On Social Media

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres Where have all the G+ers gone? We don't have solid information (empirical data) to answer that question specifically. What we do have is legitimate statistics that imply where 1/3 of G+ers active at the time of the sunset announcement are going: to the Free Social Network comprised of many network types that agree to use federated protocols so users can connect easily. What are the major network types? Friendica, Hubzilla, Diaspora, Mastodon, but there are many more that are ramping up as Friendica released support for Activity Pub. Friendica currently supports more federated protocols than other network types allowing what is approaching 2.8 million users the possibility to connect directly and an even larger number of users connecting via blogs or Twitter for example. How did I get 1/3 of G+ users going to the Free Social Network? Simple math. At the time of the sunset announcement, there were approximately 3 million active users (not counti...

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres #signalflare We've only got a few weeks left on G+! Around the hyperverse and the fediverse, I can be found if you need some help #gplusrefugees :) https://wheretofind.me/@shelenn Friendica is built by the community for the community and has more features than G+ or FB! You control the user interface (how it looks for you), your content (how it works for you), and your privacy (how others see your content and connect with you). It replaces circles, collections, and communities "out of the box" but also integrates easily with other social media like blogs and Twitter. http://social.isurf.ca is on the latest release candidate. Come check it out! It's free and there are a great bunch of people connecting not only with each other on Friendica, but also with others throughout the Fediverse (Pluspora, Hubzilla, Mastodon and more) - all 2.7 million users and growing. You can move later to another node if you like or at some point even hos...

Another Friendica release candidate ready for testing! Built by the community for the community. :) https://forum.friendi.ca/profile/news

This is amazing work happening in the Fediverse - the all inclusive free social network for the globe. If you haven't joined us yet, one way is to check the pinned post at the top of my profile before G+ goes away so you can connect with others. Then feel free to checkout the entire Fediverse without losing connections :) https://github.com/hoergen/besser-der-podcast/tree/master/fediverse

Major Federated Network Types and Protocols Supported: (please provide any additional protocols to be edited in comments) Diaspora Macroblog Diaspora Friendica Macroblog Diaspora, OStatus, ActivityPub, DFRN, RSS, XMPP Hubzilla Macroblog Diaspora, OStatus, ActivityPub, Zot Osada Macroblog ActivityPub, Zot Socialhome Macroblog Diaspora GangGo Macroblog Diaspora Mastodon Microblog ActivityPub, OStatus Pleroma Microblog ActivityPub, OStatus Misskey Microblog ActivityPub GNUSocial Microblog OStatus WriteFreely Blog ActivityPub WordPress Blog ActivityPub, Diaspora Plume Blog ActivityPub Funkwhale Music hosting ActivityPub Peertube Video hosting ActivityPub Pixelfed Image hosting ActivityPub Matrix Chat/Conference Matrix, XMPP

This is a good history and forward look for the federated web space which will be much less confusing in the future as we all merge into the Fediverse. Take a look at the three Venn diagrams to see the evolution. https://medium.com/we-distribute/a-quick-guide-to-the-free-network-c069309f334

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres #signalflare #gplusrefugees You can join many of us in the Fediverse with community forums, news feeds, collections, groups, and full integration with export to Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, and import/export mirror to Twitter and pump.io. No need to wait for features to be developed. Latest software release this month with a new release scheduled soon. We are the Free Social Network decentralized and federated with Diaspora, Mastodon, Hubzilla, Friendica, and more. We are 2.6 million strong and growing. There is no one single authority or company. We are not a walled garden. As long as users exist we all exist together as one. The power is in the hands of the users. No ads, no BS, no hate speech allowed. Follow the quick tips to get started.

A well-versed review for bloggers... https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-205c-61f2-93bf-460874887076

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres From the article: Friendica 2019.01 released Tobias | 21. January 2019 We are pleased to announce the availability of Friendica The Tazmans Flax-lily 2019.01, which bundles up our work since September 2018. This includes over 130 fixed issues and some exciting new features . If you are interested in all of them, please have a look at the CHANGELOG file. Most noteworthy of these changes are: Friendica does now natively support ActivityPub (AP) in addition to the DFRN, diaspora* and OStatus protocols. The AP functionality was tested with Hubzilla, Mastodon, Nextcloud Social, Osada, PeerTube, Pixelfed and Pleroma. The configuration structure has changed again! Your old .htconfig.php and config/local.ini.php file will still work, but you will get a notification in the admin panel with some hopefully explaining text on how to convert your settings to the new config/local.config.php config file. The manual and automatic installation process was enhanced. Th...

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres How to attach an image, video, or web URL to a Friendica post on nodes with the new release candidate (in pictures). Steps: Login to your Friendica account. On the default network or home page, click the "post" icon below your profile picture in the upper right. Optionally give it a title, optionally add hastags or a category (like collections), then click inside the share box to type anything you want. Click the paperclip icon to attach (not the link icon) Paste the URL into the box that pops up then click ok (This will insert all the necessary code for you.) Click the share button and you will see your post :) (You can edit by using the upper right pull down menu of the post itself if needed.)

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres Now that we are seeing some glitches in G+ that imply the shutdown appears to be starting, I've had a lot of questions from people looking for a new home. Friendica is a free solution that does all that G+ does and more (no waiting for features to be developed). I am going to link multiple tips I've made to help others see how to get started on social.isurf.ca When you signup with an email account, it will ignore anything you put in for a password. Check your spam folder if needed to find a credential email from the server. Click the link in the email to find your temporary password and use that to login. Once in, you can go to your profile settings to change the password and begin filling out your profile. The following posts can help you beyond that! Check below on how to add me as a contact using my identity address shelenn@social.isurf.ca https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShelennAyres/posts/XsYzmL3hqMK https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShelennAyres...

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres Which Friendica node should I chose? That depends on your language and country preferences etc. BUT, my advice, is chose one that is either running the last stable release 2018.09-1283 or better yet, one that is running the latest release candidate 2019.01-rc-1292 because those are the nodes likely to update to the next release coming soon. There are quite a few improvements in the release candidate! Kudos to a great dev team! Here is where you can find a list of servers with open signups (see column), what version they are running (see column), and statistics on each by clicking the individual projects (click node name link): https://the-federation.info/friendica If you find one you like, click the link at the top of their project page to create an account. https://the-federation.info/friendica

This is a great page (that gathers statistics) for understanding what network types Friendica "federates with". For the non-techies, that tells us who we can connect with on other network types using only our one account :) If you have a Friendica account, you can connect with users who have accounts on the following network types (without needing separate accounts on each): diaspora*, GangGo, GNU Social, Hubzilla, Mastodon, Osada, Pleroma, postActiv, Socialhome and more Click through for more details. https://fediverse.party/en/friendica/

Congratulations to the Federation/Fediverse for the milestone! Prior to the original G+ sunset announcement, there were roughly 1.8 million users. The tally now is 2.5 million users reflecting a growth of 700,000 users in the last quarter of 2018. This only includes nodes that self-report so the size of the user base is greater! One can inspect closer looking at the numbers and the charts. Click the link for details. https://the-federation.info/

For those wanting to see the global community (posts from different network types in the Federation/Fediverse or what I call the federated web space), here is a page from the view of the node I am on: Tip: right click and select translate on the page if you don't have auto translation turned on. https://social.isurf.ca/community

For those looking for a public Friendica server, here is a directory. https://dir.friendica.social/servers

For anyone who wants to see an example of a Friendica public profile page (the url can be used by other network types to add me as a contact also): https://social.isurf.ca/profile/shelenn https://social.isurf.ca/profile/shelenn

Posting screenshots here so people can see what Friendica looks like - users have the power via themes under display settings to change the way it looks for them and how the content is laid out more than G+ and FB ever allowed. Feature-wise it replaces G+ and FB out of the box. In addition, I will make this an all in one post with the links for everyone from users to hosts. You can use the browser to access it or an app for mobile devices. Others don't need an account to see your public posts. You have full control over your content and privacy. First Steps (support and finding a node to create a free account): https://friendi.ca/resources/first-steps/ Features: https://friendi.ca/about/features/ Mobile Clients (Android, Sailfish, Windows, Linux): https://friendi.ca/resources/use-it/mobile-clients/ Advanced Tips from Me: 1) Use Groups to replace Circles so you can post to specific groups of contacts (friends). 2) Use advanced account type Community forum to replace Communities. (Th...

Per Edward Morbius request, this thread is a discussion on what users would like to see for event calendars. Discussions of how they work, issues, and desired features are welcome! Comments from the original thread: Edward Morbius Moderator +Shelenn Ayres: If you could expand on the types of calendar integration you have in mind? Say: Event scheduling. Alarms. Adding to/checking others' calendars. Launching actions (chats, videos, etc.) Anything else you're thinking of. Shelenn Ayres +Edward Morbius example: Friendica has an event calendar available in the default UI. Any event any of my contacts create will show up on my calendar. It is also optionally exportable so that others can download my calendar. Reminders are available and time zones adjustable. There are only two things lacking so far: image button for event posters and recurring event capability. The former is handled via theme so that is not an issue. We have to see if the latter is in the next release or still...

Originally shared by Shelenn Ayres Using mobile devices with Friendica For the mobile device users, here is a list from the devs (there may be more in work by different people.): https://friendi.ca/resources/use-it/mobile-clients/