this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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In Vermont, an ultralocal social network is as popular as Facebook (www.lemonde.fr)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/technology
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Mirror: https://archive.is/2025.02.28-183751/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2025/02/28/in-vermont-an-ultralocal-social-network-is-as-popular-as-facebook_6738684_13.html

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[–] jpreston2005 89 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The site doesn't even allow you to "like" posts. "It seemed to us to be a kind of high school popularity contest, a way of creating a dependency on the platform," said the founder, holding a mug of tea.

On Facebook, Instagram or X, likes are also used to help algorithms identify users. Here, there's no need: There's no algorithm. "On Front Porch Forum, content isn't infinite, so we don't have to choose what we show," said Wood-Lewis. Doomscrolling – mindlessly consuming a flood of negative news – is impossible here: Browsing through the posts takes just 10 minutes.

"Sometimes nothing much happens, just like in real life."

Sounds lovely!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I'd join that.

We have a pretty popular classifieds service at a local news site, so things like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist aren't as popular. You do need an account to message people to protect people's phone numbers from scraping, but it's pretty privacy friendly.

We need more local solutions.