Gregory's ServerLike it or not, it should no longer be assumed that "volunteers" are running your instances.
The Mask Group, which now runs three large instances "has raised over US$50 million from private and institutional backers"—their words not mine.
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256 comments
 @mveron Caveat: if they're a non-profit or a volunteer. Give no donations to instances run by for-profits.
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@adnan I can live with that. Why would I want to associate myself with re-centralists? @adnan aka the Gmail strategy. Hope they won't succeed here. (Higher management ineptitude and misunderstanding of the fediverse might help for once?) @atomicpoet I imagine that as Mastodon now is in the spotlight as a potential Twitter replacement, certain entities will see an opportunity to carve out power, profit, and influence by acquiring instances and centralising power. To everyone using mastodon.cloud and mstdn.jp: remember, you're not locked into those instances. If you want, you can migrate elsewhere. This is not Twitter—you have a choice regarding where your home will be on the Fediverse. A warning: there's going to be a concerted effort to re-centralize the Fediverse. As we've just seen with the acquisition of pawoo.net, that's already happening. What are you going to do to thwart this trend?  @atomicpoet As much as I agree w/ you, such an effort will fail. We can all vote w/ our feet by walking away to other instances. And if such 're-centralized' instances get blocked, they lose the momentum of network effect fairly fast. @gisiger Yes, that's one failsafe mechanism for the Fediverse. However, people need to care enough about de-centralization.  @atomicpoet @gisiger the general population doesn't care though and likely never will. the option with the biggest marketing budget will get the largest user base @atomicpoet Does it matter? If the underlying protocols are architected for federation and easy migration then any instances that go bad won't last long. @rob The instances that have gone bad have lasted for a very long time. Technology does not replace human moderation. @atomicpoet If the actions of the operators cause users any problems then they are two button presses away from migrating to another instance. The Musk problem couldn't arise here, provided acquirers don't do deeply evil things like defeating the migration mechanism. Someone *will* try it and the community response will define how the ecosystem eventually goes. @rob With all do respect, the Musk problem can not only happen on Mastodon, it has happened. You might want to look into a few more instances. @rob @atomicpoet They could easily disable the migration/export data button in their instance and literally lock people in? @rob @atomicpoet you're assuming that users are all aware of and invested in decentralization. Many Twitter migrators might even actively prefer a centralized model and be complicit. If that, or even just sheer ignorance from people seeking "the next thing," hits a critical mass, then no one will need to defeat the migration mechanism. It'll become irrelevant. @atomicpoet “What are you going to do to thwart this trend?”  @atomicpoet So, last time I checked my server had approx. 40 Accounts. And I am more and more content with that fact. When I chose it, it was a random pick, because it was a regional server. Now I understand, that the size is just perfect for me 😄 @atomicpoet I run my own private instance. But admittedly, if someone gives me a ton of money for it, well... @atomicpoet The biggest issue with federation is trust. Unless smaller instances market themselves as trustworthy, barely any new users will pick them. Many small instance admin teams are anonymous random people. This doesn't help. The biggest instances benefit from "everyone I know has picked them, so can't be bad" and "too big to fail". We as users have no real way to influence the masses and as bad as it makes me feel saying it, we need ... "influencers" for that. @tobyx The way to fix this is to build a culture that values de-centralization. The notion of self-hosting and administrating your own instance should be normalized. We should embrace small. @atomicpoet As you've posted, big money is coming in, acquiring instances already. But I think there's also going to be smaller players, funded organizations with boards instead of anonymous admins that promise a culture that people can subscribe to. Made sustainable by people paying for a service—just a small amount. Just like with email where Gmail dominates, but it doesn't bother me too much. There's a healthy ecosystem for email out there for people who care and support smaller companies. @atomicpoet Oh and I think many people will stay far away from running their own instances because social media is such a controversial topic in many legislations. The legal ramifications are insane. @atomicpoet@mastodon.social Well … I don’t see how that would succeed. Even if all the large instances are bought and de-federated in an effort to centralise stuff, those of us here on our own instances would still be here as part of the fedi. No? I mean …. Who is going to want to pay me money for my calckey instance with just me on it and name like bkgrdclrschm.link?   @atomicpoet listen and learn! I have my own instance and the fediverse is one big learning curve. Once I'm sure of the best course I'll take action. It probably takes me a little longer than other folks. My brain can be a little slow. I very rarely see the instance on my timeline but understand this is no reason for complacency.  @atomicpoet Also - the larger the #instance, the greater the risk that, for example, due to poor #moderation, we will unwittingly become victims of defederation by other instances. Let's be as close to our admin as possible - preferably be your own admin of your instance. @atomicpoet how can I find infos about my instance ? Cant seem to find them, maybe i dont have the good keywords @atomicpoet As I’m currently finding out, this is not trivial at all. The technical part is doable for a seasoned sysadmin but not for people unfamiliar with servers and software development. The real issue however is discoverability and resource consumption. My tiny instance was close to empty until I enabled relays, which then flooded the media cache with data at several GB/hour. CPU usage spiked to an average of 175% on a two-core VPS. Also, repeatedly, posts arrive with large-ish delays. @hrbf There's another way to build federation without relays. But I can talk about that another day. @atomicpoet My point being: as is, your suggestion appears not to be a suitable solution for the issue you’re raising. @hrbf There's no doubt this takes energy and work. It might not be a solution for everyone, but if you have means and technical know-how, it's worth doing. Making it easier for everyone is also a worthwhile endeavour. @atomicpoet Absolutely. This won’t solve the discoverability issue though. I’d be interested in reading your thoughts on how to do this efficiently. @atomicpoet Interesting! I'd love to discuss this with you in private. What is your email? @atomicpoet Indeed... I run into "ET" beings occasionally, and research Xenopsychology and associated PSI abilities. It's hardcore woo on my instance, and we all try to remain anonymous for quite obvious reasons. I mean, with all the above being the case, I think anyone joining knows exactly what kind of thing they're trying to get into ;) @atomicpoet How much does it cost to self-host a Mastodon instance? Are there any downsides if only I am using this instance? |
There's going to be a massive land grab of all these big instances. There will be lots of merging and acquiring too.
My advice is that you all become *very* aware of who owns your instance and why.
Get to know your admins—make sure their values align with your own.
If you don't want to put your social media life in the hands of strangers, then self-host your own instance.