I recently decided to reconnect on social media platforms, and start publishing all sorts of content. While I ultimately would like to monetize, I am mostly doing this for myself, friends, and family.
As part of the process, I created or re-activated accounts on traditional, as well as up and coming social and publishing networks. After a few weeks of comprehensive testing, I am ready to share some thoughts and even give numeric scores.
I did not count TikTok, since it is Chinese Communist Party spyware, and the only people I know using it are 11 year old victims. I also did not count Reddit, since it doesn't fit my publishing profile. Did I miss anything else? Let me know!
Scores
Criteria
I gave each platform a score of 0 to 10 on 7 different categories:
- User Experience
- Activity
- Freedom of Speech
- Monetization
- Privacy
- Security
- Media Support
While most of these are subjective, I tried to be consistent with my scoring. I definitely gave weight to decentralized, free (as in liberty), and feature complete platforms, which pay users rather than sell them.
Results
For full table of results, read this article on a better platform, like Minds, Hive, or Steem. Locals doesn’t support tables.
Details
Minds
Link: http://minds.com/isysd/?referrer=isysd
By a good shot, my favorite platform has to be Minds. It ticks all the boxes, which shows in the score.
Minds is a full featured, multi-media platform which runs on a combined stack of Ethereum for the token, and arweave for the data storage.
The Minds token is liquid, though not by much, trading on at least 2 decentralized exchanges. Users earn through referrals, as well as tips on content.
There is a pretty active community publishing all sorts of content. I enjoy the nature and photography tags, and Minds also has a robust free speech policy resulting in a healthy, politically diverse community, as well.
Hive
Link: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=isysd
I signed up for Steem years ago, and made a few posts, but ultimately disengaged from publishing and social media. I learned later that Steem was bought out by Tron, to my dismay, since I don't like their tech or procedures. It seems I was not alone, and a healthy percentage of the Steem community created a fork called Hive. In my opinion, this is now the best option in the “blog” category.
Hive is a blogging platform, but also links up with D.tube to support video. Hive forked the original Steem blockchain, which is not terribly decentralized, but does qualify as a public chain, and is community governed.
The Hive economy is complex, featuring different account types, which have different investment profiles, like synthetic dollars and interest yields. Users mostly earn by receiving likes, but there is a referral program, as well. Hive tokens are quite liquid, with multiple exchanges and pairings.
There is a very active community on Hive, though it is not so user friendly, being difficult to navigate and fragmented across different app integrations.
D.tube
Link: https://d.tube/#!/c/isysd
D.tube is currently the best video publishing platform, in my opinion. Users can sign up or log in via the native Avalon (Hyperledger) blockchain, Hive, or Steem. When uploading videos, users can link from a traditional centralized platform like youtube, or use peer to peer platforms like BTFS (BitTorrent), IPFS, or Skynet (Sia).
D.tube has it's own native token, which is not liquid. However! Users can also earn Hive and Steem tokens by linking those accounts, which also publishes videos on those platforms. Since these two tokens are liquid, this makes D.tube a great option for monetizing videos.
The cross network support from Hive and Steem also lends a strong community to D.tube. Although the user experience needs some work, it is overall a strong video publishing platform.
Steem
Link: https://steemit.com/@isysd/posts
Steem is the original blogchain, and has been around for a few years. As mentioned previously, however, it was taken over by Tron, some time ago. I am not a fan of Tron, and neither were many of the Steem users. Since then, Steem has lost… steam.
Steem has not advanced as much as it's fork Hive, but is still has a strong community and token. Considering they both have value, and have the same format and most of the same app integrations (i.e. D.tube), there is no reason not to sign up for Steem, and monetize.
Sapien
Link: https://app.sapien.network/u/@isysd/posts
Sapien is an interesting platform, with potential. It has good design, and is pretty feature complete, but it is buggy. I have had issues editing posts, and there are dead links, such as to their referral program. That said, it is still in beta, and there is an active and growing community.
Sapien runs it's token on the Ethereum blockchain. This token is not currently liquid. It is not clear where the data is stored, but they indicate future plans to decentralize the storage.
Overall, the user experience is strong, but buggy. Sapien supports most media types, and is easy and beautiful. Most likely, it will be a strong contender as they work out the bugs, and exit beta.
Peepeth
Link: https://peepeth.com/?PeepethLoves=isysd
Peepeth is a twitter-esque microblog that runs on Ethereum and IPFS. I have to say that I find it quite easy to use and well designed from a technical standpoint.
That said, it is not very active, and feature poor. This is possibly due to it's poor project-level monetization. While it has a tipping system, it has no native token, and presumably, therefore, no built-in funding mechanism to continue development. While there are new users registering every day, it seems like the platform was more used 2-3 years ago, and that not much development has happened since.
Still, I really like Peepeth, and have hopes that the community will continue to grow. It is a great, if simple, example of what web 3.0 can do.
Rumble
Link: https://rumble.com/register/isysd/
Rumble is the highest ranking centralized platform on the list. It is easy to use, and easy to monetize your videos, though I have not earned anything and do not know what the payout process is. I know it is going to use dollars and traditional finance, however, so I imagine it will be a headache.
The main benefit of Rumble as a centralized video platform is that it is more private and free (liberty) than the alternatives. It is Youtube without all the authoritarianism.
Substack
Link: https://iramiller.substack.com/
Substack is a centralized blogging platform featuring mailing lists and paid subscriptions. It has a very strong community, including some of my favorite journalists, like Glenn Greenwald.
That said, it is centralized, and uses traditional finance. I do not have enough content or followers to have any subscribers, so it doesn't really work for me to monetize. Also, I'm not sure I really want to keep any information private, since I believe in openness and transparency.
Still, Substack is a solid and powerful platform, which may suit the needs of other publishers nicely.
Somee
Link: https://somee.social/ira-miller
Somee is a mystery. It has a token on the Ethereum blockchain, but it is extremely illiquid. It has a reasonably feature complete application, but it is buggy and not very friendly. It doesn't seem like there's a very active community. That said, it works, and it is at least technically better than the centralized alternatives.
Locals
Link: https://iramillerrawandunfiltered.locals.com/
I signed up for Locals because I'm a fan of Dave Rubin, and he is always plugging it. Overall, I like Locals, though I don't think it is the best fit for me currently.
Locals has a similar monetization model to substack, with a slightly different emphasis. Instead of mailing lists, there are posts, which may include different media types. Subscribers can see private posts, while everyone else can see public posts. This model doesn't fit so much for me, since I am not famous, and don't want to publish private things.
Locals is working toward decentralization it seems, with a centralized, no chain token, and support for bitcoin addresses. Payouts are done via Stripe, which I don't have.
Since it is still new, I hope they go further down this route. Dave Rubin & team, if you need help with blockchain tech, give me a shout!
Gab
Link: https://gab.com/isysd
Gab is an interesting, though centralized platform, which most closely fits the microblog category. It has a strong, though not so diverse, community, and good features.
Gab was created to fight censorship, and has reasonable privacy. That said, it is not very strong on security and has no monetization.
Overall, I like Gab, since the community fits me, and the platform has a good experience.
Gettr
Link: https://www.gettr.com/user/isysd
Gettr is… ok. It is another centralized microblog, like Gab, but not so user friendly or active. I don't have much to say about it, since I haven't had any engagement, and there is no monetization or special tech to speak of. It works, and they don't sell you out as much as the big guys.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/irenaeus.miller
Ah, Facebook, the creepy politician everyone fears. You don't want to invite them to the swearing in ceremony, but it is unavoidable since that's his position in the system.
Did anybody get that?
I use Facebook for the same reason everyone else does: everyone else does.
They are currently wiping their ass with the first amendment, censoring people left and right. They constantly push their “privacy” policy to violate and sell you more and more. Facial recognition, creepy advertising, horrific application permissions… There's nothing too creepy for them.
And yet, everyone uses them, so it is a good place to leave a trojan horse to get your friends and family out of danger and into the safe internet.
DO NOT INSTALL THEIR APPS, ESPECIALLY MESSENGER!
Youtube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC42nzw0t425FvkpVfGSYQHw
Youtube is the most popular video platform, owned by dystopian tech giant Google. Everyone knows it, and even 2 year olds use it. If you want a video to get seen, Youtube is the best place to publish it…
Still, it is hard to say who is more horrific on privacy, censorship, and general aggressive takeover of online and offline society. Between Facebook & Co or Google & Co, I'd rather slit my wrists. Another trojan horse deployment point.
DO NOT INSTALL THEIR APPS.
Medium
Link: https://isysd.medium.com/
Medium is a popular, centralized blogging platform. Substack's older brother, Medium is worse in almost every metric, especially freedom and monetization.
That said, Medium has an active user base, and does have some traditional monetization for celeb writers. Trojan horse this one, too.
Link: https://twitter.com/iravagecoins
Twitter is the Facebook of microblogging. Sure, Jack Dorsey virtue signals things about blockchain and decentralization. On the other hand, he doesn't actually take any steps to improve the privacy or freedom on Twitter, and keeps censoring people left and right.
Trojan horse in 280 chars or less.
DO NOT INSTALL THEIR APP.
Link: https://www.instagram.com/iravagecoins/
Instagram is a truly horrible application. It is very hard to learn, even for an application developer, and is intentionally, ridiculously restrictive. It is the only platform that requires me to use the mobile app for publishing, which makes me just want to trash it. Mobile apps, especially this one, are horrible for privacy, and there is some evidence that Instagram listens to conversations and watches you use other apps.
Owned by Facebook, it is guilty of all of the sins of it's parent, but with fewer features and poorer UX. If it wasn't so damn popular with a certain demographic, I wouldn't use it at all. As it stands I'm learning how to trojan horse it, just so my girlfriend can send the horse to her 40k followers.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ira-miller-5352668/
LinkedIn is essential to all businessmen over 50, and a joke to everyone else. It is basically a resume hosting site pretending to have social media functionality. Sure, you can message people, and post highly restricted media, but that's about it. If they were sophisticated enough, they'd violate their users as much as Facebook and Google do.
Trojan horse your business connections.
Self Publishing photo credit: www.nicolassolop.com
My name is Ira Miller, and I've lived one of the most privileged and adventurous lives imaginable.
I was born in the US to a single mother, social worker. At times, she had trouble putting food on the table. I had the privilege of going to some of the best schools in the world, and gotten kicked out of some of the best schools in the world.
As an adult, I've worked for fortune 500 companies. I've been an entrepreneur, founding multi-million dollar companies. Now I am homesteading here in Panama.
I've had the privilege to speak at universities from NYU to UTP and USMA here in Panama. As an entrepreneur, I've spoken at conferences on four different continents.
I've lived an incredible life, and gained a lot of perspective. This is my raw, unfiltered (and uncensored) video blog, where I'll be talking about everything from business, technology, politics, to cooking, composting and chickens. I hope you enjoy, and learn something.
Just some happy chickens chowing down on cow poop. Yes, this is natural behavior. They eat undigested seeds, bugs, and lots of other stuff. It is good for them, and they love it!
The chickens are wet, which is why their feathers look like that. Rainy day.
It's been foggy and rainy, so I haven't been filming my walks. Today, however, I thought, I'd just give some candidate "cloud rain forest" shots! This is what it is like about half of the days in the year.
On today's walk I visited my favorite tree on the mountain. There is a seasonal stream running behind it, which was a nice surprise.
I went for a long hike today after my regular workout, and hit four waterfalls!
I tried taking a shortcut and scrambled over a rock slide between number 3 and 4. Definitely need to be careful during wet season!
The hot spring was flooded out, as well. We'll need to dig it up when dry season comes.
Watch the video on youtube:
Can everyone please stop the racism and race-baiting both? Race doesn't exist! If you are concerned about race or even identify yourself as part of a race, I highly recommend this lecture.
This professor breaks it down to it's scientific and sociological roots. Race. Does. Not. Exist.
Stop calling people (even yourself) "black" and "white." She recommends the more accurate and meaningful terms "pigmented" and "depigmented," and points out that it is a complex and beautiful spectrum.
Personally, I have an even more aggressive view towards different populations. Diversity of culture and genetics is strength. The most genetically and probably culturally diverse continent on Earth is Africa. Mixing different genes creates stronger offspring according to every genetic study ever.
In that sense, Africans are a stock of amazing strength for the human race to survive future catastrophes, like plague. I don't think individuals Africans are any better or worse, but it is...
It was a rainy day, and my girlfriend was away, so I was quite bored. I saw a competition on infowars.com for the funniest covid video, with a $10,000 prize. I'm not a pro at either videos or comedy, but it sure looked like fun! Besides, I'd been meaning to play around with deepfake tech, which can be quite funny.
I didn't have much time, since the deadline was 48 hours from then, so I researched fast and free deepfake software to try. While there were much more robust options available, wombo.ai looked like a good combination of fast, free, and easy. So I downloaded the mobile app, and began creating my first deepfakes.
As far as wombo goes, the best I can say is that it worked and didn't completely brick my phone. I was able to create 4 deepfakes using wombo, but it did some very strange things to my phone, and it isn't back to normal even after uninstalling. Furthermore, the app didn't work the second time I ...
