Mastodawn

Marshall Applewhite Law Dec 21, 2022

Re: https://mastodon.social/@lrhodes@merveilles.town/109552108127349128

Another important warning from the pawoo acquisition: The purchaser, Mask Network, is a cryptotoken company that pushes the "web3" myth and openly runs NFT scams*. A lot of people comment that when Twitter started failing it was ActivityPub that wound up being the decentralized way forward, not blockchain tech, but blockchain scammers have a financial interest in making it look otherwise. (1/2)

* Explaining this comment to ward off lawsuits: all NFT sales are scams.

mcc Dec 21, 2022

In other words, blockchain/NFT scammers find marks by associating themselves with literally whatever sounds good— financial liberation, musicians, distributed networks, "green energy". Now that Mastodon is starting to culturally "look good", the blockchain/NFT scammers have an incentive to find ways to associate themselves with it and possibly even try to take credit for it after the fact. And though they have no useful technology, they *do* have VC money to spend on PR and acquisitions. (2/2)

серафими многоꙮчитїи Dec 21, 2022

@mcc That thing where the core threat is private property relations, business ontology, etc etc which means that social production adheres to a thing that can be owned, and so it can be sold.

Like, it acts like a commons for a while, and then because the tradeoff for capital not directly attempting to destroy it with state violence is that it exists under capitalism, capital is able to easily enclose it through simple purchase.

zeruch Dec 21, 2022

@mcc ...and I suspect some folks with "found" instances based on SEO-like characteristics, replete with bogus users, to sell to those kinds of folks. It's the David Ryan Harris lyric "the blind leading the easily led"

People (not many but a not-insignificant side group) are quite weary of that circus, full stop.

Scammers have no filter for that though, and rely on PUA-grade oblivious persistence to operate.

mcc Dec 21, 2022

@zeruch I wish that the mastodon migration features worked better so that people who fall into honeypot instances could get out again.

zeruch Dec 21, 2022

@mcc I think the problem there is ironic. It's a use case solved in any number of ways, none of them amenable to the Fediverse holistically (e.g. a centralized identity broker with , like an ABA for instances, or a DLT/blockchain style immutable smart contract, sans the pecuniary aspect, acting more as a reputation clearing house than token arbitrage slum)

Neither of those are necessarily facile, nor pleasant, so were stuck where I advocate for users to stop being passively lazy/oblivious users

mcc Dec 21, 2022

@zeruch It's true— I have some thoughts about how to solve it, but it's true. This said, if we had a rigorous or semi-automated "history export / history import" featureset, maybe we could get easy movement without solving the problem of a source of "truth" for identities.

zeruch Dec 21, 2022

@mcc yeah, the "truth" part is subject to so much subjectivity (e.g. an instance that focuses on Hentai vs. an instance that is for Dispensationalist Christians, just to manufacture a likelihood a few standard deviations out). What both will likely present that users "care" about is superficial content aspects, what is really material reputationally is who/how the instance is run and for what purposes.

Francis Regan Dec 22, 2022

@mcc @zeruch “honeypot instance” is the perfect descriptive term. Hearing about pawoo & its size for the first time, I worry how many other similar “Mastodon” instances are out there off the radar because normal instances have all defederated from them

Mark Halvorson Dec 22, 2022

@mcc but VC money is drying up. That’s why Twitter, Facebook, NFTs, and crypto are dying. It’s why Google is losing money. Inflation means that it now costs money to lend money, and tech companies are struggling make up the profit they need.

mcc Dec 22, 2022

@someMAHoo that makes sense… are there concrete signs (in terms of changes in VC behavior) that this is happening, or is it simply the expected economic result of inflation rising?

Mark Halvorson Dec 22, 2022

@mcc I’m not going to pretend that it’s my hypothesis. It comes from Derek Thompson at The Atlantic. Basically, inflation ended the 12-year post-recession period of free borrowing, so, for the first time, these companies have to focus more on profits than growth.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/11/tech-industry-mass-layoffs-recession-twitter/672150/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Why Everything in Tech Seems to Be Collapsing at Once

The industry is having a midlife crisis.

The Atlantic

UrbanEdm Dec 22, 2022

@someMAHoo @mcc Sooo...your thesis that VC money is drying up may be sound, but throwing in "google is losing money" suggests this is a desired state rather than anything factual.

Google made $46b in the first 9 months of 2022. If you have evidence this is wrong, please provide it to the SEC.

Mark Halvorson Dec 22, 2022

@UrbanEdm @mcc many of these companies are still making money, but not the easy money they once were. Hence the ridiculous $8 Twitter Blue, ads on Netflix, and price hikes across the board. As for Google, they’re still profitable, but their profits decline 27% in Q3. Yes, it’s a profit, but it’s not the profit that investors expect or reward.

Mark Halvorson Dec 22, 2022

@UrbanEdm @mcc I meant to include this article: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/google-profits-plummet-27-percent-in-q3-2022-earnings-report/

Google profits plummet 27 percent in Q3 2022 earnings report

Google shut down a bunch of projects this quarter, and now we see why.

Ars Technica

UrbanEdm Dec 22, 2022

@someMAHoo @mcc Reduced profits are quite different from losing money, though. Google still has a 20% margin, which is pretty enviable. If you're saying that tech is becoming more like normal, mature industries, I think there's evidence for that.

But if you're trying to turn that into a story of collapse, at least outside of the scammy blockchain stuff, that's just not what's happening.

Mark Halvorson Dec 22, 2022

@UrbanEdm @mcc I don’t have an edit button, so I can’t change what I wrote to “Google has declining profits.” You’ll just have to imagine that’s what I said.
I’m not theorizing some apocalyptic collapse. It’s not even my theory. But inflation has made VC money scarce and companies that have not had to make a steady profit for a generation are now feeling the pinch. Inflation explains that pretty well IMO.

Dirk Hohndel Dec 22, 2022

@mcc
Key here is "they have no useful technology". There is nothing in the crypto space that has any real world use besides fleecing the gullible.

Every time a crypto bro tells you about their good intentions, run. Whether it's banking the un-banked, environmental accountability, or anything else that is sounding too good (and impossible to do with crypto - because it is)

Paul Jakes Dec 21, 2022

@mcc
Thanks for the heads up I steer clear of absolutely anything to do with Crypto in what ever form.

max Dec 21, 2022

@mcc not all nft sales are scams. Digital artists have a right to be paid for their work.

sabik Dec 21, 2022

@maxXx
@mcc
Substantially none of the NFT schemes are for digital artists getting paid; some may claim they are, as part of the scam, that's about it

PJ "Vote Green" Coffey Dec 21, 2022

@maxXx @mcc NFTs aren't artwork, they're links to artwork.

Yes. That is very stupid. Did you know that and are defending NFT sales or did you not know that and are defending artists' right to get paid?

max Dec 21, 2022

@Homebrewandhacking @mcc artists have a right to get paid however they want. Generalizing and writing off an entire industry that you don’t fully understand as a scam is just Intellectually lazy. 💜💜

Tor Iver Wilhelmsen Dec 22, 2022

@maxXx @Homebrewandhacking @mcc um, actual artists selling their own art as NFTs is a minuscule fraction of NFT sales, artists have a ton of other avenues they use for sales. So that is a spurious defense when 99% are get rich quick schemes. The generalization fits.

max Dec 21, 2022

@Homebrewandhacking @mcc they also aren’t links to the artwork. They are links to a proof of a transaction that you supported an artist.

PJ "Vote Green" Coffey Dec 21, 2022

@maxXx @mcc Ah, you do know the difference. I love how posting the wrong thing will draw people out.

Anyway, NFT is No Time for cryptobros.

And block.

Christopher Bailey

@mcc Is there a simple way to block off certain Mastodon instances?

mcc Dec 21, 2022

@digiglean Yes, depending on your server you will find a "block domain" option on the ... menu of either any mastodon post, such as this one --> or on any profile.

In the specific case of Pawoo, this server is *sighs, takes a deep breath* already partially or completely blocked from most European and American instances, probably including yours, due to Pawoo's permissive stance on simulated child pornography.

A.Vetsera Dec 22, 2022

@mcc @digiglean Musk is operating like the tycoons of the Gilded Age who gained great wealth and power by ruthlessly eliminating their competition.

Richard Crowley Dec 21, 2022

@mcc This is one of the best footnotes I've ever encountered.

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2022

@mcc Waitaminnit... the NFT scammers bought an instance that everyone defederated from because it hosts lolicon?

What is this, a crossover episode?!

the outliar Dec 22, 2022

@mcc our #community ,our #trust , our #microInstances together will keep our social network thriving and supportive! Unfortunately there will be #grifters , and #liars who have other desires. #paranioa is not the answer. Eyes wide open will help. #community is our strength. We all can use a group hug.

Darnell Clayton

@mcc I actually chatted with the new owner of Pawoo on Mastodon, & it’s not as nefarious as it seems. It’s closer to a Automattic (aka WordPress.com) buying Tumblr acquisition than a Meta (aka Facebook) buying Instagram acquisition. I will try to talk to the new owner tomorrow over Zoom about this.

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers beware the benevolent colonist. That’s all I’ve got left to say on the topic.

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers Person is of Asian descent so calling them colonist is a bit offensive. 🧐

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers bringing money into an environment that’s functioning just fine without money. That’s what makes the buyers colonists.

What the hell would the nationality of the person have to do with it?

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers Colonists have historically raped, killed, enslaved & violently subjugated numerous individuals in regions on Earth.

It would be like me accusing you of being a violent, sadistic, human trafficker.

Buying a company does not make one a colonizer. Even a hostile takeover (Elon Musk buying Twitter for example) is not colonization.

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers Money is exchanging hands. The appearance is, the purchaser expects to obtain control over a group of people (or more specifically, some of their data).

Money changing hands, with the intent being to purchase control over people.

That’s why I say this purchase looks like an attempt at colonization.

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers Believe it or not money was not exchanged with the “acquisition” of Mstdn.jp or Mastodon.cloud as Mast.io took over the bills & liabilities to prevent those instances from shutting down.

I suspect something similar with Pawoo as well (I doubt that instance was profitable), but I will confirm over Zoom when I chat with the new owner.

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers does Mast.io simply pay the bills, and otherwise keep their hands off the other instances they’re supporting?

Or are we seeing attempts by profit-motivated corporations, to acquire a critical mass of users, as phase zero of yet another “embrace / extend / extinguish” cycle?

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers There are already companies with #Mastodon instances now or who will enter, although I do not see many trying to buy an established Instance for now due to monetization factors.

It’s the same reason why Tumblr had trouble finding a buyer.

Most Mastodon instances are not profitable & operate at a loss (which is a major issue).

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers Company wants to use a private fediverse instance for self-promotion, similar to how corporate twitter accounts work? Sound fine to me.

It’s the instances whose primary resource is their user base.

When those users are sold to the highest bidder, will they even know that they’re being peeled away from the free-software herd?

Do they even *see* the profit-extraction mechanisms they’re about to be fed into?

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers I will let you know when I ask the new owner questions about acquiring Pawoo. 😉😜

Darnell Clayton

@cmdrmoto @mcc @tchambers The alternative was for the sites to shut down, which happened to Mastodon.Technology by the way.

Running #Mastodon instances is becoming increasingly expensive, with some people paying $200 to $2000 a month now in operational costs. This is not sustainable long term, & unless members donate funds to support the site it will eventually shut down or the admin will transfer ownership.

Fugue State Machine Moto Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc @tchambers for sure, any successful instance will need to find a sustainable revenue model; computronium and bandwidth does have real-world costs.

Historically, when a for-profit company buys up a company that’s been operating with an unsustainable revenue model, it’s bad news for whoever just got Bought.

Bedheadsleeper Dec 22, 2022

@darnell @mcc let us know how that goes