July 12, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 04:55:45 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 04:40:16 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> * First of all, does Dlang.org have it's own website for hiring D programmers or offering D programming services? If not, it should!
>>
>> [...]
>
> If you have any price proposal, please tell me.
>
> * I will not participate directly in the project. I still didn't learn D enough to aventurate in a big project like this one...

People... It just came to mind... it's a very bad idea to make an incensurable social media. It would be a safe heaven for pedophiles, drug traffickers, human traffickers, hitmen and criminals alike.

I will create another topic in the forum, but for another project (way easier to be done, by the way - with vibe.d, no blockchain, no big cryptographic use...).
It will be a centralized social media (like any other social media - a normal website, with normal apps... and SOME moderation/control).
Again: *Some* control. And this control has to be limited by all means. And I may know how...

I will post the link to the new project details as a reply here. Please, wait.


*I know that a few of you might be saying that I might being blackmailed or even bribed to stop the original project, but no. I really think a 100% uncontrollable social media could be disastrous and dangerous. Some moderation is necessary, even if it is just to stop criminals like the mentioned ones.
Sorry if I disappointed you.

But still, it will be done completely in D with vibe.d (app MAY BE in D too, if we manage to do them in D - I'm talking about Android; iOS in no way has support to it, officially or not. But I plan to have an app for them).

And everything will be opensourced, first functioning version will be paid (same scheme as before).
July 12, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 19:37:01 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 04:55:45 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 04:40:16 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>>> [...]
>>
>> If you have any price proposal, please tell me.
>>
>> * I will not participate directly in the project. I still didn't learn D enough to aventurate in a big project like this one...
>
> People... It just came to mind... it's a very bad idea to make an incensurable social media. It would be a safe heaven for pedophiles, drug traffickers, human traffickers, hitmen and criminals alike.
>
> I will create another topic in the forum, but for another project (way easier to be done, by the way - with vibe.d, no blockchain, no big cryptographic use...).
> It will be a centralized social media (like any other social media - a normal website, with normal apps... and SOME moderation/control).
> Again: *Some* control. And this control has to be limited by all means. And I may know how...
>
> I will post the link to the new project details as a reply here. Please, wait.
>
>
> *I know that a few of you might be saying that I might being blackmailed or even bribed to stop the original project, but no. I really think a 100% uncontrollable social media could be disastrous and dangerous. Some moderation is necessary, even if it is just to stop criminals like the mentioned ones.
> Sorry if I disappointed you.
>
> But still, it will be done completely in D with vibe.d (app MAY BE in D too, if we manage to do them in D - I'm talking about Android; iOS in no way has support to it, officially or not. But I plan to have an app for them).
>
> And everything will be opensourced, first functioning version will be paid (same scheme as before).

People... I seriously don't know what to do... Continue with the decentralized, but very likely to have pedophilic content and users version, or go to a centralized, written in D and open-sourced version?

This Gab and this Dreamwidth seem to be proprietary aren't they? I didn't a link for their sources...

I want it to be opensource. And written in D. <- Those are very important...
July 12, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:04:58 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 19:37:01 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> [...]
>
> People... I seriously don't know what to do... Continue with the decentralized, but very likely to have pedophilic content and users version, or go to a centralized, written in D and open-sourced version?
>
> This Gab and this Dreamwidth seem to be proprietary aren't they? I didn't a link for their sources...
>
> I want it to be opensource. And written in D. <- Those are very important...

Ah, sorry. I just found one of the sources. :P
July 12, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:06:02 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:04:58 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 19:37:01 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>>> [...]
>>
>> People... I seriously don't know what to do... Continue with the decentralized, but very likely to have pedophilic content and users version, or go to a centralized, written in D and open-sourced version?
>>
>> This Gab and this Dreamwidth seem to be proprietary aren't they? I didn't a link for their sources...
>>
>> I want it to be opensource. And written in D. <- Those are very important...
>
> Ah, sorry. I just found one of the sources. :P

Dreamwidth seems to be Pearl. Again... I need D. I want this language to grow more and more... And the fastest way is to make it famous, known (by creating interesting projects in D). :)

So... suggestions... Centralized? Decentralized?

I think the centralized wouldn't fit in any country. It would certainly contain pedophile posts... and any sane country would shut down the servers immediately...

So... DEcentralized?
July 13, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:11:06 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> So... suggestions... Centralized? Decentralized?
>
> I think the centralized wouldn't fit in any country. It would certainly contain pedophile posts... and any sane country would shut down the servers immediately...
>
> So... DEcentralized?

Hi! I do not think the debate you have with yourself is decentralized vs centralized. You are thinking about moderated vs unmoderated. One is a technical structure, the other is a social one.

We got used to have moderated channels in media and unmoderated channels in person. Now the problem we are facing is that we use these social media platforms for replacing "in person" communications with friend and family. And the owners of these platforms are still treating it as "media" that they should moderate.

But this is not so black-and-white still. When i am talking to my mother-in-law who has different political biases than me, I moderate *myself* not to bring up topics that would just divide us, because I love her enough to tolerate her opinions. What happens is that we have many social circles in which we have different topics and ethical norms. This is in our nature and that is fine. Football fans ventilate their emotions at the game, but they would not use the same language in their workplace.

So what I see is that a social media platform should be decentralized to avoid influence from its owner. It should be divided into many communities. And each community should be able to downvote content that is not tolerated in those circles. And downvoted content should be also available by others, it should just take more actions to peek into that and convince yourself that it was indeed something inapt for that community.

In the digital world, everything seems to be black and white. But social behaviors are more subtle than that. It is easy to create a total dictatorial system like facebook, and it is also easy to create a total anarchist system like Silk Road. And our goal is to create a system that is similar to in-real-life communication, which is neither completely free, nor completely controlled.

You cannot build that system on top of a centralized architecture where a government can just ask for all data including a order to keep that secret. People never trusted their inner thoughts or family conversation onto the government. And they should not.
July 13, 2017
On Thursday, 13 July 2017 at 05:18:40 UTC, wigy wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:11:06 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> [...]
>
> Hi! I do not think the debate you have with yourself is decentralized vs centralized. You are thinking about moderated vs unmoderated. One is a technical structure, the other is a social one.
>
> [...]

Great explanation, perfectly done.  A decentralized medium like this will one day put facebook, twitter, Uber, etc. out of business.
July 13, 2017
On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 04:40:16 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>
> So... basically, it's a Bitcoin, but instead of transactions, the blockchain should store posts and profiles. :) And it should have some additional features (the typical things of social media - profile picture, some optional information about the user, etc.).
> And obviously, it is supposed to be written in D, instead of C++ like the Bitcoin.
> I also think that this blockchain shouldn't be downloaded by the client like the Bitcoin does. Only the servers need it. Clients will download only the posts that it needs (and requests).
>

why not use the actual bitcoin blockchain? there exists a process called "etching" whereby one may store indelible messages.

July 14, 2017
On Thursday, 13 July 2017 at 05:18:40 UTC, wigy wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 20:11:06 UTC, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> [...]
>
> Hi! I do not think the debate you have with yourself is decentralized vs centralized. You are thinking about moderated vs unmoderated. One is a technical structure, the other is a social one.
>
> [...]

Hmmm... But how would a criminal post be deleted or removed?
Even if decentralized, govs could forbid the use of it (specially having a server of this social media), considering that it's database could contain child pornography (undeletable child pornography - really bad).

But it doesn't matter, I have other projects to invest my money on D.

I will post the links soon.
July 14, 2017
On 14/07/2017 1:41 AM, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
> Hmmm... But how would a criminal post be deleted or removed?
> Even if decentralized, govs could forbid the use of it (specially having a server of this social media), considering that it's database could contain child pornography (undeletable child pornography - really bad).
> 
> But it doesn't matter, I have other projects to invest my money on D.
> 
> I will post the links soon.

Anyway its just silly to go for removal of servers. The overhead is far too great. Our compression algo's can't back it up. You'll be talking terabytes just to store a few 'websites' soon enough.

Nah, anyway decentralized != anonymous. Even in Tor there are servers.

What we need isn't a decentralized http replacement. What we need is a decentralized dns with some form of filters available.
July 14, 2017
On Friday, 14 July 2017 at 04:47:24 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
> On 14/07/2017 1:41 AM, Vitor Rozsas wrote:
>> Hmmm... But how would a criminal post be deleted or removed?
>> Even if decentralized, govs could forbid the use of it (specially having a server of this social media), considering that it's database could contain child pornography (undeletable child pornography - really bad).
>> 
>> But it doesn't matter, I have other projects to invest my money on D.
>> 
>> I will post the links soon.
>
> Anyway its just silly to go for removal of servers. The overhead is far too great. Our compression algo's can't back it up. You'll be talking terabytes just to store a few 'websites' soon enough.
>
> Nah, anyway decentralized != anonymous. Even in Tor there are servers.
>
> What we need isn't a decentralized http replacement. What we need is a decentralized dns with some form of filters available.

What about a decentralized cryptocurrency (like bitcoin) but instead of the blockchain having transactions recorded on it, it could have something lighter... like a list of coins IDs ("cents", actually) and their owners, like:

1 = Vitor
2 = Vitor
3 = Vitor
4 = Leonard
[...]

(cents 1, 2, 3 belong to Vitor and cent 4 belong to Leonard, and so on...). A "map" (C++) or associative array (D) with the ID of the cent (key) and owner (value) or opposite, if necessary.

Is this even possible? Please consider that I don't know a lot about cryptography. And I have no idea of whether this is feasible with D or with any language at all, so if I'm speaking nonsensic things, just tell me.
But I think it would be lighter than store all transactions from the very first one.
I just don't know if this is doable; cryptocurrencies have a lot of security measures to avoid transferring money that doesn't exist, money that isn't yours, and so on, to confirm the transaction...

Wouldn't it be easier? All the cents should have a first owner though... one that would sell to resellers, or just give away to random people.

That way, the blockchain would have a fixed size, forever. Lighter than all that expensive mining stuff (that in my country is impossible - lack of decent machines, pricey electric energy), and the worst part: downloading 100+ GigaBytes because blockchain stores transactions, this database gets bigger and bigger...
List of cents is limited; it's fixed. But instead of 18 Million that bitcoin uses, I was thinking of trillions (so the value of the currency is more aligned to fiat currencies that we already know and are used to).

So... tell me. Is this possible? *Is this safe*? Is anybody going to be stolen if blockchain stores a map of cent id + owner instead of a bunch of transactions?

I know that it would be lighter for CPUs of users and servers as well, and to the disk, that's for sure.

Waiting for replies.