No, I haven't heard of this. But given that both of our projects appear to be about location, and both use Leaflet, OpenStreetMap and Symfony, I imagine that there might be some things I could learn from his. I'll get in touch with him! Thanks! :D

Thanks for this! 😃 I have been going back and forth on the idea of providing the end user with the ability to create their own categories. I was wondering whether it would be better to have an Other type category which the admin can react to and create categories as needed, but your post has pushed me back to the idea of allowing category creation. I think if I do implement that, I'll have a switch for it, so that the instance admin can choose.

Thanks! Worst case scenario is that I'll learn a lot and have fun doing so.

Hey, you asked to be kept updated, so I thought I'd let you know that I have been working on Habitat: https://carlnewton.github.io/posts/building-habitat/

I think that's the beauty of the fediverse though. Any community can be anything you want it to be. If some users don't like how an instance is being used, they could create a competing instance that's more aimed that their wants and needs.

Thanks for this. Perhaps invite only could work. When I signed up to my Lemmy instance, I was asked to say something nice about the UK to prove that I wasn't a bot. I imagine this could work with a local quiz. But I personally favour the idea of it being open and communities being so small that it wouldn't really benefit anyone to abuse. But it would certainly be nice to have the administration tools to quickly put a stop to it if it does occur. Something to think about. Thanks

Thanks Rimu! Steal away! I just watched a video of you demonstrating PieFed. It's good to get some positive feedback from a developer with experience in building a decentralised platform, because as of yet, I don't have that.

I'll almost certainly be using ActivityPub if and when, and I'll keep in mind this address amendment :D

Hey, I've been looking into the idea of using population density as an indicator of how big a community should be, but it didn't feel right that the platform would be deciding the boundaries of each community. I then thought about the idea that the owner, upon setup, would draw a shape on a map that would indicate the boundaries of their desired community. How do you feel that solution would that solution work around your river?

It's such a joy to read this kind of feedback, and to know that not only would it be enjoyable to have such a platform, but you can foresee that it would be useful. I think I might ask some developers who have experience with building decentralised platforms to see if they think there would be technical issues.

I like this! This is an interesting and probably an effective idea for addressing the issue of desolate communities. It does introduce a new issue though. Let's say for the sake of argument, I created an instance where I lived, and it engulfed the British isles, and then after some time, a new instance was created in Scotland. The posts that were previously made in my (now England) instance that are geographically located in Scotland would need to be transferred to the Scottish instance, because otherwise, they would never be found using the relevant instance finding technique that I've described. This doesn't sound like a terrible technical issue (though probably not an entirely trivial one given that you don't want to have all of your posts hijacked by a bad actor), but it does sound like a data/privacy issue, in that the users who posted that data have essentially had it transferred to the ownership (and moderation decisions) of somebody else without permission. An interesting thought none the less. I'd prefer the platform to be as simple as possible but if it can't be picked up due to a lack of interest then that would be a design flaw. On the other hand, I suppose it'll be in the interest of each owner to foster their own community.

Thanks for this. I like the idea of local libraries being the hub of community connection. If I get a strong impression that people would want this, and if I get the impression that I can do a better job of building such a platform than anyone else willing to do so, I'll be sure to contact my local library. At the moment, I'm still on the fence on both counts, given that I don't believe the idea has yet garnered the attention of anyone who has experience developing for decentralised platforms. I'm hopeful though. It sounds like a fun project, but it would be a shame to get to the end of it without help and nobody actually wants it, or to work away at it and find something I've overlooked will prevent it from happening. I'll keep my ear to the ground for a little while.

Yes, what I'm describing is federating with all instances, unless of course, you decide to block one. Using the method I've described, there would be only one hop necessary from your local to the instance relevant to your location. I can't picture the benefit of a solution in which you would only federate with local instances, given that the downside would be that you would be restricted to posting in your own location. Let me know if I'm missing something. I appreciate all of this feedback.