@Jasper Burns

Permissions meet groups


It gets really interesting when the permissions system is applied to groups. As the owner of a Hubzilla forum, you have the following options:
  • You can control who can see the profile of the forum, i.e. what it is all about. For example, you can only allow confirmed members to see it. Or, in fact, you can only allow certain members to see it by assigning a specific contact role to them. Or you could make it Fediverse-specific: Only those who can be recognised as logged-in Fediverse users can see the profile. Or you can hide it altogether.
  • You can control who can see the contacts, i.e. the forum members, all the same. Like, for example, only a chosen inner circle may be allowed to see the list of forum members, but Joe Average Forum Member is not.
  • Likewise, you can control who can see what has already happened in the forum when visiting the group profile.
  • You can choose to hide the whole forum from the directory, the place where people go to find new contacts (the mastodon.social equivalent is https://mastodon.social/directory), to keep the forum secret altogether by keeping people from finding it accidentally or by searching.

(streams) and Forte have four different types of group channels instead:
  • Normal: public, group members may upload media to the group's file storage
  • Limited: public, but group members may not upload media to the group's file storage
  • Moderated: like Limited, but by default, posts and comments by new group members have to be approved by the admins; members may have their permissions upgraded and post and comment without approval once they've proven themselves worthy
  • Restricted: private, profile is only visible to group members, stream of posts and comments is only visible to group members, posts and comments are only sent to group members, but group members may upload media to the group's file storage
Whether or not a group is visible in the directory is a separate switch.

As I've already said, you can grant individual permissions to your contacts on your personal channel. But you can grant individual permissions to forum users on a forum channel just the same. You can have regular users. You can have users with certain extra privileges. You can use the permissions system to silence users without kicking and blocking them.

And you can use the permissions system to appoint extra forum admins/mods. You can grant contacts permission to administer your forum. Now, this requires for your channel to recognise visitors and their identities to see what permissions they shall have and to grant them these permissions. And this requires OpenWebAuth. So right now, you can only make forum members from Hubzilla, (streams), Forte, Friendica, Mitra and Tootik additional admins/mods. But you can.

(9/9)

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Privacy #Security #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups
Netzgemeinde/Hubzilla

@Jasper Burns I'd like to see more of that in the fediverse features like events, groups, moderation, different roles, permissions etc. complemented by secure communication!
The Fediverse has literally got just about of this right now. Mastodon doesn't. But the Fediverse does because there's stuff in the Fediverse, as in federated with Mastodon, that has it. And it has had all of this for longer than Mastodon has even existed.

Friendica


Friendica has
  • federating events
  • groups (which are special accounts)
  • private groups
  • hidden groups
  • moderated groups
  • groups with multiple moderators on the same server
  • a permissions system
  • DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
  • etc.

Friendica is from May, 2010, over five and a half years older than Mastodon.

It was made as an alternative for Facebook right away. It was not meant to be a Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook while also covering all long-form blogging features.

And Friendica is fully federated with Mastodon. You can follow Friendica accounts from Mastodon, and Friendica users can connect to your Mastodon account from Friendica.

Hubzilla


Hubzilla has
  • federating events (in addition to a non-federating CalDAV calendar server)
  • groups (which are special channels; Hubzilla calls them "forums")
  • various independent options of making groups private that can be combined
  • hidden groups, groups with multiple admins/moderators anywhere on Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte
  • the second-most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse on three levels (entire channel, individual contacts, content) with 17 different permissions and seven or eight channel-wide permission levels for each
  • DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
  • optional additional encryption (only works within Hubzilla)
  • optional non-federating articles
  • optional planning cards
  • optional webpages
  • optional wikis
  • nomadic (fully portable, decentralised, distributed) identity
  • etc. etc.

Hubzilla is from March, 2016, ten months older than Mastodon. It was created by Friendica's creator by rebuilding and repurposing a fork of a fork of Friendica.

It is considered a "decentralised social content management system" that can be just about anything you want it to be because it's so modular. Basically, what's incomplete and unstable at best and an unfulfilled promise at worst on Bonfire has been readily available and rock-solid stable for over 10 years on Hubzilla. And even more on top of that.

Red, the Hubzilla precursor, was the first software to establish nomadic identity, something that Bluesky claims to be in the process of inventing from scratch. And that was as early as 2012.

Hubzilla was the very first software to implement ActivityPub. And unlike Mastodon, Hubzilla implemented ActivityPub by the book and largely still does so.

And Hubzilla is optionally fully federated with Mastodon. In fact, this comment that you're reading right now comes from Hubzilla. Like, you're directly speaking with someone on something that has absolutely everything you wish for the Fediverse to have, and that has had all of it for longer than Mastodon has existed.

(streams), Forte


(streams) and Forte have
  • federating events (in addition to a non-federating CalDAV calendar server)
  • groups (which are special channels)
  • private groups
  • hidden groups
  • groups with multiple admins/moderators anywhere on Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte
  • groups with moderated posting and commenting (as in posts and comments from new members will have to be confirmed by the moderators in order to be visible)
  • the most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse on three levels (entire channel, individual contacts, content) with 15 different permissions and three or four channel-wide permission levels for each
  • DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
  • nomadic (fully portable, decentralised, distributed) identity
  • etc.

(streams) is from October, 2021. It was created by Friendica's creator as a fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork?) of Hubzilla.

Forte is from August, 2024. It was created by Friendica's creator as a fork of (streams).

Forte was the first software to establish nomadic identity via ActivityPub.

And both are fully federated with Mastodon; (streams) optionally so, but it is by default.

I've made a document with a series of tables which directly compare the features of Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte:

https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392

In fact, this document is on the very same Hubzilla channel that I'm commenting from right now.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #NotOnlyMastodon #FediverseIsNotMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Calendar #Events #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups #Permission #Permissions
Jupiter Rowland

Evan Prodromou @evan raises some very important points about what is missing currently in the Fediverse.

A lot of my friends can't leave Facebook because of groups. They have private groups for friends that are invisible to non-members, or semi public groups that non-members can see but not post in. And groups allow for self moderations. Those are all important features that the Fediverse is missing.

Connecting the Social Web — Evan S. Prodromou — FediCon 2025
https://spectra.video/w/eg35Kne91oEHcgyfvQWMhM

#groups #privateGroups #fediverse

Connecting the Social Web — Evan S. Prodromou — FediCon 2025

PeerTube
Re: Private Groups in the Fediverse
@@dramypsyd
needs to be a closed community that can be moderated
Absolutely! Private groups are currently working and available in the ##fediverse through instances running ##streams or ##Hubzilla and possibly ##Friendica.

These (related) fediverse instance types all include facebook-like functions such as groups (public, moderated, private) and events/calendar. They can also be used as general purpose channels to interact with the fediverse at-large (just like I'm doing now).

links:
streams
Hubzilla
Friendica

##Private Groups
@James M. It has been a while since I've last used Friendica; I'm mostly on Hubzilla now plus a bit on (streams).

But AFAIK, all three let you post to certain connections, including to a specific circle (Friendica)/privacy group (Hubzilla)/access list ((streams)), basically something similar to Mastodon's lists. In either case, these posts and the whole threads are flagged not public, and especially Hubzilla and (streams) don't allow changing access permissions within a thread. Mastodon understands these limited-access posts as PMs.

In theory, it's possible to post "followers only" like on Mastodon: Create a circle/privacy group/access list, add all your contacts to it and send a post to this circle/privacy group/access list.

In addition, all three support something similar to Facebook groups which is a) moderated and b) optionally private, as in nobody can look inside from outside. On Friendica, a group is a user account which you have to register separately. Likewise, on Hubzilla and (streams), a forum or group is a channel with special settings, but instead of having to register a new account, you can create a new channel on your existing account next to your existing channel.

As for E2EE, neither supports any standard E2EE technology. Hubzilla and (streams) allow for conversations to be optionally encrypted. But: Only the transmission is encrypted. Encryption uses a passphrase rather than a private/public key pair. Both sides must have the encryption add-on activated, and it isn't even necessarily available on all server instances. Encryption may only work within Hubzilla and within (streams), but not between them. And, obviously, encryption does not work to the outside, e.g. Friendica or Mastodon.

Friendica, Hubzilla and (streams) can replace Facebook, but not WhatsApp. That's what Matrix and XMPP are for.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #FacebookAlternative #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Groups #PrivateGroups
Netzgemeinde/Hubzilla

@James M. Possible solutions within the Fediverse:

  • Friendica was designed explicitly as a Facebook alternative long before Mastodon. It has always had discussion groups, including private groups. But private groups can only be used by users on Friendica, Hubzilla and (streams), not by Mastodon users.
  • Hubzilla and (streams) are both technologically advanced descendants of Friendica from Friendica's own creator. Their learning curves are different grades of steeper than Friendica's. They offer private groups, too, but based on their own advanced permissions systems. These private groups probably only work for users on Hubzilla and (streams); not sure about Friendica users. Mastodon users are out again.

Still, as a user on Friendica, Hubzilla or (streams), you can connect with the rest of the Fediverse, including Mastodon, so no need to have a Mastodon account for Mastodon connections and a Friendica account for Facebook escapees on Friendica.

(streams) is intentionally kept away from places like FediDB and Fediverse Observer, so don't bother looking for its few public instances. If you're still interested, ask me again.

Also, Friendica is the only one of the three with mobile apps. Hubzilla and (streams) can only be installed as PWAs.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #FacebookAlternative #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Groups #PrivateGroups
Netzgemeinde/Hubzilla

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@maegul Nope, at least Hubzilla and (streams) have both public and private forums. (streams) has had them since its inception (2021), and I think so did Hubzilla (2015).

Not sure about Friendica right now.

#FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Groups #PrivateGroups
Netzgemeinde/Hubzilla

At last! #Fediverse Private Groups: Specification already in progress.

Needs to be as user friendly as Failbook Groups

https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/4-h/

https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/2100/fep-2100.md

#Groups #PrivateGroups

FediForum | Session: Private groups on the Fediverse (limited access, self moderated, like Facebook private groups)

FediForum
Signal Tests Upgraded Cryptography for Groups Function - The secure messaging service is looking to address usability issues. more: https://threatpost.com/signal-upgraded-cryptography-groups-function/151017/ #securemessaging #privategroups #cryptography #usability #privacy #groups #signal
Signal Tests Upgraded Cryptography for Groups Function

Signal, the encrypted messaging platform, is planning to launch an upgraded secure group messaging and communities function. Signal’s groups are private, meaning that the service itself doesn’t keep a record of a user’s group memberships, group titles, group avatars or group attributes. But the way the privacy controls have been implemented have raised a few

Threatpost - English - Global - threatpost.com