Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time
by ocdtrekkie on Friday January 11, 2019 @05:29PM
(#18887815)
I think the ideal use case for Sandstorm is either the service model or best-case the "your family computer guy runs it for a ton of people you know". If I stand up a Sandstorm server at home this year (which is likely), I'll probably allow any friends or family to use it.
The "normal desktop user" should probably not be running their own self-hosting setup, because they will fail at backups and reliability and performance.
Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time
by hinkley on Saturday January 12, 2019 @03:35AM
(#18890328)
Or, one proposes a system with redundancy built into it, so that a machine going down or getting soda poured on it doesn’t take out the whole network.
Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time
by MentallyRetired on Friday January 11, 2019 @04:36PM
(#18887346)
Truth. This stuff needs to be EASY. If I'm capable of setting up but too lazy, my mom stands zero chance.
^ That is your expected reaction by normal desktop users. I mean literally download an exe and up pops up your feed ready to add your friends, or favorite businesses, news sites, link aggregators, etc given their onion ID (yes, onion ID is annoyingly large, especially v3, but discovery/identity comes later, don't let it hold up the system).
I'm not convinced you need a "home server" in the traditional sense. Just accept what you lose, uptime, if you use your laptop or phone to do the hosting. You can share between them too given a synced private key which is the software's job, not the user's. Still, an ephemeral self-hosted-on-desktop social network can go a long way (and again, people will let the need for uptime drive their always-on desktop decision). This stuff requires such little resources to start, a cheap Raspi w/ a install/reach-from-other-device would work just fine if they don't have a home computer and want one just for this. Large storage can come later.
I do agree the privacy difference is minimal.