 No, Mark Zuckerberg is not "better" than Elon Musk -- he's worse. Elon Musk mildly inconveniences all of you by acting like a colossal manbaby. However, Mark Zuckerberg deliberately acquired and funded mind-reading tech so he could monetize your private thoughts. So @.joinmastodon got unbanned from Twitter. This is the first tweet that they sent after the unbanning: "As a company from eastern Germany, we know that building a wall to try and keep people from leaving isn't a good idea." What a response!
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 @atomicpoet I heard if twitter bans other platforms, it no longer is a town square, and becomes a publisher, and can held responsible for all the tweets published. I have a feeling the law critters forced this change :D Elon Musk could have literally spent $5 to start his own social media site -- much like I do with atomicpoet.org. But this wasn't about owning a social media site, it was about owning the network effect of a particular site. What he fails to realize -- continuously -- is that people can decide to go elsewhere, thereby diminishing that network effect. Put another way: you can buy the tech, but you can't buy the people using the tech. Also on Mastodon: * Autistic people Someone asked, "Who gets to decide what gets moderated on the Fediverse? And who decides what's seen or unseen?" You do! If you don't like someone, block them! If you don't like an instance, block it! If you don't like your instance, leave it! If no instance is to your liking, start your own! If you don't like other instances, de-federate them! If you don't like federation itself, turn it off! Ultimately, the Fediverse gives you the freedom of association—exercise it as you see fit. On another note, I'm noticing a lot of trolls coming here recently—and they're not happy about being moderated. I have no doubt some may try methods to skirt moderation. But I also suspect most will give up and leave. Being honest with all of you. Don't want everyone from Twitter to come over to the Fediverse. Only genuine humans who will talk in a genuine human way. The people who are currently popular *now* on Twitter -- I don't want them on the Fediverse. They can stay on Twitter. If you can't tell, I'm really excited about the Internet. I've been excited for the past month. Not just because of people joining Mastodon, but also because people are starting up new instances too. Which means self-hosting. And after self-hosting? You're going to get interested in CDNs and protocols. After that, you'll discover that this decentralized Internet thing gets to be addictive!  @atomicpoet I am waiting to see how feasible it is for non-technical people to self-host instances without needing to leverage Big Tech infra (i.e. AWS, Google, etc) @atomicpoet Blockchain (cryptography) is a gateway for trustless decentralised apps. Currency and payments are only part of the story allowing sharing and user ownership of data .. is another. What people don't understand about running an instance: You're not just hosting content for accounts on your instance. You're hosting content for EVERYTHING that federates with you. My Pixelfed instance only has 8 accounts and less than 1,000 image posts. I have 50 GB of disk space, yet I'm at 80% capacity. As the Fediverse grows, federation itself requires more data. Look at this graph to see what's happened during the past 14 days on peerverse.space For 6 solid months, only 40% of my disk capacity was used. Then when the #TwitterMigration happened, it slammed my Pixelfed instance hard. Doesn't matter that it only hosts 8 users. It's still a node that redistributes content across the Fediverse. What a cringe-fest! Elon Musk trying so hard to hurl insulting zingers at Mastodon. But he just comes across as incredibly awkward and dorky. He also fails at one of the first rules of PR: don't acknowledge the little guy lest you turn them into the big guy.
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 @atomicpoet@mastodon.social Not every Mastodon instance is a non-profit or run by volunteers. Two examples of instances run by for-profit entities are: * twit.social Both instances are transparent about this. Some folks are saying, "Donate to your instance." That's fine if donations are the only way they're able to continue operating. But don't assume that every instance needs donations. Especially if they're run by for-profit entities. People don't realize that Reddit *used* to be open source. https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit
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Now the dilemma with the Fediverse is that, for better or worse, instances like mastodon.social and mastodon.online are going to be most new users experience with the Fediverse. And it's going to be awful. The equivalent of eating dog food. This isn't because they're awful but because the idea of "Hey! Go join a smaller instance or self-host!" is a difficult paradigm shift. What happens if a first impression is negative? Many people may not try again. Big Social are no longer the innovators they were. In actuality, for the past 10 years, most innovations in social media have been created by small, nimble players—which Big Social then attempts to either acquire or copy. In essence, they've replaced R&D with M&A. Thus, they probably have nothing new to add to the Fediverse. Something I must make clear: If you want to see posts from different instances, they must be federated. This means: 1. If one instance has never made contact with another, accounts from the remote instance can't be followed @atomicpoet can you define “made contact “ in point 1 please. Is this administrative or user determined? @atomicpoet I'm considering making my own instance. If I do, does that mean I won't be able to follow others, or others won't be able to follow me? Making software means more than coding it. It also can mean: 1. Designing There's a lot that goes into software, and it takes effort from many people. Oh boy. The guy who founded #Fedified is speculating about a 2-tiered #Fediverse, and thinks growth will go to the version that enables "capitalist pursuits". Is he right? Is this the Fediverse we're doomed to have? Or can we build a better future? I disagree with the #Fedified founder. And I think he's in for a rude awakening if he tries to push VC-style start-up culture on the Fediverse. Thing is, many of us have built start-ups. We know full well what that entails. And ultimately, he has it backward: Anything built by corporations will have short term growth but they'll hit a wall. This is because VCs are not long term thinkers. The proof: neither Facebook nor Twitter are long for this world. The guy who runs Fedified obviously knows that account verification works on the Fediverse. See screenshot. So why does he want Twitter-style Blue Checks? Because he wants the class-based social status that birdsite formerly gave him!  @atomicpoet gotta love those guys who turn up and think they know the answer to the problem no one was really seeking out. |
Gregory's Server
@atomicpoet um... https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/12/07/elon-musks-neuralink-brain-implant-could-begin-human-trials-in-2023/
Meta actually demoed this mind-reading tech, which they planned on integrating with their smart glasses.
Now with all the terrible privacy abuses and surveillance capitalism that Mark Zuckerberg has built into Meta, this is downright evil. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/18/facebook-shows-off-mind-reading-technology.html