mastodon - Link to source

Instead of a WhatsApp group or whatever, my two oldest friends and me have a private non-federated Mastodon instance running on my laptop for some time now :blobcatgiggle:

It's all private and closed so only we 3 use it to communicate and share stories with each other!

You can just disable federation and set everything private so it becomes a little intranet for friends!

#Mastodon is really amazing <img class=" title=":mastodon:"/>

#mastodon
in reply to stux⚡️

mastodon - Link to source

StoneBear

okay, I have Questions... (1) how much does that take in terms of resources? obviously the media takes what it takes, but basic disk/memory/CP?
(2) I take it you do like I do and treat your primary laptop like a desktop, i.e. it never goes to suspend/hibernate? (wouldn't be the first time a lappy got (ab)used like that; I had an old Compaq I once used for a mail server... it was quite the trooper... )

it's a tempting idea; despite the Discord flap being not as huge a deal as it could be, I still have the impetus to get as many resources off capitalista platforms as possible...

ooh, the other question: Given reasonably-competent admin skills, how portable is the resulting dataset? If a laptop starts dying under us, how big of a pain in the ASCII is it to move the instance?

in reply to Come On Giant Asteroid!

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Unus Nemo

@Come On Giant Asteroid!

Okay, so you are likely joking? As laptops can be set to do nothing when you close the lid. I like @stux⚡️ have repurposed a lot of old laptops for this type of service. The great thing is that you can just install a server flavor of your favorite distro, set it up, close the lid and put it away and it just works in the background with minimum space waste 😉

@Come On Giant Asteroid!
in reply to stux⚡️

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Unus Nemo

@stux⚡️

I considered that, with Friendica not Mastodon (I do not like the format), The fact is that I can write far more compact code for such a use case then either Mastodon or Friendica. Projects like PHPBB make a good starting base for some. One of my books, PHP 8 Objects Patterns, and Practice (Volumes 1 & 2 Seventh Edition) has a mock up social media platform as a project that is even a leaner starting point. Yet, these options are only truly viable if you are a developer, so you I respect your choice.

@stux⚡️
in reply to Unus Nemo

mastodon - Link to source

bigiain

@unusnemo

> The fact is that I can write far more compact code for such a use case then either Mastodon or Friendica.

That locks you into being responsible for maintaining and distributing it, and managing user expectations and feature requests.

For some people and some use cases, being able to tell your friends "It's just a private Mastodon. Use whatever Mastodon web or mobile app you prefer, and just create an account on superseekritmastodon.com." is well worth any code bloat or unnecessary server resources or whatever other opposition you have with the standard Mastodon codebase. Hell - for the OPs use case, three whole users, even the entire mess of the OSS Mastodon behemoth would likely run perfectly fine on almost any cheap/unused/old Linux capable hardware, even a RasPi with a small USB hard drive.

@stux

@Unus Nemo @stux⚡️
in reply to bigiain

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Unus Nemo

@bigiain
in reply to evrial

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Unus Nemo

@evrial @stux⚡️

I agree with you yet I see the value in both approaches. Running your own IRC server without meshing it can be a great way to setup groups. You can also set up a local Use Net server. Though I am afraid that these are past services that only us old timers still use actively 😉. I have ran both and I would personally prefer a private Use Net server over an IRC server for group sharing. If live conversation was a need then yes IRC would be superior. All great ideas.

@stux⚡️ @evrial
in reply to evrial

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Unus Nemo

@evrial

I have a soft spot for Use Net. In 1992 I was going through the Use Net when I found some topics on Unix Derivatives for the Intel 386 or compatible. I down loaded the required sources, built the system and finally had a working copy of my own home rolled Gnu/Linux in about a month. I did not have X Windows as that was to much to download on a 2400 baud node. I left MS/ DOS and Windows (though MS/ Windows was only around version 3.x at the time and no one took it seriously) behind immediately recognizing them for what they were, toy operating systems for home hobbyist and not serious developers. 😉

Since then I have enjoyed my life as a 'nix user, admin and developer. I keep fluent with MS/ Windows to give support but do not use the OS myself except when testing ported software.

@evrial
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