this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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I plan to end my Facebook account before January 19. I like the format and would like something similar in the Fediverse. Also, I need a good Facebook alternative I can show people when trying to convince them to leave Facebook.

So what is the best Facebook alternative as of 2025? Frendica, Diaspora or Pleroma? Or something new and promising?

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[–] zer0@lemm.ee 17 points 4 months ago

You are on Lemmy and you are leaving Facebook, you don't need anything else, you've got everything already.

[–] graycube@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Facebook Marketplace is my favorite part of Facebook. Thoughts about what might replace that?

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not ironically craigslist never went away in some places.

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think the number of scammers went way up though

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

That also applies to FB marketplace

[–] sith@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 months ago

Same here. A fediverse alternative seems like a no brainer. Weird if there are no commercial apps already.. Probably an easy way to get VC.

[–] classic@fedia.io 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Mercuri seems to be becoming more popular

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Right up until it asks for ID, which you have to use the app for, and even if you send it nothing happens and your account remains disabled.

Ask me how I know. And that was for my very first purchase.

[–] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I'm going to tell you my core problem, just to get some feedback/vent a little: i've wanted to end my Facebook account since Cambridge Analytica. I hate the feed. But Facebook has one key thing keeping me locked in at the moment - Events.

Back in the pre and early Facebook stages, there were websites that had well-curated, broadish event calendars for my city. These are now universally dead. Websites dedicated to the local music scene? Also pretty much dead (RIP punkottawa.com). Some have tried to get something going independently in later stages, but all have failed. Even my favourite college radio station, which has folks super tied into the community and local music scene and plug stuff on the air frequently, has pretty much abandoned their community events calendar. The problem gets worse if I'm travelling outside of the city, in that I have no clue where to even start looking effectively outside of Facebook (@ me, Montrealers and Torontonians in particular). Stuff like bandsintown is ok, but misses a lot when you're more into bar gigs than concerts

I've yet to find a non-Facebook approach that captures events I'd be interested in that doesn't miss something. RSS feeds from websites for known gig spaces (either natively or with a web2rss thing) can get part of the way there, but there's been cases of stuff happening at new/unexpected venues (a hot sauce store here, at some point, became a gig venue) that I've only found out about via Facebook. And this ignoring non-music related stuff that occasionally comes up serendipitously.

I've yet to come up with a great solution, and that kinda ticks me off.

[–] Skates@feddit.nl 4 points 4 months ago

I just don't go places

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Thanks Blaze! This looks really interesting. Network effect is a factor in what I'm bitching about, but we've got OK enough general fediverse participation where I am that this could be/get real useful for me.

Appreciate it, and what you do to promote fediverse stuff in general. Said it before and I'll say it again - you're doing good work.

[–] ericjmorey@discuss.online 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I wish that gained some traction.

I also wish it had a name that is easy to intuit a pronunciation.

[–] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Even if you find an alternative it might not help you if not all the others would follow, too, and you could find the type of content and contacts you currently have in FB on that other platform.

Same problem with many social networks that became toxic, but that can't be replaced easily, because in other, better places, you might not find the same content and contacts.

[–] Battle_Masker@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If they're on facebook, they prolly want something as close to facebook as possible, and the only one I can think of is Nextdoor. Only problem is it's mostly 50 year olds complaining about their neighboorhods's minor problems or local contractors advertising themselves over and over again. Other than that, it's pretty much facebook tit for tat without the zucc. But they got easy invite links so we could prolly change it for the better, even if that's a massive pipedream

[–] sith@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 months ago

Only problem is it's mostly 50 year olds complaining about their neighboorhods's minor problems or local contractors advertising themselves over and over again.

This is basically what I'm looking for. For me its not a problem. Most of the active people on Facebook are boomers. And that's also the biggest reason why I've been "forced" to use Facebook. And also because it's been the default communication platform of all local communities I've been part of.

[–] Subverb@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Honestly, no. You don't need any sort of Facebook replacement.

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Like people already wrote, FB is not used anymore to share your vacation and see your friends food plates. Me and about everybody around me are using FB for Marketplace (big here, about the only platform used to buy/sell), and for all kind of groups, being for hobbies like RC cars, Astronomy, Funko Pop, RVing, Painting, Costco, whatever, etc.

I have not posted a pic or a thought on FB for years, nor really read something from my hundred friends there in my FB feed, but I go there about everyday to browse my groups.

It's not as good as old forums about your car brand/model etc, but it is happening there now.

If you want to replace FB for friends/family/picture/events, no clue, maybe IG lol

[–] knightmare1147@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Just don't use Facebook. Get your friends contact information and text/call/meme directly with them or in groups. You'll find it a much more encouraging and rewarding experience if you connect with people instead of let some big company tell you how to engage with your friends and family.

Edit: I did not expect this thread to be so controversial. I suspect a lot of people really are not ready to give up Facebook.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

OfferUp is really the only FBM replacement out there. I’m just assuming that’s 1/2 of what keeps most people around. The other being that messenger, in spite of its complete lack of privacy, still hosts the largest bulk of people, for finding acquaintances and such if needed.

Signal or WIRE should be the obvious replacement for the latter but our Congress working efficiently and effectively for the people is an easier task than moving a single individual off messenger and into Signal or WIRE. You’ll probably have to no contact people on text to get them to switch.

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah offer up I've seen more "deals" than fb Marketplace in the past. Almost the same level of engagement.

[–] Suoko@feddit.it 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is anyone using the federated Flohmarkt app to buy/sell used stuff?

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’ve heard of it just now.

[–] Suoko@feddit.it 1 points 4 months ago

It's pretty new iirc and very rough

[–] sith@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Can't access OfferUp because I'm not in the US. What's special about it? Is it on fediverse?

In Sweden, the most popular alternatives to FBM are Blocket and Tradera/ebay. But they're all commercial and not on fediverse.

What do you think of Matrix based messaging apps? Seems like a better alternative to Signal and Wire. Depending on what server you're using.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Facebook's selling point is that your friends are already on it. If you want to convince random people, you have to show them what they'll be joining.

By that measure, there is no fediverse equivalent. You might be able to convince your friends to join for their favorite content creators, but if anything they're probably on Mastodon.

[–] sith@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago

Facebook's selling point is that your friends are already on it. If you want to convince random people, you have to show them what they'll be joining.

Well, that's why I'm asking.

[–] JupiterRowland@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

If you don't mind a learning curve and having to use the Web interface (because there's no native mobile app): (streams). From Friendica's creator.

If (streams) sounds good, but you need a shit-ton of extra features on top (and be it diaspora* connectivity), and you don't mind an even steeper learning curve: Hubzilla. Also made by the guy who made Friendica.

If you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must have a dedicated native app on your phone, you're on Android, and you can live without features such as nomadic identity, multiple channels per account and advanced, fine-grained permission control: Friendica.

If you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must have a dedicated native app on your phone, but you're on iOS: Wait for Relatica to have a stable release, then Friendica. (Caveats see above.)

Forget diaspora*. It's fading out. Shortly before New Year's Eve, a bunch of big diaspora* pods shut down, and at least according to one stats site, diaspora* lost more than haf its users.

And Pleroma is a Twitter replacement that, just like Mastodon, started out as an alternative UI for GNU social.

[–] petrescatraian@mstdn.ro 2 points 4 months ago

@sith As others said, Friendica is clearly a better alternative to Facebook. It has an interface that took cues from it, groups, pages, a calendar where you can create or join events etc.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago

I need

No you don’t