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vga256

while i'm sad to see #reddit circling the toilet, it only reminded me of how urgent it is that we finally ditch centralized social media. reddit itself isn't the problem - it's a symptom of a much more generalized problem we've had since FB became a thing in the late 00's.

i've spent the past week re-purposing, patching, porting, and expanding a great piece of software based on the same #nntp protocol that #usenet uses, for creating discussion groups. i'm calling it "tomo" (友 - 'friend') bbs.

some time soon folks can spin up their own tomo shards, create discussion groups in a similar manner to reddit, decide whether they want to keep the group restricted to their shard, or share the group with other tomo shards in a public network of discussion groups called tomonet. completely decentralized private or public discussions without supercorporation bs.

best of all, since it is based on plain 'ol usenet-like nntp, you can read and post to discussion groups from a 1977 VAX mainframe, a 1984 IBM PCjr at 2400 baud, an Apple Newton, or a brand new phone.

i can't wait to bust out forté free agent for windows 3.11 and get posting this weekend. 😎
1 Jul 2023 at 6:16 | Open on dialup.cafe
41 comments
Irenes (many)

@vga256 oh that is a good approach! we approve

1 Jul 2023 at 6:18 | Open on mastodon.social
Voron
Artemis

@vga256 Sounds awesome!

Please support hosting via tor & i2p? So one can run tomo shards anonymously from home w/o needing to rent someone else's computer?

1 Jul 2023 at 6:43 | Open on fosstodon.org
vga256

@artemissian tomo is a fork of rocksolid-light server, which already allows for socks proxying through tor and i2p :)

edit: github.com/novabbs/rocksolid-l

1 Jul 2023 at 6:50 | Open on dialup.cafe
Wiredfire :BA:

@vga256 all hail Tomonet! Are there smartphone apps that support NNTP?

1 Jul 2023 at 7:10 | Open on mas.to
vga256

@wiredfire hard to believe - but there still are! 🀣 NewsTap for iOS is excellent, and NewsReader for android looks pretty good.

1 Jul 2023 at 7:16 | Open on dialup.cafe
The Blobject Fish

@vga256 I gotta' try this out sometime!

1 Jul 2023 at 8:07 | Open on blimps.xyz
vga256

@blubfeesh πŸ˜… once i get the core functionality finished, i'll set up an alpha site :)

1 Jul 2023 at 14:56 | Open on dialup.cafe
Elissa
morebento

@vga256 I used to love newsgroups. Looking forward to your progress!

1 Jul 2023 at 12:49 | Open on aus.social
vga256

@morebento me too. i hope we can make them useful again!

1 Jul 2023 at 15:01 | Open on dialup.cafe
Helle (@ CCC Camp πŸ“ž 4355)

@vga256 I've been calling for this, but did not even have the spoons to look for it. But good to know it already exists.

Haven't been active on forum-alikes for ages, so I will be looking on in interest until I finally am again.

1 Jul 2023 at 13:48 | Open on tacobelllabs.net
vga256

@helle awesome! me too. this bbs software has been maintained and improved by "retro guy" for the last few years as "rocksolid light" but sadly didn't get a ton of traction. i think with some functionality and UI improvements it could make a fantastic forum network.

tomo is a fork of this repo:
github.com/novabbs/rocksolid-l

1 Jul 2023 at 15:05 | Open on dialup.cafe
πŸ¦¨πŸ’ΎπŸ’Ώscamp:belovedwifi:||πŸͺπŸ“Ί
Dave Fischer

@vga256 In the early 90s me & some friends had a private usenet hierarchy that was shared by about a dozen nodes. Fun times.

1 Jul 2023 at 13:59 | Open on hachyderm.io
vga256

@davefischer wow! how cool. INN was practically brand new in that era - i can imagine it wasn't terribly easy to set up. (it took me 3 days just to get inn2 working last week!)

1 Jul 2023 at 15:07 | Open on dialup.cafe
Python Blue

@vga256 I'll go on out a limb: while I question centralized media being an inherent problem (even despite bad management in many cases), I'm honestly happy Reddit might be dying. Tried it a little bit for marketing reasons, only to be lucky just to have anything I wrote "downvoted".

1 Jul 2023 at 15:21 | Open on vgmnation.com
vga256

@pythonblue Haha well, i wiped my reddit data a couple of weeks ago - 5+ years of patiently answering (and asking) retro tech/archival questions down the drain.

that being said, the culture there could be incredibly nasty. one of the best parts of mastodon is that there *isn't* a downvote or upvote button, and i'm preserving that system for tomo. you can sort nntp posts by date or thread, and that's it πŸ˜†

1 Jul 2023 at 16:45 | Open on dialup.cafe
Kelvin n0mql EN35ld

@vga256
Tomo origato Mr Roboto.

Tomo (tomo)

Tomo (tomo)

1 Jul 2023 at 15:27 | Open on mastodon.hams.social
vga256

@kelvin0mql πŸ˜† that crossed my mind about a hundred times when i was hovering over the domain name purchase button

1 Jul 2023 at 16:43 | Open on dialup.cafe
Tilton Raccoon

@vga256 I can't wait to use this with tin and gnus! I do suggest having a dedicated "Backbone Cabal" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backbone) to make sure things stay at least *somewhat* moderated, but I'm sure you can get that done.

1 Jul 2023 at 16:05 | Open on furry.engineer
Tilton Raccoon

@vga256 also, just in general: I really, really miss Usenet. Recreating even a little bit of that with a fresh new face will be hugely welcome.

1 Jul 2023 at 16:06 | Open on furry.engineer
Ryn
vga256

@lib :D looking forward to posting updates on it as i build out more of the core functionality

1 Jul 2023 at 16:36 | Open on dialup.cafe
HistoPol (#HP)
Pack

@vga256 Way cool! Let’s bring back FidoNet while we’re at it! πŸ˜…

1 Jul 2023 at 18:38 | Open on universeodon.com
vga256

@Pack honestly, the entire idea came from my experiences with #FidoNet back in the 90s. it stuck with me for decades as an incredibly elegant system given the constraints

the funny thing is that fidonet never left :) fidonet.org

2 Jul 2023 at 1:27 | Open on dialup.cafe
Pack

@vga256 That’s so neat, thanks! I even found my old BBS in node list history! πŸ˜…πŸ‘πŸΌ

2 Jul 2023 at 1:33 | Open on universeodon.com
Matt Campbell

@vga256 In William Hertling's 2016 novel Kill Process, he used "Tomo" as the name of the fictionalized version of Facebook.

1 Jul 2023 at 18:39 | Open on toot.cafe
vga256

@matt you just made me guffaw. that is both terrifying and hilarious.

2 Jul 2023 at 1:29 | Open on dialup.cafe
Flash Mob Of One

@vga256 Yeah, maybe the biggest upside of my stepping back from roller derby is that I now, 100%, don't need FB anymore. I don't plan to turn mine back on.

1 Jul 2023 at 18:48 | Open on mastodon.art
vga256

@FlashMobOfOne deleting my FB account in 2010 was one of the best decisions of my life.

2 Jul 2023 at 1:28 | Open on dialup.cafe
Bersl

@vga256 I've been waiting for a re-use of NNTP for a long time.

2 Jul 2023 at 0:43 | Open on furry.engineer
vga256

@bersl2 i was so shocked when I found out that more than one person had already thought of it (nntp <-> web forum bridge) and built software to do that.

it's amazing that we can repurpose these old tools 40 years later!

2 Jul 2023 at 1:31 | Open on dialup.cafe
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