Some friends have websites. I encourage them to do. But they have them only to publish contact info, opening times, and a couple of photos of their business. What would be the best fediverse platform for this? Of course being able to post/toot news every now and then, is also a good feature.
I’m not sure that there is any point in a fediverse platform. That implies you want interaction (e.g. comments) from other locations, and therefore need moderation etc. A local blog site with ‘share to Mastodon’ buttons (if they exist) is probably all that’s needed.
Yes. could be. I am trying to promote the fediverse as much as possible so maybe I am overly doing it. What about just a minimal ethical/privacy friendly hosted service to put your data on? people use facebook or instagram, but they really could do with something so much lighter.
Since this is for a business, ultimately they should also put the info on their social media pages (ex. Google maps listing, instagram)
They would look super cool/modern in my eyes if they also had a Mastodon account.
Otherwise I think the best option here might be Drupal/WordPress. It’s an open source way to build the website, and it’s used by many large corporations too. If the needs are simple, WordPress may handle it. If the needs are more complex, Drupal should get it?
I’d argue that for a small business a static site might be better unless it’s a managed Drupal/WordPress instance. Too much involved in hosting a public-facing website, CMS and database for most small business operators. They just want to set it and forget it at minimal cost to them (including the cost of time)
Yeah they are on google maps (sadly needed) and openstreetmap, and they actually do have a wordpress (I am thinking of a restaurant) but they really don’t need so much. And they wanna quit hosting because they’ve had a lot of people as intermediaries taking advantage and charging a lot and the hassle of hosting migration etc. I love Drupal architecture though, but it is too much for the minimal needs.
create a simple landing home page with business info then, either self host or create accounts related to the business on fediverse services; use them for interaction, branding, advertising etx. link those social media accounts on the website home page.
@ziby0405 @geoma Mmm so, you envision something that is on website as an “official presence online” and then also a separate account on Mastodon and things for social media purposes?
I mean, it makes sense. At the end of the day, even current mainstream businesses have a website and Instagram accounts for things, so yes.
@SomeoneSomewhere @geoma Probably it just means that people are on massive platforms like Instagram only because everybody else is there (?)
How would federation help with this usecase?
@CannotSleep420 @geoma What is the currently accepted/perceived use case for federation then?
I personally perceive that the Fediverse is currently appealing to geeks, organizations that look for digital sovereignty or autonomy, curious people looking for something new, die-hard alternatives
I’m only speaking for myself here, but I see federation as a means to create a large platform that isn’t controlled by any single entity. Whether or not federation will be useful depends on whether there will be posters, and who those posters will be. Federation lends itself well to social media applications because social media is driven by users creating accounts and posting. Any change in state - be that a new post or comment being created, something being upvoted or downvoted, something being reported, etc - fans out from the server it happens on to other servers that are federated with it. Contrast this with what OP mentions their friends do with their website: “[T]hey have them only to publish contact info, opening times, and a couple of photos of their business.” In this scenario, what data would be getting federated? These sound like static sites.
It could be that OP is asking for something closer to a business’s facebook page. In this case, some federated software might be better suited for their needs than others, but I don’t think that’s the same thing as a corporate website.
Static site generator. It’s hosted for free, super fast, easy to use. Done.
Not everything needs to run fediverse. That’s ridiculous bloat tbh.
WordPress
yeah but needs hosting or using wordpress.com which is full of shitty trackers.
A website implies hosting.
I guess what you are actually asking for is something like a facebook page?
You are going to need hosting no matter what.
I don’t think the fediverse has this, but I’m a bit confused why so many of these comments are puzzled at why you would want it. We have fediverse twitter, fediverse insta, fediverse reddit, fediverse discord, etc – why not fediverse facebook/myspace/carrd? Where users could just have small personal (or corporate) pages about themselves that aren’t as blog/news focused on the main(user) page.
I don’t even think it would be a huge stretch to implement: a big focus on user page customization with a small microblog interface taking up a portion of the screen would do it. (Disclaimer: not saying easy to create, just not that far out of reach vs everything else the fediverse has).
why not fediverse facebook/myspace/carrd?
I think Friendica fits that bill.
Wait what’s fediverse discord
Matrix
Mom, I want federated Discord!
We have federated Discord at home…
At home: Matrix…
Matrix is really closer to federated Telegram. It doesn’t have servers in the way Discord does and has no support for voice channels, a major part of Discord.
Oh ok lol now that you mention it that makes sense Thanks!
I use GoToSocial, which is a mastodon-like fediverse software that’s perfect for single-user instances. You can set your profile as the landing page at the root URL, and it also supports customisable CSS for your page too.
You can check out a sample profile (GtS’ official account) here.
do they want to publish news every now and then, or do you just think they should? it seems like they are happy with what they have now.
there is nothing worse then outdated wordpress full of spam, where no one publishes anything because they don’t actually want to, but they were convinced by someone else that they “need it”
Maybe WriteFreely or Plume? These are blogging services with Fediverse connection.
Yes I’ve tried them and they could be used but aren’t really made for a corporate website
I think the whole Fediverse isn’t made for corporate websites. I don’t want to sound too negative here. But the Fediverse is made to engage with people, have discussions and to provide a level plaing field between parties. The point of corporate websites is to push info in a top-down approach and retain strict control over your image. You have the aspect of communication in common. You want to be able to communicate with your customers. But that’s probably it. Even if they ask for support, it’s often private info and directed directly at you and other people shouldn’t be able to read their contact info etc.
Furthermore lots of customers don’t want to engage and talk about software for example. They want to buy it and use it as a tool to do their job. Not have a community. But that depends on the exact use-case. I can’t imagine a community for pressure-washer customers. But there are also lots of examples with a healty and mutually beneficial communities around software products.
It really depends on your use-case. If I were in your position I’d ask myself what my customers probably want or need and do that. Often that’s a static website plus a forum or something like that (and something like a blog for news). And some means to get in touch directly for support.
A bonus of the fediverse is that it interconnects. You could choose two or more pieces if software and combine them if you don’t find one solution that fits you.
Yeah, I understand the logic… but what about if we break this barriers? They don’t really need a forum. Just a couple of static posts plus a microblogging would be enough. The ability of having interactions directly with the community would be a plus. I am not thinking only on solving their needs, but on proposing the fediverse as a solution to an actual problem so that we get more migrations.
The other way around would be to use something like https://neocities.org or https://silex.me or maybe even https://codeberg.page/
I get that. I’d love a customizable out-of-the-box solution for small companies that is free software and ties in a user-respecting ecosystem. AFAIK they mostly use a CMS. Something like Wordpress can even speak ActivityPub with the correct plugin. But I don’t know any good solution to recommend to you. There are quite a few free software (big) eCommerce solutions and management stuff. Other things are more tailored to one task and you’d need several pieces of software and customize it to your use-case.
Keep in mind hosting stuff takes time. And if it’s your platform you got to moderate stuff and constantly make content and contribute yourself. I doubt it’ll take off otherwise.
And you need something unique that attracts users to your platform in specific. Could be your companies products, your good content, or you being better and nicer to people than other platforms are. Because there are lots of other services out there competing for attention. I could sign up for 15 different federated services today. You somehow need to convince me to choose yours and your instance.
But maybe someone else has a good recommendation for you. Using free software and connecting people is always a good idea.
@h3ndrik @geoma There are other things to consider, like what kind of dependency you want to have to other organizations. You might be a network of small orgs ready to share resources for setting up a collective Mastodon instance. Similar approach with a big entity with enough resources (be those donations, own money, or whatever) to fund all of that. A different case would be just a small project/business that currently uses Instagram for PR purposes, but that wants something alternative
@geoma @h3ndrik we get back to other issues/problems that are discussed somewhere here around on Lemmy. Striking the balance between autonomy and management costs is always hard. That’s why probably there is the need to have a service that helps users get paired with the best software given their needs.
As others are saying, Firefish/Calckey might be interesting in that sense.
(gosh, even Friendica has a relevant concept there, but it is soooo unpolished and not appropriate for business.
I’m sorry, I think I didn’t explain well my motivations. First of all, as many of you also are, I am a libre software and ethical platforms promoter. I am always looking for ways to help people migrate, for example, form instagram to pixelfed and the fediverse. It is difficult, mostly because of the network effect, so we need groups that are willing to make the change. Sometimes I help people and communities with their IT issues ad honorem, but in exchange I ask them to use and promote libre/ethical platforms. So, the other day I was thinking… what if, instead of trying to find how to make people move to the fediverse, we promote the fediverse as a platform for solving a need people are nowadays having? And it turns out I found a lot of people wanting a minimal website with minimum hassle. Instagram was not designed for websites, and the hindrances it intentionally has, make it a much worse platform thaan what a static site or a even a CMS site would be. But a lot of people and businesses use Instagram as their main “website”. So, the thing is, what if for example I could set up an instance, in which I provide premium support to “clients”, and I could even charge for this! (I am not thinking in making money, but where I live, although it sounds stupid, people sometimes value more what is paid than another “free” web platform.) And I give them their minimal space for posting their things with an easy interface. They will get the interactions with peoples as a plus. They will see they won’t have ads nor need to have an instagram account. Maybe this will help boost peoples migration to the fediverse. Pixelfed for example is perfect for artists… it offers a portfolio feature. But for other kinds of business, we need something more like facebook pages. Firefish (ex calckey) has pages functionality… I don’t know… I am just thinking out loud.
These things used to be called yellow-pages and there were some attempts to take them online before many people seem to have decided that Facebook is good enough or so. Although there are also various eBay like sites that offer “store pages” these days.
I guess a kind of federated yellow pages for local listings combined with a simple market place would make some sense.
@poVoq @geoma This looks interesting. Would you imagine the marketplace as paired to the local listings?
Given that one big problem of the fediverse for business applications so far is discoverability, I imagine to have a federated service that indexes all posts from accounts on that instance, and also has a marketplace. It basically is a federated Etsy? 😳
You want Facebook for that. Maybe one day the fediverse will be corporation tolerant, but it’s not today.
Depends on your definition of tolerant.
If it implies adtech and trackers, then no. If it implies joining a random instance and spamming it, then no.
But any organisation is free to manage their own fediverse instance or get managed Mastodon hosting on their own domain.
So fans of their products can follow them and their webcare team can respond to questions.
Requiring companies to host their own instance is hardly tolerance. You also left out the part where many large instances would defederate before they even had a chance.
Companies small and big are used to have hosting managed for them. Websites cms-es etc, why would selecting a Mastodon provider be any different?
As for defederation:
- Would I defederate/block brands I dont like preemptively? Only a few. Would I care if CocaCola has an instance? No.
- Would mastodon.social defederate Nike? Cant speak for Eugen but I dont think they have a defederate policy against brands?
- Would FediBlock maintain a branding blocklist just for the sake of being a brand instance? Doubt it.
