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Byte

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I specifically asked how a mastodon instance can be used currently to directly profit off its users.

Those are walled-garden services that you have no option but to use if you want access to the platform.

If my current mastodon instance tries to monetize me, I can just move and still have the same overall access to the platform. That's the benefit of federation, and why the Fediverse isn't comparable to those platforms.

5 comments
dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧:blobfoxcomputer:

@byte @atomicpoet @mveron You can move right now. What if they decide to make that hard? Make exporting your data impossible or accessible only via arcane menus and paperwork?

"But the protocol!" Look at email and Microsoft. Once an organization starts using Exchange/Outlook, there's no way to use anything else.

Byte

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron How could they make it hard? docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ The API endpoint for followers is public. The API can achieve anything the front-end could, and that also means I could use third-party apps (like movetodon.org/) to use those functions that could've been obscured by my instance.

Outlook, Gmail and other competitors are much more than just e-mail now. There's an entire suite there, email being a miniscule part of it. Changing your email provider is relatively easy assuming you have your own domain, it's all the other stuff that is hard.

But unlike those services that are built almost entirely on private infrastructure, Mastodon is entirely the ActivityPub protocol.

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron How could they make it hard? docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ The API endpoint for followers is public. The API can achieve anything the front-end could, and that also means I could use third-party apps (like movetodon.org/) to use those functions that could've been obscured by my instance.

dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧:blobfoxcomputer:

@byte @atomicpoet @mveron I fave'd a post this very morning from someone who said they "finally" got IMAP working with Outlook365.

This is how these companies make money--breaking protocols just enough to keep people captured. They are *good* at it. And when someone figures out how to handle it, they break it again.

Tony Stubblebine

@byte @davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I’m thinking about this for my company and it’s the same stuff we already charge for: tools, curation, community. I think owning the fediverse is off the table (a good thing) and that means that people can come here with really opinionated product designs (also a good thing).

Tony Stubblebine

@byte @davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I’m not sure how true this is, but a bunch of people have told me they’d pay for an instance with professional community moderators. Not sure how big that is but it’d fit us since we think our standards are well tested and we already have a 24/7 team.

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