Chris TrottierJan 26, 2023

The Financial Times is shutting down their Mastodon instance (alphaville.club).

Their reason? Security, liability, and cost.

With all due respect, I believe they went about their instance the wrong way:

1. Keep your instance moderated, you're less likely liable
2. Keep your instance closed to registrations, you're more secure
2. Keep your instance light, it's inexpensive

Also: Financial Times' site runs in WordPress. Why not use WordPress as an instance?

https://www.ft.com/content/8d995a24-d77c-4208-a3a6-603d8788ebcd

Client Challenge

RoxanneGJan 26, 2023
Show threadChris Trottier

If Financial Times simply installed this plugin on their current website, they perhaps wouldn't feel the need to shut down their Fediverse instance.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

ActivityPub

Connect your site to the Open Social Web and let millions of users follow, share, and interact with your content from Mastodon, Pixelfed, and more.

WordPress.org
Jan 26, 2023 at 12:50amWeb
Show threadChris TrottierJan 26, 2023

This is the problem with a "Mastodon is the Fediverse" narrative:

Mastodon can't be all things to all people.

It's certainly not a suitable tool for journalism.

The Press has unique demands, and therefore requires a unique featureset.

Show threadChris TrottierJan 26, 2023

The Press doesn't need to run a social network.

But they do need to distribute their work.

The question: what kind of instance allows them to do this?

It's not necessarily Mastodon.

Show threaduser8e8f87eJan 26, 2023
@atomicpoet They could just implement ActivityPub and have the first 500 letters of their articles being fediverse posts with links to these articles.
Show threadRobin from Colorado 🇺🇸🇺🇦Jan 26, 2023
@atomicpoet if I were the Washington post I’d set up my own instance for journos and subscribers
Show threadFediThing has moved!Jan 26, 2023

@atomicpoet

There are ones that have done a good job, such as @TexasObserver which has its own instance for staff and paper.

Show threadTexas ObserverJan 26, 2023
@FediThing @atomicpoet it doesn't make any sense why a publication would run an open instance like that! Seems like a bad choice from the start.
Show threadFediThing has moved!Jan 26, 2023

@TexasObserver @atomicpoet

Yeah, very bizarre!

You're showing them how to do it properly! 💪

Show threadMishaJan 27, 2023
@DeGroene misschien interessante thread. @TexasObserver lijkt me een mooi voorbeeld.
Show threadFreakinboxJan 26, 2023

@atomicpoet Thanks for this

I was looking to switch my entire blog up, but this adds what I needed while letting me keep access to all of the other things I needed to attempt to monetize it while tracking traffic (as WordPress does)

Show threadOlavJan 26, 2023
@atomicpoet
The ActivityPub plugin doesn't currently support threaded comments, which limits conversation. It's on the Todo list tho
Show threadChris TrottierJan 26, 2023
@olavf Yeah, but their first priority should be distributing their articles.
Show threadOlavJan 26, 2023
@atomicpoet
True. I have to do a few things to get the www out of my recipe site before I rebroadcast, but the intent is someone could turn on notifications for the rare post instead of following my normal drivel. Similar idea if smaller scale.