Tom WalkerNov 13, 2022

There was once a dream of a decentralised web.

As recently as a decade ago we had a still very active blogosphere, connected via blogrolls and RSS. Specialised web forums were still mainstream and messenger apps could largely interoperate.

Centralised social media slowly ate that dream. It had plenty of positives, but it pulled more and more people away from the open web and into corporate walled gardens.

Some people kept the dream of decentralisation alive. And now you are here.

Show threadMichael Uhl

@tomw I’ve found the growth of centralized social media to be a demoralizing thing.

I wonder about the “positives” that you posit for centralized social media - ease of discovery is the only one that comes to mind… and even there, it brings other downsides: you now need to have “verification” to know if the person you found is the person that you actually wanted.

All I know is that the just the idea of decentralized social media makes me happier than I was.

Nov 14, 2022 at 12:05amWeb
Show threadTom WalkerNov 14, 2022
@uhl_me I think it is generally far easier for most people to post a quick update about what they're doing than to go and eg. update their website. Especially for small local things, they feel able to post a lot more info up on social media and have it seen vs struggling to update a website that mostly isn't looked at. And the info doesn't just sit there, it is pushed out to their followers, at least in theory.
Show threadTom WalkerNov 14, 2022
@uhl_me I wrote it that way because I think it's clear that most people experienced it as a significant upgrade in ease of use compared to the setup and maintenance of a website. Unfortunately.
Show threadMichael UhlNov 14, 2022
@tomw I do understand, and sympathize with, that point of view. It’s more than a little frustrating, however, that despite the fact that applications built on open protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP) fueled the growth of the early public Internet, the builders of “Web 2.0” chose a closed path. Nothing against a profit motive, but I’d prefer that you seek that profit by being the best at doing something - not by being the only choice.
Show threadTom WalkerNov 14, 2022
@uhl_me Worse, they made a big song and dance at first about being "open" at least in terms of APIs, then cut all of that off after they had built a user base!
Show threadTomNov 14, 2022
@uhl_me While I support your point that you seek being best at doing something, it also can be seen that users or customers sometimes do not seek 'the' best solution - but rather the most convenient one...
Show threadskinnyrafDec 20, 2022
@uhl_me @tomw overlap of bubbles is something that was very limited with separate forums typically covering specific topics. While general forums existed, they were often complete cesspits. We had "off -topic" sections on forums and specific discussions often drifted, but this was very limited due to typically skewed demographics on each forum. Centralised and federated social media are general, have large user base and hashtags/boosts/retweets allow easy spreading of content.