Flohmarkt - a Fediverse replacement for Facebook Marketplace
As this project appears to be fairly unknown in the fediverse still, I'd like to use this opportunity to advertise Flohmarkt. This Fediverse equivalent of Facebook Marketplace already has some instances up and running - see here: https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt/wiki/flohmarkt-instances
A friend shared to me that the developers are always open for discussion on their IRC channel:
The name has already made this nonviable for the average person
We have to stop sending end users to software solutions for web admins. We don't send them yo "nginx" or "apache", after all.
Someone throw up a website using this software and give the site a sensible name, and then direct users to that website.
It's not that bad. It's just German for flea market. And English speakers shouldn't have an issue with at least "Markt". Not far from a cognate.
Definitely better names but I think the bigger hurdle is getting the critical mass to get something like marketplace to work in the fediverse even with the perfect name.
what some people don't get is that "flea market" is also a bad name. floh just makes it look and sound worse and it's harder to parse let alone understand and therefore remember.
Does it? If you set up an instance for your local community/city/whatever, and name it something that makes sense for your intended userbase, I think it would be fine.
It goes from "I sold my couch on FlohMarkt" to "I sold my couch on Local Ottawa Marketplace" for the 'normies' out there. They're not going to care about the underlying software so long as their couch gets sold.
Do recommend a DIY local advertising strategy if trying to get something like this running, though - posters at IRL flea markets, adverts in small community papers for antiques and collectibles, crossposts/links to postings on stuff like MaxSold/Kijiji/Craigslist/GumTree/FB Marketplace/[insert online marketplace operating in your area] by first adopters, that kind of thing.
Focus on the current primary use case of centralized marketplace services (buying shit from your neighbours), then introduce the "Oh yeah, we've also set it up so you can see postings on Local Toronto Marketplace, Local Kingston Marketplace, Marché Local de Montréal" etc. from there.
I really, really think talking to people in terms of specific instances over the overarching platform/protocol is a way around 'normie' confusion about the Fediverse when first trying it, then getting exposure to how it works in practice will help them understand the nitty gritty stuff better. Is this problematic in some cases, like with Lemmy? A little bit, yeah. For something like FlohMarkt? I think less so.
('normie' in quotes 'cause I'm not the biggest fan of the term, but it's a useful shorthand)
This! It's just the name of the software, not sure why everyone's getting so worked up about it.
I think it's a brilliant use case for federation, hope this sees some adoption!
"Facebook" is an equally alienating name if you don't know English. But I agree, German is difficult!
God... remember how fucking simple craigslist was when it hit it's peak? The fact that Grandpa could take a shaky flip phone picture and post a thing you needed right around the corner, no fat or other frivolous horseshit...
Craigslist is still simple last I checked, but the user base left and now dominated by spam from retail and drop shippers masquerading as local people selling goods from their garage.
Nothing gold can stay
At least when I used Craigslist, there was no social network element to it, so it was difficult to determine the trustworthiness of any given poster.
For that reason, I don't want a Fediverse clone of Craigslist -- I want an existing Fediverse platform to add a marketplace. I will not use anonymous marketplaces.
"I will not use anonymous marketplaces."
"I won't take cash, either" vibes
Idk. It's still got some uses. My dad got a bunch of industrial refrigerator panels for stupid cheap off Craigslist like 6 months ago.
Yeah, you can still get something from the odd crank, but used to be much more practically useful for day to day needs.
I just set up a Slovenian instance, flohmarkt.gregtech.eu
Edit: which range should I use for it, which one do you recommend?
Maybe you can request your instance to be added here: https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt/wiki/flohmarkt-instances
Already added it
Great idea. I just wonder how Flohmarkt is read by non-Germans. Anyone want to state their opinion, their initial experience seeing the word, on that?
just read it as 'flow market,' realized it was german, and looked up the word. it doesn't look weird at first glance.
I read it as being pronounced something like "flow-marked"
yeah, it's quite close
Non-German but I am in the EU. Didn't find it odd at all. Just assumed it was "flow market" in German.
Close. It's flea market.
Indonesian here.
Indonesian have highest trilingual population in the world, and our country regularly import foreign pop media, like from Japan, China, Turkiye, French, Argentine, and so on.
That name seems cool and we will never have problem with it.
In fact, a lot of FOSS software in Asia almost always use local language or pop culture reference for their project. Whether it's in Chinese, Persian, Hindi, Javanese, Japanese, and so on.
Initial impressions of the name are not great.
Swede here, see no issue with the name. I'll just ignore the h when pronouncing though.
That's what you should do anyway, the h simply elongates the o
"flow market"
Definitely weird on first reading. New names often seem weird or dumb at first so maybe I'll just get used to it. Anglicizing it might make sense? Fleamarkt?
Pole here.
A federated MediaMarkt. Or at least something with shopping, selling something. Definitely a German product. Should be a quality one, but I would name my instance (or a national one) differently, perhaps in a local language.
There is no point in making worldwide Flohmarkt instances (same for Mobilizon), so, the naming should be less a problem than you expect
My American brain wants to read it as "FlowMart", or "Flowmark". Neither of which I have a problem with.
Which is also reasonably close to the German pronunciation (which is something like Flo-marked to an English speaker)
I forgot its spelling the moment i scrolled past it.
It honestly just looks like a spelling mistake to me
At least most speakers of European languages will pronounce it close enough to German - though most will not do make the r in markt as hard as Germans do.
though most will not do make the r in markt as hard as Germans do.
Most German dialects (including standard German) barely pronounce that r. It is noticeable, but far from a "hard" pronunciation, in that case i is more like prolonging the "a" sound.
Great idea. I just wonder how Flohmarkt is read by non-Germans.
Those non-Germans using Huawei/Xiaomi phones or buying from Shein? I reckon they'd not bat an eyelid, especially for English-speakers when you explain it means "flea market". With Shein if anyone even bothers asking about the name, all they want to know is how to pronounce it ("she in", not "shine" or "sheen") and what it means ("it's complicated", "OK, never mind then").
It reads like regurgitating dehydrated phlegm
Edit:
Anyone want to state their opinion?
Germans: "Das is der inkorrect opinion Herr Irlandisch"
What about Craigslist
Ghost town and nothing but scams and business spam at this point. It's a shame that FB marketplace killed it, because it was relatively simple and useful for what it did
What I want is an eBay alternative. Like old school eBay, with basic (non obscured) reputation system, auction options, stuff like that.
What a horrible name.
It's German
What a horrible language.
It is well known that only names which are in the devinely decreed English language are acceptable on the internet
as always with these, it really comes down to whos using it.
Maybe someone may want to put links to Flohmarkt instances on Craigslist or FB Marketplace to put more eyes on it?
This is what i need so i can finally delete facebook but unfortunately this is too early and small with nothing piblically uk based and no one looking at it so things would never sell.
Bit of a chicken and egg situation there.
I suppose we could spin up a UK instance or find someone who would but then you'd need numbers to make it work too. However, if people would be interested in using this then speak up and it'd be easier to asses the need. It could be something regional instances bolt on as an added service.
I am super curious how does it stack against DAC7 European Directive 2021/514 from 22 march 2021.
The European law says that such sites must provide a list of users and sales
@Emmie @Temperche
IANAL but: researching this topic was indeed a task during the first year of the project. The German implementation of DAC7 (the PStTG) includes an exception for digital black boards like flohmarkt. The criterion is that there is no formal form of forming a contact on the platform itself. Here's the official statement (see 1.1) https://www.bzst.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Digitale/_Plattformbetreiber/FAQ/PStTG.pdf?%5C%5C_blob=publicationFile&v=3
bonus: you'll will find many more hillariously unpronouncable words in this document.
Does your EU-country has exceptions?
@Emmie @Temperche might need to add that the exception is implicit. we've always argued that way before we knew this FAQ. until it came to our attention we just weren't sure because, well, we're no lawyers, duh :)
No matter where the site is operated from, as long as EU citizens can access it from their home countries?
Because I doubt that even fb marketplace can muster that with plausible accuracy. Especially the sales. When you take something down on marketplace it will ask if you sold it or not, but you can just tell it to mind its own business and say "no I totally just changed my mind"
Yes as long as business is accessible in EU it must set up hq in one of the eu countries and report data on sellers to that country government. (Thus phone number registration requirement which to have you must show and record ID and personal information to mobile carrier)
how does that work for flohmarkt I don’t know but I can try to set up an instance and we will see what happens. Will there be any nasty letters or not. I suspect as long as it is small thing no one will be interested but if it grew there probably would be an attempt to take it down and fines
I would really really want it to work so we can just don’t care about ever watchful big brother
any of them US?
Feel free to host an US instance :)
Really interesting! can't wait to see how it progresses along.
I just took a list at some instances and was confused. Is there not a location-specific aspect? When I selected "Local" I got nothing. The only use I had for FB marketplace was buying/selling things locally. Like as a craigslist replacement. Not seeing that on these sites, unfortunately.
The idea would be to host local instances.
Ad-software huh ? Maybe this could solve the monetisation issue of let's say PeerTube
I don't think this can be used for monetisation, I am not sure the instance gets a cut of any sales, they are just connecting users.
That is an issue the Fediverse, with its anticapitalist stance, has yet to full address but Ghost is addressing how to monetise content in a Substack way and that subscription model is probably one that would be more acceptable on the Fediverse.
In my local area government interrogates selling boards about my data what I sell and such. I wonder if this could be forever resistant to authorities provided somebody actually uses it?
I tried to use it myself and it really isn't ready yet. It's missing so many features that a specialized Lemmy instance seems like a much better alternative.
Maybe share your vision with the devs or actively contribute yourself to the development of this platform? :)
Interesting idea. How do you deal with illegal trade?
Maybe just like Facebook Market, simply ignore it? /s
How do I tell someone on the bus to check out this website?
"Just go to fedi.markets"
I don't see an issue. With any service on the Internet you direct people to the URL of an instance not the underlying code. If they saw "powered by flohmarkt" and asked what that was, I'd say it was German for "flea market" and I imagine they would be satisfied with that.
This looks cool! Any android apps?
AFAIK not. Feel free to develop one!
What localities does this operate in so far?
Cool. If u can host it as a tor hidden service that is a large an influential market that might benefit from such a thing. Haven't looked but it might need some additional features to work as a decent platform in that sense.
I would host an instance if it's working well enough - has anyone done it yet?
Many people, including some in the thread!
Running Numbat on my server and couchdb is being a real pain in the butt 👀 apparently there's no support for Numbat yet. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.
Will keep an eye on this, but there is nothing too local here (No, I can't host something myself). Given how the specification says there should be a location and radius per instance, some admins are really slacking on putting that info in the description.
