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Proposal For A Distributed Open Source Free Speech Social Media Platform (DOSFSSMP!)

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Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube are coming under fire for 
shadow-banning, demonetising, suspending, or outright blocking people 
with whose political views they do not agree.

Usenet never had that problem.

But Usenet is dying, because it's /so/ last millennium. Not shiny 
enough. No videos, no memes, all that.

Usenet does, however, have one massive advantage. It is *distributed* - 
that is, no one person or company or government owns it.

We can't fix Usenet, alas. The mechanisms for doing so have rusted shut, 
and nobody has an oil-can.

But we could create a new platform that uses its advantages and deals 
with its disadvantages.

What follows is an idea of what such a platform might taste like.

========================

What is the new platform to be called?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Distributed Open Source Free Speech Social Media Platform" !

DOSFSSMP for short. Yes, it's a crap name. Some people are geniuseses at 
names, but I'm not. So think of it as a place-holder name that will be 
replaced by something sensible.

Who should own DOSFSSMP?
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Nobody and everybody. Certainly not a company or a government. Anyone 
must be allowed to install a DOSFSSMP server if they wish, at no charge 
(just like Apache), and all the DOSFSSMP servers should be able to talk 
to each other (sort of like Apache!). Anyone should be allowed to write 
a DOSFSSMP client if they wish, too.


Who should control DOSFSSMP?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Everybody and nobody. Anyone can say anything (subject to applicable 
laws in some suitably free-speech-friendly country), and anybody can 
killfile anyone they don't want to read - just like Usenet.

The protocol would be in the hands of a steering group (simply because 
these things don't happen by magic, and the protocol has to be 
relatively stable), but there must be a mechanism in place for 
replenishing that group when people decide to spend more time with their 
family!

Server operators would not be under any obligation to maintain a 
complete feed (for example, they could reject explicit content or spam 
or whatever they want to reject), but users would be free to switch 
servers (or connect to multiple servers) if they felt that the service 
was not meeting their needs. It would perhaps be reasonable to build in 
a requirement for a prudish server to do something like this:

* Server A: calling all servers, calling all servers, I do not wish to 
carry message ID XYZ from user ABC because <reason>; will anyone take it?
* Server B: I don't mind taking a look.
* Server A: hello, client ABC. I'm not going to accept your message, but 
B might take it. Please try there.



What should DOSFSSMP offer?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

* Easy authentication - no mobile phone requirement! I'm thinking 
something like PKC. (If you have the private key, it must be you, right?)
* Threaded discussion (like Usenet and Twitter)
* Approval/Disapproval (like "like", like, and "dislike", like)
* A heads-up when something interesting happens (a la "notifications")
* Sources (like Twitter's "followers", but that's a horrible word)
* Rudimentary formatting (bold, italic, underline)
* Those ridiculous little pictures like emoticons on acid
* An editing window of perhaps 30 seconds during which nobody can reply 
to an article, to give the author time to correct a boneheaded typo or two
* The ability to delete one's own article (in which case it is replaced 
by a pro forma "this article was deleted" message)
* Images (at least JPEG, PNG, GIF inc animation, and BMP)
* Videos
* Audio
* MIDI?
* Direct Messaging (via some kind of request/accept protocol)
* Groups (for any legal purpose desired, names on a 
first-come-first-served basis, and with some kind of passable-onnable 
moderation powers)
* Killfiling (or, more generally, the ability for a client program to 
protect its user from unwanted material - spam, explicit, extremist, etc)
* FLEXIBILITY - it should be possible to add new features to the 
protocol without breaking anything


What would be required?
+++++++++++++++++++++++

* A protocol that ALLOWS but does not REQUIRE a Web interface (because 
there are so many people for whom the Web /is/ the Internet)
* A steering group for the DOSFSSMP protocol, whose members are not only 
competent but also committed to free speech for *everyone*, not just 
their political bedfellows
* A well-known port (there are plenty at the top end that nobody really 
uses for anything much)
* Server software
* Client software


What happens now?
+++++++++++++++++

Discussion, I hope! And, if there is any interest, we can maybe start 
thinking about the protocol.



So - any comments?


-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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Proposal For A Distributed Open Source Free Speech Social Media Platform (DOSFSSMP!) Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2018-04-27 00:27 +0100
  Re: Proposal For A Distributed Open Source Free Speech Social Media Platform (DOSFSSMP!) fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2018-04-28 06:49 -0700

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