One of the problems that users face is that for many newcomers ideas of decentralization are novel in the context of social networks and they aren’t right away grasping the fact of many pods working together as a connected net.
This leads to confusion, some barrier during registration when people have to figure out pods choosing and so on.
That video should be placed on https://diasporafoundation.org and potentially front page of every pod, especially ones which are closed for registration.
The video should take in account and briefly summarize the current design of diaspora* federation described here.
What do you think about it? Are there any animators interested in diaspora* which can make such a short introduction? If that requires funding, may be some crowdfunding campaign can help, it shouldn’t need a lot of money.
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I think that could be a great idea. Though I think there should be a non video equivalent. (I personally normally pass on the video)
Something like:
'Each instance of Diaspora is hosted on a Pod. You can host your own Pod on your own server, or join an existing Pod. All pods communicate with each other, so Join the Diaspora Community!
then underneath have two buttons. Join a Pod or Start Your Own
Join a pod taking you to a simplified sort of podupti.me with only open pods. or user being asked if they have a primary country they would like to be hosted in.
Providing the additional information in easy to see buttons/blurbs but keeping it focused. This would be good not just on closed pods but even on open pods as an optional splash/home page.
(i realize my thoughts regarding page design aren’t on topic with the video suggestions I’ll just leave it at that )
The one biggest problem with doing this is that the video would have to be remade each time anything in the UI changed or a new, basic feature were added. That’s likely to be at least several times per year. once a video has been made, it’s not something which can easily be amended slightly, as text can be. I doubt whether anyone with the requisite skills and equipment would be willing to put in that kind of commitment over a long period of time.
There are video tutorials out there already, but making them ‘official’ would bring in the problems of keeping them up to date.
I think remaking such video will be required only when core design will change (for example federation will switch from push to pull or mixture and etc.). Since it’s about core concepts and not a tutorial on registration, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Tutorial videos is another matter but this proposal isn’t about them.
I like it, it’s better to have an old video than no one, if we want people uses Diaspora, we need videos on YouTube and Vimeo (and MediaGoblin) where people could find how is it, if they watch just a few of them, I’m sure that they are not going to give a try.
I agree that this is essential to combating the media pull of imposters such as Ello and need not even display design details (which would as Goob says, change after a while).
It should just be a few minutes of approachable video, just like the bitcoin one Shmerl links to, that essentially makes the three points on the diasporafoundation.org front page: Decentralisation, Freedom, Privacy, and then rounds off with a few sentences on the sign up process (mainly in order to demystify this concept of choosing a pod) and a link to the non-video equivalent Birch suggests.
I’d be happy to put work into this, although I’m not sure I could do it on my own.
I think we only use free platafomras as mediagoblin and selfhosting, only free software and condecs. The copyleft license will allow anyone wants to upload it anywhere, but it would be good the group only use free resources .
@goob : this is not quite a problem. Only the sequences showing the UI would to be to be remade.
Moreover, newcommers don’t watch tutoriasl before signing in unless they are very interested.
Furthermore, it could be a chance to explain what is d* to deaf people. I talked about that idea with a friend whose brother is deaf. Actually, we can’t imagine how understanding things can be diffcult for them. They don’t read texts as we do, as they don’t speak as we do. So, sometimes, understanding written explanation can be hardly difficult for them.
It’s a chance to offer them a deaf-friendly social network !
Only the sequences showing the UI would to be to be remade.
Yes, but the entire video would have to be remastered. You can’t just patch in the diff like you can with text. Therefore someone would need to be willing to do that mastering (and would have to have the original video elements on their system in order to do this) each time an update was made. It’s been my experience with Diaspora that the vast majority of people follow and contribute to the project and then move on to something else. There are many videos and other things about Diaspora out there on the web which are no longer maintained, and there is no way of updating them because the original author is no longer working with the project and not contactable. This is the problem with projects which can’t be updated in a collaborative way. E.g. the video you made recently, if you stopped contributing to the project and stopped responding to communications, it would not be possible to update anything in that video. I’m not saying you’re going to do that, of course(!) but that is the sort of thing which happens regularly.
Note, this proposal is not about a video tutorial which includes UI. Let me stress it, it’s about a video which introduces users the core concepts of diaspora* and the way it functions.
Any such video will have to be created in collaborative way. I.e. master copy will have to be uploaded to community server / repository in order for anyone to be able to continue working on it.
If it’s some kind of vector animation, then source materials like graphics will have to be kept in the repository as well.
Yes, but the entire video would have to be remastered. You can’t just patch in the diff like you can with text.
Yes, you can. Kdenlive makes rendering by executing scripts. You only have to replace the pieces of video that change.
Furthermore, the UI don’t change that often.
There are many videos and other things about Diaspora out there on the web which are no longer maintained, and there is no way of updating them because the original author is no longer working with the project and not contactable.
So, why not host the video on diasporafoundation.org and only make a integration of it directly in the source code ?
Note, this proposal is not about a video tutorial which includes UI. Let me stress it, it’s about a video which introduces users the core concepts of diaspora* and the way it functions.
Yes, it’s more what I had in mind (and what I understood). The problem is, when someonecome to diaspora*, they often don’t understand that d* is not a website. They don’t understand that different pods are not separated and that you’re pretty able to do the same on diaspora-fr.org than on free-beer.ch.
It is not easy to understand. And many, many poeple come here just to see. They won’t have the willing to search and watch tutorial videos to understand what d* is about.
Obviously the video is for those who will want to see it. Those who don’t want to get any clues will remain clueless - it’s their choice no one is pushing anyone. But to have an option to be introduced to some core concepts right away is very useful.
I would think even a well thought out series of pictures could help immensely with “getting” the pod concept. It doesn’t have to go into great depth (since it’s just a concept explainer not a tutorial) and I don’t see why it needs to be animated. KISS
Okay, dunno if this is helpful or not, but I slapped together a framework, in four pathetic LibreOffice Draw pictures, of something I wish I’d seen when I was trying to wrap my head around the concept. Someone with art skills could make it pretty, or someone with a lot of art skills could even use it as a video storyboard I guess. I’m attaching both the pdf for easy viewing and the odg if anyone wants to muck with it.
Make an introductory video seems more meaningful than text. However in order to be attractive and useful, the fact that these videos are in all languages. Anyway, I can offer myself to the interpreter in LSF (French Sign Language) ! For the deaf community can be a strong point for Diaspora !
Hi! I’ve been playing around with this idea too, since I have an animator fried who was willing to do it, but then he didn’t had any spare time.
However, I know some people in Argentina and Colombia that could help.
I’m also working on a new foundation landing page, which I’ll send maybe tonight or tomorrow night, I’ve sent some mockups in the past.
We had a script for the video, it’s on an etherpad somewhere but can’t find it (damn urls), but basically, it was something like this (think of every line as an animation step):
What is Diaspora?
Diaspora is a SOCIAL NETWORK
it has PEOPLE
it has POSTS
it has PICTURES
and COMMENTS
and HASHTAGS
(etc)
so, you know how that goes…
So, what does make Diaspora so special?
Diaspora is DECENTRALIZED
–explanation
Diaspora is OPEN SOURCE
–explanation…
(etc.)
@hola Yes, that’s exactly what I was talking about. If you could find these scripts and show how it looks, it would be great. If community thinks it’s OK, you can probably ask to push into diaspora repo tree as some extra materials, or whatever the proper place developers would designate for it.
I think I’m going to get booed! But you have to think a little more “Marketing”. In my view there is no point in trying to federate used, it must be simple, even simplistic. You know as well as I, a regular who wants to know, look. I like to make an example and the comparison between computers and automobiles.
Admit: You have your car, you take it to the garage for repairs, but you do not know anything about mechanics, you will then be trusted in your garage. But then, you realize that scam you, then you’re changing. You’ll want more. You will then bring your car in an associative garage. You think it’s better, you enjoy, and you made more trust these strangers. But now, I still know there anything mechanical and I do not care because it does not interest me. If my mechanic associative starts to explain the process of dismantling and reassembling my gearbox explaining in details, perhaps I should say “oh my god, where am I fell” I’d be me scared. When in reality he just wanted to be nice and share my passion.
I think that if we force them to try to explain in too much detail what Diaspora is an error, against it must be remembered that users are curious. Knowing that Diaspora is free and open source, those who do not know the free and open source informed, others begin to search, inquire and learn, as we all did. It is only my vision, but I really think we need to review the home, make it much more simple and to the point in speaking only of the principal.
)
But you have to think a little more “Marketing”. In my view there is no point in trying to federate used, it must be simple, even simplistic. You know as well as I, a regular who wants to know, look. I like to make an example and the comparison between computers and automobiles.