I’ve tried Flarum in the past, but it really doesn’t handle media well. Just looking on the demo site now, no option to add a video, and to post an image you need to use markdown to add an image URL.

Is that different when it’s not the demo site?

My Data & Privacy section doesn’t have anything that seems relevant:

I don’t see this option. Is it only in specific countries?

PayPal didn’t come to my country until after online banking was already established, so I probably get a different experience. Banks here also issue (Visa) debit cards for free with a standard no fee bank account, so pretty much everyone has one. Debit cards being like a credit card in terms of paying online, but it uses money in your account.

Our biggest ebay-like site has their own payment portal for instant payments, done to copy what eBay did with paypal except you can’t use it outside of paying for things you bought on that site. But people are generally paying wuth a debit/credit card. And bank transfers are very common, but I wasn’t buying stuff online in 2001 so I’m not sure what it was like then.

Even today, paying with paypal in my country is far more likely to be a credit/debit card payment than a bank account one.

As someone who is concerned that users won’t be able to work out how to upload a video, asking users to install Fdroid seems a step too far.

Is it really that unusual to pay online with a debit/credit card? I would consider that the standard way and PayPal an option sometimes available.

It’s simple enough for me. And many of the people who have grown up with technology can probably work it out. But there is a huge difference in effort between the two.

Say my 70 year old uncle (that does not live nearby) needs to install Conversations.

Maybe we should agree to disagree, but I do not think I can just leave people to invite other people and sort it out on their own. I’m gonna be spending my days hand holding people. Maybe my family is dumber than average.

In my experience none of the federated platforms handle video well, especially the facebook like platforms. They are built around things being public, and expect you to upload to youtube or some other video site in order to post a video. If they let you upload videos at all, it’s as an attachment. Admittedly HumHub is a bit like that, but it’s not too janky from a user experience perspective.

One thing I liked about Zusam is the automatic resizing of videos to make them reasonably sized. If I record a 2 minute video, it can be 300 or 400MB. Zusam can be configured to resize the video to a set maximum size in order to make it more reasonable for people watching. HumHub doesn’t do this, but I have wondered if I could use a cron job and ffmpeg to do it.

Do you want this social media to be for your family to use only with family members or for them to use with family and beyond?

I haven’t decided yet. Initially we’d start with people who know our kids. But if some of those people wanted to set up a page for their own kids, they wouldn’t want some of the people on our page who they don’t know. And they might want people on their page that don’t know our kids. So then all the HubHub privacy settings come in handy where people can create a space and control who can see what.

Revolt could be good as a local family group chat if you like the discord style.

I don’t really think that’s something that will be familiar enough to people, especially grant parents and other family of that generation. And I don’t think a group chat is what I’m after, self hosting a group chat doesn’t seem to have many advantages over say a Signal group chat.

You’ve probably already tried it but Pixelfed/mastodon/misskey sound like the easiest to get family on board with and seem like they would be good family social media platforms IMO.

These are generally public, and even if you have it set up as a private instance with no federation then it still feels like a shouting at the void kind of platform. None of the family I have in mind use twitter or mastodon, but everyone uses facebook. So I’m aiming for that sort of a feel. But IMO Friendica is not something I feel is good enough yet from a user experience point of view, the same with Diaspora*.

All the corporate gamification feature are probably quite annoying.

I might have missed that. What features are you thinking about? I haven’t seen any points or badges or things like that?

I don’t think Lemmy is really a good format for this. Many of the users won’t be familiar with Reddit or forums, and it’s better suited to strangers ranking things with the votes. Facebook style I think works better for people who now each other, and especially when they are only familiar with facebook.

Fdroid is not suitable for the average person. The average person can install an app from google play, but Fdroid is quite a jump in steps, not to mention all the warnings that Android gives them, all but telling them not to do it.

The idea of a snikket server is good, but I feel it’s not much different that any other chat app. HumHub works on both mobile and desktop, and provides many features above a chat app. It’s more similar to Facebook groups (which people are already familiar with) but without the spying, whereas I don’t get the benefit of Snikket over say Signal.

What is it that makes it unsuitable for families? It seems to be pretty familiar feeling to people used to Facebook.

Conversations says to purchase on the play store. I don’t think I’m gonna get good uptake it every user has to pay money.

I notice their website says they are working on releasing apps for Android and iOS by the end of 2023. I can find the Android one but not the iOS one :(.

Luckily most of my family uses Android.

Now you mention it, I remember seeing your post. Disappointing that you never found something. Was the lack of iOS app the only thing that put you off HumHub?

What I’m trying to avoid is on boarding a bunch of people to some platform then working out that it doesn’t work for us and having to get everyone set up on a new platform! I was hoping to hear from others who had tried it, or others who have other solutions that work for them.

Typically I’ve seen survey software remember where you were up to if you leave and come back to the page. This one doesn’t seem to do that.

Well I got the the last section of the survey, accidentally triggered the pull down refresh of the browser, and it’s completely forgotten everything I entered. I don’t think I can be bothered starting again 😩

Hmm I guess “cozy” games are a genre, but I kinda felt like they are games that make you feel cozy, fun without the stress. If a game sucks then I don’t know I’d consider it “cozy”.

Yeah all you’ve done is put the family name first. Which is already a thing in some parts of the world.