Most of you don't know who I am. And you have every...

Most of you don't know who I am. And you have every reason to just disregard everything that I say.

However during the past 15 years, my life has been surreal.

This is what happened:

2008-15: Helped build Hootsuite as employee #8
2015-17: Ran a social media agency -- shut it down because I discovered that I hated modern social media
2018-21: Worked with a variety of start-ups, some which were attempting decentralized social media
2021: Sold all my Hootsuite shares, planned to retire (Contd.)

Like 11 Nov 2022 at 18:29 | Open on mastodon.social

17 comments

Chris Trottier

Around this time last year, I realized that retirement was going to be boring. What was I going to do? Play badminton all day?

So I called my friend @reiver, and he had a project for me to work on.

Now @reiver has been coding for something like 25 years, and has an interest in open protocols. So I told him about ActivityPub.

After looking at the dystopian landscape that's social, we started talking to others, and decided, "Let's build something!"

11 Nov 2022 at 18:34 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

So the more I talk to hackers and coders, a common idea is echoed. To sum up:

"The Internet sucks. Nobody's happy with it. Let's build something else."

Regardless of whatever's going on with Big Social, this stuff needs to be worked on. Specifically:

1. Online identity
2. Syndication
3. Trust
4. Network traffic

This is just a sample of our many gripes with the Internet.

So the more I talk to hackers and coders, a common idea is echoed. To sum up:

"The Internet sucks. Nobody's happy with it. Let's build something else."

Regardless of whatever's going on with Big Social, this stuff needs to be worked on. Specifically:

1. Online identity
2. Syndication
3. Trust
4. Network traffic

Expand text...

11 Nov 2022 at 18:39 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

To be clear, developers are not a monolith (who is?) -- and there's a lot of debate on how to break the stranglehold that Big Social has over our lives.

* Some want a return to the "small Internet"
* Some want to move away from the web browser's as the Internet's default software
* Some want to rip everything up and start all over again

The sentiment is that something drastic needs to be done -- or else a truly independent Internet is over.

To be clear, developers are not a monolith (who is?) -- and there's a lot of debate on how to break the stranglehold that Big Social has over our lives.

* Some want a return to the "small Internet"
* Some want to move away from the web browser's as the Internet's default software
* Some want to rip everything up and start all over again

Expand text...

11 Nov 2022 at 18:43 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

At this time last year, I don't think many developers thought that the notion of Big Social would be in trouble -- that they'd be digging their own grave.

The common sentiment was, "Let's build for a space that Big Social hasn't considered yet, get there first."

So that's what many developers have done.

11 Nov 2022 at 18:46 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

Since 2018, I have been active on the Fediverse. I've enjoyed it. It's been a respite to the gong show that's Big Social.

But for most of the time, my thought has been, "The Fediverse is a band-aid solution, a way to smoothly get people from A -> B."

This is why my priorities weren't the Fediverse until March 2022.

That's when something happened that got me so upset, I declared, "I'm all in on the Fediverse!"

11 Nov 2022 at 18:51 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

In March 2022, I was relaxing at the Cancun International Airport. My vacation was finished. It was the first vacation I had in 5 years.

Suddenly, I heard gunshots. This was followed by a stamped. There was mass panic.

As this event happened, I was live-tweeting about it, letting everyone know what was going on from inside the airport.

I was an eye witness. I was sharing actual news as it was happening.

But Twitter trolls came after me, calling me a conspiracy theorist and a crank.

11 Nov 2022 at 18:55 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

Right as this whole crisis in the Cancun Airport was happening, who was Twitter content algorithm privileging? Me or the trolls?

It wasn't me, it was the trolls.

When you tried to look at a live feed on Twitter, it was the trolls who popped up at the content discovery.

That's when I realized it: Twitter's algorithm was supposedly made to determine relevancy -- and instead it's privileging the most irrelevant trolls on the feed.

For me, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

11 Nov 2022 at 18:58 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

Prior to this Cancun Airport incident, Twitter had already been on my bad side.

They banned my Star Trek fan account for reasons unknown

They banned my art account for reasons unknown

They banned my business account -- even though not a single tweet had been sent there for 5 years -- for reasons unknown

Every attempt to figure out reasons for the bans ended up being tantamount to, "We're banning your accounts because -- f*ck you!"

Twitter was in my crosshairs already.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:02 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

What's bugged me continuously for the past 5 years is the notion, made by Twitter, that I'm a bad citizen.

For what reason? I don't know. But I respect they might not like me.

But what I actually can't stand is when I try to provide news for an actual newsworthy event, and trolls get privileged above me.

Why do trolls get to dogpile and gaslight on actual news as its happening, while Twitter has effectively de-platformed me for unknown reasons?

11 Nov 2022 at 19:06 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier

When I was done my vacation, I called up @reiver and said, "I'm going to do everything I can in my powers to wreck Big Social."

At the time, we had already been building an app. But this time, my sense of moral outrage at Big Social's failings made me feel that building a Fediverse app was important *now*.

So now getting this thing working has been a *huge* priority -- our little contribution to killing Big Social.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:09 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

But that's not all. Since April 2022, I've been maintaining my own instances, talking to devs, donating to various projects.

I've been banging on this drum every single damn day.

Always the same thing: Big Social must be destroyed, and we collectively must build something better.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:14 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

Now you got to understand that for the past 10 years, I haven't liked modern social media. I don't like the trolls, the harassment, the SWATting, the absolute nightmare that Twitter and Facebook have become.

So why did the Cancun airport incident effect me so much?

Because it's different when you think an unknown gunman is going to kill you and your family -- you're telling the whole world -- and trolls come after you.

That's when I realized the true stakes of Big Social.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:19 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

What you also need to know is that, in my own way, I had a hand in building Big Social.

I feel terrible for what I contributed.

Like others, I thought, "Hey, maybe we can fix this whole thing with more diverse hires and getting the input of experts in diverse professions."

But this thing is unfixable. And the problem lies at the crossroads of technology and sociology:

How data is organized, social organization follows.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:23 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

Big Social is broken and cannot be fixed because each social network is owned by one corporate entity.

They control the communications infrastructure, the features, the relevancy algorithms, and the publishing.

They own your virtual self because they own your personal data.

As I said: how data is organized, social organization follows.

This is the fundamental flaw of Big Social.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:26 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

Why Big Social is so *evil*: each network is devoted to building a Frankenstein version of yourself.

This Frankenstein has most of your atributes: a face, romantic history, shopping preferences, etc..

Everything that Big Social can find out, catalogue, and define as "you" is actively being built every single day. They follow you. They know your wants and desires.

But just like Frankenstein's monster, this version of you lacks soul.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:30 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

What makes Big Social even more nefarious is that they claim ownership of this Frankenstein version of yourself.

In essence, this is what Big Social's "identity verification" is: so-called consent for them to say that they, Big Social, get to define who you are.

They build this Frankenstein by watching the *real* you, surveilling you. It's why the likes of Facebook try to discover everything about you, even the amount of dirt on your smartphone camera.

As a human being, this offends me.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:35 | Open on mastodon.social

Chris Trottier replied to Chris

Yesterday, I said that the Fediverse is the biggest communications revolution in a generation.

A few skeptical folk said, "Those are big words -- just hype."

On the contrary. The Fediverse is our best chance to completely destroy the Big Social paradigm.

This is why you all need to *learn* about the Fediverse. Not just Mastodon. Not just specific instances of Mastodon.

Rather, learn about the entire Fediverse system. I know it seems big and abstract. But it's ideas that change the world.

11 Nov 2022 at 19:44 | Open on mastodon.social

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