You’re on it. Start posting content, tell your friends to hop on and post content.

Try Friendica first. If it’s not your cup of tea, here are a few others:

• Firefish
• Mastodon
• Akkoma
• GNU Social
• diaspora*
• Hubzilla

Writing this from Friendica. I have never used Facebook, so I’m not entirely sure how people use it. BUt if you want to use a ethical platform to organise events, the best option is probably Mobilizon. If it is for general information and entertainment, I recommend Friendica (or Mastodon, which is smoother, but less flexible).

TBH you’re going to have to work against the network effect. The benefit of Facebook is that most people are on there, and you probably won’t be able to recreate a network with the same reach on any alternative — the privacy benefits of not being on Facebook are vast, though.

I would advise you not to pick a single new platform or service to replace fb but consider something like ActivityPub as a wider network that can connect your different profiles on the Fediverse — see https://fediverse.party/ for examples. You’re already on Lemmy, so there’s a start.

Others have already suggested Friendica and Hubzilla as fb alternatives. I’ve used the former in the past when the Fediverse was still not as developed as it is now, and I think with the user growth it will be a fair substitute for Facebook. The big benefit, as I said above, is that both Friendica and Hubzilla are ActivityPub capable, so you should be able to follow users and profiles on Lemmy, Mastodon, Writely and Pixelfed alike.

Friendica is the Fediverse Facebook alternative, though I’ve never personally used it. Probably worth checking out.

What do you use Facebook for?

In terms of replacements with somewhat close feature sets there’s Friendica. It’s ActivityPub based like Lemmy and Mastodon. But ultimately it’s usually about people and groups you interact with and they probably won’t be there.

What did you use Facebook for? I haven’t been on there for a decade, this is a serious question.

Problem is if social media is being used to stay in contact with friends / family then you are stuck with where they are, as they generally don’t move to a new network with you. If it is for news etc, I actually prefer a good selection of RSS feeds that I follow in my RSS reader.

I’m on lots of different social networks for blogging and although MeWe has my far biggest followings, it is centralised and non-FOSS - it’s the site I’ve also had the most troll issues on. The Fediverse (numerous site services to choose from) has the most potential, being open and federated widely.

Good thing you had a choice. Despite me not using it that much, Facebook banned me because it didn’t think I was real.

Friendica is the closest good alternative to #Facebook there is on Fediverse, I suggest checking it out

Depends on what you mean by “alternatives for Facebook”.

I haven’t found any, as basically all the new social media sites are clones of Twitter instead for some reason.

If you mean social media in general there are dozens of new platforms that your friends aren’t on.

Sadly no one cares about the state of things at Meta or Twitter so you’re pretty much SoL.

Frendica

Mastodon

All social media has a heavy censorship with people getting deleted for saying the wrong views or hurt feelings, it’s only a question of how much you will self sencor before being banned.

Accounts being banned have nothing to do with behaviour, look at the list of subjects and lifestyles a user is not allowed to criticize.

If it was not for Facebook groups and market place, I would leave facebook in an instance. Most of my hobby groups are on Facebook so it would be a pain to leave it without first establishing alternatives. But I have tried selfhosting Friendica and HumHub but failed to attract any friends or family to use it instead of facebook :(

I never see any recommendations for MeWe here.

Does it have that bad a reputation?