 I hesitate to add to the atmosphere of dread, but Meta's increasingly unfettered acceleration of the kinds of messages that precede genocides is so alarming. And—how to say this… Avoiding Meta platforms doesn't confer a get-out-of-atrocities-free card. This is why I'm so focused on the need to build broadly appealing, maximally accessible alternative platforms. I understand, "It's good if the fediverse stays niche," but that's a solution for a tiny number of people. 21 comments
"People should just think more critically about technology" is not a solution. "Normies just love their evil dopamine and dumb celebs, let them suffer" is not a solution. "I don't believe people when they say it's unpleasant or confusing because it's not for me" is not a solution. "But Threads!" is not a solution. The window for making fedi a robust and substantial part of an alternative pluriverse of networks is not going to be open forever, I don't think. I am hopeful about the changes at Mastodon. I think IFTAS is doing absolutely crucial work with very little support. I've come around on bridging, as wildly imperfect as it is, as a stop-loss and a way of keeping fedi more viable for more people who are willing to accept the (nebulous) trade-offs. But also I love the federated model and I want it to be a real option for more people in more places, so it's discouraging to keep hitting "eh screw the normies" when the societal risks are so high.   @kissane there's been a lot of criticism against the IFTAS though – it's not all "screw the normies", there's the whole thing about the proximity to the self-proclaimed moderation authorities that push comically terrible blocklists that insist that every single trans/queer instance is somehow racist @valpackett So two things here—one, my mention of IFTAS is a sidenote about many things that could help and has very little to do with my central points. Two, there's a some lore (non-derrogatory) about IFTAS "pushing" Bad Space or equivalent via FediCheck and as far as I can tell as an earnest semi-outsider, that isn't happening? IFTAS just recommends CARIAD (https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/cariad-policy/) for new admins and has no working relationship with anyone in that whole schism. @valpackett Also! I am happy to admit that I wasn't there when the Deep Magic Was Written etc, and I don't want to express excessive certitude/ IFTAS looks to me like an org that is trying very had to keep clear of trouble and make tooling we desperately need here, so I am trying to help with that stuff. That doesn't mean I'm ready to accept collateral damage to queer/trans fedi, and I continue to talk to people about this but it does seem like there's some confusion I can't get my head around.  @kissane I have conflicting feelings about the bridges. I think it could be nice to have more of those at protocol level. But so far, the bridge projects I've seen for the Fediverse have been either very middle-man focused and a bit tone deaf at the beginning (Bridgy) or outright adversarial (mostr.pub). I would really like to see bridges, but not as much bridge-as-a-service ones @kissane The rapid growth of Bluesky is cause for hope; a lot of people want to leave the incumbent toxic platforms. The question is whether users will migrate in large enough numbers, fast enough, for network effects to turn against incumbents. The openness of the fedi (and Bluesky) is an advantage. I can send a funny link to people who haven't left Meta via text or email and they can see what they are missing. If they send me something funny from Instagram, it has to be a screenshot. @kissane I don't see there being a "window" so to speak. The structure of the Internet is fundamentally decentralised (despite what you may hear about "Web 3.0" and its claim about it). So long as that structure exists, the fediverse remains viable. Its strategy for palatability, sustainability, and overall "approachability" may need to change, but that ties into a lot of leftist principles. @ryanfb @kissane It’s truly mind-boggling the amount of money and attention that Mastodon (the open source project) has got over the past couple of years since the big blowup in 2022, and how little that has translated into meaningful user-side improvements, let alone ones that address the pain points everyone has been yelling about for that entire time (the three big ones being onboarding, discovery, no quote posts).  @kissane begging reply fellas to respond directly to the core critique you're making here or pls be quiet and say nothing people need to reckon with the gravity of analysis like this, and not deflect by riffing off adjacent ideas in the replies  @kissane Thank you for saying this, I wish more people would have this realization. Too many people here are satisfied with not taking part of problematic socials instead of figuring out how decentralized platforms can be a solution for everyone.  @kissane 100% agree yeah, i have frequently criticized the "clubhouse" mentality https://mastodon.social/@jplebreton/113482612567456167 @kissane A lot of my friends seem inclined to go to Bluesky. It is the new hotness, I guess. I've tried to at least raise the possibility of using the bridge. @kissane I get what you’re saying, but Facebook employs 7,000 software developers in Seattle alone, and #Mastodon has 3 payrolled employees. It already punches way above what it should in terms of development. I’m in full support of ActivityPub, I have my own of Mastodon and PeerTube. If @loops ever gets to the point of being fully decentralised I’ll have one of those too. I’m fully invested in it. That being said: @kissane TikTok is a massive corporation, @loops is the creation mainly of @dansup Same goes for @peertube it has a small dev team in comparison to YouTube. They do great work for the support they get, but you can’t expect the same level of capability/capacity if you have such a difference in resources. @kissane As a user, I don’t expect them to be on the same level. But currently people aren’t willing to pay for social media, so they are the product. Millennials and above seem willing to trade their privacy for that level of polish for the ability to access it.  @kissane |
Gregory's Server
@kissane i feel this struggle. ive BEGGED local friends to dump facebook. but im also the president of my HOA (i have stories. weird ones.) and monday's meeting there was one homeowner that was basically ordering the board members to 'get on the facebook group, because thats where everyone is'.
im 110% in favor of getting folks off facebook - the challenge is competing with the convenience. I'm sure this is of absolutely no surprise to you though, heh