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.

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.

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)

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.

"Facebook" is an equally alienating name if you don't know English. But I agree, German is difficult!

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

It's German

Maybe you can request your instance to be added here: https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt/wiki/flohmarkt-instances

I think an English localization as 'Flowmarkt' or 'Flowmarket' might be more catchy in English-speaking countries, since the intended pronunciation for 'Flohmarkt' isn't clear at a first glance.

I read it as being pronounced something like "flow-marked"

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.

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 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.