The guillotine falls, Douban may die, and form is annihilated.
For some users, Douban is difficult to replace; but Douban is replaceable.
Fundamentally, Douban has three core services: tagging and commenting, group forums, and social networking. Other non-core services such as FM, local events, marketplace, and diary (blog) have easily findable alternatives.
For tagging and commenting, there are already quite good distributed replacement services available.
Social Networking#
Social networks can be considered a major infrastructure of the modern internet - without social networks, where else can I vent my frustrations ^_^? Due to the inherent user-generated content nature of social networks, they have naturally become a focus of censorship under China's speech control.
To circumvent censorship, some users choose to use abbreviations, variant characters, homophonic words, and other methods to bypass the keyword filtering mechanisms commonly used by service providers. Other users choose to leave the centralized services within the Great Firewall that are subject to censorship and instead use centralized or distributed services outside the wall.
Centralized Social Networks Outside the Wall#
Currently, the most commonly used are Twitter and Facebook, with Facebook being more of a non-mandatory real-name social network. Therefore, it is unnecessary for most users within the Great Firewall to use it; on the other hand, Twitter is more suitable, especially for users who frequently post microblogs and short updates. To use these centralized services outside the wall, you must use a tool to bypass the Great Firewall - commonly referred to as a "scientific internet access tool" within China. Additionally, I also quite like Instagram, a photo-sharing service owned by Facebook - there are many cats and cute girls there.
Distributed Services#
The core essence of distributed network technology is to connect a huge network through low-cost network nodes, where there is no central point, and therefore no node is indispensable, and anyone can join this network anonymously (with an email address). Currently, the largest distributed social service is the Mastodon (Mammoth) network, and this network has become the main destination for Douban users to flee. In addition, I have also tried some other more hardcore distributed social networks. The three distributed services described below are just the ones I have used, and there are many other similar services, but most of them are still in the early stages.
Mastodon. The core structure of the Mastodon network is "instances". These instances are connected to each other to form a network (referred to as Fediverse/Federation), and end users interact with each other by joining these instances. As long as the instance you are using does not block other instances, you can subscribe to users from other instances and interact with them. Therefore, the decentralization of Mastodon is not at the user level, but at the instance level. In other words, an instance is a small center, and once the operator of an instance decides to shut it down, all the data of the users within it will be lost. Therefore, to ensure the security of their data, end users should regularly export and backup their data. It should also be noted that since small instances have replaced large servers as the center of user connections, users still cannot avoid censorship - it's just that the censors have changed from large internet companies to instance operators. In fact, Mastodon supports instance operators in setting rules for their own instances, including language restrictions, discussion topics, and prohibitions on specific content. Of course, this is reasonable - whoever owns the instance has the final say.
From what I know, Mastodon has already experienced several waves of migration from Douban users (to the point where there is even a so-called Douban refugee site, such as donotban.com), and there are already many small and medium-sized Chinese instances in the network. My main account is registered on mastodon.social, operated by the developers of the Mastodon project (requires bypassing the Great Firewall), and I have also registered accounts on some other instances (for obvious reasons, certain instances prohibit discussions on political topics), and have seen the establishment and closure of some instances. Overall, Mastodon is already a fairly mature service, with a user experience comparable to mainstream centralized services. Since Chinese instances come and go, I won't recommend specific instances here, so interested users can search for them on their own.
Mastodon has a low learning curve, and I highly recommend it to most Douban users. You may feel slightly uncomfortable during the initial migration or feel regretful because some friends refuse to migrate, but I believe you will find it worthwhile. If you have the ability, it would be even better to establish your own instance.
Lastly, it should be noted that the preferences of Mastodon instance operators have a significant impact on the atmosphere of the instance. In the past, there have been cases of blocking other instances due to political biases and other issues, which means that users of one instance cannot interact with users of blocked instances. Therefore, when choosing to join Mastodon, users must choose an instance that suits them, otherwise their account may be deleted due to inappropriate speech.
ZeroNet. In comparison, the usage cost of ZeroNet is much higher, and the user experience is not as good, but the advantage of ZeroNet is that it is not only a social network, but a whole set of network services!
To use ZeroNet, users need to run a node client on their own device, and all their data can only be controlled by their own keys. Therefore, ZeroNet achieves decentralization at the user level, and no one else can delete your data. Since the user's data initially only exists on their own device, when other users need to access that user's data, they must first download the data from that user's node. Once other users have downloaded the data, the initial distribution of the data is complete. When new users need to access the data, they can download it from the initial user or from other users who have already downloaded the data.
Currently, the most popular social network on ZeroNet is ZeroMe, a microblogging-like service, although there are not many users. In addition, you can also create your own website on ZeroNet (such as your own blog) and clone it with one click. From my observation, ZeroNet had many Chinese users in the early days who created many sites/blogs, but due to the slightly complicated usage, they were unable to attract new users, and most of those blogs have stopped updating, but occasionally someone leaves a comment. This is an interesting phenomenon, which shows that the owners of those sites/blogs have already given up on them, but because other users still have those data on their devices, they can still be accessed. I occasionally post my articles on my ZeroNet blog, and I have seen at least a dozen friends saving my blog, so I am very grateful to them.
Of course, since it is possible to create websites, there are also forums, resource sites, and other things on ZeroNet, as well as some inexplicable things, but the user experience is not great.
Currently, using ZeroNet in China is still not very stable, probably because ZeroNet's data network is based on BitTorrent and relies heavily on trackers, which seem to need frequent updates. And if you use the Tor network connection, you often encounter issues with being unable to connect or extremely slow speeds.
I personally recommend users who like to write Douban diaries to try creating a ZeroNet blog. ZeroNet has an Android version, so there is no problem setting up a blog on your phone.
Twister. As the name suggests, Twister is a Twitter-like service. In my opinion, Twister is the most hardcore distributed social network, using technology similar to Bitcoin to provide authentication for new users and using BitTorrent to store user content. From my perspective as a non-technical person, Twister achieves comprehensive decentralization, where no one can control what anyone does on the network, and everyone can contribute to generating new blocks for the network, with everyone also having a backup of the network.
Similar to ZeroNet, currently using Twister also requires users to run a client and then access it through a built-in or external browser. The network was initially warmly welcomed by Chinese users and was once considered a tool that could break through Chinese speech control, but the poor user experience and the quick dispersal of users soon led to its demise. The last time I used the network, there were only three people generating blocks on their computers, and the global user count was less than 20, and the project developers have stopped further development. It can be said that the project is dead. But on the other hand, since this is a distributed project, it has not completely died. As long as one node is alive, it is still alive.
There is an app called TwisterNews in the iOS App Store, which displays all the new microblogs on the Twister network. When I looked at it while writing this article, I couldn't find any traces of real users, only two or three bots endlessly retweeting, including retweets from the BBC Chinese channel.
Forums#
To replace Douban's group functionality, you can try using Reddit, which is the largest forum service in the world. Users can create boards by topic and interact through posting and replying. However, this service naturally requires bypassing the Great Firewall.
There are also forums on ZeroNet, but there are almost no active users.
Tagging and Commenting on Books/Films/Music/Games#
When considering leaving Douban, one of the biggest concerns for users is the tagging data on books, movies, music, or games on Douban, as well as the long and short book and film reviews and other texts they have written.
Don't worry! This problem can be solved. We can migrate this data to the Mastodon instance NeoDB, which imitates the tagging functionality of Douban for books/films/music, and share it with other users.
How does it work? First, of course, choose a Mastodon instance and register an account. Then go to NeoDB and authorize login. After that, use the Douban account backup tool "豆伴" to easily export various data left on Douban and save it as an Excel file. Finally, go to NeoDB and import this data. The whole process is very simple and can be completed in five minutes. In addition, NeoDB has another advantage: many banned books and movies can be tagged on it. The image below is my NeoDB page:
After setting up your account, you can give up the tagging function on Douban. In the future, you can tag and record new experiences on NeoDB, and these tags can also be automatically synced to your Mastodon social network account, automatically posting a dynamic (similar to Douban). Moreover, if necessary, you can also import this data back into your Douban account.
Another similar service to NeoDB is NiceDB, which I haven't used, but the usage should be similar.
Once again, because NeoDB is a Mastodon instance, its operation depends entirely on the instance operator, who may run away for various reasons at any time, so it is very important to regularly back up your personal data - some people may find it troublesome to back up their data, but this is something that needs to be kept in mind when using distributed services, because freedom comes with responsibility, and we should at least be responsible for ourselves.
Matters#
Finally, let's talk about Matters, a distributed Chinese creative community based on IPFS. One of the current characteristics of IPFS is that once a file is saved in the network, it cannot be deleted, so the articles published on it will exist permanently - although they can be hidden on the Matters website, they can still be accessed through the IPFS port.
Personally, I think Matters is very suitable for use as a literary blog, for example, to publish daily observations, book and film reviews, poetry, essays, short stories, and other content. Obviously, this anti-censorship service is blocked. However, although publishing articles through Matters requires bypassing the Great Firewall, they can be accessed within the wall through available IPFS ports after being published, which can be considered a way to bypass the wall.
In addition, Matters also integrates Likecoin, and authors can earn a small amount of digital currency rewards by receiving likes for their articles. However, it should be noted that due to the existence of digital currency rewards, there are many uninteresting users who engage in mutual liking for the purpose of earning coins, but as long as you don't pay attention to those accounts, it won't affect the user experience.
Matters has made some interesting attempts in the innovation of the Chinese content community, and I am looking forward to seeing its further development.