this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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We really need to change the mindset about what the internet experience should be. I think everyone got too used to the idea of centralized services like Google search, Github, Discord, Twitter, reddit, and etc. and that didn't turn out well. We need to go back to federated protocol based system instead. Let's go back to the decentralized federated architecture of email, web, irc where no one corporate entity is the sole owner of said service. I think Lemmy and Mastodon are good start but we have to start replace things like Google search, Github, and Discord with decentralized counterparts. We have to learn from our past mistakes and start reconstructing a better internet infrastructure one piece at a time. It will take lot of effort and patience but it's really the only way out of the mess we put ourselves into by being addicted to simplicity of centralized corporate controlled systems.
The cat is out of the bag and long gone.
People got used to the simplicity of centralized services, and corpos made great efforts to make everything 1-click.
So when the average users need to do more than 1-click, they won't use the software.
It would help if anti-trust laws were applied and these mega-corpos got broken in a thousand pieces. Centralized monolith services would have a harder time to thrive and give space to federation/decentralization.
From my perspective that seems to be happening. I feel like there's a rift between the websites I use for work and the ones I use on my own time. I realize that for most people on the internet, the big central platforms are the internet--I'm not trying to universalize my perspective.
It's just that I remember when computers and the internet itself were niche and business was still barely aware of its potential, so this kind of feels familiar: You've got biz churning away in the mainstream, unaware of another culture that's growing up, outside of their malls and parking lots.
Prior to GitHub, everyone just hosted their own Git repositories. The nature of Git is pretty decentralised. And Linux kernel development still uses old-fashioned mailing lists for development co-ordination, rather than something like GitHub. I have heard before someone say the difference between Git and GitHub is similar to the difference between porn and Pornhub.
Prior to Discord, there was IRC.
🤣
I hope forgejo's federation efforts come along. Being able to host projects on my own instance, yet receive contributions without having to allow people to register on my instance, would give me the push to completely abandon Github.
I worked at a place that had self-hosted git and IRC for internal messaging. Was great!
IRC is still there. The user numbers just aren't that great anymore 😒 I fucking hate discord and what it did and how it took over. And also, of course, murican.
I hate that everyone fucking uses discord for everything, discord when I'm using it is strictly to game and for online game related activities.
People are just clueless and lazy, and take the easiest way "that everyone else does too". And here we are. Recently had to join one...and was asked for a phone number before being allowed to enter. Lol. Yeah sure. Guess I won't join then 😐
Lots of "muricans" hate discord too
Sure sure, you're not all idiots. Wasn't meant this way. Just that, on top of being shit, being murican is another no-go for an app.
This makes me think that a big part of the solution is some sort of very low barrier to entry guide or product for self-hosting. Like something even a non-technical person can do. Imagine if it became the norm to have a little always-on device that serves up your personal website, instead of social media accounts...
Considering that many don't even know anymore what a website actually is, or domains (especially TLDs that are not .com or )...
Also take into account that people are lazy (not meant condescending). Using the major shit is easy, "everyone else does too!" and technologically challenged people can use it.
Even IF selfhosted XYZ would be as easy as downloading something (it already starts to be "too complicated" for many) and executing it, it probably wouldn't happen.
I, personally, fear for the future of the web. I've seen the peak of the web and its constant accelerated decline since.
Yeah I know more than a few people fitting that description. But I do believe things can turn around. It's less likely to make converts of people who already have that mentality, but things can resurge among new people and I think there's a real movement there with tech literacy.
I sure hope so, yet am not as optimistic as you 😑
I love the idea, but until stuff simplifies significantly that's simply not happening. I'm a moderately technical person and all the self hosting options are such a chore. Even simply looking up info about them can sometimes be harder than installing and starting the centralized option.
We need a startup to just make and try to sorta standardize a mini pc product pre-installed with a proxmox-like setup with an easy web interface and self-hosted solutions pre installed. 5-10 apps for main internet service needs like email, social media, content hosting/publishing and personal media libraries.
Give it a cute name like "Web-Pal", keep it open and Customizable for powerusers, watch the internet become a better place while you're the household name for devices that are as essential as a router.
Great idea. From a nerd 😁
But who do you think would be the target demographic? Critical users, that don't want to use major crap but are also not suited for doing it all by themselves, either due to skill, time, money or a combination thereof?
I wouldn't think that group is significantly large. And definitely not large enough to seriously put a dent in the major crap apps.
Better than nothing, but probably not worth investing in such a project. Sadly so, I might add.
Platforms keep getting shittier and more exploitative, while government thirst for control with things like Chat Control, OSA and whatever the US is doing.
The more we see of that the easier it becomes to market a "your internet services in a box" to a layman.
But first they have to care. The amount of people who don't care for e.g. privacy - even if explained in detail - is flabbergasting. Even today I heard two times "why? I have nothing to hide" or "but WhatsApp is superior!"
I think this is a really good idea. A baby server for every privacy concerned house. Make it simple enough that customizing software features is like putting together Legos, but leave in the potential for complexity as some users grow.
If you could sell this for $500 or less you have yourself a customer
Exactly my thinking. You could even have some sort of containerized environment so that people can easily just download and run containerized apps for various things. A podman image for your music server, for your photo hosting... almost like apps but less proprietary and less closed source
Yup. I really wish we had an open source alternative to proxmox that used containers under the hood. Would make customizing and mounting external volumes much easier too.
I don't know how this will help during World War III when billions of people will die.
Seriously? WTF? We're talking current reality here, we can't do anything to start or stop war, so just keep moving and living.