Companies and the Fediverse

2025-04-25 14:13:15

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

BauerUlli wrote the following post Fri, 25 Apr 2025 14:13:14 +0200

Companies and the Fediverse

Companies in the Fediverse. I don't think Mastodon is any good for that. Hubzilla would be much better. Am I wrong?
Just the notifications when something happens in a thread are worth their weight in gold. Mastodon can't do that. Or image galleries, or small pages...
Mastodon is technically hitting a brick wall there.
(Translated by a machine from German)

show all 17 comments

2025-04-25 17:37:35

oj@isar.digitalesparadies.de

Not to mention that you can program addons quite easily

2025-04-25 21:40:12

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

Companies in the Fediverse. I don't think Mastodon is any good for that. Hubzilla would be much better. Am I wrong?

You are not wrong. That is what WisTex and Federated Works is working on.

Hubzilla makes a perfect platform for any app that has a community surrounding it, whether that be a recipe website, a project management system, or membership website with courses and information products.

The Hubzilla fediverse server handles the community and federation, and the addons you create handle the custom features.

2025-04-25 22:04:24

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hub.hubzilla.de

@Scott M. Stolz

whether that be a recipe website, a project management system, or membership website with courses and information products.

I wonder why noone has used it yet for an open alternative for LinkedIn, ResearchGate, or Open Educational resources...

2025-04-25 22:10:04

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Witcraft (Hubzilla)

why noone has used it yet for

In my opinion, this is because Hubzilla and its capabilities are still relatively unknown.

We need to work on that.

2025-04-25 22:17:56

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Witcraft (Hubzilla)

I wonder why noone has used it yet for an open alternative for LinkedIn, ResearchGate, or Open Educational resources...

The membership website with courses and information products can offer both free and premium content, so it certainly can be used for open education resources, when it is finished. I think someone has to build an example first, and then people will see the power of the platform. That is why we will probably be the first to make this happen.

A federated LinkedIn sounds really cool. I was thinking about that as a possible app. The question is how to federated it in a way that ensures privacy and control of your data. One option is to only federate basic profile information, and they have to visit your channel to see the full information. That way you can remove it or edit it at any time, and not worry about it being duplicated on other websites.

ResearchGate sounds like an interesting use case. Something definitely could be made for something like that. With the right features and contacts, that could become a popular app for researchers.

2025-04-25 22:45:19

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hub.hubzilla.de

Cool, I'd be in

Actually, I thought about the multi-profile and permission function of Hubzilla - I'd much prefer to have a modular profile, with entries like local posts (e.g. articles) that can be controlled via regular ACL instead of profile groups. Then, everyone would see exactly the information in the profile intended for him, and it would make thepermission system leaner.

Not sure whether this would be AP-standard compliant, though.

A federated RG would be awesome! I am trying to inspire some people developing OER platforms to have a look at federation principles - They had never heard of it before...

2025-04-25 23:25:22

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

For something like ResearchGate, or any app that requires a universal search, you'd probably want to do something similar to how Hubzilla handles directories. Every installation has a local database of channels it knows about, but a Hubzilla server can be designated as a directory server, which tries to create a network directory that other servers can pull from.

For something like research papers, you would want the local accounts and storage on individual servers, but you could also set up some servers to be directories or search engines for the network. That way you would have both decentralized content, but also decentralized search since anyone can set up a server with those roles.

2025-04-26 06:51:17

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hub.hubzilla.de

Yes, Hubzilla would be an ideal platform for that.

2025-04-26 07:45:12

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ That, and when Mastodon users say, "alternative" or "replacement", what they mean is "dedicated, one-trick pony, all-out clone".

2025-04-26 21:10:17

Tetris Life

tetrislife@zotum.net

Well, even speaking as an active fan, writing BBCode or Markdown in the Hubzilla articke editor is unworkable (and no copy-paste in the Wiki editor). So, it might not be the greatest experience in usability.

2025-04-26 23:17:47

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Tetris Life Yes, unfortunately there is no well-functioning WYSIWYG editor for articles or wiki posts. There is an add-on called ‘Wysiwyg Status’, but we don't like to activate it because it removes the summary field from the editor (you can add it manually using the tags [summary][/summary]). Unfortunately, it doesn't work with the article editor.

I usually write articles with SCEditor (which I have installed locally and as a shortcut in my browser). This is practical, but it would be nice if there were a corresponding visual editor for the editors in Hubzilla.

But... Copy & paste works fine in the wiki editor...

2025-04-27 06:57:45

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

We have a couple of options for articles.

The first option is to add an HTML WYSIWYG Editor, and either use HTML mode or Markdown mode. Markdown mode allows HTML.

The second option is to create an addon that manages articles in a separate database table, and give that an HTML WYSIWYG Editor.

For BBCode mode, SCEditor would allows us to add custom BBCodes.

https://www.sceditor.com/documentation/custom-bbcodes/

We do have some options for improving the interface.

2025-04-27 10:36:53

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

I admit, I'm a fan of SCEditor. It would be really great if it could be implemented across the board (i.e. for the post editor as well as the article and card editors). The formatting not supported by Hubzilla should be removed and the Hubzilla-specific formatting added. THAT would be a huge step forward in terms of user-friendliness.

2025-04-27 11:29:22

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

have been working on a HTML/Bootstrap5 WYSIWYG editor implementation for HZ and came up with a HZ block which integrates the Sommernote Editor https://summernote.org/ - works quite well for HZ webpages and HZ wikis

would be great if HZ articles would support HTML/Bootstrap5 as well - BUT sharing content to the HZ Fedi channel will than be broken i guess - that is why we have the HZ Webpage app :-)

2025-04-27 11:39:15

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

would be great if HZ articles would support HTML/Bootstrap5 as well

The standard format or standard markup language for Hubzilla is bbCode. This also applies to special tags. I would find it unfortunate to switch to HTML for posts and articles. However, this would be perfectly feasible for websites, especially since they are multi-format capable.

2025-04-27 13:32:44

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

would find it unfortunate to switch to HTML for posts and articles

YES

2025-04-28 07:49:35

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

@oj

Not to mention that you can program addons quite easily

i have an idea for a new plugin :-) will pm you