Seeing history repeat itself, wanted to encourage everyone on the #fediverse to take a few minutes to do something that might be VERY useful in a couple weeks.

A few years ago, and there was a massive influx onto #Mastodon. Those of us who had already been here did what we could to help new people get started, expanding our presence and creating invite links. It was also very helpful that a lot of people made early on, and linked them to friends, even though they didn't have anyone already here, which helped overcome the #NetworkEffect that deters people from joining.

#Discord is now creating a new exodus: they are forcing a large chunk of the user base to #dox themselves in order to maintain full access.

Other #OpenSource services, like #Matrix and #Fluxer seam positioned to be the new alternative people run to.

There's still time to be an early adopter and get their Network populated. Go make accounts, send them to your friends, be ready for one to take off.

Let's do this. ✊

https://fluxer.app/

In this blog post, Robert W. Gehl, @rwg, is asking Canadians who are not on Mastodon to answer the call.
We're motivated by this discussion because politicians want followers and #MastodonCanada still lags behind those other evil platforms. So reach out to family, friends, coworkers, neighbours, or anyone who will listen. Tell them what an awesome community we have and support them in transitioning away from U.S. social media.

#NetworkEffect #BringaFriendtoMastodon
https://elbowsupdigital.ca/news/the-canadian-network-effect/

Bluesky users discover that even “federated” & “distributed” platforms exhibit “lock-in” due to “network effects”; and “cognitive dissonance” ensues…

I’ve been saying for years that the argument — popular if oversimplified* in digital activism — that “network effects of mass adoption of popular platforms cause a form of lock-in monopoly” is bogus, not because it’s untrue but because it’s mundane and reflects some fundamental aspects of human communication.

And here come Bluesky users with supporting evidence:

If the arguments (“tyranny of the default”) are invariant with respect to the architecture, maybe the issue is independent not the architecture? Perhaps popularity is just an emergent phenomenon, and people are not so much “locked-in” as using “whatever works for the moment?”

It’s not like there’s a privately owned piece of wire running into their house and preventing them from using any alternative, people are free to use whatever they agree amongst themselves for communications purposes.

u/FrankoIsFreedom: If you don’t like the moderation… take your followers with you … THATS THE ENTIRE POINT OF BLUESKY […]

u/SundaeTrue1832: My brother in Christ the majority are not tech savvy and just want alternative Twitter without the bigots and nazi

u/yuusharo: That’s great, except that the default moderation that applies to the vast majority of users who are never going to know what a PDS is or why it’s important could prevent your followers from seeing your posts or even discover your account. Changing who hosts your PDS doesn’t impact the so called tyranny of the default. This is why it is important for Bluesky to work with the community when shaping their rules and address their concerns rather than wave them off dismissingly.

Source post for this discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueskySocial/comments/1now263/if_you_dont_like_the_moderation_take_your/

[*] example oversimplification quote from 2019; yes “skeptical” but also my emphasis of the unrealistic “either/or” position:

0:29:49 CD: I don’t use any Facebook products, you know? I think that Facebook does have this incredible advantage that is separate from its monopoly advantage, which is the network effect. I am skeptical of network effects as the kind of central explanation for how we ended up with these monopolies, but the network effect of like everyone on your kids’ little league team is using Facebook to organize games means that you either take your kid out of little league or you get a Facebook account. That clearly works to Facebook’s favor.

#atProtocol #bluesky #contentModeration #distribution #DSA #federation #moderation #monopoly #networkEffect