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Top-level
 It's also clear to me why Microsoft is pushing Mastodon on Azure right now: Cloudflare has their offering with Wildebeest. So why not publish a guide on how to use vanilla Mastodon with Azure? Seems like an easy win -- especially with all of Wildebeest's missteps. 42 comments
 @atomicpoet I think that's part of it, I think part of it also is birdsite is no longer viable for what your thread described, a) as people are leaving the toxic site for more .... stability, and b) Birds (advertisers) flocking together and leaving bitdsite as well. Also Microsoft's dominance rarely starts with evil moustache twirlers that want to "embrace, extend, extinguish". Sometimes that's where it ends up, but that's not usually where it starts. Usually it starts with rank-and-file Microsoft employees saying, "I want to build the next big thing!" So they do. But how do they build it? With Microsoft "integrations". Then the executives get involved, and they naturally want to monetize... Most people who work at Big Tech companies don't wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "How do I wreck the Fediverse?" Instead, they go, "I want to build something that I genuinely care about -- and I have the financial resources to do it!" So they do because why not, right? Where it gets dodgy is when the bean counters start asking, "How do we decrease churn?" What I'm getting at here is that there doesn't need to be a grand conspiracy. There just has to be nerds at Big Tech companies that want to build the "next big thing". They have financial resources. They have marketing. They have a guy doing analytics who says, "This shift in our UI will increase revenue by a factor of 2X!" Then you have the guy in accounting rejoice because it worked, and an executive who says, "Next big thing created shareholder value!" Anyway, how do we alleviate the danger of Big Tech "building" the Fediverse? We need to consider alternatives to Big Tech. Specifically, we should consider crowdfunding or non-profits or co-ops. Maybe we should make it viable for people to make a living from the Fediverse without having to do it through Microsoft, Apple, or Google. Just food for thought.  @atomicpoet what youre describing here is pretty similar to some stuff that happens in the show. also, its an exceptionally well done show @atomicpoet - When you consider that Microsoft is trying to turn Windows into an OS-as-a-Service platform, plus all of their other baggage, plus the rest of the big tech baggage, we shouldn't be inclined to want to affiliate with Microsoft or Meta or Google. But that also means that smaller companies have Have HAVE to resist the lure of big money from Big Tech. @atomicpoet @atomicpoet And co-tech is a burgeoning network of tech co-ops. I hope I've got that right? You make valid points, the Fediverse should not get taken over by big business. Sincerely, Monica Andrews  @atomicpoet I think it is currently viable. Many ideas are floating around, but they won't be too influential until we get some organization. Here it feels more like a naturally occurring long-game method that builds strength over time. Btw... this method works. It is exactly how I built my customer base for my freelance work, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. @atomicpoet @atomicpoet This is why #ZincCoop is building #Convene: a software platform that people can build fediverse applications on top of; with an operating model that is socioeconomically sustainable. @atomicpoet @JudeNunga Because work is work, and people should be compensated for it. Do you work for free? lol sure. I do a lot of "work" for free, have done my whole life. If I work at something I want to do, then it's my choice to do that, I don't expect to be "compensated" by others. No one is forcing people to use social media, in fact we've done quite well without it for centuries. No one is forcing people to host instances on the Fediverse, or actually even asking people to do it, people do stuff for their own satisfaction, not everyone wants to exploit others for money. By selling my labour, or by doing the work of providing these things for myself, eg: I grow my own food. Capitalism means that people work for profit, it's how the majority of humans have decided they want to live, to exploit others for profit. The profit has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of very few. It doesn't mean it's the only way. The Fediverse doesn't have to follow the exploitative tenets of capitalism and greed. It can be different. @JudeNunga That’s right. You sell your labour. And people who write software, administrate instances, and provide content are providing labour that others are willing to pay for. So why not give them the means to make a living? As you already noted, the Fediverse can be different *if* we prove and build a different, more sustainable model. Which could include — but isn’t limited to — crowdfunding, non-profits, and co-ops. If people are willing to pay for their work, I don't have an issue with that. However if people don't want to pay for something they see no need for, I have no issue with that either. The Fediverse already has crowdfunding, non profits and co ops, it already exists, are you suggesting building another one? Why? Improvements can be made, but if people are happy with what already exists, and don't see a need for more, than they aren't going to be interested in paying for more. @JudeNunga I’m suggesting that people consider crowdfunding, non-profits, and co-ops. And again, not everyone is considering them as alternatives to Big Tech. @atomicpoet @JudeNunga Also I wouldnt put it past them to offer deep discounts on hosting instances for the same purpose. @atomicpoet Linux services many large businesses and big tech is heavily involved. And yet it’s maintained it’s independence at the core. Hopefully that model can be followed. @atomicpoet As they're just selling you hosting, is this really a big issue? They don't own your data, you're not locked in... Aren't those the big issues? As compute becomes more of a commodity, isn't it good to just have someone else deal with that and put the effort into higher value things?  @atomicpoet here, we're running into the fact that corporations, are, in fact, in a race to the ethical bottom, and this is a more-or-less inevitable outcome, and anyone working for a corporation is pretty naïve if they think otherwise. @james For one thing, executives at Cloudflare could have actually joined the Fediverse and figured out how people actually use it. @atomicpoet Yeah that's fair. The announcement reads more like a case study for their tech stack than anything else. @atomicpoet keep in mind, of course, that using Azure for Mastodon is foolish as it costs -10-20x more than using an equally reliable, non-US owned cloud infrastructure provider. That way, you're not even gifting your fellow Fediversians' data to the NSA via the US Cloud and Patriot Acts... @atomicpoet it’s possible to overthink this. Cloud Service Providers are paid per second for people computing, and Mastodon is an increasingly popular consumer of compute services. Publishing guides on how to do it in a way that pays them, generates revenue. |
Gregory's Server
I worked for Microsoft's Xbox division for 3 years. Not directly as an employee, but as someone doing customer support.
What Microsoft *really* excels at is building online communities.
They're exceptional at it, in fact.
Microsoft will never just drop in and say, "Here's our Fediverse offering!"
Instead, they'll be exemplary citizens, listen very carefully, and amplify feedback from the community that just so happens to align with their marketing goals.