Jeff JarvisWhat have we learned? Never again should we go to a social company that does not promise portability and interoperability, that does not federate with others, that is not sufficiently open-source to allow emergent innovation from users. This is a test.
James Bulman@jeffjarvis I'm exasperated by the move to Hive etc. It's like we've learnt nothing from Twitter, we're so ready to sacrifice everything in the name of simplicity and convenience.
Sirpushalot@jeffjarvis that does not use nefarious algorithms to create dissonance bubbles
Fabrice Neuman@jeffjarvis As far as I'm concerned, it's all moot if users don't join en masse. And I don't see that happening with Mastodon. It has to be as simple as possible for "real people", meaning aside from us nerds. And I already tried several times to explain what instances are to people I tech train. Let's say they were nonplussed. But, again, it might well be me being unable to explain it well enough.
@fabriceneuman I see lots of real people here. It's why I wrote this. https://medium.com/whither-news/on-joining-mastodon-d539eed5e41a
@jeffjarvis Thank you for this. It is very complete indeed. Fact is, I had started to talk about Twitter in the training sessions I do with seniors (they asked)… a month before Twitter was bought by you know who. For them, it was new. Darn! I may have to start again from scratch 😉
@jeffjarvis *corrected "train sessions" to "training sessions"
Tonya Canning@fabriceneuman
It's all about effective communication. I first tried to join Mastodon four or five years ago and got confused and gave up. This time around, with people around figuring out ways to explain it in less tech-y ways, I figured it out easily.
I remember trying to explain how the internet worked to people in the early 90s and doubting regular people would ever understand. Eventually they did.
WithoutAPaddle@jeffjarvis so far, I prefer this place. It reminds me of the internet before it became commercialized. I don’t need to monetize my thoughts. I have nothing I NEED to sell. It’s clunky, but the interactions feel authentic.
Stan Fletcher@jeffjarvis The takeover of Twitter has exposed us all to the fact that the days of the monolithic, walled-garden, corporate-controlled social media platform are NOT where we want to live. Thanks to Mastodon and the Fediverse, the “user is the product” days are coming to an end. Tumblr just announced that they are working on adding support for ActivityHub, which will enable their platform to interconnect with Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube and other platforms.
Tumblr to add support for ActivityPub, the social protocol powering Mastodon and other apps | TechCrunch
Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social networking protocol that today is powering social networking software like Twitter alternative Mastodon, the Instagram-like Pixelfed, video streaming service PeerTube, and others.
Dave Winer ☕️@IrwinFletcher0 @jeffjarvis --
As Marge Gunderson says in Fargo, "And it's a beautiful day."
Fargo - "...And it's a beautiful day"
The point being, our accomplice is in the wood chipper, but it's still a beautiful day.
Neil Mackenzie@IrwinFletcher0 @jeffjarvis
Federated instances are their own walled garden. You have no idea whether the Mastadon instance you are in is now being blocked widely because someone you have never heard of posts something other people don’t like. Moderation at scale is hard.
Federated instances are their own walled garden. You have no idea whether the Mastadon instance you are in is now being blocked widely because someone you have never heard of posts something other people don’t like. Moderation at scale is hard.
Rachel Lawson@jeffjarvis @IrwinFletcher0 this could get very, very interesting…
@rachel_norfolk @jeffjarvis I can see it as clear as day .... THIS is Web 3.0.
Bob Gilbert@jeffjarvis
I am intrigued with what Post.News will contribute. The founder was the successful CEO of Waze, which found a trusted way to marry professional content and methods (detailed maps, routing, etc) with local Consumer Generated content (traffic jams, cops, etc.). Will he bring that model to journalism? I'm a big fan of community voice.
I am intrigued with what Post.News will contribute. The founder was the successful CEO of Waze, which found a trusted way to marry professional content and methods (detailed maps, routing, etc) with local Consumer Generated content (traffic jams, cops, etc.). Will he bring that model to journalism? I'm a big fan of community voice.
Anthony Baker@jeffjarvis This sounds like the beginning of a manifesto. 😁
@AnthonyBaker Instead, a covenant.
@jeffjarvis Oh wow, that’s MUCH better. Yes.
Ernie Smith@jeffjarvis When I left Tumblr eight years ago this was the lesson I took for my website. It’s a little surprising we’re only learning it now about social media in general
@jeffjarvis At the time Tumblr was owned by Yahoo, who I’ve said in the past might be the worst company in the history of SV because of how quickly it discards communities and products
@ernie Yahoo and AOL, where things go to die (including each other)
bangwin 
@jeffjarvis @ernie That's right Ernie, I used to be a community manager at Yahoo, handling Yahoo's community products such as Yahoo Answers, Flickr, Yahoo Groups and others. I feel when they turn off all their community products just to focus on the media business which they think can generate more profit. Whereas Yahoo's strength at that time was precisely on community products. I was transferred to handle editorial for several years before I finally resigned because there was nothing else for me to do there.
@bangwin @jeffjarvis This is great context, thank you for sharing. Out of curiosity, do you know why they never choose to protect this old data by keeping it online somehow, rather than just shutting it down? This has been one of my biggest frustrations with digital culture for years. Groups and GeoCities were the worst examples.
@ernie @jeffjarvis I also don't understand, to the best of my knowledge, at that time they always wanted to be at the forefront of display ads, beyond that they didn't think it was important. Traffic is a god for them. Maybe that's what causes them not to think long and hard when they kill their products that are deemed not in accordance with business lines that generate direct profits such as ads.
@bangwin @jeffjarvis It’s very unfortunate. We lost a lot in those closures. I appreciate you offering this context because it’s been on my mind for a long time.
@ernie @jeffjarvis It has also been my frustration for many years Ernie. The question is why a company as big as Yahoo could slip because of something they are really good at. At that time I could only ask because I was only an employee.
lostprototype@jeffjarvis - Such an essential truth. Computing is a precious and collectively owned asset of humanity.
We all share in the responsibility to do it in ethical, sustainable and inclusive ways.
Jarris
LiveByReason@jeffjarvis Yes. On that note, Mastodon needs to improve portability... I was suspended from a server, with no notice, and couldn't move my account. I lost my post history and followers. Needs improvement. Suspend page that lets you download some data, doesn't allow you to move your whole account.
Jon Knapp 🐻🏴☠️🄯@jeffjarvis next step is installing linux and ditching corporations and their proprietary BS for good!
Sludge@jeffjarvis I don't know what most of that means but I'm up for it! 😉
Leigh Garland@jeffjarvis I've learned that, in some ways, individuals are in far greater danger from bad actors in the fediverse than they were on Twitter. Most folks don't have the skills or resources to host an instance, moderate one, or detect security breaches. Most don't even have the resources to pick a reliable instance, or be certain of the admins.
I'm not suggesting we go back to big tech, but we should be aware of where we are, be cautious about the dangers and hopeful for a bright future.
I'm not suggesting we go back to big tech, but we should be aware of where we are, be cautious about the dangers and hopeful for a bright future.
Sheila R Foster
The Tropical Eccentric@jeffjarvis The return of the chat room!
Mark Atwood@jeffjarvis and yet I'm seeing members of the press who really should know better advocating for other silos, instead of the "chaos" of the fediverse
mvario@jeffjarvis
but some moderation is crucial, otherwise you end up with USENET, which was great, until the advent of spam.
but some moderation is crucial, otherwise you end up with USENET, which was great, until the advent of spam.
Richard Barrell@jeffjarvis from what I remember, Twitter itself did promise about half of that, and then later reneged on those promises when they later decided they wanted to destroy all third party clients.