Could We Build a Decentralised Social Platform Rooted in Place?
carlnewton.github.io
Over the past year or so I’ve been playing with the idea of a decentralised social platform based on your location. By putting physical location at the centre of the experience, such a platform could be used to bring communities together and provide a source of local information when travelling. Please let me know what you guys think.
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I can't seem to find anything relevant when I search for Topix, but I think we learn to moderate our local communities effectively. Just like here on Lemmy. The difference being that owners will have fewer people to moderate, so it should in theory be easier. If an owner is vile, create a competing instance.
I wonder if there would be enough people locally who want to moderate? That's the biggest issue imo, along with it being taken over by concerns about schools and/or gross gossip.
I believe Topix was completely anonymous and unmoderated, and it was a train wreck. As a citizen of my town I was embarrassed that it existed. I remember specifically that any time a local principal made any changes at her school vile comments and threats would be posted about her. It was a major concern in her life until the whole site was taken down.
Ha! Funnily enough I just responded to a different comment along these same lines: that's the beauty of the fediverse. If a community of moaners exist, they could have their own instance. Or in the case of Lemmy (and the very theoretical Habitat), their own categories that other users can tune out from. I think you're going to have places in which moderation is a success and places in which it isn't. Anything that isn't moderated appropriately and gets taken down as a result of something actually illegal won't affect the communities that are appropriately moderated, because it can all be separated. It seems to be working well enough for Lemmy.