I opened a #Friendica server (https://my-place.social) because I became inspired to try it out based on this blog post by Elena Rossini: https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-future-of-social-is-here-a-show-and-tell-part-3-friendica
If you have any interest in checking out Freindica, read her blog post first.
My early experiences with Friendica are similar to hers and were the reasons that my interest, at the time a couple of years back, didn't last more than a few hours.
I've been using Friendica for over a week now, and I do very much prefer it to Mastodon, after having gotten used to it.
Friendica is like 2 applications in one. Yes, it is a Facebook replacement. I don't use that part. I can't tell you much about it.
The other application is like Mastodon with extras. If you're interested, read more about this further down.
What I really like about Friendica:
Groups! This is really fantastic. There is, for example, a group for Friendica Support, Friendica Admins, and Friendica Developers. I had questions and problems getting the server going. I posted questions in the Friendica support group and I got help directly from the Developers.
You can't get this on Mastodon. Sure, you can use hashtags, but they will only be seen by people who happen to log in at the right time for them to appear on their timeline, or if they happen to search for the hashtag. With groups, the conversations are all there waiting for you when you enter the group.
Interestingly, there are a couple of Mastodon groups. They aren't very active, but that they exist shows that they would be helpful if Mastodon had it.
Circles. These are very similar to Lists in Mastodon where you can create circles of people.
#Phanpy works with Friendica! This is a big plus. I love that I can use the Phanpy catch up feature with my Friendica feed. Catch up is a wonderful Phanpy feature, BTW.
But, there are a few rough edges with its integration with Friendica. While threaded posts work perfectly for Mastodon, they don't always display well when using Phanpy with Friendica.
RSS feeds are built in. You can follow RSS feeds like you follow other accounts. On Mastodon, I use the RSS-parrot bot to do it. But RSS feed posts look much nicer in Friendica since they are part of it.
Bluesky integration is built in. Your Bluesky timeline is right inside your Friendica timeline. This feature I can't test because there's a bug when using a Bluesky PDS (Personal Data Server). However, it will be fixed in the next release of the add-on. I was able to reach the developer in the Friendica Support group.
Can automatically post to WordPress.
Tumblr integration is built in. You can see your Tumblr feed in your Friendica timeline. I'm not much of a Tumblr user so haven't used this much.
Diaspora integration is also built in, but I've not used it.
I can see a post preview before sending a post, so I can see exactly what it will look like. I like this very much!
What I really don't like about Friendica:
The UI takes getting used to.
You can filter messages by selecting a number of different criteria to hone what you want to see. But so many choices makes it all confusing and a little overwhelming.
No translation option. But when using Phanpy, translation is available via Phanpy.
No way for Admins to make announcements like in Mastodon. I miss this.
Can't limit servers, can only block them entirely. I like being able to just limit some servers and I wish I could do this as well in Friendica.
Can't make a post reply private. In Mastodon, I can reply to a post privately. I don't see the option in the Friendica UI. However, if I reply via Phanpy, I can do it.
It works with Tusky, but I need to keep logging in. I need to try other apps.
I can't set a notification to tell me when someone posts.
By default, new accounts are locked. When you open a new account, you have to approve followers. In Mastodon, it's the opposite. I like the Mastodon default better.
Fewer moderation tools. Mastodon has better moderation tools.
Fewer tools to see what is happening with the server. However, it is does support Zabbix which provides a lot of server information if you're willing to set up a Zabbix dashboard, which is on my to-do list.
Anyway, this is all I can think of for now.
Curious? Try Friendica at https://my-place.social
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