313

Open-source social media is growing (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 year ago by oleg_rswll@sopuli.xyz to c/CoMaps@sopuli.xyz

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

CoMaps now has more than 7k subscribers across different social media platforms – today reaching 7,777. And the biggest growth is on open-source platforms:

Mastodon - distributed microblogging

Matrix - distributed group messaging

Lemmy - distributed discussion communities

Bluesky - microblogging

Pixelfed - Photos

SimpleX - private messaging

If you have not tried these, check them out!

all 50 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 92 points 1 year ago

Bluesky shouldn’t be included yet. Not till they make good on promises.

[-] rozodru@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

and with the fact you have to verify in the UK....nah I'm glad I deleted my bsky account.

[-] Sunny@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 year ago

As much as i agree, i think its important for apps like CoMaps to be visible on "mainstream" platforms too, so that the people who have yet to discover the wonderful world of opensauce can find out about these apps☺️

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fair enough. But we can’t forget Bluesky is using open source and federation as tools to attract users. And we need to hold them to their promises.

load more comments (4 replies)

[-] AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Happy to see, Google maps I've found hard to replace. but it's a marathon not a sprint

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 18 points 1 year ago

What OSM needs is a widely used service with consumer real time updates. The only thing I've been missing is showing closed roads or traffic. But that is all user sourced. Of we get enough people on board we are golden.

[-] phonics@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

ill switch when they have usable public transport. i get its a big effort. but without it its useless to me.

[-] lemonuri@infosec.pub 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try Oeffi for public transport, it's awesome.

https://f-droid.org/packages/de.schildbach.oeffi

[-] phonics@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

ahh unlucky for me. doesn't work in my region :(

[-] lemonuri@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah, unlucky :(

There is also transportr and a couple of other apps on fdroid if you search for transport. Maybe you find something for your region.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago

What I miss the most is satellite view, but I guess that may not be a possibility.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's so much info you can get via Google Maps:

Busy Times (like for gyms or shopping)

Whats Nearby

Phone/website, etc

Reviews (mixed bag)

Etc

It's tough. I use OSM as much as possible, but these are all things that I find very useful.

[-] Stzyxh@feddit.org 5 points 1 year ago

traffic is in dev

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I tried comaps can't even locate my own house and it search is horrible couldn't find nothing. Wish them well but its a long way off from being a useful navigator.

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

That's not an issue with CoMaps, but with OpenStreetMaps, the open map data source used by Comaps.

You can help fill in the missing info in your area yourself, if you want.

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

How?

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

https://streetcomplete.app/

Is very popular. It's very game-ified so you walk around and answer questions about your neighborhood. As you get used to it you will learn how to add missing information like house numbers, businesses, and such.

[-] felsiq@piefed.zip 4 points 1 year ago

The contributing guide is here but for adding simple places I’ve had good luck just doing it from the app. The hamburger menu on the bottom right has a “add place” option, and I found it very intuitive from there personally. Good luck and thanks for being willing to contribute!

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Okay thank you and definitely will do that.

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for contributing to open map data!

Small FYI: It may take some days until your contributions are visible in OSM. And then a few more weeks until the next Comaps release after that for them to be visible in Comaps - since Comaps only periodically pulls data from OSM to make optimized custom maps.

[-] Hirom@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Note Matrix.org, the largest and default server, is running a commercial closed-source server implementation.

Pick another server if you want to use open-source software and services.

[-] lemonuri@infosec.pub 15 points 1 year ago

Or pick xmpp instead, the reliable lightweight completely foss alternative.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just blows me away that XMPP isn't the standard, it's been around so long.

The early IM apps all used it, AOL messenger, the now defunct Google platform (forget the name), many others. Oh, Pidgin, how I miss using you to connect all these services.

I use XMPP today for my SMS. My cell vendor (jmp.chat) pipes all my SMS into XMPP, and I access it via an app - Cheogram or Monocles on Android, Snikket on iOS, Gajim on Windows/Linux. I get SMS whether the phone is on or off. I don't even get regular SMS on my phone anymore, I even have the native SMS app disabled.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was thinking of going the jmp.chat route when Skype(in) was killed for being too popular and reliable. How's it work for reliability?

(It was gChat and then gTalk that used xmpp until Google sparkle-addicts rewrote their own like Bender. And during that one magical month, one could private-chat between Fb and gTalk seamlessly. It was bliss)

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 year ago

I've had no problems with the SMS to XMPP part.

Voice calls have been problematic, but I suspect that's my phone (I have 2 Pixels using it, only one had voice call quality issues, the other is fine).

Since I don't really use voice, it's not an issue for me. For the one phone, I just got a SIM from US Mobile and use that for voice calls, since SMS is no longer tied to the SIM!

[-] gkaklas@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 year ago

I couldn't find them on the website; here's a list if anyone's interested!:

https://codeberg.org/comaps/Governance/wiki/Social-Media-Platforms

[-] Sunshine@piefed.ca 6 points 1 year ago

The rising tide raises all boats!

[-] runblack@feddit.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

CoMaps is like a miracle to me. I didn't know about it, got it on my Phone with the most recent iodé OS update. I tried it and it just works, based on OSM, pure bliss. I could even find glass recycling containers in a city when I was on vacations :D

Will definitely become a regular donor!

[-] 3x3@lemy.lol 4 points 1 year ago

Why was bluesky so successful but mastodon wasn’t? 🤔

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

I downloaded CoMaps.

I wasn't expecting it to be needing a big download for the area of the map I'm in. Fine I guess. At least it works offline.

Lack of info about traffic or closed roads kind of means I probably won't really use it for big trips.

Could be useful if I'm out for a walk somewhere new, I guess. Probably depends on how active an area is in Open Street Maps.

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

Traffic info is in the works and should be ready soon! Not sure if that includes closed roads though

[-] Postimo@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago

Where does it pull traffic info from?

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

All requests from the app will go to our own traffic server (Traff Server), where data from several different sources will be compiled, mainly official government sources.

[-] Postimo@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Very cool! It seemed like the sort of thing that would only be possible with google levels of data.

[-] Wfh@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I used to work for a company that pulled publicly available traffic data way before it was a thing on Google Maps. Google actually faked trying to buy the company, they were actually stealing ideas to implement in their product.

Google was already evil 20 years ago...

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Looking on OSM a local closed bridge is marked with a note (although that probably doesn't carry over to routing info anyway), but can't see that in CoMaps. Not sure whether they include that in the data or not.

Nice to have data that isn't owned by trillion dollar companies anyway.

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

OSM discourages including any temporary road closures afaik, they are very particular about that. So it would not be very useful to rely on the little data that exists about it, since it may also not be up to date in many cases.

[-] Bonskreeskreeskree@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Does it work with android auto yet?

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago

yes! you have to install from the play store though

[-] protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

xmpp? perphaps even irc or a mailing list for those in still the 90s

[-] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

No live transit schedules for CoMaps is a shame. I think it shows a lot of promise though.

[-] Jhex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Tried it and loved it... moved from OsmAnd which was great but a little too complicated for my needs.

CoMaps is now my default!

[-] lemmyknow@lemmy.today 2 points 1 year ago

OsmAnd~ is powerful, but has too many options and can feel like too much. I do like its Travel Guides feature, though

[-] Jhex@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

My thoughts exactly... it was awesome but a bit much for what I needed which meant wading through a ton of options I barely understood just to adjust something simple.