Loops is a federated alternative to TikTok created by Pixelfed. Once it first came out, users were able to sign up for early access. Confirmation emails weren’t sent right away, but today they announced that emails were being sent out, and registration is now closed.
I got a confirmation email today, attached in the image. I will be loosely documenting my experience, and may (no promises) make a writeup about it.
Between the demand to install an app we are prohibited from even "decipher"ing and the theft of content, I don’t think this service is anything I want to be a part of. I thought they were trying to be something better.
The contract language that informed my opinion follows.
When you post Contributions, you grant us a license (including use of your name, trademarks, and logos): By posting any Contributions, you grant us an unrestricted, unlimited, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, fully-paid, worldwide right, and license to: use, copy, reproduce, distribute, sell, resell, publish, broadcast, retitle, store, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part), and exploit your Contributions (including, without limitation, your image, name, and voice) for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, your Contributions, and to sublicense the licenses granted in this section.
As a user of the Services, you agree not to: Except as permitted by applicable law, decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the Services.
I’ve been testing it this morning. Obviously not a lot of content so I’ve been uploading some old content of my own.
It is VERY bare bones. Still needs a lot of work and effort. You can’t even upload an avatar yet. And the character limit in your bio is only 80? Should be at least 250.
It’s just going to take some patience. It’s only (I think?) two people working on this? So development is going to be sloooooooooow.
Still, I think it’s worth the effort. Alternatives to centralized apps are important. Social media deserves to be in the hands of the people and the more we can take away from centralized services, the better.
Go read their ToS/Privacy Pokicy. This should be a PSA not to use it.
https://lemmy.ml/comment/14583823
Check the replies too.
Oof. I want to cheer this project on as much as anybody, but there’s no two ways around it, those terms have every appearance of being extreme and expansive. Just to copy it here for others to see:
When you post Contributions, you grant us a license (including use of your name, trademarks, and logos): By posting any Contributions, you grant us an unrestricted, unlimited, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, fully-paid, worldwide right, and license to: use, copy, reproduce, distribute, sell, resell, publish, broadcast, retitle, store, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part), and exploit your Contributions (including, without limitation, your image, name, and voice) for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, your Contributions, and to sublicense the licenses granted in this section. Our use and distribution may occur in any media formats and through any media channels.
This license includes our use of your name, company name, and franchise name, as applicable, and any of the trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, and personal and commercial images you provide.
From the constant launch delays to this ToS, this is how not to launch a new Fediverse project 101 lol
Or any project
thanks for bringing that up
Fuck’s sake
Fork
Why is this on privacy community?
Because people are going to post their privates on there
Because it’s a privacy-respecting alternative I guess. Though posting it on open-source would still be better.
Got an invite, too. But without an app there is nothing you can do, just change password and write a bio.
Same here. Waiting for the TestFlight invitation code.
I hope it works out, this is sorely needed.
Why?
Yeah… Attention span 5s, welcome to privacy.
Yep, dozens of people use Fediverse. I’m sure this’ll be very popular.
Psst you’re literally on the fediverse right now.
I’m not sure popular is the biggest goal right now. It would definitely be nice for federated platforms to gain a bigger user base, but while the tools are growing, it’s really inspiring just to think that people are willing to invest the (low or no profit) time and energy into making the internet a nicer place.
Let’s not build anything because there are no users. There are no users if we don’t build anything.
Uh oh you angered 16 of the the 20 of us
18 now
Posted in the Fediverse 😂
As I look at this thing from the inside of the fedibubble, it looks like it’s going to be the best thing ever.
