Podmins and external services
Flaburgan
Public
Seen by 91
Hello everybody.
I'm opening this discussion because I'm facing a problem that I think every podmins have. It's about external services like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Wordpress at the moment. To allow diaspora users to post to these services, the podmin has to create an application with a certified account on these services. Then the application becomes available to the users who allow it to write on the service for them.
The problem is, this obliged the podmin to 1. create an account on every service, 2. certified this account, this implies to confirm the account with a mobile phone.
I don't want to give my mobile phone to Facebook (and co), so I am not able to activate cross-posting from diaspora-fr.org to Facebook. I think that the diaspora foundation should have a role in this problem. I don't think we need a facebook account per pod, we can imagine that we have only one facebook account owned by the foundation, and certified, and then we offer to the podmin the possibility to cross-post to service using the foundation account.
This means, either the foundation has to create an app each time a new pod wants to cross post, either we are using only one app for every pods (I don't know if this is bad in term of decentralization or not, considering that at the end, everything is centralized on facebook anyway so...)
What's your opinion guys? Any ideas to solve this problem?
Emmanouel Kapernaros Fri 8 Nov 2013 4:21PM
@jasonrobinson oops, didnt read correctly. :)
goob Fri 8 Nov 2013 4:22PM
I was just reacting to @starblessed saying “no one wants to give their credentials (=phone number) to FB”.. Which is not true.
That's why I was suggesting we move the onus to authorise connection with FB from podmins to any pod user who is happy to give FB their phone number.
Emmanouel Kapernaros Fri 8 Nov 2013 4:43PM
@goob The one who authorises the facebook app, actually controls it. There is no meaning for a podmin to create a fb app and let someoelse to authorise it. He will lose the control of this part of his pod.
The problem is not the authorisation but the hole facebook thing. I dont mind just giving my number.. i mind actually having a fb account.
So, I am interested in a solution where there is no need for a podmin to have a fb account all. Is it possible?
StarBlessed Fri 8 Nov 2013 7:21PM
Not giving credentials to Facebook, is exactly what this sounds like. I agree.
I don't have a Facebook account, nor do I want one. But if there are a couple of podmins like myself who want to have an application on Facebook, well I'm willing to set it up. I'll have to create an account using a burner phone, but at least you'll have access.
I'm interested in giving Facebook access to my users, but I'm not interested in setting up a Facebook account without good reason.
This seems like it may be a decent reason. :-)
Flaburgan Sun 10 Nov 2013 9:24AM
I'm sure we can find a certified account. My question is, is it technically possible to use only one FB account for multiple diaspora* pods? If so, does that imply to create an application for each pod, or is one application enough for every pod? Can someone please try and tell us?
Jason Robinson Sun 10 Nov 2013 8:07PM
I guess the app owner (the FB account) is at least in some way responsible for usage of the app (control it's usage, block spam when necessary, etc) - so personally at least I would not offer myself to host other pods FB apps. Technically cannot think of reasons straight away why one app would not do, maybe Facebook has some API limits which could be a problem, not sure.
Prob the only real reason for different apps is to separate ownership to pod owners - one FB app would be centralizing and thus a more likely point of failure for FB posts. But for podmins who are ok with that, cannot see why not. Just find someone to make apps for you and try with many pods - easiest way to find out if it will work :)
Flaburgan Mon 11 Nov 2013 1:27AM
one FB app would be centralizing
Everything will be centralized on "facebook.com" anyway, I see no problem about centralization in the use of only one app.
Alex Mon 11 Nov 2013 3:29AM
Legally there might be an issue or two, I believe the FB API TOS have something against sharing app credentials, which would be required to have multiple pods using the same app. As has already been pointed out, whoever controls that app would also be responsible for all use of that app, so I, personally, wouldn't be willing to share that with other pods.
I know FB frowns on throwaways as well, but making a throwaway FB account with a believable name and a burner phone might be the best solution here.
Maciek Łoziński Tue 19 Nov 2013 10:13PM
If we overcome limitations that prevent us from "one pod = one user" model, the problem will disappear :-)
Jason Robinson · Fri 8 Nov 2013 4:18PM
@emmanouelkapernaro sorry I wasn't saying we should do something (quite the opposite if you read my above comments) - I was just reacting to @starblessed saying "no one wants to give their credentials (=phone number) to FB".. Which is not true.