Alternative Platforms and Tools

Here's a note I wrote for my Facebook friends.

The TLDNR bullets:

-Facebook: Minds (https://www.minds.com) or Steemit (https://steemit.org)
-Twitter: Gab (https://gab.ai) or Busy (https://busy.org)
-Google
-YouTube: BitChute (https://www.bitchute.com) or DTube (https://d.tube)
-Chrome: Brave (https://www.brave.com)
-Search: Qwant (https://www.qwant.com)
-Gmail: Proton Mail (https://mail.protonmail.com)
-Maps: Open Street Map (https://www.openstreetmap.org)
-Drive: Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com)
-Docs/Sheets/Slides/Drawings: Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice)

The long and detailed.

Facebook

Minds(https://www.minds.com): Very similar to Facebook in that it has individual users, groups, and long posting. From their about page: "Minds is a free and open source social networking platform that rewards you for your activity online with revenue, digital currency and more views on your content. We are built on a foundation of freedom, privacy, and democratization." Unlike Facebook, you can browse Minds anonymously if you'd like (no cookies or other tracking needed!), but you'll obviously be unable to earn the mentioned revenue nor receive suggested postings without an account. There's an Android and iOS app available for mobile viewing in their respective stores.

Steemit(https://steemit.org): While Steemit is more of a blog site than a true "Facebook-esque" alternative, its big draw is its profit-sharing with the user base. It's part of a more overarching network called Steem (not to be confused with the Steam network, the gaming platform) which rewards posters when they receive likes and comments on their postings. How much revenue your like/comment will generate for the poster is based upon your seniority and community standing ("reputation score") on the platform. Your reputation is roughly tied to your like/dislikes on your postings, meaning if for some reason you have nothing but enemies it is possible to have a negative point score on your community standing. That being said, unless you're doing something blatantly illegal the platform will not take actions against your account (such as censoring your postings or disabling your account). This policy helps the community fight off automated bots trying to game the system for a quick buck. At the moment, Steemit does not have an offial mobile app.

Twitter

Gab(https://gab.ai/): Virtually identical to Twitter in functionality, but with a fierce commitment to free speech in their policies, Gab has received a load of negative press recently because the predominant postings in the politics section are conservative-leaning (and as everyone knows, only Democratic Party approved viewpoints are allowed to be expressed on the internet). If that's not your cup of tea, you could always just avoid the news section as your personal feed very strictly only shows your subscriptions (no ads or "suggested topics"). The site can be used for free, but you can also upgrade to their "Premium" account ($5.99/month) which gives you access to post monetization, analytics, live chatting, and bookmarking/list creation. Premium members will also have access to live video streaming in the near future. Gab used to have Android and iOS apps on the two stores, but the news media bullied the stores into removing them. You can still get their mobile app on their website however.

Busy(https://busy.org): While still in a development beta phase, Busy is a Twitter clone based on Blockchain technology to help fight censorship. It works very similar to Twitter in most all respects but with the added benefit of being integrated into the previously mentioned Steem network. This meaning, like Steemit, you can earn revenue on your postings. In fact, your base Steem account is associated with all of Steem's sites (Steemit, Busy, and DTube currently), so you won't have to worry about multiple sets of log-ins and managing multiple income sources. No mobile app exists as of yet for Busy as the platform itself is not yet at a 1.0 release.

YouTube

BitChute(https://www.bitchute.com): BitChute is very similar to YouTube but differs in a couple key areas. Aside from the committment to free speech stated in their Community Guidelines, their storage model is very decentralized not only utilizing bitTorrent tech behind the scenes but also making extensive use of P2P distribution as well. When viewing a video you can choose between traditional streaming methods and the P2P model, the latter which can load faster if more people are actively involved with the video. BitChute is still technically under development and is continuing to add features as it matures (playlists for example are not yet implemented). A mobile app is available for Android devices.

DTube(https://d.tube): DTube is a near clone of YouTube in terms of its functional structure and even how its website looks. The notable exception being the lack of Playlists, but the feature is expected to be implemented before too much longer. DTube is part of the Steem platform and as such videos are monetized and earn revenue for the author and audience through the likes and comments activity. The revenue split is 25% audience, 75% author. While there is no official DTube mobile app at the moment, a number of player apps by third parties are available on the app stores that allow you to watch DTube content, but will prevent you from earning the curator revenue due to viewing anonymously.

Google Products

Chrome --> Brave(https://www.brave.com): Brave is a web browser built on the Chromeum source with internal workings specifically designed with privacy and security in mind. By default Brave blocks all cookies, site fingerprinting, and non Brave-supporting advertisements in addition to attempting to force https connections when viewing webpages. All of these settings are configurable on a per-website basis in the event you need to re-enable any of them to get the site to work correctly. The per-site settings are saved so you only need to make the changes on your first visit. The browser also has autocomplete, password storage, and bookmarking features like Chrome, but they are stored locally as opposed to on an external server. As a result of all of these default settings, the browser runs considerably faster than Chrome in my testing. Brave has both an Android and iOS mobile app.

Search --> Qwant(https://www.qwant.com): This search engine is one of a few anonymous searching engines found online. I was originally going to recommend DuckDuckGo, but then read that they recently caved to the NSA and built a security back-door into their systems. Qwant, for the moment, is still entirely anonymous. That being said, you can optionally create a personal account with Qwant that will allow you to view your search history, but their policies clearly state they simply hold the info and do not share it with third parties. Even with an account, Qwant does not use cookies on your system.

Gmail --> Proton Mail(https://mail.protonmail.com): Proton Mail is a privacy-focused e-mail service that not only will not search your e-mails like Gmail does, but also provides stronger encryption than most other services for both incoming and outgoing messages, further reducing (but not eliminating entirely of course) the chance of an intercepted e-mail being read by someone other than the addressee. Their primary source of funding to stay active is a monthly subscription ($6 - $36 per month depending on desired number of accounts and storage space), but they also have a free plan that allows for sending 150 messages a day, saving 500mb of messages, and 3 custom folders. Proton Mail has both an Android and iOS mobile app.

Maps --> Open Street Map (https://www.openstreetmap.org): While not possessing the street view of Google Maps, Open Street Map is lightning fast in terms of responsiveness and route calculations due to it not logging your searches and attempting to track down your location constantly. It's completely open-source and content can be added by registered users if they wish. Registration is not required to use the service however if you don't mind not having a search history and wish to search anonymously. The service is based in Italy so you might occasionally have to specify "United States" in your addresses, and the measurement units are in Kilometers, but I tend to view the latter as practice for future international travel :-) Open Street Map does not have its own mobile app, but there exist plenty of third party mapping apps that use it as a data source.

Drive --> Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com): Dropbox has been around a while and is a pretty well known cloud storage service. They're free to use and provide a generous amount of storage space for most everyday personal uses. Dropbox has mobile apps on both Android and iOS.

Docs/Sheets/Slides/Drawings --> Libre Office(https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice): All of these programs are all bundled into one local PC application called Libre Office. It's open source, free to download and use, and can read and save to both Google and Microsoft formats. Libre Office also has a Microsoft Access-like database program as part of the suite in addition to another dedicated tool for constructing complicated mathematics for scientific documents. The layout is essentially the same as the Office and Google suites and, in my opinion, has a great color scheme that makes it pleasant to look at while you're working.

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Can't say I'm too familiar with many of those alternative sites, but (as someone who's pretty new to all this) certainly a helpful resource!

Ditto. Hopefully they'll gain market share in the future!

Many thanks to both of you for the feedback, I appreciate it!

Yeah, no problem dude
Steemit could be a really interesting place if there was a lot more constructive articles like this instead of what's usually at the top of trending/hot/etc