Gregory's Server
"Will Meta get my data or be able to track me?"
Yes Mastodon servers don't forward your IP to remote parties. However, Meta has several social applications that are widely used including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and there is a good chance that someone in your household is using those and that this can be used to facilitate that. Meta's tracking famously relied on the decentralized web and webmasters implementing Like-buttons and such to create aggregate profiles and track individuals across the web. The core thing is, you don't have to be on Meta to be tracked.
In addition however, focusing only on IP-address is an intentionally narrow thread model to make it look less bad than it is. A more honest and complete answer to this question would look like this post https://privacy.thenexus.today/fediverse-threat-modeling-privacy-and-meta/ by
@thenexusofprivacy
"Will a large platform like Meta joining Mastodon overwhelm smaller servers?"
That depends on how you define overwhelm doesn't it? From a technical standpoint: if we look at the amount of trouble many servers had in November 2022 with regards to scaling that gives us some indication of the challenges. But also how people dealt with it: buying more computer or staying small intentionally.
However, the sheer numbers are going to be absolutely crazy. See attached screenshot. I think we might start to see server blocks just in order to stay online to be honest. We can't win this scaling game so we need to find other models.
The FAQ ends with: " small servers will not be affected, and may not even notice the presence of Threads, except when they decide to follow specific users." That is a huge "except", of course people will start following Beyonce and what not and that will definitely impact smaller servers. Or what if Beyonce boosts a message from a small server to all her followers?
If we consider overwhelming culturally and socially the argument of @joenepraat has some merit: https://todon.nl/@joenepraat/110661775241957946
"Will a large platform like Meta joining Mastodon overwhelm smaller servers?"
That depends on how you define overwhelm doesn't it? From a technical standpoint: if we look at the amount of trouble many servers had in November 2022 with regards to scaling that gives us some indication of the challenges. But also how people dealt with it: buying more computer or staying small intentionally.