Gregory's Server18. Building the Fediverse isn't just a matter of finding a Twitter or Facebook alternative.
It's about building a ROBUST social media infrastructure that is protected from the whims of shareholders and governments.
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19 comments
 20. It's time ⏱️ Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is imminent. It's costing him $44 billion. For the fraction of the cost, you can build the alternative. And it already works. /end thread @atomicpoet wonderful, thoughtful thread. Thank you! One thing I would point out is that it's not either-or. We don't have to lose the "old Fediverse" to be able to build it out as a robust, mainstream social network. There will always be nooks and crannies, some will not federate with the Big Network, some will, but the beauty of a standardized protocol with a bunch of independent implementations is that we *can* have those. And the beauty of no "real name policy" is alts. We can have both. @rysiek I agree with you. If you want to preserve part of the old Fediverse, nothing is stopping you from building an enclave. Nevertheless, the Big Network will change. @atomicpoet fully agreed. I just think it's important to keep that possibility in mind. The reason being: I've seen a lot of pushback against newcomers and changes that is not doing anyone any good. I feel if we communicated more clearly that it's not an either-or and we can have both, the pushback and internal fedi struggle around these changes would be lesser. Anyway, thanks again for the thread and for engaging! @atomicpoet You don’t buy Twitter for the software or even the infrastructure. You are buying their brand and user base. That’s why the issue of bots was important
@atomicpoet I'm one of today's new signups. This is a wonderful thread. Thank you.  @atomicpoet In any rate, this is a very informative thread and thanks for dojng this!  @atomicpoet I would like the Fediverse to be for everyone and have seen incumbents explain newbies rather aggressively how to behave, but I think the main reason people do not stick around is that we are substantive and boring. Those are explicit design choices of the current Fediverse systems. Twitter is an additive outrage machine (that not only benefited from the rise of Fascism, but also helped it), that is a subsystem the Fediverse does not have (yet). @atomicpoet A great thread. I've read a few suggestions about how the Fediverse should evolve into, but most proposals are akin to building another reddit. Each instance/sub has its own rules, requires moderation, and can still be flooded by bots. The difference is that there's no central admin, e.g. flat-earthers can stay in their own instance; but other instance can ban the whole lot instead of individuals. How's the Fediverse architect going to prevent org from automating instance and a/c? @atomicpoet What do you mean by the "old"? The point of the Fediverse is *voluntary federation*, no flood gates open up unless people on instances intend for it to happen. @amici I'm talking about culture. Even over the past 6 months, it's changed. This isn't a bad thing. Culture isn't something that is in stasis forever. |
19. Am I going to be sad about the "old" Fediverse? Yes I am.
No one likes change but change to social media is coming.
The great thing about ActivityPub is that we are not a slave to opaque algorithms. We can build better social media.