Instead of a WhatsApp group or whatever, my two oldest friends and me have a private non-federated Mastodon instance running on my laptop for some time now

[stux@mstdn.social]

@stonebear2 From the past year or so:

[adingbatponder@fosstodon.org]

@stux Do you view all posts on the public timeline then? I guess boosts are superfluous? And everything (replies) is set to public. I like the # function or label for organising and finding things and guess you would end up with a great database. I wanted to do this for a work brainstorming group.

[stux@mstdn.social]

@adingbatponder Yup! Since the timelines and accounts need logged in accounts to be viewed

We use Glitch-soc for this so we have extra options we neeed

[ve2uwy@mastodon.radio]

@stux

Amazing until you close the lid on your laptop ...

[unusnemo@friendica.rogueproject.org]

@stux

I considered that, with Friendica not Mastodon (I do not like the format), The fact is that I can write far more compact code for such a use case then either Mastodon or Friendica. Projects like PHPBB make a good starting base for some. One of my books, PHP 8 Objects Patterns, and Practice (Volumes 1 & 2 Seventh Edition) has a mock up social media platform as a project that is even a leaner starting point. Yet, these options are only truly viable if you are a developer, so you I respect your choice.

[evrial@mastodon.social]

@stux people used IRC for this purpose, you don't need memory hog for this

[unusnemo@friendica.rogueproject.org]

@VE2UWY

Okay, so you are likely joking? As laptops can be set to do nothing when you close the lid. I like @stux have repurposed a lot of old laptops for this type of service. The great thing is that you can just install a server flavor of your favorite distro, set it up, close the lid and put it away and it just works in the background with minimum space waste

[unusnemo@friendica.rogueproject.org]

@evrial @stux

I agree with you yet I see the value in both approaches. Running your own IRC server without meshing it can be a great way to setup groups. You can also set up a local Use Net server. Though I am afraid that these are past services that only us old timers still use actively . I have ran both and I would personally prefer a private Use Net server over an IRC server for group sharing. If live conversation was a need then yes IRC would be superior. All great ideas.

[unusnemo@friendica.rogueproject.org]

@evrial

I have a soft spot for Use Net. In 1992 I was going through the Use Net when I found some topics on Unix Derivatives for the Intel 386 or compatible. I down loaded the required sources, built the system and finally had a working copy of my own home rolled Gnu/Linux in about a month. I did not have X Windows as that was to much to download on a 2400 baud node. I left MS/ DOS and Windows (though MS/ Windows was only around version 3.x at the time and no one took it seriously) behind immediately recognizing them for what they were, to operating systems for home hobbyist and not serious developers.

Since then I have enjoyed my life as a 'nix user, admin and developer. I keep fluent with MS/ Windows to give support but do not use the OS myself except when testing ported software.

[openbuddha@megalonyx.social]

@stux but how do they get to your laptop?

[unusnemo@friendica.rogueproject.org]

@openbuddha @stux

He answer that in a previous comment.