Gregory's ServerTo 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.
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163 comments
 @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. @rob @atomicpoet That's a very naive stance. If you think bad things can't happen here, you probably wont be careful or vigilat and then they WILL happen. Those "two button presses" can just be disabled. The instance can do stuff to attract many users and then just change the protocol step by step. It's not the first time that would happen. And ignoring that threat won't just make it go away. Just saw this post and can assure that my post was a coincidence. But then again I do post about hating capitalism most days. @atomicpoet “What are you going to do to thwart this trend?”  @atomicpoet And btw, a lot of Japanese people that are aware of Pawoo or even use it don't even know it's a Mastodon server. @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 @tobyx we should find ways to monetize them like miners. Otherways they will eat us. There are no financial incentives to run own instance and now there is one - I potentially could be bouth by big fish. without some kind of money it's a voluntary lose deal. And why they should do it for free? Don't they deserve salary? Why they should work another job, aren't they instance valuable? Or we want them to work for some corporation and managing instance on work-free hours? @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. I also run my own instances (with me as the only user) and I appreciate my freedom more and more for each day that passes. It took some time to get going before there was an interesting flow of content, and I was “unknown” I didn’t federate with anyone off the bat, but as the following/followers have reached a critical mass I doubt one would notice a difference compared to being on a hosted instance, except that “local” is only me. Everyone needs to be aware that Mask Group trades a crypto token. This same entity now owns pawoo.net, mstdn.jo, and mastodon.cloud. @atomicpoet they seem to have quite a few things going on around so-called Web 3.0:- https://we.mask.io/t/building-the-bridge-to-web3-0-introducing-the-mask-network-ecosystem-map/163 @atomicpoet is re-centralising any different to some of the *giant* instances. I'm a big believer in it being a federation of planets, some will be bigger some will be smaller, and that works. It is definitely an interesting journey ahead however it pans out, but ultimately users have *choice* and that's a good thing. @jared M&A is a kind of recentralization. I certainly don't want one entity to be 90% of the Fediverse. @atomicpoet I'm not sure where I'd find the numbers but I'd say that geographically we see that with what I'd have to say is close to 90% of aussie users on aus.social and a large chunk of irish users on one instance too. There's a certain confidence organisations like mozilla can bring to running big instances and I thoroughly support that move (and agree with your earlier post points on how they could do better fediverse too!) @atomicpoet PS man.. please sit down for a chat with me sometime for this new podcast :) I'd love to talk your ideas for different future-fediverse things. You've had plenty of interesting to say since I started following you. @atomicpoet I'm in Aus/Sydney; but very flexible on times; I intend to drop episodes weekly on Wednesday nights my time. Would want a 30 minute slot; will DM you some starting questions I'd ask. Haven't decided if I keep wednesday nights to headlines and do the deep dives as they happen perhaps.. the only days I've got blocked out for work are all ones you wouldn't to do do it on anyway (Christmas is full of live sports production work lol) @atomicpoet not sure if the source code can some be licensed in a way disallowing such use cases @atomicpoet Mastodon has the ability to let people run their own instances by their domainserver they rented... so there is always an escape plan for this. @atomicpoet People centralize. It's up to software designers to come up with ways of making the UX centralized even if the actual servers aren't. You can't stop people from following those migration trends and you can't force them into little corners, and you can't tell them to just pack up and move to a new neighbourhood is their neighbours are awful. Or sellouts. You honestly couldn't thwart that with all the peer pressure or legislation in the world. You can only make it work somehow. @victoriadecapua You're using a service that is built for de-centralization. That is why it exists. If you didn't find this useful to a certain extent, you wouldn't be here. @atomicpoet Human behaviour *doesn't care* what the service is built for. This isn't a question of what was intended, it's the question of what the pressure of diaspora will ultimately create. I'm using the largest (as far as I can tell) server because it fits a social milieu for the greatest diversity and reach, with people I know, and people I don't. All the proselytizing just ends up making diehards look impossibly out of touch. @atomicpoet I am on an anarchistic server, I guess they won't sell me so soon. Gladly, various groups are able to be here. We just need to know who is sold and who owns stuff. And then we need to move accordingly.  @atomicpoet I assume being on a much smaller privately run instance helps? |
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?