mccNov 29, 2022

The paradox of Mastodon is no one (not even mastodon.social) likes mastodon.social dominating the network, or Eugen G being the sole arbiter of extensions to the common protocol,

but on the other hand, ultimately, the reason we all use Mastodon (IE, the part of the Fediverse people think of as "Mastodon", modeled on the Mastodon extensions to ActivityPub) instead of Secure Scuttlebutt or identi.ca or whatever is because Mastodon was the AP implementation that had one person's singular vision.

Show threadmccNov 29, 2022
We *need* standard protocols like ActivityPub, but ultimately, users do not want a protocol. People do not want a formless ball of infinite potential. They want "Products". They want a clearly presented thing that they can put into their web browser or phone and it slots them into a legible user flow satisfying a specific user story. This is not because they are brainwashed by capitalism. It is because most people *have other shit to do* and don't want to bother with software that's unfinished.
Show threadmccNov 29, 2022

This is what separates a semi-functional open source project on GitHub from a thing that becomes widespread with end users. Mastodon dot social was not the first ActivityPub frontend. But it was *opinionated*, and it anticipated common user desires (like an API for phone apps). You need to understand this if you want to bring a Mastodon successor system into being. Your system, or the user-facing part, has to be opinionated.

A piece of software which is not fully conceptualized *is unfinished*.

Show threadmccNov 29, 2022
This creates a big problem, because in general we ("we" meaning "humans") aren't good at creating Things with singular, consistent visions unless there's a specific single human in charge of the entire vision. And "we" don't have many social structures that allow for a creation like that unless that single human winds up with inordinate control over the final creation, leading to either corporate control or (in OSS) "BDFL" projects where a single overworked maintainer becomes a point of failure.
Show threadchris martens
@mcc (i’m not convinced that this part isn’t a “brains poisoned by capitalism” problem but it sure squares with my observations too)
Nov 30, 2022 at 3:58amWeb
Show threadmccNov 30, 2022
@chrisamaphone At various times in my life I have interacted with leftist organizations and… how shall I put this… I don't have a lot of personal experiences to suggest that anticapitalists have found a successful model for effectively running an organization, other than our culture's standard pyramid model and/or "one strong personality is holding the whole thing together"
Show threadchris martensNov 30, 2022
@mcc I mean, me too, but that doesn’t really refute the claim. we are all out of practice (and have been for generations) with democratic responsibility and community care (especially white folks)