What replacement for each major social media do you use

jackpot@lemmy.mlbanned from sitebanned from site to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 176 points –

As I see it:

Reddit - Lemmy Discord - Revolt Twitter - Mastodon Snapchat / Whatsapp - Signal ? Instagram - No replacement to my knowledge Skype / Zoom - Jitsi

etc etc

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I don't personally use it but pixelfed is an Instagram type of site. It's part of the fediverse as well.

https://pixelfed.org/

Can I use this login for that site or do I need a new account?

You'd need to create another account, pixelfed is currently working on a "login with mastodon" feature that will probably be released pretty soon, but even with that you're still technically creating another account, you'll just be able to log into it using a mastodon account and copy your bio, profile pic, follows, and things like that if you want.

But yeah, there's nothing for lemmy

They are working on mastodon integration

They are working on mastodon integration

i even found out the other day that pixelfed does stories and live streaming!

though those things are based on reading the configuration settings in documentation, so i have no idea what those features are likeโ€ฆ.

also worth noting that as usually with fediverse platforms, pixelfed data is accessible from other platforms like mastodon

ie you can retoot a pixelfed post afaik, and i believe that at least in kbin that means you can have a threaded conversion about a pixelfed post?

Lemmy fulfills a sort of reddit/more intimate internet forum thing. Reddit's real social good was fixing shitty search engine results by using Reddit as a keyword, and for centralizing a lot of hobbyist discussion. Lemmy and the lemmylikes will get there as the platform matures.

I'm loving pixelfed as a sort of Imgur substitute tbh. Quick and easy image hosting for when I post on here. Not crazy about Instagram as a social media platform so there's nothing I need pixelfed to do besides let me host medium-sized images, caption them and copy the link.

For imgur check out Catbox. I haven't used it person, but it might be closer to imgur than pixelfed which is supposed to be an IG replacement.

I feel that currently Lemmy may be less web searcheable compared to Reddit, since the domain names aren't consistent. I mean not every instance's domain's are named with lemmy. sopuli.xyz, programming.dev, technics, reddthat etc. I haven't tested it tho.

Someone that is good with SEO could create a read-only instance that federates with every available instance to help with that

Check out Pixelfed for an Instagram replacement. Seems to fill the same sort of use case

I've tried it but the content is more like what Flickr used to be it's all artistic photography, which I guess is fine if that's what you're into but I couldn't find much else.

I was only ever really into Reddit, which Lemmy has handily replaced.

  • I technically have an Instagram, but I scrubbed it and removed the app to stop me from doomscrolling and giving Meta ad revenue.
  • Microblogging like Twitter or Tumblr never really appealed to me.
  • I was born after 2000, so Facebook doesn't exist in my world.

I do use Discord, but mainly because all my friends and family are on there. I would love if a federated alternative like Matrix became the standard. Hopefully the EU's Digital Markets Act will help - if I understand it correctly, Discord and other platforms will be forced to allow seamless bridges (which currently will get you banned) under interoperability requirements.

I only used reddit as my big social media and then discord for messaging. Fediverse has become a good alternative to reddit, but discord will be hard to convince people to move over to alternatives like matrix or revolt.

Why are people trying to replace Discord? Just for the sake of federation or..?

Discord has been rolling out terrible features lately instead of improving the already existing ones. Messages still aren't E2EE and third-party clients are against TOS.

Discord has some shady shit in its privacy policy, and one of their largest investors is Tencent. Discord is one of my top targets for replacement, but none of my friends are all that interested in trying Matrix

I assume people who are looking to try to use all FOSS for social media/chat platforms

revolt is foss discord, no nitro there

Matrix is the best Messenger/Discord replacement, because you can still bridge content to other services, if they donโ€™t want to switch to Matrix. Plus, itโ€™s distributed like XMPP or ActivityPub so you can self-host, use different providers and apps.

Edit: Lemmy also uses Matrix for encrypted DMs

Lemmy also uses Matrix for encrypted DMs

that's sick! didn't know that, oughta check that out then. is there anywhere they discuss/explain that?

It's not fully integrated in the sense that you can use your Lemmy account to message over Matrix. Rather, you can add your existing Matrix handle to your profile and then a fancy "Send Secure Message" button is displayed under your profile, which just links to your Matrix account. I like the simplicity of it, as it leaves the security aspects to apps and services that have considerably more resources than Lemmy has at the moment (Element and Matrix are being used and improved by different governments, militaries, and other organisations).

EDIT: Element has started using Rust for their back-end implementation, so maybe Lemmy can use that library one day as well.

still really cool tho - them integrating other open standard

Lemmy is a given, since I'm fairly active here.

I've been using Mastodon even if I was never a Twitter user. (Or at least, not a serious user. I had an account some time ago, as I was dating a girl who posted there often and she insisted that I should use it.)

I've been trying to convince people to migrate from Whatsapp to Signal. Easier said than done due to network effect.

I only ever used Reddit. Now I'm here.

Unless you count Steam Friends and actual text messages sent via SMS as social media.

Around 2005 Europeans used SMS quite often while the US didnโ€™t seem to use it at all. Then a few years later it was all done by WhatsApp since it was more or less for free. And now weโ€™re having blue/green bubble discussions.

Have we gone full circle and are using actual SMS again?

ive had this discussion with a few different people actually, and at least from where im standing, it does seem like sms is making a comeback. i have to admit i prefer it when it comes to messaging people i know irl

Currently SMS is an insecure system, hence the value of using an encrypted messaging protocol.

So yeah SMS as it currently stands is not a great default way to be having private conversations.

ideally id be using signal but hardly anyone is willing to use it because most people don't care. between sms & something owned by meta, for example, im not entirely sure which is less bad

Even if someone got into my messages, I wouldn't be hurt by it. Not like I'm trying to overthrow a government or do crime or anything. They might see my butthole. Good for them, I say. More people should be looking at my butthole.

Do you guys also get super paranoid about being recorded when out in public? "We can't talk here! They have eyes and ears everywhere!" Just what are you talking about where you need everything to be encrypted? ๐Ÿคจ

Just what are you talking about where you need everything to be encrypted? ๐Ÿคจ

Nothing specifically. Itโ€™s just none of anyoneโ€™s business. Privacy is a human right and not something for criminals only.

I agree with that last part; but why would someone be trying to get my text messages in the first place? There's nothing there. I'm not holding any secrets of value to anyone for any reason. So there's no reason for me to have crazy levels of security.

TL;DR: You're better off leaving behind a thinner data trail than not.

This is a valid argument, but then again the same could be said of much of any other data collection done by big tech companies.

The value isn't so much as in individual pieces of data or even in an individual person's data but rather the aggregation of many individuals' data in order to make maybe a pointed marketing campaign, sell such data to shady advertisers and scammers, or stuff it into some AI model.

I would think in specific situations, the data of an individual person may matter. Like when the government asks a tech company for data whether with good or bad intentions. But that one seems to happen less often as far as I'm aware.

Overall, you can think of it as risk management. It's hard to know all the situations in which the data you leave behind would be relevant. But one thing we can know is that for some reason, these huge corporations are spending billions of dollars a year in order to collect it, and lots of it. If it wasn't a viable strategy, they probably would've stopped a while ago.

It doesnโ€™t matter if you think a thing holds no value or not. You might be doing something that is currently legal and socially accepted, that on a whim could turn into the worst crime ever. Why would you give Facebook or whoever information that you did it? Why do they need to know? E2EE is obviously something that is doing its job in keeping people free from surveillance or otherwise governments wouldnโ€™t try to ban it.

TL;DR: You are better off keeping as much as possible to yourself in general.

Edit: typos

I host my own private "Facebook" for my large family. The web app is called HumHub and it's free to use (though some premium add-ons are paid).

Trying to replace reddit on PC but this place still isn't great for gaming and wrestling and niche games i'm currently into. I do enjoy it on my phone though, also tagged back in Somethingawful on my phone also for some nice reading of some classic threads and PYF stuff.

Other than that, no need to replace anything otherwise :)

I have been on SA a bunch lately too. 13 years later and I still don't understand FYAD.

Same, but get a good thread or two under your belt and you're hooked. I'm currently reading about some fellow Englishman building a new house and it's very good with the humor and photos: 'Towards an L shape architecture: a ham flavoured soakaway system'

Give it a read, funny shit so far.

YouTube - Peertube

Discord - Matrix? Donโ€™t know a lot about Matrix. It integrates with Discord and a bunch of other stuff

I've looked at Matrix and it's exactly like Discord except it uses encryption on everything.

It also is filled with super shady rooms. You can very easily run into CP if you're not careful.

Being careful of CP is a danger you take in most sites, especially the ones that donโ€™t have a lot of users. Iโ€™ve stumbled on jailbait instances here.. itโ€™s fucking everywhere.

I've been on curated internet too long. Randomly stumbling into CP wasn't something I expected to see outside of the dark web since the main Internet got so tame during the late 2000's through the 2010's.

The main internet didnโ€™t get tame, they just got better at hiding it. But thatโ€™s the point. Thereโ€™s more cp on the clear web than dark web because the clear web is much much larger than the dark web, and the dark web is more heavily tracked with a large FBI presence.

Reddit had and still has issues with CP, weird threads with numbers and hash codes? Very likely some kind of downloading ring. Thereโ€™s still โ€œsinkโ€ threads on places like 4chan where a user posts an innocuous image, but upon closer inspection a single image file is way larger than it should be, meaning they injected the file with more files, by exploiting the metadata to turn an image file into essentially a zip folder. Isis used to use that method to recruit new members on twitter, out in the open theyโ€™d post a picture of some isis soldiers and if you extracted the files within the image you got recruitment docs and instructions on how to leave your country and fight with isis.

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I didn't really do Twitter but was big into Instagram for a while until the whole thing started with them pushing reels, so honestly Mastodon is more of a replacement for IG in my particular case. I can upload images, so there's no real need to keep a separate Pixelfed. Pixelfed users who just want to see images can in fact follow people on Mastodon, and just get their images. I can also follow people on Pixelfed and see them in my Mastodon feed. So that covers all the bases really.

Still use Discord plenty, never really had a problem with it although I do use it for its intended purpose rather than trying to turn it into a forum which is where a lot of servers seem to go wrong.

Don't use FB, although I understand Friendica is the main replacement software for that.

Been considering looking into PeerTube but it seems best for very short videos just due to file storage. Mine tend to be more around the 15-20 minute mark on average so not sure that would work.

Lemmy obvs.

Then NewPipe/freetube for YouTube. In saying this, though, I do acces YT directly if I need to post a comment or something, very occasionally. Not sure if the replacement counts as social media since they are just scrappers, you don't really interact with others.

I use Signal for family. Couldn't get friends to jump over. Nobody cares. Everybody loves Whatsucks.

Casual discord user, been looking at options but haven't made up my mind yet. Probably not worth the hassle considering how little I use it

Reddit - Lemmy Discord/Signal/WhatsApp - Matrix Twitter - Mastodon Instagram - Pixelfed

Mastodon (specifically mstdn.ca). Lemmy.ca, pixelated (though I rarely use it like I should) and I'm hoping to soon get a tilvids account to document my progress modelling for X-plane and creating the assets for my own computer board game.

Unless the communities you visit move, itโ€™d be very difficult to move entirely.

This applies to discord especially.

Theyโ€™re more of a compliment to the other social networks in many cases

Same. I've stopped with Reddit since I've never posted there with my real name. No one knew me personally, and I didnt know anyone personally, so my switch to kbin was easy.

My real-life family and friends use Discord, Instagram, Messenger, Twitter, Viber, and WhatsApp, so I'll continue to at least have accounts on those.

Yup. Reddit is 100% gone but Discord remains used for me

convincw friends by saying no nitro there

I recently came across https://pixelfed.org/ for an Instagram replacement. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks promising. Seems like a federated platform like Lemmy/Mastodon that's geared towards photo sharing.

What's the issue with WhatsApp? I thought it was great for privacy.

WhatsApp is owned by Meta.

Itโ€™s still E2EE, as far as I know. Meta could always remove that feature but until they do, Iโ€™d consider it a safe and private messaging platform.

None of the messaging metadata is encrypted. They use that metadata to build profiles of people who aren't Facebook or Instagram users that interact with Facebook and Instagram users. If you care about profiling for the sake of avoiding social engineering attacks, it's one of your worst choices. If all you care about is protecting the contents of your messages, yeah, it's pretty okay

No disagreement there. I could have clarified, my comment was in regard to message content only. I didn't realize that about metadata and certainly am not defending Meta. I'd prefer Signal over anything else but as others have mentioned, getting friends and family to adopt is painful.

Lol no it's not. Meta can and WILL decrypt it. They have decrypted messages for police requests numerous times, and not necessarily under court order, just police asking. I support decryption under court order, but these weren't court ordered. Thinking anything owned by Meta is secure is ridiculous.

Then this is false advertising and a class-action lawsuit that should have already happened.

This Arstechnica article seems to confirm that they can't decrypt without user intervention and that they have only ever supplied metadata to law enforcement. I'm no fan of Meta but do you have sources that they have in fact decrypted actual message content at the request of law enforcement?

It's e2e from your device to server however once on the server Meta can access everything. Same as Apples e2e

or have a backdoor already or add one

It's owned by Facebook and isn't open source. There's no verifiable way to say for sure that Facebook doesn't have a master key to read everything you send on it. Compare to say, Signal, which is open source and can be verified to be secure.

It's still part of the Meta platform so not completely independent.

What information does WhatsApp share with the Meta Companies?

WhatsApp currently shares certain categories of information with Meta Companies. The information we share with the other Meta Companies includes your account registration information (such as your phone number), transaction data (for example, if you use Facebook Pay or Shops in WhatsApp), service-related information, information on how you interact with businesses when using our Services, mobile device information, your IP address, and may include other information identified in the Privacy Policy section entitled โ€˜Information We Collectโ€™ or obtained upon notice to you or based on your consent.

https://faq.whatsapp.com/1303762270462331

the only thjng good is the messages and calls are alledgely encrypted, literally every other detail they know. live location? entire contact list? how frequently you text someone? etc etc

Lemmy = reddit Newpipe = YouTube Mastodon = news/twitter

It's time to use session over Signal

why

Even more secure and private. Works with session keys instead of mobile numbers like Signal.

is it widely used? how long would it take to decrypt then

What does that mean? You want to decrypt messages from Session and compare it to how much time it takes to decrypt messages on Signal?

yeah

I never got anyone to use Signal!

I would use session with people I meet on the internet. For my family, they are too entrenched in other chat services for me to be able to move. When I root my mobile I will put these apps in the workspace.

I tried Tumblr as a replacement for reddit for a while, but I'm just not really cut out for microblogging, so I came to lemmy.

Just kbin and discord, I have no other social media.

kbin?

Same thing as Lemmy, just a different site but it's federated as well. Lemmy can see kbin content and we can see Lemmy content. I'm replying from kbin right now.

So far, testing out platforms.

  • Mastodon was fairly good as a combo platform IMO
  • Lemmy which seems really promising, getting used to the layout
  • Threads is like Twitter and is Facebook, so

Threads doesn't count. It's Meta and hard linked to an Instagram account.

Reddit with Lemmy and WhatsApp with Signal. I still use Reddit and WhatsApp but i would miss out on to much if i cut the ties. I have LinkedIn but i'm not really using it. Does YouTube count as social media?

Really just use Lemmy, Mastodon, and Element. I keep Discord installed because all my irl friends use it. I don't interact with any servers on it anymore though, just DM friends.

try used webcord instead, discord frontend

I think this site and Counter.Social are working out to be my primary online haunts these days...

How would you describe counter.social? I read through their home page and like a lot of what they're saying but im not sure if its like Discord or Twitter or something more akin to Lemmy? I'd rather follow communities over individuals and it kind of looks like you follow people but I can't be sure.

To be honest, I don't really know much about the people behind either of these sites. That being said, Jester is pretty active on CoSo. I originally gave CoSo a try because Twitter was beginning to go downhill and I was looking for an alternative. I tried a few, CoSo had a lot of neat features and impressed me enough that I was even willing to pay the 4.99/month for the "Pro Account".
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As for this site (kbin.social), I was looking for a Reddit alternative. This site reminds me of what Reddit used to be and, for that reason, looked better than Reddit does these days. I known nothing of Lemmy and had never even heard of it (him?) before finding this site.
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In both cases, you just don't see the bot-farm-generated trolling that loads up the mainstream sites. The stuff that's just out there to get us arguing with each other. Also nice to not see endless ads. Maybe not completely free of trolls, etc., but, since it's not as prevalent, it's easier to filter out.

Facebook - None Messenger - Signal Discord - Discord Twitter - N/A Instagram - None Skype / Zoom - Discord / Teams

Revolt is foss discord, teams should be replacwd but depends on your use case

It took my until this year to finally disable my Facebook account - my Instagram has been disabled for a while. If it stays disabled for at least six months, Iโ€™ll finally delete it.

Why? Itโ€™s very hard to convince friends from around the world to all switch platforms when there is no major draw and most people are NOT on the new platform.

I donโ€™t like Zoom or Teams, but there are cases in which you are forced to do so in order to interact remotely with certain customers or businesses.

It took months and multiple people to convince one of my more tech savvy friends to switch to signal.

Sure, I can make the switch. But is it worth the hassle?

Out of the open platforms, I use:
Reddit: Lemmy, Beehaw, Kbin
Twitter: Mastodon, Calckey
Facebook: idk nothing really plus I don't even use Facebook that much anymore

I may occasionally use proprietary ones like Twitter, Tumblr and Threads.