New PerthChat (Australian) Lemmy decentralised social network is an example of where social networks should be

Lemmy is an open source alternative to Reddit, which has similar voting up and down of posts, threaded discussions about posts, and thriving communities.

But there are some key differences from Reddit, Facebook, and such older social networks:

• It’s open source, so you can see how it works, or you can modify if you wish.
• It’s decentralised, so does not exist in only one country. It’s not a walled garden.
• Anyone can start up their own hosting instance if they wish to.
• It’s interconnected between not only the different instances of Lemmy, but also with the Fediverse, so you can participate from a non-Lemmy network.
• Moderation rules can differ according to country or hoster. Usually, moderation actions are visible to end users.
• Feed algorithms are open and usually default to chronological order or popularity.
• You can view posts without logging in.
• No adverts, no selling of user data, etc. They generally survive on donations, but which is why decentralisation is important, so that no single instance gets too large.

I see the Pertchat instance also says they are running a Matrix instance, and have bridged their Lemmy instance to both Discord and Telegram. Social networks are about exactly that, interconnecting! Anyone can sign up, so not just Australians, but Australians will be able to call this social network home, and to have a place to discuss uniquely Oz things like Koala bears, Kath and Kim, etc.

See https://lemmy.perthchat.org/

#technology #socialnetworks #alternativesto #lemmy #australia