Matrix is!

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 42 points 3 days ago (18 children)

Element/matrix aren't part of the fediverse, either. It doesn't speak AP.

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[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (11 children)

Youtube is probably the one that you can't "Just Switch To Fediverse"

Youtube content is mainly by creators. If they won't leave, there will be no transition. And unlike reddit posts, you can't just reupload. Because they will copyright strike you and take it down. Also, videos take up a lot more space than just text and some low-res memes like reddit-type sites.

reddit is essentially a bunch of strangers talking to people, moving froms stranger Group A to stranger Group B is very easy to do. The reddit > Lemmy transition is probably one of the easiest. You're just joining a new group of strangers.

For everything else, your contacts will also need to switch.

For Mastodon, the people you follow will also need to switch. This is even harder than getting your friends to switch.

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[–] potentiallynotfelix@lemmy.fish 47 points 3 days ago (26 children)

Signal is centralized, loops is closed source and not accepting new users.

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[–] RedSnt@feddit.dk 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I was already on Mastodon by just having a Vivaldi (the chromium browser) account, and it's just lovely I've spent most of the day setting up lemmy, even though I joined feddit.dk 2 years ago, it's only just now I'm taking it seriously.
And, while not related to the fediverse per se, I switched to linux a year ago.
The only service that's hard to drop/switch away from is Youtube imo.

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[–] ekZepp@lemmy.world 66 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Ah. I see...

Screenshot_20250201_132521_Photo Editor

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[–] breadcat@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago (10 children)

I keep seeing this type stuff but neither peertube or friendica are genuine replacements at this point, mastodon is weaksauce compared to akkoma or a misskey fork, and loops is alpha software. also yes signal is centralized but it just works and has contact discovery so it owns matrix and xmpp when compared to whatsapp. basically none of this stuff is truly ready

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[–] hmmm@sh.itjust.works 47 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Unpopular Opinion Lemmy and PeerTube logo look ugly.

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[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 31 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Loops.video isn't accepting new users atm. Even if it was, I got in on early signup and I have next to zero functionality out of it rn. Just informing the curious masses

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