Mastodawn

Dan Gillmor Jan 15, 2023

One of the people who did the most to help make Twitter popular -- because his application made it better -- calls it quits after Musk and minions pulled the plug last week on him and many others. He sees great possibilities in the protocol underlying Mastodon, and I can't wait to see what he and people like him do to restore a truly decentralized web: https://mastodon.social/@chockenberry/109695112387770838

Lindsey Jan 15, 2023

"What bothers me about Twitterrific’s final day is that it was not dignified. There was no advance notice for its creators, customers just got a weird error, and no one is explaining what’s going on. We had no chance to thank customers who have been with us for over a decade. Instead, it’s just another scene in their ongoing shit show.

"But I guess that’s what you should expect from a shitty person."

--- Craig Hockenberry on Elon Musk

https://furbo.org/2023/01/15/the-shit-show/

The Shit Show • furbo.org

Well, it happened. We knew it was coming. A prick pulled the plug. And what bothers me most about it is how Space Karen did it. My mom passed away just before Christmas. Her decline was something everyone in the family saw coming and we prepared for her demise. It still hurts like hell, but […]

Furbo.org by Craig Hockenberry

Silversalty Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor
And what you should eventually inevitably expect if you buy and think you 'own' a Tesla.

Dan Gillmor Jan 16, 2023

@Silversalty True of almost all products today that have embedded processors and network capability.

Silversalty Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor
And required charged connectivity (GM).

Difference is the, at this point, known 'qualities' of the unit in control.

Futurist Jim Carroll Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor This is a wonderful read. And this sentence gets me.

It's that type of comment that makes me realize I need to double down on ActivityPub, and hence, I'm exploring how to get Writefreely happening in my space. I've already played around with Peertube, but maybe it's time to move beyond play. What I'm hearing someone like Craig say is he and others might pull together tools that help to pull this stuff together. To me, that's exciting!

Move forward or die!Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor ditto on Tweetbot

Suzka Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor @likkitp Man! This type of universal/open API feed sounds amazing!! Please make it happen!

Jade Strom🏳️‍⚧️Jan 16, 2023

@suzka I mean, it is happening, you are on in now. ActivityPub is f’ing cool and so much more than Mastodon.

Gauchohaulic Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor Same for Echofon.
F*** Elon Musk forever.

Kim Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor From most recent internal info, third party apps were selectively taken offline. Some were allowed to stay.
Besides his wretched Biz tactics, that just seems illegal (?) I wonder if #legalmastodon exists & could expound for us.

Mark Jan 16, 2023

@kimlango @dangillmor Not sure anyone can do anything about it given that Mr Musk owns the company, but this certainly highlights the perils of using someone else's product to build a business/app.

mathew Jan 16, 2023

@Westdragon @kimlango @dangillmor

It's almost frightening how well this post echoes my feelings. For one thing, I also lost my mother before Christmas so this hits home:

"When you see decline, you plan for a demise. It was the last thing mom taught me.

And I've also been working on what "a truly universal timeline" could look like ( https://campaign.openworlds.info/@mathew/109670351809863231)

Because this is exactly where I want to be in the future.:

mathew (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] ... Publish other notes to the Web, & they'll appear in the Inboxes of your Followers' Tools4Thought. Your thinking tool's Inbox is fed by those you Follow. Congratulations, you've just increased the size of your #SecondBrain with your own personal social knowledge graph ;) Image from an upcoming post. Unfortunately MySilio seemed to grew disenchanted with working with Solid ;(

Campaign

Matthieu Weber 🇫🇷/🇫🇮Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor I'll be blunt, this is what you should expect when basing your business on something you don't own and that does not owe you anything.

To take an analogy from biology, Twitterific existed as the parasite of a single host, i.e. depending entirely on the existence of that host. It works as long at the host does not suceed in kicking it out; once it does, it's the end.

Dan Gillmor Jan 16, 2023

@matthieu When the host expressly invites the parasite, as Twitter did -- and all providers of APIs do -- the parasite is basing a business on someone's promise. Twitter and other tech companies make hedged promises and routinely use the fine print to break them.

Matthieu Weber 🇫🇷/🇫🇮Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor I really have no knowledge of how it all started. Was Twitter legally bound by that promise, or could they unilaterally get out of it (that would be the fine print you mentioned, I guess?)

But I suppose my point remains valid: if your business is built around a promise that you cannot trust the other party to keep, it's a big gamble, and you should not complain that you lost that gamble.

Ulrike Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor
OTOH, probably should have seen it coming.

WTF Jan 16, 2023

@dangillmor what are you talking about ? 😂😂 Twitter is alive and will.