What if your favorite platform died? How I'm trying to build software that lasts

https://eventuallymaking.io/p/what-if-your-favorite-platform-died-how-i-m-trying-to-build-software-that-lasts

by hlassiege • 7 months ago

2 1 7 months ago

I feel for the developer, but I hate the term "platform." It's a web site .. or a web application. If your tool connects to the Fediverse via ActivityPub, I might give you honorary "distributed platform" status.

I agree with imports/export and always giving users control over their content. It gets trick though. What if a user uploads child corn. You need to delete it immediately, and possibly report it depending on your legal jurisdiction. Sure that seems clear cut, but what if it's a text article that contains something that's legal in the US and Japan but not in France or Romania.

There needs to be some design around local storage first so the user always has a backup on his or her computer.

Ultimately, the quest for "platforms" is part of the problem. The bigger problem is it's impossible to search the web today. Gone are the days of Lycos, Yahoo, Hotbot, Dogpile, and a host of different search engines that give people different results. We're down to 1~3 search engines, and there's honestly no meaningful difference between Goo/DDG/Bing. Kagi isn't really a significant enough difference. Yandex is honestly your best option for more obscure articles and things censored by Google and the west.

The other issue is just that there's a lack of websites in general. People have stopped "surfing the web" and really exploring the Internet like they use to, and most people are honestly afraid to. It's a soft prison of our own mediocrity.

What if your favorite platform died? How I'm trying to build software that lasts

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